Discussing Krugman's and Frank's Articles | ![]() |
Introduce the Class Session and take roll (1-2 minutes) |
By referring to your agenda on the
board or by previewing the day's goals/objectives, introduce the
class session for your students. You might say something
like: Today we're going to discuss Nat Ives' article and
how we would summarize it. Then we're going to expand on
our skills thus far and discuss the concepts of responding and
evidence you read for homework. |
Sample Transition to Next ActivityLet’s shift our focus now from summarizing to responding. For homework today, I asked you to read about the different types of responses, given on pages 162- 163 in the PHG. If you recall, your audience for Portfolio 1 will be open and interested in your response. So it's important that we start thinking about the different types of response we can provide. |
Introducing Responding (5 minutes) |
Introduce the concept of respondingThe goal of this discussion is to briefly introduce students to all three ways can respond to a text: agreeing/disagreeing with the text's ideas, interpreting/reflecting on the text's implications or assumptions, analyzing/evaluating what makes the text effective or ineffective. Review the points on page 163 in the PHG, highlighting important concepts and phrases, and check out the teaching guide on Types of Summary and Response (https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/summaryresponse/). You can also provide students with the link to the writing guide for writing response located at https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/response/index.cfm You may want to make an overhead like the following: The three ways we can respond are by: Agreeing/Disagreeing with the main idea or key points in a text Interpreting/Reflecting on the ideas, assumptions or implications in the text Analyzing/Evaluating the text's effectiveness The goal of an Agree/Disagree Response is to emphasize one important idea from a writer's text and support or refute that idea using reasons and evidence. Here, you want to convince a reader that your position is a favorable one. The goal of an Interpretive/Reflective Response is to look critically at an argument in order to explain what it fully means. Looking critically at a text requires you to inquire beyond what the text actually says. One way to do this is to locate the assumptions that inform a writer's argument and find out what the writer's argument implies. Along the way, you may find yourself agreeing with or refuting the writer's ideas and the assumptions and implications that are tied to these ideas. The goal of an Analytical/Evaluative Response is to determine a text's effectiveness by examining its parts. You might look at the purpose, the intended audience, the thesis, the main ideas, the organization and evidence, and the language and style. Here, your aim is to point out an essay's strong points and/or where it falls short. Analyzing the text's effectiveness allows you to make more informed decisions about the usefulness and credibility of a writer's argument. Once you discuss these broadly, focus more narrowly on the agree/disagree response since they will do that for homework. Our goal here is not to show students that these types of responses exist simply as responses devoid of writing situations. You should ask students when/why they would choose to write a given response and/or provide examples of this. You can point out that they will practice all three ways of responding through upcoming essays. For now, it's only important that they understand the differences between each type. Also, let them know that a combination of responses is possible for Portfolio 1. If they choose a combination, they simply need to be sure that their response makes an overall, focused point. For the agree/disagree response, discuss what students feel the focus of the response will be (with what and to what extent they agree or disagree). Ask them when they've used this response (either in speech or writing) and ask them what made that response (or another agree/disagree response they've encountered) effective or not. |
Sample Transition to Next ActivityNow that we understand the types of responses and why/when we would use them, we need to establish the backbone of each response--and just about anything we write. |
Creating Claims (10 minutes total) |
Map Activity (3 minutes)Have students count off by three's. Place the following on the board or an overhead: According to your number, draw the following: 1. a map of the United States 2. a map of Colorado 3. a map that takes us from our classroom to where you live Once 3 minutes is up, have students look at the different maps around them(2 minutes)Then ask the following
questions (2 minutes) |