English 111 in the Summer

I began teaching English 111 last Thursday and so far I really like my class and the students. There's a really good mix of personalities, majors, and writing backgrounds represented in my class, and I think what I like best is that they have a sense of humor but seem to realize that there is some importance to understanding how to writing and how to argue effectively. I wonder sometimes if education seems more important to people when the economic climate seems uncertain--like it's some kind of additional motivation to get what you can out of your classes.

This week we're focusing on reading arguments and writing arguments. The last couple days my class have read various forms of argument and in different formats. Today we talked about visual rhetoric and they did a really good job dissecting a "Mac vs. PC" advertisement: I was really proud of how they zeroed in on the argument but also provided supporting details to support their claims about the ad's argument.

Tomorrow we're going to work with grammar (boo) but I'll try and sell it on its usefulness and contextualize it in such a way so they see how it can relate to their own writing. Students will also begin using blogger and will finish up their wiki profiles. So far this has been a great summer term and I'm looking forward to working with this group of students in the next few weeks.