Class Plan -- Unit Two, Day 13

Class Plan -- Unit Two, Day 13

Goals

Collect Public Literacy essays
Give first Unit II reading assignment
Introduction to Unit II

Assignment for Day 14
Reading - Read assigned chapter of articles in Exploring Language and write brief (2-4 sentence) summaries of each article.

Activities:
Daily - Based on the readings and discussions so far in the course, make a list of the ways that language influences our lives.

Collect Public Literacy essay - You may have time to allow students a quick proofread either with a partner or by themselves. They can make minor corrections directly on the draft. Fifteen to 20 minutes is the most time you can allow for that.

Introduction to Unit II - Collect a list on the board generated from the Daily. Talk about the issues that have been raised about language so far and some of the controversies related to language.

You might also ask students if there are any language issues that have come up in other classes or in the news recently.

You will probably need to review the difference between a topic and an issue. You want to get students accustomed to thinking of issues in terms of questions. In some contexts, actually, the term "question-at-issue" is used to describe the focus of a debate. Of course, you will want to emphasize the debatability of an issue.

This will lead into your introduction to Unit II. It is recommended that your introduction include the following:

connect the skills and ideas in Unit I to Unit II
focus on research and arguing
discuss the group work components
discuss the topic limitations yet emphasize that there is a wide range of topics to choose from and that students should choose a topic that captures their interest or is related to other interests

Give the Topic Exploration Group Assignment - The purpose of the assignment is to familiarize students with the issues about language and culture authors are