Unit 2: Moving Forward

We are all part of a larger world community. As such, we need to reflect on the elements within our world – self, family, and community as well as the natural and constructed worlds, and our influence on these and on future generations. By exploring various perspectives and our relationships with nature and constructed environments, we can examine our roles (worshipper, exploiter, master, steward, student, etc.). Through deeper understanding of ourselves, our constructed worlds, and nature, we can become agents of change who build a better world for today and for tomorrow.

Possible Questions for Deeper Understanding· How do our relationships with others evolve and influence us as we mature and age? How can you prepare for the probability of having multiple roles throughout your adulthood (e.g., caregiver, employee/employer, partner)? How do people respond to and cope with multiple and changing roles throughout their lives (e.g., caregiver, employee/employer, partner, parent)? · Are all the roles and the work associated with those roles valued or respected equally? How can you ensure that the work you do and the roles you play will be valued and respected equally? · How and why will you prepare for your future? · What are contemporary expectations of adults? How do the roles and expectations of adults vary among cultures and through the various stages of adulthood? · How can we prepare for the roles and expectations that we have for ourselves and that others have for us? · As we mature and age, what are our responsibilities to self and to others? How do these responsibilities change? · What obstacles and opportunities do people experience in the transitions of adulthood? · What does the concept of a balanced life mean? How and why do we plan to achieve balance in our lives? Is the quest for balance universal? · How do our values and beliefs determine the paths of life that we may explore? What influences or necessitates the re-evaluation of our values and beliefs? · What competing interests, dreams, and ambitions create tension and conflict for us and for others? What kinds of dreams are considered worthy? Who decides what dreams are worthwhile? How can we pursue our dreams and ambitions when others do not consider those dreams worthwhile? How do our dreams, goals, and ambitions influence the risks that we take?What are the achievements that we envision for ourselves? Why do we decide on and pursue those achievements? What influences the achievements we seek? What do individuals do to motivate themselves to succeed? How do we define success and achievement for ourselves? How do others define success and achievement?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Told through the point of view of three different women living in Jackson, Mississippi, e Help chronicles events from late summer of 1962 through 1964. Skeeter Phelan, who has just graduated from Ole Miss, returns home to the family plantation, ambitious to become a writer. Taking the advice of a New York editor to hone her skills, Skeeter begins to write a column for the local newspaper while searching for a topic that she truly cares about. Missing her beloved childhood family maid and confronted by the overt racism of her friend Hilly Holbrook’s campaign to require a separate bathroom for the black help, Skeeter proposes to write about the lives of the black maids in Jackson. Knowing she will need to interview black maids to tell their stories but without realizing the danger of what she is asking, Skeeter approaches Aibileen, the maid of one of her close friends. With an increasing sense of bitterness at the injustice of her situation, Aibileen agrees to help, and later recruits Minny and eventually other maids. As they work on this project to tell their true stories, including stories of the prejudice and injustice that the maids experience in their everyday lives, a close relationship develops between Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. The three women come to confront and resist the intimidation experienced daily by the black maids. Woven throughout the stories are the key events of these seminal years of the civil rights movement. Dealing as it does with the social issues of the time, The Help may be controversial for students. It is through the agency of Skeeter Phelan, a white woman, that the black maids get to tell their stories and as such it continues the tradition of novels like To Kill a Mockingbird. Here is the issue of language; all the maids use a version of black dialect created by the author, although their southern white employers mainly use Standard English. Also, the focus on domestic injustices faced by the maids in the novel may come across as avoiding the real brutality faced by blacks during this time period in Mississippi.

Blog #7: What do you want to be when you grow up? Not just in terms of jobs, but who you want to be as a person. What will you do in your spare time? Will you have a family? Think about all the questions you have about your future.

Lesson 1 Unit 2 Intro.docx

Introduction to Unit

Lesson 1 Love is a Fallacy.docx

Lesson 1: "Love is a Fallacy"

Lesson 1 Assignment.docx

Lesson 1: Activities

Lesson 1 Satire.docx

Lesson 1: Satire

the Veldt.doc

Lesson 2: "The Veldt"

Lesson 4 The Veldt.docx

Lesson 2: Activities

To Every Thing There Is a Season.docx

Lesson 3: "To Everything There is a Season"

starting-out-poems-about-parenting.docx

Lesson 5: "Poems on Parenting"

where_have_all_the_parents_gone--whitehead.pdf

Lesson 4: "Where Have All the Parents Gone?"

Blog #8-- Reading and Responding

It is time for reading, responding, and reflecting. Have there ever been a time you thought, what if I grew up with different parents, lifestyle, etc.? How would it have changed my life? I want you to consider the following essays below. The first essay is a serious argumentative essay whilst the second essay is a satire on the relationship between teenagers and parents. Read "Where Have All the Parents Gone" (pdf text to the left) and "The Grown Up Problem" in Prose for Discussion. Answer the following questions and publish on your blog.

"Where Have All the Parents Gone?" by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

  1. What is the "kids as capital" argument (paragraphs 2-6) and what is Dafoe Whitehead's initial response to this argument (paragraphs 7-14)?
  2. What is Dafoe Whitehead arguing in this essay? What is the main cause/ effect relationship on which this argument is based on?
  3. Paraphrase and elaborate on paragraph 9. What is Dafoe Whitehead's point in this paragraph? Do you agree with her?
  4. What are the stages in the shift from the rosy view of parenthood in the 1950s to the dark view of parenthood now? What has happened at each stage to further harm the image of parents?
  5. How is this reading, published in 1990, related to parenting today? Have we continued a dark view of parenthood?

"The Grown-Up Problem" by Art Buckwald

6. What is the narrator trying to say about teenagers? Parents? What is the satirical joke here?

Reflecting

7. Choose three to four different quotes throughout the texts. Write these quotes in your blog (practice in-text citations!) and respond to these ideas, concepts, or themes. This means you will have to explain why you chose the quote, what it means, and speak more about the topic.

Essay #6: Personal Commentary Essay

Personal Commentary Essay

Writing - Personal Commentary Rubric.docx

Personal Commentary Essay Rubric

Final Exam Review

Lesson 8 Time Out Gauging the Value of a Gap Year Before College.docx
Lesson 8 Writing an Application Letter for Scholarship (with Sample).pdf

Use the following links to write a cover letter and resume.

Writing - Letter of Application Rubric.docx