Posts Tagged "WIP"

Brainstorming Persuasive Ideas

Posted by on Mar 14, 2013 in Work In Progress | 3 comments

Like most of my classmates, I have no idea what I’m going to write about for my persuasive essay or for my advocacy project. But I’ve been brainstorming some ideas and even though nothing’s concrete, here’s what I’ve come up with.

1.) I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of our generation and how many of us are not exactly politically minded or even interested in things such as current events. I would love to write a persuasive essay that would focus on students just like me getting more involved in the world they live in. I don’t know exactly how I would go about this but I’ve been pondering that topic for a little bit since the online deliberation project which made me want to participate in issues such as that

 

2.) My specific audience would be college students who honestly do not know or care about what’s going on in the news. I would also to take this further in the advocacy project and maybe conduct interviews and get to the root of the reason for this disinterest in the news and the world

 

3.) I would hope that anyone who reads my essay thinks long and hard about the state of our generation. I think it’s really sad that a lot of people didn’t know that we were getting a new pope or care enough to watch even 5 minutes of the news everyday.

 

4.) I would like to think that my research will come from interviewing my peers and also statistics about youth and their society. Also, there was an article I read on something called the “empathy gap” which I think will be really relevant to this topic

 

1.) Yes, because this issue is so relevant to not only the youth of today but the adults as well it is very urgent. It’s not life threatening or anything but it is still a pressing issue.

2.) I would need to do some more research on this issue to answer this question. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any groups who would be against this issue. 

I think that I will be using this topic for my advocacy project if everything goes right. 

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My Moderating Philosophy (Draft)

Posted by on Feb 21, 2013 in Work In Progress | 3 comments

I want my moderating style to be, above all, friendly. As nervous as I will be next Monday, I also know that the English 15 students will be feeling the exact same way. For that reason I would like everyone to feel included and comfortable as opposed to nervous and stiff. Hopefully I can inspire most of the student sot talk and not have a Spiral of Silence situation. I would also like to encourage any and all opinions that may arise on Monday and avoid the persecution of another just for having a different opinion. I believe that this type of thinking encourages healthy deliberation and leads to the fostering of ideas.

With the topic being deliberated, there is a chance that there may be farfetched or maybe uninformed opinions so I would like to guide these people through the deliberation process in such a way that they become more informed without leading to an argument. My biggest strengths that I will focus on when I moderate are my inviting personality and also interest in creating an open environment for deliberation.

The purpose of deliberation is to voice one’s opinions with facts and experiences, listen to the voices of others and perhaps arrive to a state of enlightenment. This is what I hope to happen on Monday when I have my first moderating experience. What I will keep in mind for Monday is that everyone is different with different opinions, make sure everyone feels included, and to forget to be nervous hopefully.

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WIP: Moderating Philosophy

Posted by on Feb 14, 2013 in Work In Progress | 0 comments

Like most of my classmates, I have no idea how exactly I would like to moderate or what kind of moderator I want ti be. However, seeing the various teaching philosophies assured me that everyone has their own style when it comes to these types of things. Each teaching philosophy was clear and explained the duties and goals of each teacher clearly. I would like to do the exact same thing in my moderator’s philosophy. I especially liked Professor Willitz philosophy. He explained that there is no secret formula to teaching but rather one’s success in the field depended on the effort you put into the job and your interaction with students.  I think that in order to be a good moderator it  will ultimately depend on my people skills. Also, I have to be sure to outline not only my strengths and weaknesses but also what I liked most about moderating.  I think that the things that make a strong philosophy is one that answers all of the framing questions clearly and also has the personal element imbedded in it.

I’ve been thinking of some things that I can put into my moderator’s philosophy:

  • Why I am moderating
  • What makes me want to do it
  • My strengths and weaknesses
  • How this experience will help me in the future
  • What I have learned from being a moderator
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CI Reflections

Posted by on Feb 7, 2013 in Work In Progress | 1 comment

I really like the addition of Civic Issues posts for this semester. They provide an opportunity for thoughtful conversation that is backed up with a mix of facts and statistics. My CI blog focuses on education and for my first post I focused on the issue of diversity at Penn State. When I prepare a CI post I definitely do a lot more research because the post is longer and more in depth and also because I want people to read it and have something to say afterwards. That process is definitely what sets CI posts apart from say, a Passion post. I wish that for my first CI post that I didn’t jump around so much and had focused on one concrete issue because looking back that made the blog a little confusing.

Looking at other people’s posts I can definitely say the mix of facts and personal experiences is what draws me into the post. Also, I think it’s important that people take a stance on whatever issue they are writing about. It makes for healthy debate and a good conversation. I don’t think people should be afraid to step on some toes if it’s about something they truly have an opinion on. From the comments on my post I saw what other people thought about the diversity at Penn State and saw how other people view the same topic but in different ways.

I think that for my future posts I want to keep the main topic concise and clear and just go more in depth with my ideas and analysis. I’ve seen this done in other posts and I would like to do that also. For my remaining posts I will continue with the topic of education because I can never get tired of that and I will try and accomplish the goals that I mentioned above.

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Group Presentation- Chapter 8

Posted by on Jan 31, 2013 in Work In Progress | 0 comments

The chapter that my group and I will present is Chapter 8- Deliberative Communities and Societies

The chapter analyzes the way deliberation works in various communities and settings. In addition to that analysis, the chapter also explains how to successfully bring deliberation into a community.

Here are some of the main points that I feel should be focused on in our presentation:

  • The connections between public officials, citizens , local media, and private associations when it comes to a deliberation
  • Democracy and Deliberation
  • How deliberations of the past can influence the modern methods of today
  • The various theories in the chapter, like the Structuration Theory
  • How exactly one creates a deliberative society (The example used in the book is in a school setting)

When we present we could use maybe a Prezzy. I’ve never used one before so it might be interesting to make a creative powerpoint with a topic that isn’t so exciting. Anything will work really because this is such a short presentation.

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