The most valuable lesson I learned from an email one student sent me, was that students do not read the class schedule. In the said email, the student said that he was unsure about the title of the text I had asked them to read 'Cats and something?' While amusing, I realized that I would have to spell out the names of the texts in class henceforth.
By Friday, most of my class had signed up for CompClass and I had to spend a little bit of time explaining a few things to them. One common problem seemed to be that some of them could not access texts though they were in the right tab. Unfortunately, I had no answers to that save referring them to tech support.
We started the class dealing with the problem of unpacking a text. We looked at ways to identify arguments and then ways in which we could refute or agree with these arguments. I noticed that what prompts them to think as analytical individuals is to ask them to explain their reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with an argument.
I had them break into four groups, two on each side, and using references and inference drawn from the three texts, they argued for and against the problems in the education system and the solutions posited. Initially, some of them were inclined to paraphrase from the text, so to avoid that I had them refute one another so that it encouraged individual analysis. There were a few students I was very impressed with because they were not only challenging the arguments but also the rationale and sometimes the rhetoric of the three texts.
Given the very detailed discussion that we have had so far, I hope that when they write in the discussion board, they will have formed some strong arguments of their own which they can use for the interview assignment.
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