Class Goals: Groups present their essays on the subject of the purpose of education in order to show (1) the variety of perspectives that can be taken on any issue and (2) the reasons why a person or group would hold a particular position and how best to address these concerns.
Connection to Course Goals: Continuing study of variety of positions on an issue and the contexts informing those positions.
Activities:
- Collect SEA. Tell students to pick up copies on your door on Friday for Tuesday’s assignment.
- Field sources
from PHG.
- Interviews, surveys, questionnaires - how could these be used?
- How could the Web be used as a field source?
- An example: One student was comparing the quality of courses at Ivy League schools and state schools. She used the Net to find typical courses at both sets of schools and compare the content of them, then went to chat rooms to interview people about their courses. (10 min.)
- Groups
organize a presentation of the material they have read collectively to present to those groups who have not yet read the article. (15 min.)
- Groups present their article to the class to share all of the information/perspectives. (20 min.)
- Class discussion
of reasons why each author would hold his/her particular position.
Develop some questions for the groups to get them to consider why each author’s situation would lead them to hold a particular view. These positions could be dictated by:
- Personal beliefs, political affiliations, and religious backgrounds such as Newman’s position as a cardinal in the Catholic church
- Historical contexts. Why would Newman believe one particular purpose for education in the late nineteenth century and why would Bird question this at the end of the twentieth century? What has happened economically, socially, etc. in this time period?
(25 min.)
- WTL:
Brainstorm a list of 10-20 possible topics for EIP.
Collect and comment on, paying particular attention to focus.
CSOW: This is what they will do in the CAP.
Assignment: Bring in everyone’s article and annotations for Tuesday. (You will leave copies on your office door BY Friday morning for them to pick up). Read them all and start a list of issues you see covered in the readings and listings. Also, read PHG on claims.
Return to Unit Three:TR