Argumentative Essay

The title of this assignment is called Exploring Redemption in ​Crash​. This

assignment was completed during the first semester in my 12th grade English class.
We were asked to work in a group and pick 3 people from the cast of ​Crash​ who
deserved redemption. We were supposed to pretend that the main cast members of the
movie were stranded on an island but they needed to meet certain requirements to be
saved. My group and I were supposed to create the requirements used for this. We
also had to pick 2 people who could have been saved, but failed to meet one or two
requirements from the criteria. My group had to put all the information onto a poster
and present to the class and give our reasons for saving those particular characters.
This assignment is an argumentative piece because we had to state why these people
deserved a second chance and why these other two people were close to meeting the
requirements for salvation. For instance, my group chose to save Officer Hanson
although many would say that because he shot Peter, a colored person, he does not
deserve a second chance. Our group argued that Officer Hanson did not shoot Peter
because he was of different skin color. We claim that Officer Hanson shot Peter
because he thought that Peter was carrying a gun. Officer Ryan, Officer Hanson’s
partner, told him that by not discriminating against colored people, his safety would be
compromised and he believed it. This lead to the event where Officer Hanson shot
Peter out of fear that he was carrying a gun. As proof that he was not racist, we noted
that Officer Hanson was against what his partner did in the beginning of the movie
where they pulled over a colored couple and molested the lady. This assignment fits in
the argumentative category because we made claims as to why we chose to give the
cast a second chance and provided evidence to back up our claims.
The student learning outcomes (SLOs) that I met when completing this
assignment were critical thinker and willing collaborators. I met the SLO of critical
thinker by breaking up the scenes I needed to analyze with my group in order to back
up my claims to why these people needed a second chance. Another way I was a
critical thinker was that I compared and contrasted each character my group wanted to
save and created a set of criteria that each character could meet, but would exclude the
other cast members. Also, another way that I met the SLO of critical thinker was that I
addressed the counter arguments that others may have with the people we chose. I
met the willing collaborator SLO by assisting my team with parts they had trouble
understanding. Another way I was a willing collaborator was by sharing my ideas with
my group and combining the ideas onto the poster. I was also able to meet the willing
collaborator SLO by assigning tasks and holding each other accountable.
This assignment helped me improve the SLO Willing Collaborator because most
of the times when I am in a group assignment, I would only ask group members to give
me my part and I would work on it alone and not ask for help. Most of the times when I
have trouble with my part I have a tendency of not asking for help and letting my group
down for not finishing my assignments. But for this assignment I was able to be more
open and ask my teammates for help when I needed clarification or I needed someone
to assist me looking for the answer. This assignment also helped me improve my
argumentation skills when addressing counter arguments because most of the time I
don’t go in depth with the counter arguments and give simple sentences to why they
have a point and give a short sentence to why they are wrong and move on. This
assignment allowed me to improve the counter argument because I was able to go in
depth with the opposing side while providing strong evidence. The skills that I need to
improve on is gathering enough evidence to support my claim because some of the
evidence I gather is sometimes weak and would need more evidence to make a valid
point. I would be able to use the argumentation skills in the future when I work as a
chef and I want to push for my dish as the special for the night against someone who
wants to push their dish.