Redkudu

Quick answer here, then more later. (I'm in the home stretch to move to the new house on Sunday.) I especially want to talk about teaching persuasive techniques.

How do you teach research? Is it a unit saved for a specific time? Is it a building of skills?
I would like to build on research skills all year too, but it's difficult. I either have to book time in the library, or book time on the laptops, usually months in advance. This year, I'm trying to bring more supplemental literature into each lesson, and have kids refer to that literature for compare/contrast, analysis of ideas, etc. It isn't quite research, but it's an attempt to have them use different sources to develop their arguments and analyses.

How much fiction versus non-fiction do you cover?
All the novels are fiction. Quite a bit more fiction than non-fiction, but again, I'm making an effort to bring in non-fiction to supplement. For instance, the first 3 weeks are Nat. Am. folklore, then 3 weeks of speeches. The next 3 weeks are Puritan lit, Bradstreet and "Sinners," then 3 weeks of the Declaration of Independence and Transcendentalism. So we won't get to lengthy fiction until Gatsby, in the 3rd 6 weeks, which is where I'd like to conduct some sort of research, although doing that right before the holidays is difficult, so I'm thinking of a kind of mini-research. I'm trying to focus a lot with the students on putting information from text into other forms (charts, graphs, notes), and also reverse (translating from charts and graphs into their own writing), so I may do something with that. I'm thinking about the Payne article - maybe something comparing laws, social relationships, etc. between the 20's and today? I don't know. You can see that's still just an abstract idea.

Do you discuss or point out purposes for reading (i.e.; reading a textbook, reading for specific information, reading to determine author's purpose, etc.)? How?
I do as often as possible. I do it a lot through comparison of language and syntax. I point out the difference in language (slang, academic vocab, etc.), and syntax (variation of sentence length, etc.). I like to do author's purpose with the Nat. Am. speeches (especially the use of irony), and reading for details and diction with the transcendentalists.

Do you teach dialogue writing?
Whenever I can. I hardly get any time for fiction writing anymore, but I do try to teach them to include it in personal essays. When I can't teach it, I point it out in the reading.

Do you do an author study?
I have not yet done an author study, but I am considering it this year for my English II class.

Question for you: How do you teach persuasive techniques?