Day 5 . Friday, September 5th

Thursday, September 2:  Daily Class Outline

Lesson Objectives

Today we review the concept of responding and then focus specifically on the Agree/Disagree responses students wrote for homework.  For the revision process, we discuss creating claims and supporting claims through development.  We introduce the process of workshop as well via a "mini-workshop" of students' homework.

Connection to Course Goals

We introduce the importance of fully developing a narrowed and focused response that is then developed with ample and relevant reasons, evidence and discussion—factors associated with strong writing throughout the course and the university. Responding is also important for the thematic aims of this course because it allows students to invest their own ideas on issues of public importance.  We also reinforce the importance of revision and introduce students to workshop (and how an important aspect of writing is receiving and applying feedback).

A Possible Sequence of Activities for Today
1. Introduce class session and take attendance.  

2.  Discuss what students are reading in the New York Times.  (Hopefully students have begun receiving the paper by this time.  If not, you can table this activity until next week.)

 Activity Ideas:  Discussing NYT News Clippings
3. Review the concept of responding. Activity Ideas:  Reviewing Responding
4.  Discuss students' responses to Krugman's or Frank's article. Activity Ideas:  Discussing Agree/Disagree Responses
5. Introduce claims. Activity Ideas:  Creating Claims
6. Show students how to develop responses using reasons and evidence. Activity Ideas:  Developing Responses
7. Discuss how students would revise the responses they wrote for homework according to the new concepts of having a clear claim and developing that claim with evidence. Activity Ideas:  Revising Responses
8. Conduct a mini-workshop for students' Agree/Disagree responses. Activity Ideas:  Mini-Workshop on Agree/Disagree Responses
9. Establish a conclusion for the class session and instruct students on where to access the homework assignment.

Activity Ideas:  Concluding and Assigning Homework

Assignment for Next Class Session
Ask students to complete the following for next class session:
  • Revise your Agree/Disagree Response to Krugman's or Frank's article.
  • Read Sharon Zukin's article, "We Are Where We Shop," and Mary Gordon's article, "We Are All Spendthrifts Now."  List the main idea and key points from each article as you would in preparation for writing a summary.
  • Continue to clip articles from the NYT related to debatable issues in U.S. culture/the global community. Be ready to summarize and discuss them on Tuesday. (The clipped articles will be part of the News Clippings Journals students will keep for the semester.)

Additional Teaching Resources

Go to Improving Discussions or Answering and Asking Questions for excellent additional information on making the most out of your class discussions.

Teaching Development and Detail provides great explanations and activities to help teach students how to develop support in their writing.

If you have concerns about classroom management or behavior, check out Understanding Student Resistance or (Gender) Identity and Authority in the Classroom.