November 30th

Tonight I was evaluated for the first time at Gulf Coast. I think it went well. I have a good class so they always participate and I had an interesting assignment for them to work on during class time. It was the questioning activity for their documented argument essay. It usually helps the students clarify their topics and the direction of their essays. I did get one student who told me that it really helped her decide where to go with her essay.

November 18th

As we approach Thanksgiving, I could tell that everyone was sluggish and showing signs of burn out. I decided to complete the individual meetings to discuss their documented argument topics, give them an assignment to write and send them home early. I could tell they appreciated the early night! They have so much to complete in a short time period. I want them to be successful! Hopefully, the early night will give them a little bit of a breather and they will return refreshed and motivated to work!

November 16th

Tonight I had the librarian come in to give the class an overview of how to search the databases available on the library site. I find it helpful for me to also view this information again because I forget since I don't use it that much. I also find that the class benefits from it for 2 reasons: they meet a real live librarian and they are given instruction as to how to login and use the databases that they pay for through their fees. Even though many of the students have had this instruction before, it is always good to review. Since they will begin their documented argument essay, this is the first step to find good research for the essay.

November 4th class

Tonight in class we were discussing claims and evidence and did an activity where the students analyzed a magazine and an advertisement from the magazine. They really did a good job of listing the claim and the evidence used by the product advertisement to sell the product to the audience of this magazine. The reason why we did this activity is that the students will be writing argument essays for the rest of the semester and they need to see evidence of how claims are made and supported. We focused on the rhetorical triangle-pathos, ethos and logos. This type of activity always goes over well with students.