- Attendance Check and Warm-up
- Example of Critical Thinking
- What We Are Doing and the Chess Example
- What the Author Did, What We Do, and Problems Along the Way
- Practice Outthinking the Author
Add these analyses to your own articles. This is not something I am checking but will make the task easier when we are writing the essay.
The Details
Schedule of events:
1. [10 minutes] Attendance Check and Warm-up:
Before you sit down, please form groups with these criteria:
- There will be 5 groups maximum
- Each group must have at least one person who speaks a different language from the majority (ex: 2 Chinese speakers and 1 Korean speaker; 2 Korean speakers and 1 Spanish speaker)
- Each group must have at least one boy and at least one girl
The groups must first complete these tasks:
- Choose a team name
- Elect a group leader who will keep your group on-task:
- This does not mean that he or she makes the decisions or speaks for the group
- It does mean that he or she will make sure that your group comes up with answers or conclusions for each step and then move on to the next step
- Elect a scribe (someone who can do the typing for your group)
- Elect someone to use the computer to research
First, look at these questions, and discuss them as a group. Where applicable (according to your group leader) write down notes for your answer. Some of these do not require specific answers.
- When writing a paper, do you usually make an outline before writing the first draft?
- Why do you do this or why do you not do this?
- When you make an outline (for any class or purpose), what kinds of structure and headings do you use? How do you divide different sections of the outline?
- If none of you have ever made an outline before, brainstorm what an outline for your Essay Basics essay would be like.
- What are some essential details that should be included in an outline? Do these things vary for different assignments?
- What is reverse-engineering? Have you ever reverse-engineered something? Have you ever reverse-engineered someone's paper?
- Do you think reverse-engineering a good example paper would be useful? Why or why not?
Before moving on to task 2, we'll stop for a minute and go over what we think, and I'll help you get the idea of our next steps and why we are doing what we are doing today.
4. [10 minutes] Task 2: Writing the Thesis Statement
What do you remember about thesis statements?
- Review what you know about thesis statements as a group using this document.
- Individually or with group mates who chose the same option as you, complete step 3
Now, you are equipped with a thesis for your rhetorical analysis essay, but you have not yet actually structured your outline. Here, we are going to use a real student rhetorical analysis to try and learn the basic structure. This is not a formula to follow, but a real example of a great essay that can guide you in making your own. As you draft your outline guide, make sure that it is generic enough that you can apply it to your own analyses.
Resources:
Steps:
- Read the essay (you can skip to resource 2 if this is the most useful)
- Fill in the pieces that ask for the function of each part
- Use these to create a document that will work as a general outline for your papers.
- The scribe should make sure each group member gets a copy of this final document
On Wednesday, bring to class (either printed, handwritten, or in your Google Drive folder) an outline with ideas for your specific rhetorical analysis essay and your thesis statement.
Attribution: This lesson is from Jin Kim's 2013 original. I have adapted it to fit my teaching style and classroom atmosphere.
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