Greek sounds smart!

I read the articles for this week and realized that I already taught the concepts of "kairos" and "stasis " in my writing classes, without actually calling them "kairos" and "stasis." I find that the readings for this week could not have come at a better time, as I am discussing the meaning of Rhetoric in my classes this week in preparing them for their exploratory paper.  Crowley and Hawkee's emphasis on the concepts of "kairos" and "stasis" will, I think, aid my students in exploring their topics by giving them a prism to look at their sources in a more efficient way rather than just looking at them to come up with the right answers. This way they can see the sources as a "set of different political pressures, personal investments and values all of which produce arguments about an issue" (51). 

My students are exploring social issues for the exploratory paper, and the complexity of the issues makes it even more important for them to understand the situations surrounding any argument that they evaluate. Also, the next chapter by Crowley and Hawkee emphasize the importance of "stasis:" the concept of asking important questions that help determine where it is that the disagreement between themselves and their audience begins, in addition to questions about context and significance. I am discussing the concepts of "ethos" and "pathos" with my students this week, and we will be going over "logos" next week, and I think I am going to use "kairos" and "stasis" as a way to explore the concept of logos, to show them the connection between logos, kairos and stasis, and their overall connection to ethos and pathos. Now if I can only come up with a lesson plan to explain these concepts to my students in a way that piques their interest!