This is one of my favorite in-class activities of all time, which I remembered and used recently in a class about writing description/observation. It is the "boring paragraph" assignment. I tend to give it out as a pair activity, and then have students share their rewritten paragraphs in class. It's fun. (It can also be tweaked to be about tone, which is fun too.)

I’ve been using these three readings in my class and I thought others might find them interesting in discussions on metaphors (and a range of other topics on language use). I think these are applicable in a lot of the different 309s (and 306s), not just mine on language and identity. And these readings have generated lots of interesting discussion in my class. You may already have come across these, but if not take a look. These can also serve as a spring board for evaluating the way language is being used with respect to other current events.

On Monday, my students read a chapter called "How Good is the Evidence?" in Asking the Right Questions that provided a checklist for evaluating research studies. Some of the questions:

What is the quality of the source of the report?
Has the study been replicated?
Is any reason for someone to have distorted the research?
How far can we generalize, given the research sample?
Are conditions in the research artificial?

Last semester I decided to have students participate in in-class debates instead of having final presentations and it was fantastic. I know of a few other teachers doing this and reporting that this works really well. This is especially true when the variety of possible topics is limited (resulting in mind-numbingly tedious presentation days) and when time is limited (presentations often take three or four classes and debates can be done in two).

I'm using (with few adjustments) the showcasing protocol suggested for RHE 309S and RHE 310 this semester and I'm LOVING it. I've always had a hard time with peer review at UT (it always seemed to work better with my students at the last school I taught--but they were, generally, older commuter students.), but this all-class format seems to work well. Students get papers the weekend before the showcase and know that they are going to be responsible for their comments on the papers (I collect and look over the comments).

Saturday morning on NPR's On The Media Brooke Gladstone interviewed Sam Berlow of The Font Bureau Inc. Berlow talked about what the logos used by presidential candidates say about them. This was a really nice piece that might be useful in teaching rhetoric. Here's the link to the podcast and transcript:
http://onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/02/22/05

If you are looking for soemthign to do with your class on Monday or Tuesday of next week, this article from Slate provides an interesting template for deconstructing style or structure in a text. The article’s example is the writing of Lewis Lapham, longtime editor of Harper’s.

“The swarm of cameras following Monica Lewinsky on her progress through a Washington airport or a New York restaurant wouldn't have surprised the Roman mob familiar with the expensive claques traipsing after the magnificence of the Emperor Nero, their eager and well-fed sycophancy presumably equivalent to the breathless enthusiasms of Barbara Walters.”

In essence, Lapham was rephrasing Ecclesiastes: All is vanity. There is nothing new under the sun.

Today I taught a lesson about Shakespeare's sonnets and love songs. First we discuss a couple of Shakespeare's sonnets, how the reading audience witnesses the love-interaction between lover and beloved. Then we listen to various love songs (some well-known, others less so) and discuss how the situations are strikingly similar to that of the sonnets. In each form, a (typically male) lover sings to his beloved about the effect she has on him. Then we discuss how other cultural forms work similarly. Usually students volunteer media like television or movies.

I've been trying to get a better picture of the places where the Wellton 26 go in The Devil's Highway. I made this map--if you click on many of the yellow pins, there is a picture of the town or the place. Viewing it as a hybrid (which shows satellite pictures and human landmarks) really gives a good picture of the desolation of the AZ desert. (Note: Viewing the larger map (the link below the image) is key.)

If other people have found good pictures of any of the places mentioned in the book, I would love to add them to the map.

There is nothing like some variety in spicing up the class discussion. After a couple of “blah” discussions during which my students sat like zombies with glazed eyes and I felt like a dentist pulling teeth, I created a chat room on www.chatzy.com in an effort to get my students more involved. And it worked! Beautifully.