Case study · Canvas course design

Teaching rhetoric through The Screwtape Letters in four Canvas modules

A hybrid unit for dual-enrollment English Composition I. High school juniors and seniors meet once a week and work independently the other six days. I built a repeatable module structure that moves them from rhetorical theory to a finished Rhetorical Analysis essay.

Course: ENGL 1010 · English Composition I (Dual Enrollment)
Learners: HS juniors & seniors earning college credit
Scope: Unit 2 · 4 weekly modules
Delivery: Hybrid: Monday seminar + 6 asynchronous days
My role: Instructional designer, course builder & instructor
Platform: Canvas LMS + Canvas Studio

01 · The challenge

A college pace for students still in high school

Unit 2 asks students to master the three most abstract ideas in first-year composition: topoi (Aristotle's common topics of invention), the appeals of ethos, pathos and logos, and classical arrangement. Then it asks them to find those ideas working indirectly inside C.S. Lewis's satire, where a senior demon coaches his nephew in the art of manipulation.

Three constraints shaped the design:

A six-day gap between class meetings. Students meet in person on Mondays only. Everything else happens in Canvas, without a teacher in the room to set the pace.
Dense primary texts. Everyone's an Author, Lewis, Twain, Aristotle and Thucydides, all in four weeks.
Younger learners in a college course. They are capable of the reading but still building the self-direction college coursework assumes.

My goal was for students to always know where they were in the week, what came next, and how each reading connected to the Sunday deadline.

02 · Architecture

A consistent module structure

Every module follows the same six-stage order. Students learn the rhythm in the first week of the unit, so by the last week their attention goes to the content instead of the navigation. I built the first module as the master shell, tested it, then duplicated and adapted it for the rest.

OverviewObjectives, a one-paragraph roadmap, and every due date for the week
LearnTextbook chapter paired with a block of Screwtape Letters
SupplementA mini-lecture or curated video, always under 10 minutes
ApplyMonday's seminar task, set up for in-person or async work
AssessFormative worksheet or discussion, then a short quiz
DueCheckpoint draft or major assignment

Week 5 – Analyzing Arguments (Topoi, Inventio)Published

PdfSojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman?" (National Park Service)source
PgAnalyzing Arguments with Rhetorical Topoi: A Single Lesson Approachlesson
RdReading – Textbook Ch. 13due 9/21
QzTopoi: The Common Topics of Argument Quiz16 pts
RdScrewtape Letters 13–16due 9/21
DqDiscussion – Topic, Topoi, Thesis50 pts

Recreated from the live Fall 2026 Canvas course. Week 6 follows the same order with Swift, Twain, Ch. 14 and two 50-point assignments.

Names that explain themselves

Every module name carries the week number and the concept, so a student who loses the syllabus can still find their place.

Source, lesson, practice, proof

Each week opens with the primary source and a lesson page, moves to readings, and ends with a graded check. Students always know what comes next.

Canvas tools matched to the job

Files for primary sources, Pages for lessons, external links for public-domain texts, Quizzes for auto-graded checks, Discussions for peer work and Assignments for submissions.

Accessibility by default

Real heading styles on every page, alt text on every image, and captions verified on every video, never assumed.

03 · The modules

Four weeks building to one essay

Each week pairs a chapter from Everyone's an Author (5th ed.) with four Screwtape Letters and a correlated primary source. The supplemental media in each module targets whichever concept is hardest to grasp from the textbook alone.

Module 4Week of 9/14

Analyzing Arguments: Topoi & Inventio

Objectives: Distinguish claims of fact, value and policy; identify warrants; generate a thesis from an Aristotelian topos
Texts: EaA Ch. 13 · Letters 9–12 · Sojourner Truth
Media: 6–10 min Canvas Studio mini-lecture on five classical topoi
Assess: Topoi quiz (16 pts) · Topic, Topos & Thesis discussion (50 pts)

Students must name the topos behind their thesis, and peers check whether it actually matches the reasoning. Identifying the topos is built into the discussion itself.

Module 5Week of 9/21

Supporting Arguments: Ethos, Pathos, Logos in Satire

Objectives: Define and distinguish the three appeals; identify how Lewis uses satire to expose each one and its abuse
Texts: EaA Ch. 14 · Letters 13–16 · Swift, "A Modest Proposal" · Twain, "Advice to Youth"
Media: TED-Ed, "How to use rhetoric to get what you want" (~5 min)
Assess: Weaponized Appeals worksheet (50 pts) · Persuasive Essay: Research & Appeals checkpoint (50 pts)

Pairing Lewis with Swift and Twain lets students compare how each writer manipulates the appeals and how differently each one affects the reader.

Module 6 · heaviest weekWeek of 9/28

Logical Fallacies: Spotting Subversion

Objectives: Identify common fallacies by name; connect them to Aristotle's sophistical refutations; apply fallacy-spotting to Essay 2
Texts: EaA Ch. 15 · Letters 17–20 · Twain, "Corn-Pone Opinions" · Aristotle, On Sophistical Refutations
Media: Two short TED-Ed fallacy lessons as a warm-up
Assess: Fallacy exercise · 10–12 item quiz · Essay 2 draft checkpoint

Two correlated texts become two short pages: Twain first (accessible, funny), then Aristotle (dense), linked by a bridging question. Because students learn to spot fallacies through repeated examples, I chose two short videos over one long lecture.

Module 7Week of 10/5

Peer Review & Arrangement: Essay Due

Objectives: Apply classical arrangement to revision; give and receive structured feedback; submit the Rhetorical Analysis
Texts: EaA Ch. 18 · Letters 21–24 · Thucydides, Funeral Oration
Media: Purdue OWL, Classical Argument (required) · Silva Rhetoricae (optional)
Assess: Arrangement quiz · Major Assignment 2 with rubric

The reference pages become a peer-review checklist students use while reading a partner's draft ("Does the introduction work as an exordium?"). I present Thucydides as a model of classical arrangement that students can use while revising.

04 · Inside two assignments

Sample assignments

Two assignments from the live course show how the design turns into student work: a staged discussion that pressure-tests a thesis before the essay, and a worksheet that teaches the appeals by studying how a satirist abuses them.

Canvas Discussion · 50 ptsWeek 5

Topic, Topos & Thesis

Students post a working thesis, get specific peer critique, then revise, all before the formal thesis checkpoint is due.

Post25 pts · 9/17

Critique15 pts · 9/18

Revise10 pts · 9/19

Initial post. Topic, chosen topos (definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance or testimony) with a one-sentence rationale, and a working thesis.
Peer feedback to two classmates. Is the thesis arguable and specific? Does the stated topos match the reasoning? One question or suggestion to sharpen the claim.
Revised thesis. A revision plus one or two sentences on which feedback shaped it, or why the original held up.

To earn credit, each reply must name one specific strength and one specific suggestion. This keeps peer review focused on the same skills the unit teaches.

Worksheet · 50 ptsWeek 6

Weaponized Appeals in "A Modest Proposal"

Students find where Swift fakes each appeal, rebuild the honest argument, and name his real target.

False ethosWhere and why it counts

False logosWhere and why it counts

False pathosWhere and why it counts

Spot the appeals. One paraphrased example of each, with the reason it qualifies.
The honest version. Strip the corrupted premise out of the false-logos example and rebuild the argument.
Find the real target. Name what Swift is actually attacking and cite one piece of evidence.
Compare the technique. Is Swift closer to Screwtape or to Twain? What's similar in the mechanism, and what's different in the effect: discomfort, humor or horror?

The content note at the top prepares students for the essay's deliberately shocking premise. Asking for paraphrase instead of long quotations keeps the focus on Swift's reasoning.

05 · Weekly rhythm

Structuring the days between classes

The modules sit inside a fixed weekly cycle. Each independent day has a specific task, which spreads the work across the week leading up to the Sunday deadline. A Wednesday check-in announcement with a question about that week's Letters keeps momentum up mid-week.

MonSeminarScrewtape warm-up, lecture, group application, workshop

TueRead theoryEaA chapter, Cornell notes

WedRead Lewis3–4 Letters, rhetorical log

ThuSynthesizeWeekly response, 250–500 words

FriDraftIncremental progress on the major essay

SatReviseGenre checklist from EaA

SunSubmitAll weekly work due 11:59 PM

06 · Alignment

Aligning objectives, practice and assessment

I planned the unit backward from the Rhetorical Analysis essay. Each week supports one row of the essay rubric, and the rubric uses the same terms students learn in the module overviews.

Module	Objective	Practice	Formative check	Essay rubric row
4 · Topoi	Generate a thesis using a topos; identify warrants	Topic, topos & thesis discussion with peer critique	Topoi quiz; revised thesis	Claims & warrants
5 · Appeals	Identify how satire exposes each appeal	Weaponized Appeals worksheet on Swift	Research & Appeals checkpoint	Use of appeals
6 · Fallacies	Name fallacies using Aristotle's terms	Spotting subversion in Screwtape & Twain	Fallacy exercise and quiz; draft checkpoint	Fallacy avoidance
7 · Arrangement	Revise using classical arrangement	Checklist-guided peer review	Arrangement quiz	Arrangement

07 · Design decisions

Key design decisions

The main decisions behind the unit and the reasons for each.

Media under ten minutes

Every supplemental piece fits inside a 50-minute class period and gives students a second way into the concept before they meet it in a demanding literary text.

Outside examples come first

Topoi, appeals and arrangement each get a plain, modern example before Screwtape, which only shows these ideas at work indirectly.

Correlated texts get their own pages

Each primary source has guiding questions that tie it to the week's concept, so it reads as part of the lesson and not as an extra link.

Choice without extra grading

One submission point accepts text or video, so students choose their format and the instructor still grades in one place.

Low-stakes drafts before high-stakes essays

The Week 6 draft checkpoint is worth few or no points. It is meant to catch problems early, while students still have time to revise.

Links back to earlier resources

The final assignment links to the Week 4 topoi sheet and the Week 7 peer-review checklist as "review before you submit."

08 · Quality assurance

Quality review before launch

Before publishing the unit, I run a cross-module consistency check:

Every module follows Overview → Learn → Supplement → Apply → Assess → Due
Every page uses Canvas heading styles, not bolded paragraph text
Every linked video has captions turned on and checked
Quizzes share one point value and time limit across the unit
Both rubrics use the appeal, fallacy and arrangement vocabulary students are learning
Due dates match across assignments, the Canvas Calendar and the syllabus
Sequential-unlock requirements are set the same way on all four modules

Tools & frameworks

Canvas LMSCanvas StudioModule requirementsCanvas RubricsDiscussions w/ mediaBackward designTED-EdPurdue OWL