4/30: 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 began watching I Am Not Your Negro.
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: At least one resource is due on Monday. Please see "Cont Final Project" page for more information.
In class: we read and wrote about J. Lepore's "Introduction."
4/25: HOMEWORK: ork on the poetry assessments (due by Friday). Please also read the handout for the final project assignment (resource due by Monday). Come to class with questions.
4/23: HOMEWORK: Work on the poetry assessments (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.
4/22: We worked on poetry final projects. Due by Friday.
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: HOMEWORK: Come to class tomorrow with the notecard completed and the third poem marked up.
4/10: HOMEWORK: Please have a 2nd poem marked up and choose one of the resources (see website) to read and/or listen to. Take notes and/or mark up the text. When you are finished, on the front of the notecard: make a list of the 4-6 most interesting ideas from your reading /podcast.
Working with the poems today - in small groups first (soliciting ideas about images that are compelling and about form), then either marking up a second poem OR working with one of the resources (both are due at the beginning of class on Thursday).
Resources: 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.
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 and Jill Lepore's profile of Rachel Carson.
4/9:HOMEWORK: Mark up and make notes on the poem you started with in class today. See this for more.
Working with the poems today.
4/5: HOMEWORK: Work on your proposals for Tuesday.
In class, we worked with the Golden Shovel poems, then looked for and typed out some poems to work with next week.
4/4: HOMEWORK: Either Draft an analysis of one of the poems we've been working with OR draft a Golden Shovel poem of your own. Please also work on your proposals for Tuesday.
In class: we worked again with "Boy Breaking Glass" and "the mother." We also looked at "We Real Cool" and "The Second Going" by Philip Levine ( A Golden Shovel poem).
4/3: HOMEWORK: On the front of the notecard: wrestle with the line you pulled from "the mother." Look at word choice, at the imagery, sound, etc. in the line. Make connections to the world, to prior knowledge, to the poem itself, etc. Fill the front of the card. On the back, either pull a line from "Boy Breaking Glass" and repeat the same process, OR make lists of patterns that you see in that poem (at least three categories and as many words as you can find).
In class, we worked with "the mother" and "Boy Breaking Glass" using these steps.
4/2: We talked through the different art movements and their connections to the 1960s and beyond.
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.
3/27: 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.
3/26: HOMEWORK: Presentations this week. Here are tips, based on today's presentations (keep checking - I'll add more).
In class: presentations.
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 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