APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we tackled the Alexie text, an important and well-crafted piece of work. Among other things, I challenged fourth period to tell me why we assume those who consume drugs are “on the wrong path”, why we assume they must be seeking refuge from reality: Mightn’t people exist who lead fine, happy lives who just like to get high?
I asked all classes about the significance of hair in various cultures, too, and we discussed how hair style affects and even effects identity. I was reminded of the Post Secret slide from Wednesday’s presentation that said “I change my hair because I can’t change my self”. Since I’m writing about hair, here’s the trailer for the movie I recommended by Chris Rock, Good Hair:
Our discussion also made me think of the film Thunderheart, starring Val Kilmer. I recommend it, as well:
In the second half of the hour, we began to go over the rough details of the narrative argument you’ll write for the end of the semester, and we engaged in a limited free-writing exercise that was fruitful and fun. In the history of APELC, most students have enjoyed this activity, and I’ve used it variously in my classes. The exercise has a way opening kids’ minds and hearts in very powerful ways, sometimes to humorous ends and other times to more poignant ends. So, I want to thank Kristen in fourth, Jordyn in third, and Emery, Kate, Monique, and Zach in fifth, in particular, for unselfishly sharing their stories, the results of their free-write, with us these last two days. And, I’m ashamed I failed to do this in the last post, I also want to thank Stephanie and Maddie in third for sharing as they did in class after the presentation on Wednesday.
Please use the ideas you generated in class, or another if you like, to begin growing an story and argument for the text you’ll write. Further, attend the homework detailed on your class page. Remember that from now on, if you’ve not read assigned texts or answered assigned questions related to the texts, you’ll not be permitted to participate in discussion.
Have a great weekend.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we practiced identifying and correcting errors in conventions of written English today and yesterday, and we finished the video that’s been supplementing our reading of Of Mice and Men. We also completed our study of the third chapter of the novella, and we saw Lennie’s strength. As Matt said in first, “He’s a beast”.
You have no homework; we’ll be finishing the novella quickly after the weekend. Finally, after some searching online, I found these clips from the 1992 film adaption of the book at MovieClips.com. The first is from the beginning of the story, the second and third from chapter 3, including Lennie’s confrontation with Curley. How well do they match the images you have in your minds of the characters and action in the novella?
I’ll see on Monday, kids.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we talked over the Tan text, and we touched on issues of ontology, identity, self-esteem, beauty, body image, and ideal forms.
The discussions in each period were interesting and informative. I asked at what point we stop “being ourselves” and change to find group acceptance. We talked a lot about media messages, especially those directed toward adolescent girls. In third period, David wondered if it was really a problem to appreciate “Ideal” forms when I asked why we continue to consume media that presents mixed messages and if we’d consume the same media if they reflected, in this case, actual body types we encounter in the population that don’t match the ideal. Then in fourth, if I recall accurately, it was Selina (correct me if I’m wrong) that noted that the “ideal” changes over time.
Here’re two items relevant to our discussion that you might find worth your time, unfortunately the second is only an excerpt:
Finally, in fourth period I mentioned a new song from Sesame Street that’s making an impression, and which my daughter loves:
Here’s the story behind the song at ABC news, and commentary from The Root.
I’ll see you in the liberry on Monday, kids.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, we completed, as much as we could, our discussion of Gelsey and Dinh, and I was a little unnerved by many students’ indifference (?) toward privacy or at least their fourth amendment rights. It was intriguing. Coincidentally, and relevant to our discussion, I found this today at Newsweek: “What the Internet Knows About You”. And I’d be curious to hear your reaction to the following video from LAPD’s iWatch LA program:
It’s curious that this particular video is no longer on the website.
We talked a little your attitudes toward politics and the federal government, and many of you mentioned that issues of trust and corruption were important in assessing your feelings. For kicks, I recommended you look up the following politicians known for their recent scandals, all having to do with sex and money:
- Elliot Spitzer (D, former Gov. NY)
- Charles Rangel (D, former Rep. NY)
- William Jefferson (D, former Rep. NY)
- Mark Foley (R, Rep. FL)
- Larry Craig (R, former Sen. ID)
- Eric Massa (R, former Rep. NY)
That’s all for now. Have a fine weekend and I’ll see you Monday.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we talked about privacy and the USA PATRIOT Act. During our discussion several items came up that I encouraged you to research because of their relevance to our texts. They were:
- Probable cause
- Reasonable suspicion, Terry stop
- FISA Court
- Oscar Grant
- TSA full body scanners (millimeter wave scanner)
I mentioned Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols when we discussed home-grown terrorism, and I was absolutely stunned that only two or three of you ninety-one knew anything about these men. And those few only admitted scant, incomplete knowledge. Again, know who these two people are.
In addition to the informal request that you familiarize yourself with the items above, and the formal order to attend the homework on your class page, here’s some further:
- “Court Ruling on Wiretap Is a Challenge for Obama”
- “Judge says man within rights to record police traffic stop”
- Carlos Miller’s blog “Photography Is not a Crime”
Again, boys and girls, you must move beyond your assumptions about what you think you know and learn and engage important issues, no matter what side you of the political divide you occupy.
See you next class.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, today and yesterday we completed “The Scarlet Ibis” and discussed symbolism and the various possible symbols Hurst uses to shape his story. It’s important to remember that reading and understanding literature isn’t about the “symbol-hunt”, or at least it shouldn’t be, but there’s sometimes a temptation to see everything as a symbol, which can lead to incorrect interpretations of text. You also completed the vocabulary study and quiz associated with this story.
You’ll have time to complete the After Reading questions you began this class when we meet next. Until then, here’s a very brief audio adaptation of “The Scarlet Ibis” from Justin Bonilla on Vimeo:
Neat drama Justin.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, we began “The Scarlet Ibis” yesterday and today. This is the last short story we’ll tackle for this quarter. We should have most of our literary concepts nailed down by the time we finish; of course, we’ll add more, but we’ve got the foundation.
Until next class, dig this brief clip from the BBC Worldwide:
We’ll talk Monday.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, we began yesterday and today with a visit from Mr. Gutman, one of our new counselors, who spoke to you about post-secondary planning. Many of the resources he showed you, I have (and more) on the “Pride Time” page. Remember that if you use the page and encounter any broken links, please let me know so I can fix them.
After Mr. Gutman left, I went over some final considerations for your revisions. I reminded you that you need to attempt to define concepts of “worth”, “opinion”, and “democratic values”. I instructed you that your examples must be as specific and detailed as possible, that generalities won’t do. And I reminded you that your paper must be personalized; that is, since you’re expressing your opinion, it’s appropriate and desirable that you speak in the first person, and even that you include personal experiences in the public sphere to inform your essay. However, you must avoid crass, baseless evaluation.
The organizational scheme I recommended for those struggling for an approach was simple: Touch on values and opinion in your introduction before you state your thesis, develop and clarify these ideas in your first body paragraph, and apply these ideas in your second and third body paragraphs with your analysis and evaluation of public opinion by various figures in popular media. Of course, be sure that you actually answer the prompt.
As we’ve been focusing on public opinion and democratic values (and responsibilities), I encourage you to read and think critically about these two relevant stories: “Michigan employee with blog on gay student takes leave of absence” and “Rick Sanchez fired from CNN”. I mentioned the first in class, the second broke as I was talking about the first.
Finally, and this is more for fourth period, I showed part five of The Story of English during third since so much was time left over from having less conferences, and I showed it the second hour of fifth while I conferred with writers rather than trust remaining students to focus on the Buckley text for Monday. It’s broken in to parts itself for upload, and it informs the discussion we had over Black Vernacular English:
For those interested in the rest of the really excellent series, it begins here:
Work hard this weekend, and I’ll see you Monday.
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
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
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmens, Thursday and Friday I gave you the opportunity to finish your guided reading questions over the Tan piece and we went to the liberry for orientation and book checkout. We’ll pick-up with the graphic organizers I gave you (second period, not seventh, yet), next class.
Until Monday, here’s a brief clip from the Associated Press, “San Francisco’s Chinatown Funeral Bands”, that may offer some insight into the setting and culture of our recent short story:
Seventh period students who borrowed books, don’t forget I need them by second hour Monday.
Have a nice couple of days off.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmen, I reviewed the details of the final again and all of you concurred that you understood the expectations. I’ll look forward to your success on Thursday.
We watched several clips from the film adaptation of Of Mice and Men. I wish we’d had time to view it in its entirety with a more critical eye to compare and contrast Gary Sinise’s vision of John Steinbeck’s drama to the latter’s original, but the entire film is available for screening online. And here it is:
I’ll leave some final thoughts here later in the week or the beginning of next, but now I encourage you to prepare as best you can for your composition on Thursday.
See you then.
APELC Class Notes
Same objectives as yesterday. Second began Star Trek: The Motion Picture as did fourth, but not before we enjoyed our last two worldview presentations: Emily F. presented Epicureanism, and Meg made a special visit to tell us about feminism.
Women’s issues in various cultures have been a recurring topic of discussion in APELC because of the number of texts we’ve read where women’s roles and rights are central or relevant. Thinking about Meg’s assessment of and our brief talk about where women the world over stand in 2010, a number of recent articles came to mind that’re worth your time:
- “Has a U.S. Pediatrics Group Condoned Genital Cutting?”,
- “Lawrence Taylor bust shines spotlight on abuse of teen hookers”,
- “Georgian women seek virginity restoration”,
- “Japan sinks (even) lower on gender discrimination report”,
- “Haunted by Congo rape dilemma”,
- “We are not your weapons – we are women (This one’s quite bizarre.)
Emily’s explanation of Epicurus’s idea of an eternal universe inspired me to revisit a lecture in which theologian, philosopher, and apologist William Lane Craig recounts the history of the development of standard cosmology as a theory in the twentieth century and addresses various theories others have proposed to supplant it. Here’s the first of a six-part video version of the lecture; it’s quite technical and mathematically and philosophically dense, and in the end Craig does assert the necessity of a creator in the mold of the Judeo-Christian deity, but it’s utterly fascinating and thorough in its treatment of the subject. Do you have the patience and fortitude?
For another perspective, you might read this an article which attempts to take Craig to task, “Why Steven Hawking’s Cosmology Precludes a Creator”, from the journal Philo. And here’s a piece from Discover which explains further the (dubious, non-verifiable) idea of multiple universes, “Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: the Multiverse Theory”.
Here’re second and fourth period students my records are showing that haven’t returned The Autobiography of Malcolm X :
- Jade, Victoria, Erica, Jo, Damon, Sam, Alex, Stephanie, Kira, Rhiannon, and Alee;
- Evan, Emily F., Julia, Cassandra, and Eliana.
Please return your books as soon as possible, or let me know as soon as possible that you’ve already returned your book so I can update my gradebook.
SPECIAL THANKS.Eliana brought not one, but two cakes and fresh, homemade salsa to class today. Thanks for the victuals, Eliana. They were delicious!
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) processed a film, and 2) presented their worldviews.
First period’s last worldview presentations are lined up for Thursday, so today we began watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a film that I very much dig. See the notes I posted last May for more on my ideas about the film as a text for class.
In third period Ellie presented Scientology, Leah and Elizabeth Animism and Shamanism, and Emily the Amish. They were model presentations, and after we also began looking at the film.
Leah’s and Elizabeth’s presentation (and others on animism/shamanism) reminded me of an article I came across a couple of weeks ago, “Wildlife documentaries infringe animals’ privacy, says report”, and the effort in Switzerland to protect the dignity of plants from a couple of years ago, “The Silent Scream of the Asparagus”. Do all living things have the same inherent dignity? Do any living things have inherent dignity at all?
I asked Emily about the West Nickel Mines School shooting four years ago and the deep well of grace the Amish seem to possess. Read and hear more with these two stories, both from NPR: “The Amish Culture of Forgiveness” and “Amish Forgive School Shooter, Struggle with Grief”.
Finally, I asked Ellie about protests in the last several years against the Church of Scientology by Anonymous, a group determined to expose the “religion” as a sham. She mentioned the group’s video announcing their presence and their mission, which I’ve embedded below.
I actually ran into members of Anonymous (wearing Guy Fakwes masks) at the main post office in Tucson some years ago in April when I was dropping-off my income tax papers. they were protesting the Church of Scientology’s tax-exempt status in the United States.
Tomorrow is the APELC exam. Those interested in being part of the APELC pan-class photo should arrive around 7:25 in T-12 so Mr. Street can snap our picture before you head to the north campus to show what you know.
I hope to see you all then.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen contextualized America during the Great Depression.
Freshmens, we watched most of Riding the Rails, an American Experience documentary about teens who left their homes to live and travel as nomads on America’s railroad trains during the Great Depression. We began when I asked you to consider what you’d have to give up if you were to leave home at your ages now. Your answers included friends, comfort, indulgences, security, and more, and you compared your own lives to those of the teen hobos you experienced as you watched the film.
You had time to begin reading Of Mice and Men, the story of two friends and Depression-era migrant workers in northern California, for the last twenty or so minutes of class. We’ll finish the film Friday and begin our examination of the novel. The film engendered thoughts of a favorite, romantic song about, the City of New Orleans, by folkie Steve Goodman. I tried to find a video with Goodman singing his signature song and couldn’t, but I found a version by Johnny Cash that’s pretty tasty:
See you next class, kids.
APELC Class Notes
Same objective as yesterday (as it will be the remainder of the week). Chelsea presented Transhumanism, Nicole Mormonism, Griffin Objectivism, and Cody Shamanism, in first; and Elly also presented transhumanism, Ana T. Rastafarianism, Brigette Shinto, and Joy Romanticism, and third. Neat presentations.
Joy’s talk on Romanticism brought to mind one of the most celebrated of French Romantic paintings (and a personal favorite), Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa:
I encountered this painting in my undergraduate career in 1993, along with other Romantic and Neo-classic art that fired my imagination. I’ve since seen it twice in person at the Louvre in Paris where it hangs in the same gallery as The Oath of the Horatii and Liberty Leading the People (all of which and more share the same floor with the Mona Lisa). I’m looking forward to seeing these again with some of you next year.
Ana’s presentation and her mention of Rasta stereotypes and that some poorly-intended novitiates may claim the Rastafarian worldview merely as an excuse to partake in certain “sacraments” made me think of one of my favorite SNL Digital Shorts from The Lonely Island:
Revision conference sign-up for timed-writing 8 is now open and you can either write your names in before or during school in T-12 or after school in the liberry.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) processed satire, and 2) researched their worldviews.
Periods 1 and 3, today we tackled the satirical piece from The Onion that appeared on the 2005 APELC exam before we headed to the liberry for your final day of research.
Here’s the first part of the piece from Sunday’s 60 Minutes about stem cells magic I talked about in class, “21st Century Snake Oil”:
And here’s more from of Brian Dunning at Skeptoid related to bad or pseud0-science:
And here’re two more to ponder that have to do with the paranormal but that some view as vaguely, quantumy and sciencey: “All About Astrology” and “What’s Wrong with The Secret “. Also, don’t forget to read over the James Randi Education Foundation’s One Million Dollar Challenge. (Maybe you’ll accept the challenge and claim the prize?)
I look forward to your presentations next class, and I’d like all students in all periods to print the texts I’ve listed on your class page for next time. We probably won’t get to them, but I’d like you to have them read and in reserve for when we do have the time.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained literary concepts in a novel.
Freshmens, we continued our novel today, and we took our study outside. We needed the change of environment the grassy areas between the buildings offered, although I wasn’t so keen with the romantic literature-in-great-outdoors image it provided to curious onlookers.
For your enrichment, here’re three scenes from a dramatization of our novel by Steppenwolf for Young Adults. They’re short; have a look.
How does Esperanza compare to the protagonists of the other short texts we began the quarter with? Think that over as we wind down the brief text.
Have a fine weekend and don’t forget your homework.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers processed a film.
Second and fourth, we began watching and discussing The Merchants of Cool. During the segment on the birth of MTV, I mentioned The Beatles ‘role in the creation of the music video as an art form. Below are the promotional videos these-gods-who-walk-as-men created for “Rain” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Please dig them:
See you next class.
APELC ClassNotes
Objectives: APELCers 1) processed an essay, and 2) researched their worldviews.
Periods 1 and 3, we tackled the Saukko piece today before we headed to the liberry. I thought it would go well with our recent timed-writing.
We briefly discussed e-waste, and I mentioned a 60 Minutes piece from last year, “Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste”, that I think is worth examining. Here’s the show segment highlighting the problem.
from
Here’s a piece from Smithsonian Magazine, about e-waste, “E-Gad!”, the first text that brought the issue to my attention.
Attend your homework, prepare for your conference, and have a fine weekend.