CRS 183: Concepts and Perspectives in Rhetoric

Concepts and Perspectives in Rhetoric is a mandatory class for undergraduates majoring in Communication and Rhetorical Studies. The class exposes students to rhetorical ideas and theories from Ancient Greece to the modern day, primarily through reading the original texts and discussing their applications. I have had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for this class twice, first in the Spring 2020 semester and then again in Spring 2021.

Because this class is more concerned with concepts than projects, the majority of my classes are either discussions or activities. I ask students to send in qustions and applications of the readings which help me to target my lesson plans to what the students know and what they still need to work on. This also provides the basis of our discussions. The biggest change from 2020 to 2021 is the introduction of student presentations, which pushes students to be able to understand the readings well enough to teach them to the rest of the class.

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When this class was disrupted by the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, the weekly recitations were replaced by discussion boards, and the class became asynchronous for the benefit of students in other time zones. In its digital form in 2021, we use Zoom to allow for synchronous recitation discussions.

Below, I include the syllabi for my recitation sections from each semester, a sample lesson plan and assignment, and course evaluations.