English 9
Freshmens, we completed our discussion of “Checkouts” by reviewing characterization, plot, and setting in the story. I assigned you After Reading Questions which you had the period to work on.
Quickly, in seventh period, Dustin astutely pointed out that the title of Rylant’s story has an ironic meaning: Checkouts, he suggested, could refer to checkout lines at the grocery store, where the Girl likes to spend her time, and it could refer to the Girl and Boy “checking out” each other. Good observation, Dustin.
We’ll begin our next story (our final text for the quarter) when we meet again.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we processed “The Equity of Inequality” and I conferred with students over their revisions. Students synthesized their reading of Will with other texts including the Declaration of Independence and “What Is an American?”, and some students were able to apply these ideas to their revisions.
Class attitudes toward about equal opportunity were mixed. I asked: Do all Americans enjoy equal opportunities? In fourth period, most students, not all, answered in the affirmative; the opposite was the case in fifth period; and third period was too ambiguous to assess clearly. I also asked if we needed for some in society to fail so that others might succeed, if we needed “losers” so that we could also have “winners”, if we needed winners at all, and what it meant to win.
The ultimate question implied in the text and our discussion, though, was “Are we free, that is, do we act volitionally or consciously in the world and are thus responsible for our own successes and failures, or are we determined, that is, are our actions merely the result of prior causes over which we finally have no control?”
We talked about recession and the distribution of wealth of wealth in America, hot topics this election cycle, and I encouraged you to investigate recent census data concerning them. I did some of my own searching; you should read the following to help you understand these issues and their implications:
- “Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap”
- “Census finds record gap between rich and poor”
- “Income Gap Widens in America”
I also mentioned a couple of audio texts from the Planet Money Blog at NPR that highlighted two ideologies getting a lot of attention from media: Socialism and Libertarianism. I really encourage you to engage these two pieces, which may help clarify what it really means to be an adherent of each of these economic and political worldviews:
- “Is The U.S. Moving Toward Socialism? A Socialist Weighs In”
- “‘What We Can Smoke And Who We Can Marry’: Libertarianism Explained”
Libertarianism is often associated, perhaps unjustly, with the so-called Tea Party movement, but the latter label, as the name for a political movement, defies easy definition. You might listen to this interview with Kate Zernike, who recently published a book on the subject: “‘Boiling Mad’: A Tea Party Origin Story”.
It’s really important that you become familiar with the current political and economic zeitgeist kids if you hope to be informed when you officially become part of this democratic experiment. Whatever your ideological leanings, please take time to read and listen.
See you next time.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we did a little housekeeping today. I asked you to collect your work and instructed you in how to organize it in your folders. Some you discovered that you were missing a lot of paperwork (which should explain some of your grades), and I hope it serves as a motivation to stay on top of your assignments. Remember, you’re responsible taking care of work when it’s assigned and for finding out what you missed when you’re absent.
We’ll complete our work over “Checkouts” next class.
See you then.
APELC Class Notes
Today, APELCers, I summarized and reviewed key concepts and vocabulary I’ve presented to you since the beginning of the school year, and I conferred with students over their free-response revisions.
I’ve mentioned Lady Gaga’s speaking out against our military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and I’ve been meaning to post a link, so here it is: “Recording artist Lady Gaga speaks at rally “.
Also, I mentioned the following video in class last week of Sarah Palin fans being interviewed while waiting in line to meet and have the former Alaska Governor and Vice-Presidential candidate sign copies of her book. The audio on my workstation has been giving me trouble, so I wanted to post the clip here:
I don’t post this as an expression of my own political values or to be critical of Sarah Palin. Rather it’s an object lesson of the dangers of uninformed, uncritical thinking, the type of which we’ve been discussing in relation to your most recent free-response essay. Keep in mind the design considerations of the editors (decidedly left of center) who put this text together: It’s likely that those who were able to answer the interviewer’s questions intelligently were cut from the final piece. And understand that this type of poor, unwarranted evaluation exists on both sides of the political divide.
See you next class.
English 9 Class Notes
We read and listened to the audio of “Checkouts” by Cynthia Rylant yesterday and today. You answered During Reading questions while we did and we discussed your responses. I set you in pairs to complete the Vocabulary Study, and each pair had a chance to share at least one of their creations. You finished the hour with quiz over the new additions to your personal lexis.
I’ll have updated grades for you on Monday, kids, and you’ll tackle the After Reading questions for the story.
Have a good weekend, children.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we processed, quite capably, I think, the Declaration of Independence. I believe our effort on the document continued to reveal the possibilities of the alternate relationship among logos, ethos, and pathos I’ve argued since re-introducing you to the terms. Because of the time I deemed important to dedicate to working with the document (still far too little in my estimation), some revision conferences had to be pushed to next week, and I’ll confer with those students affected on Monday.
Very importantly, while I conferred with writers in the second hour of each period, other students began their first official note review over our work with the charter document. The process will seem tedious at first, but it’s a vital class component, and should help students practice developing ideas and theses, and synthesizing texts with others throughout the year. In this way critical thinking will become recursive, and class content, holistic. The note review should be completed for Monday, when I’ll collect the notes and review from one class. Also check your class page for two reading and question and answer assignments for Monday, that will themselves serve as the seed for a new note-set and review.
As we finished our definitions of fundamental class concepts this week, that last being ideas about language: what language is, our assumptions regarding grammar, syntax and attendant issue, et cetera, Emma, Derussa, and I shared some some informal discussion about animal “language” during lunch on Wednesday. Emma mentioned a TIME article she’d recently come across, “Inside the Minds of Animals”; the New York Times ran an interesting article about language in particular in 1995, “Chimp Talk Debate: Is It Really Language?. I argued that while animals do demonstrate communicative ability, they don’t possess language, as such, and I’d encourage curious students interested in this topic to read over the “Animal language” entry at Wikipedia.
Relatedly, I also argued the limits and criticisms of “Evolutionary Psychology” and its criticisms. You might read these articles, too: “Why Do We Rape, Kill and Sleep Around?” from Newsweek, and “A brainwave for catching a criminal?” from The Guardian.
Finally, you might examine this book review by linguist John McWhorter (several of whose books you’ll on my shelves): “Don’t Believe the Hype About Aborigines, Yiddish, or Ebonics”.
Have a fine weekend, kids.
English 9 Class Notes
Today and yesterday, freshmens, I handed out grades and discussed your progress so far. We talked about class expectations and the challenges you’ll continue to face as the year progresses. You also determined that what worked for you in middle school English isn’t going to work for you in my class, and that if you’re going to succeed in T-12, many of you will have to change your approach to the tasks I assign you. I believe you’re all capable of meeting the standards I’ve set; it may take some effort, but if I expected less of you, that’d mean I don’t respect your abilities to read, think, and write. So, in an unprecedented offer, I allowed you to do the following:
- Turn-in “The Most Dangerous Game” graphic organizer (that for some reason I failed to collect); and
- Redo either your “Rules of the Game” or “The Most Dangerous Game” question and answer assignment,; and
- Review your answers to “The Cask of Amontillado” and redo them if you feel it warranted; and
- Make up quizzes missed for excused absences (even if you’ve failed to so in the allotted make-up time).
I also revised the rubric slightly by decreasing the word count for each sentence required for a well-formed answer to an analytical, synthetic, and evaluative question over our readings:
- Four (4) points for a conscious answer with a credible and meaningful point sentence of at least 15 words, an illustration sentence of at least 20 words that supports the point sentence with focused and detailed evidence, and a thorough and insightful explanation sentence of at least 20 words that connects the illustration to or extends the point; the answer contains no serious or obvious conventions errors.
- Three (3) points for a passable answer with a requisite point sentence of at least 15 words, an illustration sentence of at least 20 words that supports the point sentence with general evidence, and a standard explanation sentence of at least 20 words that connects the illustration to or extends the point; the answer contains few serious or obvious conventions errors.
- Two (2) points for an answer with a questionable point sentence, an illustration sentence that supports the point sentence with incomplete evidence, and an explanation sentence that does little to connect the illustration to or extend the point, or is merely the point or illustration reworded; the answer contains serious, obvious conventions errors.
- One (1) point for a spare answer with less than the required number of sentences or words in sentences, or little evidence of thought or effort, with serious, obvious conventions errors.
You had the period to complete these tasks, during which I conferred with students individually over their work.
Remember, I’m not out to sink anybody. Rather, it’s my role to help you develop your critical reading, thinking, and writing skills, and so I made the offer I did to second and seventh periods. The opportunity, however, won’t come again. What we did yesterday and today was a one-time deal. I hope that you’ll begin to approach your work with new purpose from now on.
See you next time, kids.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, while I conferred with some students yesterday and today others processed the Declaration of Independence. We finished (for now) definitions of fundamental language concepts (far later than we should have), and on Monday I’ll summarize all of the key concepts I’ve offered you since the beginning of the year that’ll continue to inform our inquiry.
My enumeration and our discussion of the fundamentals of language reminded me of a recent story from Manhattan about a mild professor of literature and her showdown with corporate fascists: “Grammar stickler: Starbucks booted me”; news of this brave woman’s struggle even went global. Of course, this story highlights the problems of the popular assumptions most people have about language, and really delineates the matters of taste of the presumed preachers of high culture and the objective understanding of those who actually study language as it is spoke. See commentary at the Language Log’s: “Gricean bagel rage”; and more apt analysis at The Economist: “Does “a bagel” imply no butter?”.
We’ll get to the heart of the Declaration of Independence next class.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, today you completed our study of “The Cask of Amontillado” with a brief quiz, and then we immediately launched into a new story, “Checkouts”, by Cynthia Rylant. You completed Before Reading notes (at least, most of you did), and we discussed characterization with the little time we had left. You’ll develop your understanding more as we proceed with the story.
See you next class.
APELC Class Notes
Today, APELCers, we reviewed your recent timed essays to the second free-response prompt. Student work suffered, I observed, for various reasons, among them a misreading of the prompt, a reliance on tired “Everybody wins!” assessment of reality, a dearth of engagement with the political and historical zeitgeist of our times, and a confidence in too-established assumptions. That’s a very rough distillation of what I saw in students’ papers and what we discussed together.
Coincidentally, a favorite example that appeared in students’ work has an opinion that’s getting some media attention: “Lady Gaga to lead rally against military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’”.
Check your class page for your reading homework, and prepare for your conferences. I’ll give you the last dedicated lecture material on language (although we will be reading more about various linguistic topics as we proceed), and we’ll finally get to the Daniels and Algeo articles I asked you to attend some time ago.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, yesterday in second and today in seventh I quizzed you over vocabulary associated with “The Cask of Amontillado”, and we reviewed various concepts you’ve learned since the beginning of the school year―character and characterization, plot structure, irony, setting, and bit of mood―as they apply to the story. Finally, I set you to answering After Reading questions for the piece which you worked on the remainder of the period. Some were allowed to take books from the class-set home to complete the work.
For the last few years, I’ve posted a creative interpretation of another interpretation of “The Cask Amontillado” set to the music of the Alan Parsons Project, a 1970s prog rock band that created highly stylized concept albums, kind of like Pink Floyd. And here’s that interpretation: A video fan-production created for but independent of the Project’s song (which appeared on their album Tales of Mystery and Imagination). Dig the lyrics (right click and open them in a new window or tab) so you can follow along as you watch the video.
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday, kids
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we concluded our discussion of the Bush text, and from your own identification of logoi and analyzed their relationship to ethoi and pathoi. After that activity, things got contentious with my enumeration various understandings of grammar from the oft-referenced “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar” by Patrick Hartwell, published in College English in 1984. If you’re curious about Hartwell’s credentials, try this this memorium from a page dedicated to his memory.
The issue of grammar is one of my favorites to discuss with students, because the actualities of language challenge and force reconsideration of long-cherished beliefs. (See my notes on National Grammar Day from 2008). Such discussion usually courts controversy (“DEA wants to hire Ebonics translators”), which is generally productive―recall Ellie’s assertion in fourth period the other day that offense, or at least conflict, breeds progress.
If you’re brave enough, and you still don’t believe me (and thousands of linguists, anthropologists, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and neuroscientists and their research) about the nature of grammar, you might read this fairly short and simple student paper about grammar, and pedagogy in particular, from the online publication Intertext at Syracuse: “The Systematic Teaching of Grammar:A Critique”. And if you really want to see a grammar (a description) of a language, or a language variety, challenge yourself with the grammar (grammar 1 from the list) of Black English Vernacular.
Oh, we had a timed-writing today, too.
We’ll discuss grammar more on Monday, and we’ll also try to determine what a democratic value is.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, you worked on your Chain of Events chart for and completed the vocabulary activity associated with our recent short story. I became frustrated with some students’ attempt at the vocabulary: Although the instructions are quite clear, several students claimed not to understand them. I challenged this by polling students, asking who had things such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages, who could post updates from their phones, who had downloaded music, who could program a TiVo, et cetera. Most students raised their hand to at least two or more of these, and I argued if these technological were possible for students to learn, than directions for completing the vocabulary task was eminently doable.
I believe the trouble was that the instructions weren’t necessarily intuitive, like many of the technologies students encounter on a daily basis; rather, they were plain old text in a plain old textbook, not individually tailored according to taste and preference, like media is today. The instructions required students to move beyond their own expectations of what engaging text is today and patiently concentrate. We’ll continue to work on this as the year progresses.
See you next time, kids.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we finished examining the Bush text. I pointed out a few more logoi for you, but then broke you into groups so you could properly process the text on your own: You were to frame, proof, and evaluate it according to the (updated) How to Process a Text handout on your class page. Next class, a representative will present some his or her group’s findings for the class. Keep in mind that the identification of various logoi is not an end in itself, nor is inferring the ethoi or pathoi they effect. Rather, it’s to identify big ideas and decide how the former three inform the speaker’s text and motivate audiences to physical, measurable action.
As an addendum, during its discussion, one group mentioned the recent proposed (and canceled) Koran burning, a natural topic relevant to the text we’ve been looking at and the events of the day. I informally polled each class about the limits of its speech-tolerance, but the results were vague. Was this a free-speech issue? An issue of taste? Of offense?
I thought of this famous quotation from Evenly Beatrice Hall, which often enjoys use when first amendment disputes arise, to think about: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Would you defend, to the death, the right to burn the Muslim text? Here’re two opinions to consider:
- “If Terry Jones burns the Koran, he’ll also set fire to America’s identity”
- “Pastor Terry Jones, as right as John Brown”
I also asked if deleting a Koran existing on my hard drive, say as a .pdf or even .mp3 audio version, would be the same as burning an actual bound copy. The former are physical things. What do you think? How do you apply your reasoning to other religious texts? To any other books?
This also engendered the (essential, existential) questions: “What is a ‘thing’? What makes a thing what it is?” What’s the difference, for example, between a book and the ideas it contains or the ideas that inform it? If I burn a book, do I destroy its ideas? And further, what’s an idea? Can one destroy an idea?
See what you can come up with for next class.
English 9 Class Notes
We completed to Poe story today, freshmens, and you had time to work on your Chain of Events graphic organizer. We’ll get to some after-reading work next class.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, today we met in the liberry to polish your first free-response revisions for submission. That’s it. We’ll complete the Bush text next class.
September 11
APELCers, while we processed the text of President Bush’s September 20 address on Thursday and Friday, I alluded to conspiracy theories that were engendered by the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon nine years ago on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Personally I don’t believe them: The ostensible facts upon which the theories are built have been addressed and refuted by experts in many fields. Still, it’s worth taking time examine the claims, evidence, and warrants of both the conspiracy theorists and their critics. It may be helpful in revealing the motivations and fears of the former and in highlighting the goals and methods of achieving objective understanding by the latter.
You’ll find a detailed list of 9/11 conspiracy theories at Wikipedia. As with any reading of this reference material, it’s important to follow links to external sources for clarification; Wikipedia’s a great site to begin research, but should never be an end. Snopes, one of my favorite sites on the web, also has an index of rumors which enumerates some of the very bizarre ideas regarding the events of that Tuesday morning.
Popular Mechanics famously countered many of the structural and engineering myths surrounding the day in its pages, and the magazine has compiled its research online at: Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report. The History Channel produced a documentary from Popular Mechanics’ research titled The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction which is a good summary.
Tonight at 9:00, History is airing 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary put together from private video from witnesses on the ground that day in New York. It’s really an incredible, terrifying, and moving narrative, that I recommend viewing with family if you’re home.
We’ll talk soon.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we met in the liberry today for MAP testing. Some took longer than others, but those who finished early were able to check out new independent reading books. You finished the period reading your self-selected texts; we’ll continue reading “The Cask of Amontillado” Monday.
Have a fine weekend.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, for the first several minutes of class yesterday and today we talked over some last minute considerations for your revisions and cover sheets. Then I asked you to review the initial comments on How to Take and Review Notes before we began processing the speech by our former president.
As we read, watched, and listened to the text of President Bush’s speech, I pointed out as many logoi as I could (and and they weren’t only schemes and tropes) and I prompted you to consider how these choices effected or created ethoi (common ground and common values) and what pathetic effects were achieved. You began to see this alternate relationship I described among logos, ethos, and pathos, how the first is foundational in rhetorical text and how the three can’t really be separated. You also saw how many logoi can be operative in one utterance or series of utterances, how they pile on top of and work together to maximum in well-crafted text.
We’ll complete this next Tuesday and Wednesday; remember that on Monday, you’re to meet me in liberry computer lab 1 for final questions, clarifications, and peer-edit of your free-response revision and cover sheet. Review the links I left on Wednesday’s notes regarding embedding quotations and using ellipses.
A last word: Do not put off revision and cover sheet work until Sunday afternoon or evening; rather, honor the hard work and thought you’ve put into your papers so far.
See you Monday.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we began reading the very challenging “The Cask of Amontillado” yesterday and today. The story engendered more than just a discussion of revenge and justice. We discussed, for example, the Latin root carn, which means “flesh” and carnivals are times when attendants indulge their fleshly or material desires as in the case of convivial drunk, Fortunato. I connected such indulgence to modern day fairs, where people often indulge in the most grotesque but still delicious foods, my favorite being things deep-fried. I’m still waiting for deep-fried bacon to make an appearance at our own county fair.
Since the story is one of death during fun and celebration, the subject of violent incidents at Disney parks also came up. (Who stands up on a roller coaster?) And we touched on heraldry and Freemasonry as they figure in the story as important ironies.
Remember that we’ll meet in the liberry next class.
See you then.