Constructing meaning in context is helping students to see what issues are

important to them and why, to understand that issue within a certain

context, and to have students understand how the structure of argument can
be related and connected to its content. Constructing meaning in context
can be challenging to teach, but it is critical, especially with freshman
composition students. When students learn to construct and apply meaning
to issues, critical thinking schema begins to form and develop. With
practice, critical thinking skills can then be transferred to other contexts and
beyond.
In my experience, I have found teaching multiple perspectives and ideas
within a single context to be most useful for teaching how to construct
meaning. Multiple perspectives can be argued and debated but are still
contained within a single context, so the focus remains on the multiple
perspectives and not necessarily the situation in which they occur. I have
found that political elections are particularly useful for this teaching and
learning task.
The activity below is a case study/role play where a learner has to write
arguments for a particular candidate based on both content and structure. It
is an attempt to have learners physically manipulate their ideas. I left a lot
of room for learner choice and attempted to leave some autonomy within a
distinct structure. Students have to decide who to make the argument for,
what argument to make, based on what appeals, reasons and evidence, and
then they have to defend those choices he or she made. At the end of the
activity, as a bit of summarization, evaluation and recall, students have to
answer one question with examples: What is the difference between fact
and truth?
This activity serves as a Do and Connect activity for the objective Students
will discuss, critique and analyze current events. This assignment will not
be graded, as assigning a concrete grade on the philosophical differences
between fact and truth can be quite tricky. Rather, it is the quality of the
students arguments defending their position and their responses to their
classmates posts that is the goal of this assignment. Completion of the
activity will be worth 10 points, and discussion will be assessed using the
discussion rubric and worth 10 points.
______________________________________________________________________________

Terminal Objective: Students will discuss, critique and analyze current

events

Enabling Objective: Students will construct meaning in context

Activity: Case Studies: Students view and interactive presentation of a case
study of an argument and its context. Students will complete a series of
evaluation and analysis
questions regarding the case studies.

______________________________________________________________________________

Questions: What is truth?

How do you prove it?
How do you get voters to believe your candidate is telling it?
TRUTH VS. FACT: How do you know?
The section below is the introduction to the activity.
Students will read through this (several panes) and click
Next when finished. Audio for all activities will be
available by clicking on the headphones icon at any time
during the activity.

Audio is available at any time during the activity by clicking on the

headphones icon in the top left corner.
You are a campaign manager for a candidate for president in the 2016
national election. Your job is to craft an argument that convinces voters that
your candidate is the right person for the job. The problem is, everyone
wants to think that their person is telling the truth but there are many,
many opposing views over many different issues in the race. How will you
distinguish your candidate as the right person for the job without
damaging your candidates credibility with voters?
First, decide on which basic appeal (s) you will be using and explain why you
are using those appeals that particular way. Next, decide on your central
ideas and the reasons that support those ideas by constructing a short
outline. Then, list the evidence that will support your position. (You dont
actually have to have evidence, but list the evidence you would use and
from what source) Finally, characterize one other candidates position and
refute their ideas (no more than two paragraphs). After crafting your
argument, theres one last step. In a brief paragraph, answer these
questions: What is truth? What is fact? How do you know?
At the end of each section, please click Next at the bottom of the page.
When youre finished, check over your work, then click Submit. Your
answers will be posted in the discussion forum and analyzed and evaluated
by your peers. You are required to evaluate at least one other submission.
**For all activities, please assume that your audience is a range of general
election undecided voters representing all demographic populations.

Question 1: Below are the appeals we have studied in this course.

Please select the appeals you plan to use, and drag them into the column
on the right. Be sure to place the appeals in the order of importance to
your case. For example, if you plan on basing your argument on logic,
place that at the top. You do not have to use all the appeals, but you do
have to use at least one. In the box below, please briefly explain why you
chose those particular appeals.

There are three basic appeals: logic, emotion and

credibility. These will be listed on tabs on the right. The
students drag them into the spaces on the left, in the
order of importance to them and relevance to their
argument. After the drag and drop exercise, students
write a brief justification
Click Next when finished.
Question 2: In the following form, please complete an outline of your
proposed argument. Be sure to include everything necessary in the body
section of a persuasive argument and to place those items in proper
outline form. The outline can be as long or as short as you feel necessary.
For the evidence section, you may list either sources you would use if this
were a real situation, or create a hypothetical source that could support
your argument and list that. When finished, please drag and drop your
outline into the spaces provided.

There will be a blank space for students to use to create

their outline. Tabs will be on the right. Students write on
the tab, then drag and drop the tab into the proper place
in the space to create an outline. Tabs will work in a
parent child manner, if students arrange them as such.
Students need a thesis, at least three supporting reasons
and evidence that support/explain the reasons.
Click Next when finished.
Question 3: In a real political scenario, bias and framing of evidence is
common practice, especially when it comes to characterizing the

opposing position. In no more than two paragraphs, please summarize

and refute the oppositions position.

A blank space/text box will be provided for students to

write their paragraphs
Click Next when finished.
Question 4: As we have discussed, there is a difference between fact
and truth. Many times, one is mistaken for the other, sometimes
intentionally so. In the space below, briefly explain the difference
between truth and fact. Your explanation needs to be supported with
relevant examples (hypothetical examples are ok). Your explanation
should be no more than two paragraphs. Then in the activity, please sort
the labels listed into the appropriate categories. You need to sort at least
five labels.

A text box will be provided for students to write their

essays. Below that, there will be a drag and drop activity.
The screen will be divided into a top and bottom pane. On
the bottom, there will be tabs with various ideas,
concepts and items listed on each tab. On the top, there
will be four categories: Truth, Fact, Both, Neither.
Students must classify and sort at least five tabs into
what they feel are the appropriate categories.
Again, when you are finished, please click submit. This activity is not being
graded. However, it will be posted on the discussion board as soon as you
submit it, so please dont put anything here that you dont want your
classmates to see (class rules still apply). After submitting your work, please
read your classmates postings and post substantive comments on at least
one other posting.
This will complete the activity.