Blogging Pedagogy

This week's Lesson Plan Interview is Susan Gayle Todd. Susan's assignment offers help in teaching the concepts of ethos and context -- exactly where most of us teaching 306 are right now. Read on for her comments on using the film Gettysburg in the classroom, and check out her lesson plan here.

Q. How did your students respond to the assignment?

I recently finished reading _All the President's Men_ for my comps. It's a fun book in a lot of ways, but I also think it could come in handy for a writing class. As Woodward and Bernstein investigate the Watergate break-in, they get numerous sources to confirm or deny stories and facts, or even provide new information. Still, some sources refuse to go on record or only provide information on background. What I found really fascinating was the newsroom scenes after talking to sources.

Here's a column from a recent World Net Daily titled “Soy is Making Kids Gay.” The headline isn't a joke - that's actually the argument the guy is making. I think it’s hilarious, but it's also really creepy and would make a good exercise for a 306 class. You could use it to talk about ethos and logos. In particular, this guy’s ability to make his claim that soy milk is medically indistinguishable from birth control pills look scientific is pretty remarkable. I’m still waiting for the punchline about eating Irish babies, though.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327