Wednesday, October 28

Today, we defined the rest of the evidence-related terms that were included on the "Evidence Handout" (see the post from Monday, October 26 if you don't have a copy). We talked about many of them and gave examples -- everything from movies to personal experiences to historical events were referenced in the process. As usual, the discussion was animated, occasionally irrelevant, and generally entertaining.

We next asked you to look back at the pieces of evidence you had evaluated/ranked on October 13 (see the "Evidence Evaluation" link on that day), and discuss them again -- this time, however, using the various terms that we had just defined. This proved to be easier and more accurate than it was the first time through.

Finally, we reminded you that, although your project is not due until November 18, making plans and starting over the weekend would not be a bad idea. In-class time will be given on this coming Tuesday (Nov. 3) and the following two Tuesdays as well.

Tuesday, October 27

Today, in order to assess your progress, we began class by asking you to think about a claim, develop three criteria to define the relative term, and write a short logos-based paragraph supporting one of the criteria. The claim was "____________ is a good high school." To see a copy of the assignment, click on the link below:

Logos Paragraph IV

Next, we looked at an effective example of ethos in an advertisement:

Ethos Ad

We then introduced the first major project of this term: based on the situation just after the rebellion, we're asking you to "become" a public-relations firm that has been charged with countering the bad publicity that has been spreading throughout the land after the rebellion on Animal Farm. To accomplish this, you (or you and your partner) will come up with five specific advertisements that should each accomplish at least one of the following goals: making Mr. Jones seem like an unreliable source, and making humans feel positively (or at least neutrally) towards Animal Farm. To see a copy of the project requirements and specifications, click on the link below:

Animal Farm Public Relations Project

We then developed some criteria that would define an effective advertisement, and then applied them (and refined them) by looking at examples of past student works from this project. We discussed how well each example met the effectiveness criteria, and paid specific attention to the distinction between "funny" and "effective" -- noting that both can be true of an ad, but that "funny to be funny" will be entertaining but not ultimately effective.

Finally, you spent some time identifying various strengths and challenges (or abilities, motivations, and/or awarenesses) in one or two works from the semester thus far, in preparation for conferences this week.

Aside from your regular reading requirements, and whatever project-centered homework you need to begin, there was no homework assigned tonight.

Monday, October 26

Today, we began class by handing back "logos" paragraphs -- some from your first attempt at using logos, and some from your most recent effort -- two paragraphs that claimed Napoleon was either an effective or an ineffective leader, established three criteria for either term, and went on to prove two of them.

Once that exciting activity was complete, we discussed a key principle of good logos: stating your claim as a fact, rather than an opinion. We used various spinning and flaming words to reinforce the concept, as demonstrated below:




We emphasized that stating your claim as a thought, a feeling, or an opinion automatically undermines its "logos value." Additionally, we noted that words like "obviously" and "clearly" are equally undermining: if an observation is truly obvious or clear, then it doesn't need to be stated.

We then looked at an earthworm, and a claim about its internal organs, as an illustration of the importance of evidence. This was a chance to lay the groundwork for a more thorough discussion of evidence, which we proceeded to begin. Using a handout (see the link below) about evidence and evidentiary terms, we started defining terms -- starting with "context" and "proximity." More will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Evidence Handout

At the end of class, we talked briefly about selecting strength and challenge works for conferences.

No homework was assigned tonight, except for the usual 30 minutes per 5 nights of reading.

Thursday, October 22

Today was an important day in Writers' Workshop -- the deadline for submission of your first piece. The goal, set back in September, was for you to have finished three drafts of your piece, and we asked you to submit all three drafts, plus three peer-conference sheets and a final editing checklist, by the end of today's class period.

Most of you met this goal successfully. Those of you intent on writing longer pieces turned in your first few chapters, and others of you finished up poems that were remarkable for their diversity of subjects. By the end of the period, everyone had turned in a final draft packet, and, although not every packet met the three-draft, three-peer-conference standard, all represented two months' worth of good effort and good writing.

If you didn't turn in your Logos/Ethos/Pathos reflection paragraph today, please do so tomorrow, or Monday at the latest.

Wednesday, October 21

You all came to class having finished Animal Farm today. So, we split you into groups of three and had you discuss what your group thought "the moral of the story" is for Animal Farm. After your group agreed on a moral, your group wrote a paragraph supporting your claim with logos and evidence from the text. A representative from each group read the group's paragraph out loud for the class and we briefly discussed the different morals chosen. You all used excellent examples from the text.

Homework for tonight is to finish the Reflective Questions and write one of the Reflection Paragraphs -- either for logos, for ethos, or for pathos.

October 20, 2009

Today, many of you spent the first part of class finishing your logos paragraphs from yesterday. Some of you added information (particularly evidence from the reading); others changed wording; others decided that their efforts from yesterday were sufficient.

When you had finished, we next asked you to fill out a reflection sheet, similar to the ones that you're filling out in other classes. We also gave you an assignment that combines both reflection and the course content with which we've been working. Both are included in the document below:

Reflection, Parts I and II

You spent most of the period working on these.

Your homework for tomorrow is to read chapter 10 of Animal Farm. Your homework for Thursday is to finish ONE of the reflective paragraphs (either logos, pathos, or ethos -- your choice) and bring it to Writers' Workshop.

October 19, 2009

Today, chapters 8 & 9 of Animal Farm were due. to work with your understanding of the book, and to allow you to practice your ever-improving ability to employ logos effectively, we asked you to choose a claim related to the reading, to come up with three criteria to define the relative term(s) in the claim, and to write two logos-based paragraphs, one for each criterion. You worked with focus and absorption on this for most of the period. For a look at the assignment, click on the link below:

AF 8 & 9 Logos Paragraphs

The only homework going forward is Chapter 10 of Animal Farm -- the final chapter! -- which is due on Wednesday, October 21.

Thursday, October 15

Class started by collecting everyone's Reading Log Stickies on the wall and making sure that everyone wrote down, "Bring In Stickies" in their planners for next Thursday, 10/22.

We began Writer's Workshop with a minilesson on "showing, not telling." The students worked together to brainstorm better, more vivid ways to say, "It was very hot." The sentences that the students came up with were wonderful and featured scorching suns, melting into the cracks in sidewalk cement, and sweat dripping down foreheads. And then the writers were off and writing for another productive workshop.

Animal Farm Chapters 8 and 9 are due on Monday, October 19.

Wednesday, October 14

Today, we began by emphasizing the advantage that defining relative terms gives a speaker or writer when he or she is trying to be understood, or to win an argument. We returned to the idea of "home field advantage," and several of you gave examples of ways that defining terms can pay off: by "steering" your audience towards particular areas of strength (and away from areas of comparative weakness), by making your thinking clear to others, and so forth.

We then looked at three different set of criteria to define the relative term in the claim "Berkeley is a better city than San Francisco." The handout (complete with criteria) is below:

Berkeley vs. SF

You agreed that Criteria Set #1 was not effective because it was too vague, and could apply to almost any city-to-city comparison; you also agreed that Criteria Set #3 was too specific, and only applied to this specific claim, which would make your argument less convincing. We established that Criteria Set #2 was the most effective because it matched people's experience of reality, applied to both cities, but was slightly advantageous for Berkeley. We also agreed that Criteria Set #3 would actually be good evidence to prove this claim, and that's an important point: overly specific criteria are often better used as evidence.

Next, we discussed the evidence rankings from yesterday. Although there was a great deal of debate, a narrow majority of you thought that Evidence "E" was the most effective, and a large majority thought that Evidence "F" was the least effective. We then choose the piece of evidence about which there was the greatest difference of opinion - Evidence "H" - and you then began discussing its relative strengths and weaknesses.

No homework was assigned tonight, save for the next Animal Farm assignment, which is due Monday.

Tuesday, October 13

Today, we began by re-setting the discussion we had last week about defining terms in a logos-based argument. Specifically, we talked about three key logos-related concepts:

Claim -- a statement that a speaker or writer is trying to prove, or make understood, to an audience.

Relative Terms -- words or phrases that get their meaning from the context in which they are used, and from the subjective judgment of the people who are using them. "Good," "cool," "fun,"
"important," and "interesting" are all terms that came up in our discussion.

Criteria -- specific categories, qualities, reasons, or variables that thinkers, speakers, and writers use to define relative terms and make judgments/form opinions.

The "A" group then looked at two real-world situations in which relative terms, and their definition by criteria, played an extremely important role: a UN debate over a terrorism resolution following the 9/11 attacks, and a 2007 article about the legal definition of "torture" as it applied to U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Links to both articles are below:

UN Terrorism Debate

Torture Definition Article

The "B" group attempted to define the relative terms in the claims below with effective criteria. We agreed that the third was challenging, for a number of reasons.

Bagels are better than pretzels.
Rain is beneficial.
Paula Abdul is non-human.

Then, both classes looked at nine pieces of evidence that were all meant to prove a particular claim ("Cigarette smoking in public places should be illegal in the United States"). Here is the link to the handout:

Evidence Evaluation

In small groups, you discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each piece of evidence, and eventually ranked the evidence in order of effectiveness; you also began to discuss the criteria that allowed you to distinguish one piece of evidence from another.

There was no homework assigned, except for the next Animal Farm reading, which is due on Monday, October 19.

Thursday, October 8

Today in Writer's Workshop, the students worked diligently and creatively toward the October 23rd deadline. All students are well on track and have produced wonderful and insightful drafts and peer conferences.

The only homework assignment is to read Chapters 6 and 7 in Animal Farm by next Tuesday, Oct. 13 (our next English class).

Wednesday, October 7

Today, we began class by emphasizing that, although pathos and ethos can certainly be valuable rhetorical approaches, they are typically not as reliable -- or as durable -- as logos. We discussed many reasons for this: that both are dependent on the speaker's/writer's "presence" (in one way or another), that both rely on creating certain emotional effects that, over time, can fade away, and so forth.

We then focused on the advantages and disadvantages of using logos, which, you decided, had the greatest potential reward but also the greatest potential risk for the user. Your thoughts are represented in the picture below:


In order to use logos effectively, you first need to be able to understand how to create a "home field advantage" for your point of view -- to create conditions for your argument that will at least give your ideas a neutral playing field, and, at best, will give you a slight advantage. You can do this by defining your terms.

To explore what this means, we started by looking at a list of phrases: good restaurant, good music, good book, good song, good video/computer game, good class. You chose a phrase about which you feel qualified to have an opinion, and quickly brainstormed a list of qualities that a good _______ would have.

Next, you worked with other people who had the same phrase, and compared/discussed/refined your lists of qualities. Finally, we asked you to choose the most IMPORTANT quality in your list -- the one that would be most significant in determining your opinion of a _________.

We then introduced the concept of a relative term -- a word, or phrase, that takes its meaning from the context in which it's used, or the perception/judgment of the user, or the audience. We illustrated by looking at terms like "tall," "short," "left," "right," and so forth.

At this point, we chose one relative term -- "good restaurant" -- and began to look at qualities that would inform our judgment about it. We came up with a few before the end of class, and we introduced the term criteria to describe the list of qualities that you had been generating.

Both these concepts -- criteria and relative terms will come up frequently in the next few weeks.

Homework assigned: read chapters 6 & 7 of Animal Farm by Tuesday, and continue with your five nights/30 minutes worth of reading assignment.

Tuesday, October 6

Today, the 8A and 8B groups went about class in two different ways.

Both groups received an information sheet, and permission slip, for next Friday's tour of Saint Mary's College High School. Any students who wish to go on the trip need to turn this in by Tuesday, October 13. For an extra copy, please click on the link below:

SMCHS Permission Slip and Information

The 8B group began by writing a short paragraph that explained why one student paragraph (out of five possibilities) used logos most effectively. When finished, you were given an assignment -- to design three advertisements for a particular Animal Farm political candidate (either Snowball, Squealer, or Napoleon). Each ad needs to emphasize a different sort of rhetorical approach (i.e. one for pathos, one for ethos, and one for logos) but elements of all three can be included in each ad as well. You could choose to work by yourself or with a partner. You chose various approaches to advertising for your candidates, and, once some technical issues were ironed out, dove in enthusiastically.

The 8A group began by looking at, and discussing, a number of different television ads for political candidates -- specifically, at ads using fear (a form of pathos) and ads using a candidate's biography (a form of ethos). The link to these ads (and their website, which is excellent!), is below:

Political Advertisements

Afterwards, you were asked to design two ads -- one using pathos, and one using ethos -- to support your Animal Farm candidate. You could choose to work individually, with one partner, or with two partners (in which case, you would need to design a third ad, using logos). Your drawings of pigs and slogans began to take shape as the period drew to a close.

No homework is due tomorrow, but please don't forget to finish chapters 6 & 7 by Tuesday.

Monday, October 5

Today, Chapters 4 & 5 of Animal Farm were due. Accordingly, we began class by asking each of you to answer four questions about the book. Although you could answer all of them with information covered in the first four chapters, you could certainly incorporate material from later in the book as well. To see the questions, click on the link below:

Animal Farm 4 & 5

When you finished, we distributed a handout with five of the "logos" paragraphs that you wrote last week, on Tuesday. We chose five that focused on the "locks on lockers" issue. You read each paragraph and made brief note of its strengths and weaknesses.

Next, we had a ten-minute discussion about the potential advantages, and disadvantages, of using pathos, logos, and ethos when trying to convince an audience. You raised some great points, some of which are represented in the picture below:



Finally, we asked you to rank the five student paragraphs in order, from most effective to least effective. Once you were done, you departed.

No homework was assigned tonight, but chapters 6 & 7 are due next Tuesday.