Help me with ideas for my English class

[bennyboy]

I'm teaching an essay class, and I'm looking for some powerful ideas that my students can use in many of their essays.

For example, I've taught them about the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy.  If I ask students "If you could change one thing about your country, what would you change?" they can answer something like, "In my opinion, Korea is too Apollonian.  I say this because we study too long, because we are expected to dress in uniforms, and because there is little to do in order to have fun.  If I could change something about Korea, I'd build more game rooms for children, so we could have some way to bring interest back into our lives." or something like that.

This dichotomy is very useful, because it can be used in almost all TOEFL-style essay questions: about family, school, life values, etc.

I've also taught students to quote-mine and reference famous ideas from historical figures: "The great Albert Einstein once said. . . " and so on.



Can someone recommend other important literary or philosophical devices that might be important enough to form a couple classes' worth of lectures and writing practice around?

[vorlon13]

Compare and contrast Khloe Kardashian's butt with Kim's.

[Foxaèr]

I was never good at explaining anything I learned in English class, but I always made As on my essays and research papers.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

How about having them debate what seems like an outrageous proposition?  We had a logics instructor who would throw out ideas like:  'Resolved:  The Right To Vote Is Antiquated And Should Be Abolished' or 'Resolved:  Arranged Marriages Are Preferable To Marriages Based On Romantic Love'.  He would then arbitrarily divide the class in two and tell each group which side of the topic they had to defend.

I get that you're teaching English and not Logic, but it seems that a lively spoken debate would require exact language.  If a debate format won't work for your class, the students could perhaps write essays defending or refuting a given topic.

Boru

[brewer]

How about current social issues?

http://www.seoulkoreaasia.com/book/20-Vo...ssues.html

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/research/v...ted-issues

[bennyboy]

These are all great ideas, but I'm looking for universal themes that can be applied to as many questions/scenarios as possible. I'm thinking of maybe introducing Maslow's hierarchy of needs: when asked a question, the student can introduce the idea, and figure out which level of need fits a particular question.

@Vorlon
Maybe I should teach the kids to investigate whether they are tops or bottoms, eh?

[Joods]

I have an idea... how about how Kpop has infiltrated across the globe and what the impacts on different countries, this type of music can hope to achieve.

You can use BTS as an example. They have armies world wide and are breaking social barriers with their music and incorporating topics that many musicians in Korea are too afraid to talk about.

I'd be proud.

[brewer]

If a child wants to physically trans, at what age is it considered acceptable?

[Astonished]

You could maybe do something about the different styles of learning, with students identifying which of them (audio, visual, interactive) are their most compatible and have them research ways that they think would improve upon lesson plans if they were more tailored to favor their preferred style?

[bennyboy]

You could maybe do something about the different styles of learning, with students identifying which of them (audio, visual, interactive) are their most compatible and have them research ways that they think would improve upon lesson plans if they were more tailored to favor their preferred style?

I think that's a very good idea.  This is an idea they could use in many contexts.  A lot of TOEFL questions are things about what school subject is the most important, ways a student prefers to study, and so on.