4/30: HOMEWORK: Continue to read/listen to/watch, etc. resources for your projects (you need to have at least three completed, with exntensive notes and a working question/focus/argument development by FRIDAY). If you are missing Jill Lepore's talk on Thursday, you can find your alternate assignment here.
In class - we talked about Lepore's ideas and Baldwin's from the film.
4/29: HOMEWORK: Finish your work with Lepore's "Introduction" and continue to read/listen to/watch, etc. resources for your projects (you need to have at least three completed, with exntensive notes and a working question/focus/argument development by FRIDAY). If you are missing Jill Lepore's talk on Thursday, you can find your alternate assignment here.
In class: I met with students indivually about projects, and we read and wrote about J. Lepore's "Introduction."
4/26: HOMEWORK: Read/listen to/watch, etc. at least one resource + taken notes and reflect for Mon
In class: we worked on resources for the project.
4/25: HOMEWORK: Work on the poetry assesssments (due by Friday). Please also read the handout for the final project assignment (resource due by Monday). Come to class with questions.
In class: we finished watching I Am Not Your Negro.
4/24: HOMEWORK: Work on the poetry assesssments (due by Friday). Please also read the handout for the final project assignment (resource due by Monday). Come to class with questions.
We talked about the final project and began watching I Am Not Your Negro.
4/23: HOMEWORK: Work on the poetry assesssments (due by Friday). Please also read the handout for the final project assignment (resource due by Monday). Come to class with questions.
We worked on poetry final projects.
Jill Lepore is coming to speak at Wachusett on May 2nd. We will be attending her presentation* in the auditorium. You’ll be dismissed at 12:40 during long block – E that day, and will miss all of last period, F. As part of the preparation, well read, discuss and apply her introduction to her book These Truthsto our classwork this week. After the presentation, I will ask you to write a reflection about your takeaways and their applications to your project, to the course, to your understanding of Contemporary American Culture.
Painting and other work toward the poetry assessment. Look here for information and for work you need to do.
* I am assuming that everyone will attend. If you cannot, please let me know by Thursday of this week. I will give you an alternate assignment
4/12: SAME as 4/11
4/11: Painting and other work toward the poetry assessment. Look here for information and for work you need to do.
4/10: We worked through two poems and then started on the third.
4/9: HOMEWORK: Tonight, finish the work with your resource and mark up a second poem, using the same method we used in class. Come with notes all over the poem.
Working with the poems today. We'll start in the groups that we were working with yesterday. After each person has finished with their first poem, we'll move onto the resources:
One of the ways into a poem is through context (historial, biographical or otherwise). Because these are all poems are by women, and because we are still working with women in the 1960s and 1970s, I'd like you to choose two resources to either read/listen to in order to develop more background, to perhaps gain insight into your poems, etc. We'll work with one today.
Here are the possibilities: "A Change of World" podcast episode 4 (1970s poets, featuring Audre Lorde and others, plus the movement in the 1970s - issues of rape, of sexuality, of patriarchy, etc.).
"A Change of World" podcast, episode 5 (about motherhood in poetry, featuring Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton and others).
Essay "Imagining Freedom" poetry and protest.
Here's a resource that includes Lucille Clifton reading, some thoughts about her use of lower case letters and a roundtable discussion with Clifton.
There are also handouts in class of a speech by Shirley Chisholm, letters to Ms. Magazine
AFTER YOU'VE READ/LISTENED: make a list of the 4-6 most interesting points from the resource. Return to the poem you've been working with and try to make connections.
4/8: HOMEWORK: Work on your proposals for Tuesday.
We worked with the poems we chose today.
4/5: HOMEWORK: Work on your proposals for Tuesday.
In class, we finished the discussion (for now) of "Boy Breaking Glass" and looked for poems to work with. All students either copied down their choices or sent pictures of the poems to me.
4/3: HOMEWORK: Take ONE of the questions or ideas we came up with in the poem and wrestle with it on the back of the paper. Come up with three or four ideas, make connections to elsewhere in the poem, back to the title, to ideas that we had in class, etc.
In class, we worked with"Boy Breaking Glass" using these steps and then began looking for choice poems to work with. We also started our work with the poetry books.
4/2: HOMEWORK: Please mark up this poem using the same steps we used in class today.
In class: We looked at the art and the movenets from yesterday, making connections to the 1960s, the goals of the movements, etc. Then, we worked with these poems, using the method we are going to use all month: read out loud, look up words that you don't know (make sure to look at all the possibilities for definitions), return to the poem, read out loud again - what images stick out and why, talk through these with a partner, look for patterns in the poem: words that you could group together, sounds, rhyme and rhythm, repetitions, etc. THINK about how these ideas relate back to (and help you build on) the images. Look at verbs - any similarities in type? In kind? Return to the title and use it to help you reexamine some of the ideas you already have. Read out loud again - think about what you hear. Remember that poems work on the page and in the ear. Are there possible homonyms to play with? What about form? What do you notice about the lines, the rhymes, when form is consistent, when it is broken, etc.? Use all of this to try to get a sense of the speaker and especially the speaker's attitude to the subject matters of the poem (tone).
4/1: Go to the art page (or if the link doesn't work, go to drop down menu, above, and click on art page under 1960s page). Follow the instructions there.
3/29: HOMEWORK (FOR MONDAY): Watch and take notes on these three videos about the roots of different art movements in the 1960s: Pop Art, Black Arts (through the experiences of August Wilson), and Feminist Art (The Dinner Party).
Finishing the presentations.
3/28: HOMEWORK (FOR MONDAY): Watch and take notes on these three videos about the roots of different art movements in the 1960s: Pop Art, Black Arts (through the experiences of August Wilson), and Feminist Art (The Dinner Party). Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more). Presentation schedule is posted here.
Presentations in class.
3/27: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more). Presentation schedule is posted here.
In class: presentations
3/25: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more). Please watch and take notes about the documentary series Makers: Women Who Make America for Wednesday.
Presentations started today and will continue for much of the week.
3/22: HOMEWORK: Please watch and take notes about the documentary series Makers: Women Who Make America for Wednesday. Presentations start on Monday. Presentation schedule is posted here.
In class: we worked with the equity materials and tried to problem solve some solutions. At the end, we wrestled with these questions: 1) which solutions are the most feasible and why? 2) what obstacles do you see as most difficult to overcome and why? 3) is there any cost to doing nothing/letting things stay the same? 4)does it matter, if we decide as a society, that whole groups of people can fail?
3/21: HOMEWORK: Resource reflection + article and TED Talk (see below). Presentation schedule is posted here.
Choose what you want to work on in class today - all of these (except for the presentations) are due tomorrow.
1) After yesterday's discussion please read this article (Mrs. McTique has hard copies) and watch this Ted Talk: "How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty" Take notes as you watch and as you read. Then, thinking about our equity discussion, pull out three ideas that you want to wrestle with as a way to think about the equality/equity challenge.
2) Read, listen, watch and respond to one one of the resources. Please keep in mind: the assignment requires you to take notes (bulleted and at least 2/3rds of a page) AND respond in a reflection that is at least 2/3rds of a page long AND that is specific and clear and shows you wrestling with ideas. If it's too vague or if it centers around only the beginning of the resource, I will not give you full credit. It should be a reflection, not a report.
3) If you are taking this class for honors credit, begin work on your presentation. Please read the criteria for next week's presentations and email me if you have questions or days when you will not be available.
3/20: HOMEWORK: Another resource reflection is due by Friday. If you are taking this class for honors credit, please read the criteria for next week's presentations.
In class: We talked about King's speech, about what was effective, memorable and about how it continues to apply today. We began to think about questions like: What is the value of patience when rights are denied? What does it mean when we prize civility over someone's humanity? What would justice look like? We also talked about equity and equality.
3/19: HOMEWORK: Please read King's response to the editorial posted in the paper by white clergymen calling him an outsider and an agitator and asking him to wait and to be more patient. After you've read, on the back of the notecard: please respond to the speech (thinking about our discussion today, about the ideas presented in Morgan's speech, about our responsibility, etc.)Fill the back of the card.
In class: On the front of the notecard: make a list of 4 ideas that you found important when reading Morgan's speech. Also identify one idea that challenged you, that made you want to push back against it, etc. In small groups, use the notecards as a springboard for discussion - what did you notice and why did it matter? What made you uncomfortable or made you want to push back and why? What does this speech have to say to us today about our collective responsibility?
3/18: HOMEWORK: Please read and reflect on a speech delivered the day after these events as a way of thinking about our history, the power of words and ideas and what responsibilities we each have.
If you are taking this class for honors credit, please read the criteria for next week's presentations.
Class: In light of the terrorist attack in New Zealand, we looked at Birmingham in 1963 (start at 23:00 and watch until the end), the Children's March and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Thinking about how language can be used as a weapon to dehumanize, about our own history (our "inheritance, a gift and a burden" that we "carry... everywhere" - Jill Lepore) and our responsibility.
3/14:HOMEWORK: Please read and respond to Jill Lepore's book review about Rachel Carson's career. Another resource reflection is due by next Friday.
In class, we worked to make meaning of "Wants"and watched the beginning of PBS' Rachel Carson documentary.
3/13: HOMEWORK: Read and respond to Grace Paley's "Wants"
In class - we started to talk about feminism, connotation and denotation, about gender roles, about want ads and what they mean for us now. We discussed and critiqued the Gillette ad, Egad watch's response, the Nike ad and Barbarosa ad as a way to explore masculity, feminism and what makes this hard. We also looked at Kathryn Switzer and her historic marathon (watch the first 5:00 minutes).
3/12: HOMEWORK: Here's the grading criteria for the performances and the reflection information. Due Wed.
In class, poem performances, plus discussion about Snider, Friedan and want ads.
3/11: HOMEWORK: Performances tomorrow. Here's the grading criteria for the performances and the reflection information. Due Wed.
In class: practice for the last time
3/8: HOMEWORK: Please read and respond to Betty Friedan and Hermia Snider (readings are here).
In class, we came to some stunning insights about "Her Kind"and we looked at gender portrayals in some advertising during the 1950s.
art credit:
Petts, John. Window for Bombing Victims at 16th Street Baptist Church. 1963-1966, "Alabama
Church Bombing Victims Honoured by Welch Window," by, Neil Prior, BBC News, 10 Mar
2011, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-12692760