Red wall with graffiti in different colors, including black, red, and teal colored angular bubble letters that read "pixel"
“Immagine 380” by en- ri, mutant and proud via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0

Reading Plato & Working with Writing Strategies

Before class on Tuesday (aka homework)…

Write and publish before class starts:

  • Review the Unit 1 Major Writing Assignment. (Look under Major Assignments > Unit 1: Education Narrative) Then, think about the pieces by Douglass, Malcolm X, and Jiang. Although these pieces are very different, they are all education narratives. What do you think puts them into this category? In other words, what do they have in common? Share your thoughts on this in a Post (this is a low-stakes assignment–worth 30% of your overall grade).
    • Be sure to title the post correctly: Full Name, Education Narratives.
    • Save it under Unit 1 Work. Hit “Publish”!

During class on Tuesday, we will:

In small groups:

  • Read out loud “Allegory of the Cave” (Book VII) from The Republic, by Plato. (You don’t have to read it ahead of time, but if you want to, the section we’re reading starts on page 6!)

On your own:

  • Write a summary of Plato’s text. What’s going on here? Where are we? Who’s there? What do they look like? What’s happening? Share your summary in a Post (this is a low-stakes assignment–worth 30% of your overall grade).
    • Be sure to title the post correctly: Full Name, Summary of Allegory of the Cave.
    • Save it under Unit 1 Work.
    • Hit “Publish” by the next class!
  • Have you ever had an experience where you felt like you were in a “cave” or where you felt like you emerged from a “cave”? Freewrite about that experience. Include as many specific details as possible (think about your five senses when writing: recall what you saw, but also what you heard, smelled…). Hold on to this freewrite, as you may want to return to these ideas for your Unit 1 project.

Before class on Thursday, watch the following media:

During class on Thursday, we will…

Reread/Discuss/Write:

  • Read Plato’s â€śAllegory of the Cave” again. Look for moments where Plato emphasizes physical and concrete details the prisoners experience; for example, pay attention to anything they see, hear, and physically feel (along with what causes it). Find three of these details, and think about what they might symbolize. For each detail, write a few sentences explaining the point/s Plato makes through his imagery.
  • Discuss the following questions:
    • Why are we spending so much time talking about metaphors and symbolism when the writing assignment is about education narratives?
    • How can we use symbolism in our own writing about our experiences?
  • Freewriting
    1. Write about all of the times you can think of that changed how you approached the learning process or shifted how you felt about education
    2. Write about your chosen major or career goals and all the valuable moments that shaped your interest in your chosen field 
    3. Write about all of the moments when you “woke up” in some way and changed a central belief, value, or idea that your felt certain about for a long time
    4. Remember when we did the double-entry journal exercise last week? Go back to that exercise and write more about the experiences you mentioned in your double-entry journal for Jiang, Douglass, and/or Malcolm X. Include as many details as possible. 

Looking ahead to next week…