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 clas: we discussed Lepore's ideas and Baldwin's.
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."
4/25: 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. I collected the takeaways from the film.
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 watched I Am Not Your Negro.
4/23: HOMEWORK: Work on the poetry assesssments (due by Thursday). 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.
4/22: 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.
* 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: We did a lot of work getting ready to leave on break. Look here for information and for work you need to do.
In class field trip - May 2. Jill Lepore is coming to speak. You'll be dismissed from E block at 4th lunch and from F block on that day. More information after break.
4/11: Working in small groups with the resources and the second poem. Then students began drafting their notes.
4/9: HOMEWORK: If you have not marked up two of your poems, do that. Also, please read and/or listen to one more of the resources (see below). On the back of the notecard: list the title of the resource AND the 4-6 most interesting takeaways from that resource.
In class, we worked through a second poem, then paired up to share what we took away from the resources. On the front of the notecard: Either make connections between the resource(s) and your poem(s) - play these out to come to new insights/new understandings about the poems and/or wrestle with questions, line(s) from the poem(s) that still confuse you, etc. in an effort to come to a better understanding. Fill the front of the card.
4/8: HOMEWORK: Complete ONE resource and make sure you have one poem marked up.
Working with the poems today.
One of the ways into a poem is through context (historical, 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 and one tomorrow.
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.
There are also handouts in class of a speech by Shirley Chisholm, letters to Ms. Magazine and Jill Lepore's profile of Rachel Carson.
4/8: HOMEWORK: Your proposals are due on Tuesday.
Working with the poems today.
One of the ways into a poem is through context (historical, 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 and one tomorrow.
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.
There are also handouts in class of a speech by Shirley Chisholm, letters to Ms. Magazine and Jill Lepore's profile of Rachel Carson.
4/5: HOMEWORK: Finish your draft analysis of one of the poems we've been working with for Monday. Please also work on your proposals for Tuesday.
We began to look for poems and also started work on either analysis draft or proposals.
4/4: HOMEWORK: Draft an analysis of one of the poems we've been working with. Please also work on your proposals for Tuesday.
In class: we worked worked through some of the questions we had with "Boy Breaking Glass" and started looking at poetry books.
4/3: In class, we contnued to work through the two poems and started on this poem using the same steps we used in class today.
4/2: HOMEWORK: On the back of the notecard, copy down at least one of the lines you did not understand from the poem you worked with today and explore the line. Go word by word, think about connotations, think about sound, think about connections (either to other places in the poem or to life or other ideas, etc.), think about the title, etc. If you run out of ways to break into that line, choose another. Fill the back of the card.
In class, 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).
On the front of the notecard: make a list of the 4 best ideas you came up with today about the poem. Copy down three lines that still confuse you.
3/29: HOMEWORK: If you gave a presentations, you can revisit the tips I have been posting all week and evaluate your own presentation in terms of these tips. Tell me how you would revise the presentation and why (based on the tips, on seeing and hearing others and on how you think it went). Share these with me via email (cathy_nicastro@wrsd.net) by Saturday night, and I will use it as part of your grade.
In class: finish presentations.
3/28: HOMEWORK: If you gave a presentation this week, you can revisit the tips I have been posting all week and evaluate your own presentation in terms of these tips. Tell me how you would revise the presentation and why (based on the tips, on seeing and hearing others and on how you think it went). Share these with me via email (cathy_nicastro@wrsd.net) by Saturday night, and I will use it as part of your grade.
Presentations in class.
3/27: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more).
In class: presentations.
3/26: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more)
3/25: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more)
In class, we worked to synthesize all of the information about the schools and equity and tried to think through some plans.
3/22: HOMEWORK: Please complete whichever of the following your did not do yet: this article (Mrs. McTigue has hard copies) or watch this Ted Talk: "How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty" Take notes as you watch or 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. Presentations are Tuesday.
In class: we talked through what was challenging in King's "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" + the equity resources and talked about what equity might look like, what the challenges are, etc. We also talked about this visual.
3/21: Choose what you want to work on in class today - all of these (except for the presentations) are due tomorrow. All honors presentations will happen on Tuesday.
In class today, you can choose to work on any of the following. ALL are due on Friday (except for the H presentations which are due next week. I'll post a schedule by Friday).
1) 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 (the one we used with Morgan's speech): please respond to the speech (thinking about our discussion yesterday, about the ideas presented in Morgan's speech, about our responsibility, etc.)Fill the back of the card.
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) After yesterday's discussion either read this article (Mrs. McTigue has hard copies) or watch this Ted Talk: "How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty" Take notes as you watch or 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.
4)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: 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 and come to class with questions.
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.
3/15: HOMEWORK: Finish the reflection from today's episode of Makers. Another resource reflection is due by next Friday.
In class, we watched and responded to the the first part of an episode of Makers.
3/14: HOMEWORK: Another resource reflection is due by next Friday..
We discussed "Wants" and revisited yesterday's discussion about the Gillette ad and the counterad from Egard watch.
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 and we 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 performnaces and the reflection information. Due Wed.
In class: practice for the last time and some discussion about Friedan and Snider.
3/7: 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" by Anne Sexton and worked on BEAT performances.
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