Outrage of the Month

In the interests of beefing up the outrages, I'm expanding the rubric a bit.

The point of the outrage of the month is not just to give people a platform to talk about something that irritated them, but rather to attempt to inspire a discussion about issues that are important enough to people for them to raise them. Thus, I'm adding extra expectations on the part of both the people giving the outrage, AND the people listening to the outrage.

The talker

The way that I want you to approach the outrage is from the perspective of giving a persuasive speech. You are trying to convince the audience that your perspective (your outrage) on the issue being raised is the correct perspective. Thus, simply reciting some information about an event and saying, "So this really outraged me because I think it's wrong," is not going to make a good outrage.

You should be making an effort to convince people that your position is correct. In the process of doing this, you will have to provide facts and data that support your position, as well as be able to respond to criticisms of your position and explain why those criticisms are incorrect. Thus, to a large extent, it would be in your best interest to try to anticipate what those criticisms will be and be prepared to respond to them.

Because I want these outrages to spark discussion, I also expect that everybody giving one come prepared with a discussion question or two about their topic that they can use if the audience does not spontaneously start to participate.

The listeners

Those listening to the outrage should be attentive, and should give the issue being raised some critical thought. You should be able to decide where you yourself stand on the issue (in other words, do you agree or disagree with the speaker), and why you agree or disagree. If you disagree with the speaker, you should be prepared to question them on specific points contained in their outrage to see if they can answer your criticisms. You should be prepared to respond to the discussion questions that the speaker has prepared, as well.

It's worth remembering that you'll be up in front of the classroom at some point, too. When you're up there, I bet you'll want people to participate and discuss your issue so that you feel like you picked a good issue. Thus, it is in your best interest as a speaker to be an active participant as a listener, to help create a culture in the classroom where this type of open discussion is welcomed and encouraged.

Each student is expected to do two Outrages of the Month. A good outrage of the month should involve some news item that you've encountered that provokes some sort of reaction from you (you don't have to actually be outraged). Your presentation should provide a summary of the event, including what happened and why it happened, as well as an explanation of why this event provoked a reaction from you. A really good outrage of the month will explore reasons for why the event happened the way it did, and why you believe those reasons are wrong.