5/15: We are working on the Vietnam page now (link below).
5/12: Presentations. HOMEWORK: Read, listen and respond to Dr. King's speech (see "Dr. King's Vietnam speech" background attached below. If you lost your copy of the speech, it's attached below as well).
5/11: Presentations.
5/10: We talked about the Welty story.
5/9: See "Welty small group work" attached below. Presentations start Thursday. Be ready.
5/5: HOMEWORK (for Tuesday). Read "Where is the Voice Coming from" (attached below) and respond on the notecard (see "Welty's Voice story notecard" attached below). There's an audio version of the story here.
We did some analytical work wth the Rockwell paintings - looking at title, at the ways in which Rockwell uses elements of art to create social commentary, etc. We also watched this video to get some background about Medgar Evers and his assassination.
5/4: F Block: Discussion about the Court reading. We also looked at Rockwell's Southern Justice and Murder in Mississippi sketch and painting and talked about Freedom Summer and the death of Andy Goodman, Mickey Schwerner and James Chaney. HOMEWORK (for Tuesday). Read "Where is the Voice Coming from" (attached below) and respond on the notecard (see "Welty's Voice story notecard" attached below). There's an audio version of the story here.
D BLOCK: Smackdown with the Rockwell paintings.
5/3: D Block: SHOW ME WHAT YOU KNOW work in class. We also looked at Rockwell's Southern Justice and Murder in Mississippi sketch and painting and talked about Freedom Summer and the death of Andy Goodman, Mickey Schwerner and James Chaney. HOMEWORK: See "Cont Am Cult After Brown v Board" (attached).
5/2: F Block: HOMEWORK: See "Cont Am Cult After Brown v Board" (attached). Work day for the project (due 5/10).
D Block: We looked at Audre Lorde's "Timing" and "Who Said it Was Simple" and talked about the idea that with every step forward in social movements (especially race equality movements) there is often backlash. We looked at N Rockwell's The Problem We All Live With (1964 attached), inspired by Ruby Bridges' integration of an elementary school in 1960. HOMEWORK: Pull together research materials to bring to class tomorrow for the SHOW ME WHAT YOU KNOW project (due 5/10).
5/1: F Block: The Rockwell painting we looked at is attached ("Norman-Rockwell- The Problem We all Live With) and there is a link here. Please add to your description so we can talk about it on Thursday. We finished presenting poetry in both F and D blocks.
4/24: D BLOCK:HOMEWORK: work on your proposal for the "Show me What You Know" project (see my "Ideas for the gender project" attached below). Proposals due Thursday (no coupons). CLASSWORK: See "Wants + Genovese in class" attached below. I have also attached .pdfs of the reading ("Kitty Genovese" is 3 separate attachments. "Wants Grace Paley" is only one attachment).
Here's an article about Kathrine Switzer tuning the 2017 marathon, 50 years after her ground-breaking run.
4/12: F BLOCK HOMEWORK: Tonight, read and mark up the poems in the packet for your poet: everybody should mark up at least two poems, except the Levertov group – in that group, each of you mark up one poem (make sure that among you all the poems get covered). Make sure to spend the kind of time and attention on the poems as we did in class with Sexton and Plath (make meaning by carefully examining word choice, sound, rhythm, devices, title, etc.). I’ll ask you to write about these in class tomorrow.
In class - WOOHOO! Great discussion about the Sexton poem. So much to think about. We also started on the Plath poem (below).
D BLOCK: HOMEWORK: Revisit the Sexton poem. Start by getting down all the ideas you had (and we had) in class today (write on the back of the poem - reflect rather than bullet). THINK about the title and the repeating line "I have been her kind"). Play with what this might mean, given the rest of the poem. Revisit (or discover) some of the imagery, the rhyme scheme, etc. and THINK about how that might help you in. Do you think Sexton is reshaping a view of witches and witchcraft? How? Why? - write all that you can (at least half of the back of the sheet).
Women and poetry (see "Sexton + Dickinson" and "The Applicant" attached below - you can here Sexton read here and Plath read here). We talked about Plath and Sexton as the beginning of a new kind of freedom and recognition for women poets " What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?/ The world would split open." - Muriel Rukeyser, from "Kathe Kollwitz"
4/11: F BLOCK HOMEWORK: Revisit the Sexton poem. Start by getting down all the ideas you had (and we had) in class today (write on the back of the poem - reflect rather than bullet). THINK about the title and the repeating line "I have been her kind"). Play with what this might mean, given the rest of the poem. Revisit (or discover) some of the imagery, the rhyme scheme, etc. and THINK about how that might help you in. Do you think Sexton is reshaping a view of witches and witchcraft? How? Why? - write all that you can (at least half of the back of the sheet).
F BLOCK: Women and poetry (see "Sexton + Dickinson" and "The Applicant" attached below - you can here Sexton read here and Plath read here). We talked about Plath and Sexton as the beginning of a new kind of freedom and recognition for women poets " What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?/ The world would split open." - Muriel Rukeyser, from "Kathe Kollwitz"
D BLOCK: We talked about R Carson's Silent Spring, its message, its style, its reach and watched clips from the PBS documentary about her life.
4/10: F BLOCK: If you missed class, you can find the film here (start after the promo at the Boston Marathon, and continue through 29:40 when Gloria Steinem says "it was heady and exhilarating and naive...it would change.")
4/7: D BLOCK HOMEWORK: Watch the first three minutes of American Experience’s documentary about Rachel Carson (watch until the American Experience title card). As you watch, on the front of the notecard: take notes – about the climate of the culture, about Carson and her book and the controversy it caused. Then, read the excerpt from the opening of the book, and on the back of the notecard: please respond to what you read of Silent Spring. This is another piece we read in the course that feels to me as if it could be written today. Does it feel that way to you? Why or why not? What do you think of the argument Carson puts forth and of the way she does so? What reaction do you have to the piece? To the writing and to its form? What connections can you make to the brief section of the documentary you watched and why do those matter. Fill the back of the card.
In class- gender roles and tv: We watched the Top Ten TV shows of the 1960s and talked about gender roles. We talked, too, about Star Trek and its groundbreaking roles - especially Uhura.
F BLOCK: In class: continued discussion of gender and our times, plus a look back at Bewitched. NO HOMEWORK
4/6: In class: continued discussion of gender and our times, plus a look back at Bewitched.
4/5: See "Gender model investigation" (attached below). Here's Steph Curry and Carpool karaoke!
4/4: BOTH BLOCKS: Discussion about the Coontz essay, gender roles, etc. For classwork and homework, see "Cont Am Cult Gender Millennials" (attached).
4/3: Homework: Tonight, read Stephanie Coontz’s newest essay about millennial attitudes toward gender roles in marriage. As you read, be thinking about all we have been talking about in the 1960s and beyond and about the connections to our own time. Jot down connections as you read on the top half of the back of the white lined paper we used in class today. After you’ve read, on the bottom half, react to what you read. Tell me what you think about what you read and why it might matter. Does it resonate with you? Why or why not? What connections can you make between it and the materials we’ve been reading and watching in class? Why do these connections matter? How might they be at the root of the attitudes of millennials? Fill the bottom of the paper.
D Block class work: on a sheet of white lined paper, pull together your important questions, your best insights, the connections you can make between the materials we have been reading and seeing in class: Rockwell's Window Washer, the excerpt from The Feminine Mystique, "I Felt the World Passing me by" and the excerpt from The Makers. THINK in terms of gender bias, gender restrictions in the 1960s (the materials we read & watched were all from 1960-67). We also listened to a clip from this episode of the Freakonomics podcast (start at about 13:00 and listen through 16:30).
3/31: Both blocks HOMEWORK: read the excerpt from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (make sure to read the introduction as well - it's attached below). As you read, mark up each piece and underline ideas that particularly grab you, that provoke you and that make you think. At the end, jot down connections between this and the work you did in class. We’ll talk about all of this on Monday.
D Block: Please see "Makers and the Feminine Mystique" attached below for classwork and homework. If you missed class, you can find the film here (start after the promo at the Boston Marathon, and continue through 29:40 when Gloria Steinem says "it was heady and exhilarating and naive...it would change.")
3/30: F Block: please see "Gender in the 1960s to start" for classwork and homework (our classwork is on page 2).
3/29: HOMEWORK: F Block - please look at the Rockwell painting Window Washer below. In your notebook, describe what you see, then reflect on the characters, the relationship, gender roles you see, and why they might matter in American culture in 1960s, etc. Bring this work to class. In class: Rachel Carson.
D Block: Please see"Gender in the 1960s to start" for classwork and homework (due Friday).
3/27: F Block: See "Want Ads and Rachel Carson" attached below for both classwork and homework. You can find the Rachel Carson documentary here (watch the first three minutes).