Go to the Morphing Textbook Home Page

Go to the University of Iowa Rhetoric Department Home Page
A 10:002 or 10:003 Unit ~ The Myth of the Model Family

Schedule
Formal Assignments

This seven-week unit worked well in 10:002 sections. The readings, all from ReReading America, gave the students a chance to examine notions of the model family through lenses of class, race, recent socioeconomic and political history, and American values. The pieces, which represent a mix of writing styles, strategies, audiences, and occasions, held the students’ interest exceptionally well.

This set of essays, and Rereading America as a whole, encourages students to look twice at social constructs they previously considered natural, invisible, or simply reality. The pieces encourage students to think about how social policies affect family structures, which in turn motivates them to lend their voices to the controversies inherent in this arena.

The rhetorical skills involved in this unit include:
  • Eight detailed points of rhetorical analysis
  • Mapping arguments
  • Analysis of visual texts
  • Explanation and demonstration of ethos, logos, pathos, and mythos
  • Impromptu speaking
  • Basic research
  • Narrative vs. counternarrative
The unit includes the following informal and formal assignments:
  • Impromptu speaking
  • 5 Reader Response papers (two pages each in length)
  • Speech 1, for 6 students
  • Speech 2, for all students
  • Paper 1

top of page