Planning a Class

Print-Friendly Page
Authors & Contributors

Consider the following example. Over the past few days, you and your students have discussed purpose, audience, and focus. To build on these discussions, use them as a starting point. Spend ten minutes at the beginning of class analyzing the context for the essay you're working with. This will help you pursue your goal of Exploring How Purpose, Audience, and Context Influence a Writer's Choices. After you've analyzed the essay's context, meet your goal of Facilitating More Meaningful Discussions by asking students to briefly share their personal reactions to the main ideas in the text. For the remainder of class, engage your students in a critical reading of the essay and an in-depth discussion of its argument and ideas. Since Practicing Critical Reading is the most important goal for the day, the majority of class time will be spent meeting this goal.

A loose outline of goals and activities might look like this:

• Goal: Exploring How Purpose, Audience, and Context Influence a Writer's Choices
  Activity: Analyze the context of a text (10 minutes)

• Goal: Facilitating More Meaningful Discussions
  Activity: Discuss students' reactions to a text (10 minutes)

• Goal: Practicing Critical Reading
  Activity: Practice critical reading of a text (30 minutes)