Class Agenda 11-19

1. Announcement: Extra Credit today at the "Orientation Cafe"

2. Quiz

3. Last Minute Peer Review: partner up and re-read. Make sure it's an A.

4. Midterm Review

5. Class Activity: Critical Thinking

Goal

In today's hour we are going to discuss a few specific strategies for the “critical thinking” section of our writing. We can use these strategies for our class blogs and our essay assignments. 

Description

Let's look at a passage from "Climate Rage" and a passage from "The Battle for Control of Reality." Let's briefly talk about them and their connection to the essays as a whole. 

For the purposes of critical thinking, let's add some new strategies to the ones we learned in our previous class.[Note: what did we learn in the last class?]

·         Close-reading of language. How can we go beyond paraphrase and “interpret” the meaning of the passage by focusing on specific words?

·         Connecting the idea to a relevant passage in the same text. How can we connect this passage with another to deepen its meaning?

·         Connecting the main idea to another text. How can we connect a main idea we’ve discovered in the passage and relate it to a relevant idea that we’ve found elsewhere?

 For each of these strategies, let's write some possible sentences together as a template. 

4.  Now I'd like you try pick a new passage from one of the essays and try out one of these strategies on your own. If you're unsure what passage to pick, I have one for you to work from. You should try to write at least three sentences. 

5. When you're done, find a partner to share it with. Maybe we can discuss one as a class. 

6. Reflection: For students that finish before the hour (including the entire class!), I'd like us to reflect on the strategy you chose, why you chose it, and whether or not you find it effective.