Week 8 and the Debate Project

We all voted on the general subject areas for the beginning of our debate projects, which will carry through from after spring break to Week 13 of our fifteen-week course. We spent the hour working in groups of six to write proposition statements.

We voted on the proposition statements from the four general categories. The students signed up for their groups. I hope to videotape parts of the debates to post here on this blog.

Weeks 6 & 7

I wanted to share with you some freeware that I have been using lately for my announcements for my hybrid Composition 1102 class and my ENC 3250 Professional Writing class.

The above is a Toon Doo.

Below is a Voki for my Week 7 announcement about getting ready for the midterm exams.



Get a Voki now!

Weeks 4 & 5

Week 4 was the week that the students posted their final drafts of their traditional argument. Everyone is exploring how to open their essays with a 'pow' and have catchy titles that will grab the reader's interest.

Many need to work on narrowing their topics to fit the scope of the 700-750 word limit and take a unique angle so that their voices come through.

I was pleased that everyone took a strong rhetorical stance and defended his or her point of view. Nancy did a creative paper on why drinking bottled beer is better than canned beer, her main argument resting on the widget that is in canned beers that is responsible for the head.

In Week 5, we had a group work assignment on two contrasting views of the torture to extract information from potential terrorists. A poll was conducted on the kinds of torture that the American government should have the right to use in interrogations with possible terrorists (from truth serums to whippings, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, to waterboarding). It was eye opening to see how the opinions differed among the students. It is great to have the poll anonymous so that the students could feel free to express their opinions.

The lesson concluded with a humorous look at torture and four of the six groups came up with tickling as being torturous. The class brainstormed three reasons why tickling can be torturous. I think that students are feeling more comfortable about taking risks and going out of the box.