Author: Carrie Hall

Hey everyone! Fun times at the library, right?

So, for Thursday, please find at least 4 new sources for your Curiosity Reports (this means you’ll have 6 sources total by this point) — PRINT THEM OUT and bring them to class on Thursday. Remember that you’re looking for sources that help you answer your question–so you want a wide array of voices. Also remember you’ll need 4 different genres for your curiosity report!

Again, you’ll need them PRINTED OUT— not on your phone. Also remember that homework is half your grade in this class– if you’re not doing your homework, you’re (in the words of Beyonce) playing yourself.

Tomorrow morning (Weds) I’m meeting with Elayne at 11:15 and Amaya at 11:30 in my office– Namm 511. I will also meet with Denisse at 2:00. See you guys then!

 

YIKES! I thought I posted this after class– but I told you in class what the homework was. Which is this:

Find at least one more article that relates to your question for UNIT 2. And then fill out the SOAPSTONE worksheet (I handed them out in class, but there’s a copy below) about ONE of these articles.

SOAPSTONE revised

Hey everyone! Here’s your homework.

1. BEFORE Thursday’s class, I would like you to post the question you want to investigate for UNIT TWO (The Curiosity Report) on the OpenLab. This should not be a yes or no question, but something you can spend a few weeks really investigating. It must be a question– not just a topic. So, if you’re interested in the issue of domestic violence, you might want to know:  why do victims stay in abusive relationships? or:  how does someone become an abuser? or: what resources are available for people who try to leave?  You will also need a copy of this question in class. It can be written by hand or printed out. 

If you’re stuck, take a look at the unit (UNITS tab, at the top of this webpage,) or do ten more minutes of internet research to see what you find!

2. Find at least one source (article, video, blog, Wikipedia post, standup routine, Ted Talk– the possibilities are endless!) on your topic. Try to find something useful to answering your question. Again, if you’re investigating why victims stay in abusive relationships, you might look for a statistical study or you might look for a blog by a person who was in an abusive relationship.  I don’t know how to tell you word length here because we’re looking at so many genres, but don’t be skimpy. No 50 word articles or 30 second videos (unless it’s a SUPER powerful 30 seconds.)

 

 

Hey everyone! Your homework for the weekend is to read and annotate these excerpts from “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” HERE. I will collect the annotations. This is short, but it’s not easy to read, so leave yourself a little time. 

Please also fill out the SOAPSTONE worksheet I handed out in class (the one with the monsters. If you lost it, HERE is an extra copy. I’m gonna collect this too!

In case you are interested, here is some background on the speech from TIME magazine.

I have posted the upcoming essay assignment under UNITS (UNIT TWO.) There’s no assignment yet, but start thinking about what topics or questions you’d like to investigate. So far, some of the things we’ve discussed in class are: Police violence (educating cops/ educating citizens/ screening), climate change, domestic violence, immigration, equal pay for genders and races, Empowerment of women, Gandhi—history of nonviolent resistance, history of DR, history of Haitian revolutions, lasting effects of American Revolution (both nationally and internationally), student justice, education, funding for arts education, Family/ Heritage, Albanian tradition, free speech in 2019, The two-party political system, the mental health system, gun violence/ gun control and prison reform. 

Keep in mind, if you start with a topic (like domestic violence, let’s say), you’ll need to narrow it down to a question to investigate. For example: Why do women stay in situations in which they’re being abused, or: what are the laws in place regarding domestic abuse, or: what is the correlation between mass shooting and domestic abuse (that is, since domestic abusers are much more likely to commit mass killings, are there any laws in place to restrict their access to firearms? Why or why not?) We will work together in class to come up with a good question for investigation.

Hey everyone! For Thursday’s class, please:

1. Post your plan for rereading the Declaration on Open Lab
2. Reread the Declaration (using your plan!) Remember, you can focus on one particular section, or reread with one guiding question in mind (“What do they mean by ‘justice?'” “What do they mean by ‘Independence?'” “How far are they willing to go for freedom?” “Why might some states have been reluctant to sign?”)
3. On Open Lab write a response of at least 250 words in which you explain what you learned from rereading. If you like, you can also write what you’re still confused about. You may combine your plan for rereading in the same post (the plan for rereading doesn’t count toward the word count, but it doesn’t need to be a separate post.)

Hey everyone– hope you had a good 3-day weekend– our last weird weekend for a while. We DO meet this Tuesday!  And the homework for class is to read, annotate and write a difficulty paper (at least 250 words) on the First Draft of the Declaration of Independence HERE . Remember to read the crossed out parts, which are the parts that got deleted in the final draft. The final draft of the Declaration is HERE for your reference. I did hand these out in class, as you’ll recall. POST YOUR DIFFICULTY PAPER ON THE OPEN LAB BEFORE CLASS.

This is an important assignment– you’re not going to have to write a big long paper on the Declaration for Unit 2  (unless you want to) but you won’t be able to do your next paper if you start getting behind now! This is a very important step in Unit 2.

Also, remember what we read  about difficulty: “When we ask you to identify your reading difficulties, we are actually asking you to take notice of what you believe is hard to understand in a text.It might be hard to understand for different reasons– because it is perplexing, obscure, mysterious, remote, strange, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, disconnected, meaningless, confusing, ridiculous, contradictory, hypocritical, inconsistent. In other words, we urge you to take notice of whatever slows down or brings to a halt the physical activity of reading, leaving you mystified, wondering why, what how” (Salvatori and Donahue 2). I will also add, the difficulty paper should be much more YOUR words than those of the Founding Fathers!! 

 

(Below are some alternate cover possibilities to our revised book. We’ll talk about these in class)