*Please see English version for most up to date schedule*

Reading skills and strategies are extremely important and helpful for students. However, reading is not just about the intake of information. While previous classes will teach students reading skills and strategies to increase understanding and reading efficiency, what comes next is even more important. Reading is just the first step. The next step is to do something with the information that you have learned through reading, which often involves developing your own opinion or stance on a topic, and being able to have a dialogue with others.

The purpose of this course is for students to apply reading skills and strategies while researching current event topics, develop their own opinions and positions based on their research, and to construct, analyze, and deliver arguments in a structured format. Students will research a variety of current events, with an emphasis on analyzing the multiple sides or opinions related to these events. Students will then be instructed on how to communicate arguments to a specific audience and to defend those arguments when challenged.

This course will cover a variety of current events that many will find interesting and relevant. The focus on current events will cover controversial topics, such as the war in Ukraine, pornography, and a variety of social, cultural, and political issues. These issues will serve as a backdrop to engage students in learning more about these topics and to develop and defend their own opinions, as well as for students to be more aware of important issues that are currently hotly debated.