Donna Corriher, lecturer in the Department of English, incorporated some fun into her English 102 course when she made the shift from in-classroom to the online atmosphere. In this piece, she explains how the study of argument and rhetoric became a classroom debate about the relative merits of two iconic superheroes.
Every semester, in English 102, I have my students debate which superhero, Batman or Superman, has most impacted American society. Although it may not appear to be the best, most collegial topic to debate, it becomes so because I require students to find only peer-reviewed articles in support of their character, using Kimbel Libary’s databases. You would be surprised at the amount of scholarly research that has been published about those characters.
During a “typical” semester, I allow students to draw the name of the superhero they will “represent.” I allow them to work in groups as they find articles, using their laptops in the classroom. Five students are assigned to be the jurors and judges, and they are required to research both superheroes.
Since we had to shift our classes online, I tweaked the debate. I assigned students to teams (groups) within Moodle, and provided each team with a private forum. I then assigned each team a superhero, AND two databases in Kimbel. Each student on each team had to discover one article and post the MLA citation for and an excerpt from that article into a team forum. Then, the team was required to read each other’s articles and “reply” to each other in the forum or communicate with each other via email to determine one great article to submit to a “Courtroom Forum” as that team’s “evidence.” I, the judge, selected the six, in my opinion, best, most credible articles and posted them into another Moodle tool, “Choice.” I listed the pertinent info about the articles and required all students to vote/choose which article they felt to be the best article, considering Ethos, Logos, and Pathos; i.e., the most convincing article. Students voted anonymously. The winner was determined to be Batman.
I used the time restrictions on Moodle for all tools, forums and choice.
To announce the winner, I created a PowerPoint that included cartoons and music, acknowledgements of team members and articles, and, eventually, named the winner.
See the Powerpoint Here: Batman VS Superman Spring 2020 (1)
This assignment allows students to actively engage with the core skills of Critical Reading, Writing, and Information Literacy. Students practice using the basic rhetorical tools of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos as they determine the best article in support of their superhero. Students read articles written for a specific audience, scholars, and do so in a way that not only engages them, but also surprises them and evokes curiosity. They learn how to locate credible source materials using sophisticated databases, thus laying eyes on the extent of databases, disciplines, and fields of study. They must critically read the articles, analyzing the material as they seek out the very best quote that they can find to submit in support of a particular superhero.
Students learn the value and importance of group work as they communicate within the forums. The forums are timed, so students must practice self-discipline and timeliness in order to successfully submit an article to the Courtroom forum.
Student grades were based upon whether or not they individually submitted to the initial Team forum, and provided all of the required information in a timely manner—a correctly formatted MLA citation (reinforcing the necessity of providing source information), and an excerpt from the article (reinforcing the need to correctly format in-text citations).
The only aspect of the assignment that I will change is to weight the assignment more heavily. The debate was a low-stakes assignment, and I graded student submissions within the Participation category in my gradebook, a category that did not seriously impact grades, and thus, some students did not participate at all. I also attribute some lack of participation due to my offering extensions on most assignments for the semester, due to our unusual circumstances, and some students put it off until it was too late.
Fifty-three of sixty students participated. I had hoped for 100% participation, but was pleasantly surprised that two students who had basically disengaged from the course suddenly reappeared and submitted articles. One of the students who had selected a winning article sent me an email within minutes after I announced the results, asking me to vote for his article. Students were waiting, enjoying a little competition.
It’s amazing what a little comic relief will do for you.
Donna Corriher, Teaching Associate
dcorriher@coastal.edu
