Reflection On Letter From A Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King

Predicting trends in technology is notoriously difficult; often, the expected technological innovations never materialize (such as flying cars), while others take radically different forms (such as the smartphone). In looking at the current trends, and where technology will be five years out, two in particular stand out as being especially interesting. First, in the last several years, many technology companies have entered the wearable technology space. Such technology includes everything from smart-watches to Google Glass to patches that inject medicine when needed. Much of the focus of wearable technology today is in the health and fitness sector, with products such as the Fit Bit that monitor various aspects of one’s health. In an interview …show more content…
First, I give a brief lecture on logos, pathos, and ethos with examples, during which students take notes. Next, I introduce the “Letter” by having students read the article to which Dr. King was responding, “A Call for Unity” signed by eight Alabama clergymen. Students mark areas of the text to which they had a strong reaction, and share those with a small table group. Then we discuss these with the class as a whole. In the second portion of the lesson, students read through the “Letter” on their own (often for homework), looking for examples of logos, pathos, and ethos arguments and marking these with sticky notes. Students discuss their findings with each other, and then we have a class discussion that serves to clarify any questions that students have; I also take the time to explain some of the allusions that Dr. King makes throughout the letter, as I find students often miss these, and these allusions provide a good example of how an author appeals to his or her audience. To end, students write a short rhetorical analysis of two or three examples from the text that really stood out to