Quarter One
Course Overview and Expectations
Week of 9/10 - 9/14
Week of 9/4 - 9/7
Tuesday: In Class rhetorical analysis essay "between the world and me"
Block day: Diction in "Between the World and Me" - Quiz on words block day next week
Friday: Watch "The Danger of a Single Story"
HW - respond to "Danger of a Single Story" TED Talk (Turnitin.com)
Read ch 1-4 of Color of Water, pull 2 quotes and respond (Turnitin.com)
Week of 8/28 - 8/31
Monday: Get to know each other, team building (Between the World and Me assignment due)
Tuesday: Overview of the course and introduction to rhetoric (Letter to Mrs Miskinis Due). Set up Turnitin.com accounts
Wednesday: SOAPSTONE - SOAPSTONE Between the World and Me in tables (Written due by midnight Wednesday - Shared Google Doc. Present on Thursday
Thursday - Between the World and Me SOAPSTONE presentations and SOAPSTONE as the cornerstone of analysis. (Relationship to Reading and Writing Due by Midnight in Turnitin.com)
Over the long weekend review Between the World and Me and Baldwin - In class rhetorical analysis essay in class Tuesday. (You can use notes and quote log but not the book.)
Assignments:
Between the World and Me/ James Baldwin comparison notes/responses (Due 8/27)
Letter to Mrs Miskinis (To be handed in - typed or handwritten) (Due 8/28)
In response to my letter of introduction to you, write a letter to me (informal is fine). Tell me a bit about yourself, what you do in your spare time, what you feel strongly about...really anything about you. This is also a good place to tell me about any challenges you face or anything that could help me as we work together this year.
Your relationship with reading/writing - Turnitin.com ASSIGNMENT SECTION (Due 8/30)
In two or more paragraphs (longer is fine) write about both your relationship to reading and your relationship to writing. Think back to yourself as a child - did you devour books? Did you struggle as a reader? What about now? How has your relationship to reading changed?
Think about yourself as a writer. Do you enjoy writing poems, songs, stories? Do you only write when it's assigned? Do you feel the same way about writing now that your older that you used to? If not, what changed?
What are your goals for yourself this year as a reader? As a writer? What do you hope to gain from this year in both of those areas?
Table Assignments - SOAPSTONE Between the World and Me
Useful Sites and Links:
Links to Readings & Assignments
An Introduction to Rhetoric: (From Language of Composition Ch 1)
http://www.cnusd.k12.ca.us/cms/lib/CA01001152/Centricity/Domain/3096/SKMBT_60112052214040.pdf
Youtube.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OIEFo2axGE&list=PL07FB5798655A15F6
Week of 9/4 - 9/7
Tuesday - Discuss Rhetorical Analysis - Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and other rhetorical strategies used in Between The World and Me (Remember....with rhetorical analysis nobody cares how you feel or what you think. It's straight analysis. We'll get to arguments later)
Wednesday - In Class Essay - Rhetorical Analysis Essay Between the World and Me
Assignments -
Read/Watch one of the following links and write a thorough response in which you identify the central claim being made and the strategies used by the speaker/writer to support that claim. (This can be done Cornell Style using the Cornell Notes handouts but the final copy needs to be turned in on line. Due Wednesday 11:59pm
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(Everything under this line is in draft form.....Ignore it....)
Assignments:
Choose a "War Free Read" book and begin reading
If I Die in a Combat Zone - First reading assignment due Monday 9/18
Language of Composition response Due Thursday 11:59pm in Turnitin.com
Freedom Vs Safety Argument Due Sunday 11:59pm Turnitin.com
Argument Essay :
American essayist and social critic H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) wrote, “The average man does not want to be free.He simply wants to be safe.” In a well-written essay, examine the extent to which Mencken’s observation applies to contemporary society, supporting your position with appropriate evidence.
Language of Composition pg 751 -
Craft your responses to the following questions as well thought out paragraphs. Your final product should be around 3 pages long (maybe more) and it should weave information from the article together with your own thoughts and opinions. Try to avoid personal pronouns ("I think" "In my opinion") while still giving us your own voice and thoughts.
Does Hollywood have an obligation to help with "the war effort" as this article implies? What is our collective responsibility in response to large-scale national tragedy according to the writer? According to you?
"We may be surprised at how capable American popular culture is of dissolving even the most horrible of historical events". According to the author, in what ways did we see this take place post 9/11? (Be specific). In your opinion, is the reality that pop culture dissolves tragedy positive or negative?
Week of 9/11
Monday: 7 Days in September
Homework: Response to 7 Days in September
Tuesday: Discussion of 9/11 and Pop Culture assignment - start War
Bush's Bullhorn Speech vs. Mission Accomplished - Visual Rhetoric
Homework: Cut and paste the document below into a Google Doc, hyperlink and SOAPSTone for Block Day
DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)
Wilfred Owen
Thought to have been written between 8 October 1917 and March, 1918