(Writing Strategy)
Purpose:
This strategy is designed as a pre-reading activity that will help students relate to the characters in Tuesdays with Morrie . Completion of this assignment will help students practice rhetorical strategies such as generating evidence to support a claim, challenging others’ viewpoints, clarifying reasoning, answering potential objections from the audience, and criticizing faulty logic. This strategy creates controversy because it does not offer an easy solution and the problem connects to students’ lives.
Rationale:
This strategy is designed to be used prior to reading Tuesdays with Morrie . In the novel, Morrie is diagnosed with ALS which eventually takes everything away from him. He cannot not walk, eat on his own, wipe himself, etc. He is left to the aid of those around him. Presenting students with a situation similar to those presented in this novel will help them become aware of their treatment of others and how much they are willing to help another.
Directions:
1.
Put students in small groups and ask them to come up with their own solutions to the prompt.
2.
Give each group a copy of “What About John?” Read the scenario to the class. Do not ask for any questions because you don’t want to influence the group discussion. Rather, tell the students that if they have questions they should work it out with their group.
3.
After fifteen or twenty minutes, re-form the class for a discussion about the problem. At this time, students will present their solutions and discuss differences.
4.
Students will then write to debrief. Writing will help them see their learning and communicate their emotions. This process will lead them to new learning and the development of new skills.
Assessment:
Giving students a concrete situation results in emotional involvement in the problem and thus in the novel. There are several possible solutions so no answer is the “right” answer. This problematic situation allows you to assess student participation in group activities, thinking/reasoning skills, ability to negotiate decisions, and general ability to make choices based upon priorities and values.
Lamb. BYU. 2005

Mike and Mary have a 15 year old son named John who has autism. He is 6’1, has curly brown hair, big, bright, brown eyes, big feet, and a wide smile. Because of autism, he cannot communicate what he wants or what he needs, he is bipolar meaning he can be emotionally unstable, and struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder meaning he has to have certain things in his life done certain ways to avoid temper tantrums. John is healthy, but he has to take lots of medications and needs constant supervision. Even though he can dress himself, he struggles with what an average person does daily including washing himself, cooking his own food, entertainment, and schooling. He cannot be left alone; he will always need somebody around to help him. Therefore, he will never be self sufficient. John will live to normal life expectancy—he will live to be a grown adult with all of the basic needs that a human adult needs: food, shelter, and companionship.
By John’s 18 th birthday, he will be eligible to live in a group home. A group home is a single-family residential structure designed or adapted for occupancy by unrelated developmentally disabled persons. The structure provides long-term housing and support services. However, there is a high rate of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in group homes.
Mike and Mary love John very much. They have two other daughters but feel that
John is an exceptional asset to the family. If they send John to a group home he will have constant supervision and be surrounded by other disabled people. But John is their son, and by keeping him at home they can make sure that he is healthy and well cared for.
Questions :
What should Mary and Mike do: Keep John in their home or send him to a group home?
Why is that the right thing for them to do? What if something happens to his parents?
What will happen to John?
Next - Write what you would do? Take the stance of Mike and Mary, and take the stance of John. What is he thinking? What would he want (what would you want)? Should loved ones take care of another? Or should someone outside who maybe more qualified take care of her?
Lamb. BYU. 2005

1. Avoid arguing for your own opinion. Present your position as lucidly and logically as possible, but listen to the other members’ reactions and consider them carefully before you press your point.
2. Do not assume that someone must win and someone must lose when discussion reaches a stalemate. Instead, look for the next-most-acceptable alternatives for all parties.
3. Do not change your mind simply to avoid conflict and to reach agreement and harmony. When agreement seems to come too quickly and easily, be suspicious.
Explore the reasons and be sure everyone accepts the solution for basically similar or complementary reasons. Yield only to positions that have objective and logically sound foundations.
4. Avoid conflict-reducing techniques such as majority vote, averages, coin flips, and bargaining. When a dissenting member finally agrees, don’t feel that he must be rewarded by having his own way on some later point.
5. Differences of opinion are natural and expected. Seek them out and try to involve everyone in the decision process. Disagreements can help the group’s decision because with a wide range of information and opinions, there is a greater chance that he group will hut upon more adequate solutions.
From: Jay Hall. (1971). Decisions, Decisions, Decisions. Psychology Today. Pp.
51+
Lamb. BYU. 2005