Observation Report #2

Instructor: Annemarie Dill

Class: RHET1312-14 Composition II
Time: TR 3:05-4:20PM
Date of Observation: Thursday, 10/29

The second class I observed was Annmarie Dills Composition II class. The class was
held in Tyndall Dickinson 201, which is a very different classroom from the one where I teach.
In Dickinson 201, they have the Apple monitors with the CPU inside, and the seats were
arranged in spacious rows, meaning that Annmarie was able to walk across every aisle as she
lectured with the students. There were sixteen or so students in attendance on the day of my
observation, making the class significantly smaller than my Composition I class. I found
Annmaries teaching style quite different from both Williams teaching style and my own; she is
highly energetic and conversational with her students.
The content of the class revolved entirely around the question of how to interpret visuals
as being rhetorical. For about the first thirty minutes of class, all she did was lead the class in
an extended discussion on this topic. For example, she asked questions like What is visual
argument?, What would be a benefit of a visual argument over a text?, and How does tone
apply to a visual argument? Annmarie concluded that analyzing a visual is not all that different
from analyzing a text, and she pointed out how elements of a text like diction and conciseness
are similar to elements of a visual like lines and colors. After the class discussion about visual
rhetoric, the next thirty minutes was her showing the students two memes revolving around the
debate over the change of the status of Pluto as a planet. Both memes featured your mom
jokes with minimal texts and a decidedly satirical tone. One meme mocked NASA for its
perceived self-importance in deciding whether or not Pluto should be considered a planet, while
the other meme mocked those who would deny the science that Pluto simply isnt big enough to

be considered a planet. Annmarie spent a good stretch of time on each visual, asking her
students to pick apart elements of the pictures and explain how they are rhetorical. Annmarie
concluded the class by telling the students that their third assignment would be to mediate
between two opposing visual arguments. She showed how the two memes about Pluto both
shared common knowledge and interests, and emphasized how common knowledge and
interests is how we can mediate between any two arguments.
Thanks to Annmaries incredible energy and enthusiasm, student engagement in the
class was high. Annmarie actually greeted each of the students individually as they walked in.
Ive done this a few times myself, but I always feel corny and out-of-place doing it. I think part of
her effectiveness engaging students came from her constant use of the projector. The students
were always facing the front, so she was able to walk around the classroom and converse with
them from multiple angles as they studied the visual rhetoric or notes on the screen. Certainly,
the multimodality of her presentation helped her appeal to the couple of second-language
students in her class. Her style of raising questions, problematizing her students answers to
the questions, and answering student questions with more questions of her own was very
effective in fostering a collaborative classroom discussion. I often fall into the trap of asking my
students questions, and then simply telling them the answers. Annmaries style did more to get
students thinking for themselves, and coming up with more thoughtful responses to her
questions. Similar to what William did in his Writing for Work class, Annmarie had her students
refer to the syllabus or the textbook a few times when she had something complicated to explain
so that they would listen to her while she talked and not be trying to write things down
simultaneously.
Her class was well organized, and the pace was fast, although the time did seem to
sneak up on Annmarie a bit and the final phase of the class was sped through. As William did,
Annmarie started the class by introducing the guestme. Then, she immediately started asking
questions about visual rhetoric. She was relentless in asking her students to give full answers,

asking them What does this mean? whenever they used a term or made a statement that was
somewhat nebulous. Her constant pacing around the class and changing the screen gave the
class a faster pace and more energy. However, in my personal opinion, the class discussion
lasted a little too long on the analysis of the two memes. I also noticed a few students come in
around ten minutes late, which may have disrupted the class discussion right around that time.
Annmarie is a high-energy, highly engaging person, and I learned a lot observing her
class. She did not perhaps give off the same supreme air of confidence which William did, but
that made her more relatable to me. I talked with her after class and she was incredibly friendly,
giving me more tips on how I might improve my own teaching, as well as sharing some personal
experiences and hardships she experienced when she first started teaching. She even told me
that she teaches with such a high energy level in part to hide her lack of confidence. In terms of
technique, the biggest takeaway for me has been the way she creates such a lively back-andforth in her class discussions. I need to break the habit of posing, then answering, my own
questions.