Assignments

Disclaimer!!! I love in-class exploratory assignments, so be prepared to see many from me.
One assignment I’m tweaking out will go something like this; it will be an in-class exploratory writing assignment which will get students to writing and thinking more in-depth about the first paper. I’m considering having students take one of the course packet essays, which they will have read already for class and most likely we will have discussed briefly during the first half of the class period, and I’m going to have them formulate a thesis that is opposite to that of the critic’s. Along with the thesis, students will need to list at least three supporting facts which they will pull form their own knowledge, as well as other class readings.
I’m hoping that this assignment will assist students further in their understanding of argument. As another person that is worried about one-sided arguments, I want students to understand that anyone can formulate an argument, not just the “scholars” whom we often deem as always right. I want them to understand that their voice and opinion is just as important, with a major emphasis on the fact that regardless of what say and think, they have to support it.

A second assignment I am considering accompanies Paper #2. Students will be put in random groups; in which each group will have a predetermined factor that critics attribute/hold responsible to the failed/slow response to Hurricane Katrina such as FEMA, the broken levees, etc. Each group will need to argue for and against why their reason did and did not contribute to the response, citing class texts as their argument’s support.
With this assignment I hope to get the students’ minds working about the middle section of the class which focuses on race, gender, and class as an intersection of each other, with Hurricane Katrina being the prime example.