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

Week 3: Reading Plato and Working with Writing Strategies

For Monday:

Texts:

Writing:

  • 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?
  • Draw a picture (sketching is fine!) of a moment in the text. Don’t worry if you “can’t draw”– just sketch out what you see in your mind’s eye as you read. If you can, post a picture of your sketch.
  • 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 first project.
  • When you are done, please upload all of your writing in your google drive folder.

For Wednesday:

Texts:

Writing:

  • Read Plato’s “Allegory 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.
  • Freewriting (5 minutes each)
    • 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
    • Write about your chosen major or career goals and all the valuable moments that shaped your interest in your chosen field 
    • 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
    • Choose your favorite brainstorming strategy and write for 5 minutes about the experiences you mentioned in your double entry journal for Douglass and/or Malcolm X. Include as many details as possible. 
  • When you are done, please upload all of your writing in your google folder.