First day of the new term and we're off and running! Working towards a formal, academic debate at the end of the term we performed our first practice debate of the term, investigating the proposition, "Is it possible for everyone in society to be free?"
I appreciate everyone who contributed to the debate by speaking up in class; I encourage everyone to speak up and share their perspectives on the investigation though I understand this can seem quite daunting from some, so I thank you for your respectful contemplation.
Both sides presented excellent arguments in support of their perspectives. The difficult part for many people about philosophical (as well as literary, historical, generally all social scientific investigation) investigations is coming to accept and appreciate the inherent indeterminacy of many claims. What is freedom? Can a society's people be free? You all discovered during the debate just how difficult it is to make these claims meaningful after the words themselves have been thoroughly deconstructed during discussion. Yet, knowledge of society has an intimate relationship to power, and in this class power comes (in part) from the cognitive and physical work we do in building final propositions to the two perspectives. As we saw at the end of the debate, this does not necessarily mean a consensus is reached.
Homework (due Thursday, February 4th) is to read ch. 2 of Animal Farm. Come to class ready to discuss the events of the chapter in class.
February 4th, 2016
Hayuck!
Quick recap of Events: We covered the vocabulary terms 'socialism' and 'corruption' during our words of the day.
We then created an excellent top five list of the most important events from chapters one and two.
1 Old Major’s speech/ “Beasts of England”
2 Revolution
3 7 commandments
4 Old Major’s Death
5 Rid themselves of human totems of control/ searched for humans on farm
5.5 Drinking of the milk
Afterwards we analyzed the allegory "The Grasshopper and the Ants" using our handy graphic organizer we created in class, and learned a little something about hard work and ah' picken' an' ah' fiddlen!
And for those who came to class early, we also learned about Chinese supergroup Grasshopper, whose vocal harmonies and devil-may-care attitudes have one them fans the world over (How could they be lonely with suits like those? Didn't I see them in The Mask?)
As we go on reading Animal Farm, remember the book is an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinist state socialism, roughly between the years 1918 - 1936. The events taking place actually did take place, and it is important to keep that in mind when we work on determining what moral message Orwell wants us to take away from the book.
Homework: Come to class with chapter 3 completed and be ready to continue to work on analyzing allegories in class!
February 8th, 2016
Recap of Events:
We started off class with some words of the day, learning the definitions of the words 'retinue' (or SQUAD!) and 'obscure.'
We then learned about three types of questions, each representing a different level of inquiry or investigation (the slides for which can be found here): factual (or level one) questions, interpretive (or level two) questions, and open-ended or reflective (level three) questions. To practice writing leveled questions, we read chapter four of "Animal Farm" in class and turned in three leveled questions of your own on the chapter.
We ended class watching an animated short of "The Giving Tree" that we analyzed for its allegorical content. We will finish the movie in class tomorrow (2/9) and see if we can come up with a moral lesson that the story revolves around.
Recap of Lesson's Objectives:
The lesson's objectives where two fold: to learn to define three levels of inquiry and to analyze "The Giving Tree" as an allegory. We will get more into allegory work next class, so I'll write about the leveled questions you turned into me on chapter four.
Overall wonderful effort by everyone, I'm impressed that a lot of you have showed great promise in differentiating between the three levels of inquiry we learned - this is especially true of the differences between levels two and three. Remember that level two questions establish the criteria for the person answering the question, whereas level three questions allow the person to establish their own criteria for answering the question. Level three is more opinion based, whereas level two is more "fact" based.
Something to point out when writing leveled questions in the future, it is obvious from the questions that the majority of you are thinking about the book - and that's fantastic - but while your thinking is obvious it is not visible. What does that mean? To be visible, it would have to spell out for me in great detail the actual thoughts and logical connections your mind makes when contemplating the events and literary structure (what are, for literature, the data or "facts") of the novel.
For example, many questions followed this construction:
"Compare and contrast Mollie and Boxer."
This shows me that the writer of this question is thinking about and comparing Mollie with Boxer - of which there is much to say. Which is the problem. What about Mollie and Boxer does this questioner want the person answering the question to compare? If this is trying to be a level two question, a criteria between the two needs to be established (compare their respective loyalties to either humans or Napoleon, are they so different from one another?) and written into the question for it to be a good level two question. If it is going for a level three, a more robust issue that animates the relationship between the two needs to be added to the question (what does their characterization say about loyalty, obedience, naivety, etc) for it to suffice as such.Additionally, lots of questions where directed at the moral justification of war. Though this is an interesting topic - and is not entirely out of bounds when discussing this book. The events of the story, though, are allegories to actual events (or charcuteries of the actual events) and are designed by Orwell to articulate one central moral, not necessarily to invite deeper moral investigations. You can certainly read this work and ask those questions, but it is at the cost of loosing sight of what Orwell wanted the reader to come away from his work having discussed.
Getting good at writing questions takes time, and you are all off to a great start.
Homework: Come to class having finished reading chapter 5.
February 10th, 2016
Recap of events:
Words of the day where a little more savory than usual as we spiced up the vocabulary from the essay on the death of Frans Ferdinand with an Ol' Timey Western word: absquatulate (YEE-HAW)! We also learned what a 'compositor' would do for a living, and what you would become had any of you the inclination to act in a conspiracy to bake Mr. Puterbaugh and I a plate of delicious chocolate chip cookies: you'd become a 'conspirator.'
We then finished up our analysis of "The Giving Tree," focusing in on the Tree and asking one another if we thought the Tree was selfless or being used? The answers varied as the book is not written to depart a clear moral lesson, making the discussion very interesting and thought provoking. I heard a lot of fresh takes on the books moral message which is both encouraging and entertaining.
Class ended with a bang as lines where drawn and questions answered during a engulfing round of kahoot! The questions where leveled but you all where prepared and the scores reflected a close match up until the final question.
Recap of Objectives:
Excellent take aways on "The Giving Tree," I'm excited to read your moral messages later on in the term when I collect your notebooks. Remember that the purpose of analyzing this story was its ambiguity - you had to do more imaginative work that you normally would analyzing an allegory like "The Grasshopper and the Ants." What I keep emphasizing about allegory that you all should remember is that all details in the allegory leads the reader to the moral message at the end of the story, a message that is clear even if it is not explicitly stated. Remember that when taking notes for analysis you should consider as many of the details as possible and read (or watch) and then re-read the work paying attention to different characters/events to get a sense of why an author would think to put the two together in the first place. Literature is constructed quite purposefully: allegories in particular.
As for leveled questions keep in mind the amount of interpretation you are asking for when you create your questions. Factual questions should require zero interpretation, you could pull the answer directly from a page in the book without having to read into the words at all. Interpretive questions are, as the name implies, deeper than factual questions but still grounded in the text itself. They are questions about characters, relationships, or events that have to be read into the words on the page: the answers to these questions will not be stated explicitly on the page as they would be on factual questions. Reflective questions are a step beyond the text, asking us to make a connection with the theme in the text and broader social, political, or philosophical issues. These questions invite a diversity of opinions into the answer, and are focused on what the text may be aimed at doing to create meaning. They still relate to issues in the text, but they are open to being more focused on what the consequences of the text's meaning are as opposed to interpreting the text itself.
Homework: Come to class having read chapter 6.
February 12th, 2016
Review of Events:
Not the most exciting day today, but good job pushing through and producing what I know will be some fantastic leveled questions. I'll see what we can do to increase the activity level as we work on interpreting Animal Farm in future classes.
The day did start off with a bang - or maybe a snore depending on your backstory, but we where asked to create a backstory about the following picture:
Though the poor fellow did not make out well in this period. Either the young man above is never going to have children OR he just found out how engrained racism is in the majority of social, political, and economic institutions in the United States. Searching for the silver lining in all this bad news thrust upon him, at least it's a three day weekend?
We then spent the remainder of class working on our first assignment of the term, 6 leveled questions on the events and issues discussed in chapter seven of Animal Farm.
Recap of Objectives:
We didn't get to everything that was planned for class today, so Wednesday next week be ready to debate about the practicality of building a windmill on Animal Farm in class.
As for the assignments, I will get those graded this weekend and returned to you on Wednesday. We will work out a fair way for students who are not happy with their grades to work on improving them.
Homework: Have a fantastic three day weekend, and come to class with chapter 8 read and ready to discuss.
February 17th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Awesome day today, we covered a lot of ground as we start to finish reading Animal Farm. We started out, though, writing a backstory for a picture of a monkey holding a dog's leash. Lots of interesting stories where suggested, one of the more controversial being the couple was a metaphor for Nikki Minaj and whoever it is she is dating. Who can deny love?
We moved on to our first homework assignment: Writing your own allegory! We will do some more work in the next few classes to get prepared for creating (as opposed to analyzing) allegories but until then I look forward to reading what historical events/topics you want to write about. If you forgot the assignment handed out in class today here is a LINK to the google document.
It was then time to review chapters seven and eight, constructing a very thoughtful list of the top 5 events from the last two chapters we've read:
Pig’s get drunk, think they’re going to die. Commandments get altered.
Beast of England get banned.
Windmill destroyed...again.
Napoleon traded wood for money.
Boxer getting injured.
Moving on, it was time to practice our debating skills. Lining up either for or against the construction of the windmill (from chapter five) I heard a number of unique and creative arguments on both sides of the arguments.
We finished class starting to read chapter nine.
Recap of Objectives:
Today in class we where tasked with being able to both: construct an argument about the windmill, as well as show comprehension during the top 5 note taking activity.
As for constructing arguments, I hope you felt a bit uncomfortable during the debate today insofar as your perception regarding the strength of your arguments may not be a skill you've developed (if you've worked on it at all.) We are going to start working on our argumentation skills so by the date of the debate you will feel more comfortable vital skill for any future career or academic post-secondary venture. We, that is, human beings, can refine our reasoning and capacity for judgement linguistically but do so at the risk of grasping the reality of a moment in time only as well as we understand the limits of our own ignorance. Being able to analyze our 'judgements' (which are, at times, arguments of sorts) and refine them continually only enables us to more accurately asses a certain situation and, fortunately, quickly learn from our mistakes.
Homework: Send me an email by the start of class this Friday (2/19/16) with the historical theme/event you are going to utilize when writing your allegories.
February 19th, 2016
Recap of events:
Great work today given the time constraints of the MORP (MOAP? I don't remember!) assembly. Class started off all business, but I hope that you had some fun creating an allegory at the end of class. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
A reminder that the test to get into AP Language is on March 2nd, 2016 in room N126 at 2:45pm. Forecast for Lit & Comp 10, and if you pass the test your scheduled will be changed to reflect your acceptance into the class. AP Lang will be there for all you who feel like it may be too much work, and taking it during your twilight years at Westview might even make the class more enjoyable as you may find yourself better prepared to handle the writing and reading load of the class.
Make up assignments for the leveled questions quiz are due 3/8, but can be turned in anytime before then. I'm hear to help, so please email me (Derek_Schmidt@beaverton.k12.or.us) or come to the tutoring center during 7th period on A Days and we can work on improving your grade. The assignment is to write 6 leveled questions (2 level one, 2 level two, 2 level three) from chapter 10.
With business done we started to get our brains a twitchin'! It was so entertaining to hear the ways in which you all explained how this picture came to be:
For reasons of potential copy-write infringement I cannot print the majority of suggestions put forward as to the 'why' and 'how' of a certain, purple, childhood-friend of many a young Millennial in the photo. But needless to say you all did a wonderful job creating a backstory to one of the most awkward prom photos of ALL TIME!
The train kept on rolling as we moved onto chapter nine, and besides mourning the loss of our dear departed comrade, Boxer, we took sometime to find instances in chapter nine of hypocrisy. And there where a plenty! Institutions have been set up by the Pigs on Animal Farm to segregate themselves from the rest of the Animals. They walk, talk, eat, drink, and rule like Jones and the human rulers so despised by Old Major at the beginning of the book. What a long way we've come from the Rebellion's spirited defense of the political principles of egalitarianism and liberty. So lost the Animals seem, yet they remain devoted to the farm and its "democratically" elected leader, Napoleon. Why is this the case? Whose fault is it that the Animals are enslaved: their own faults, or Napoleons? Are the Animals truly free? Was the Rebellion successful? As we move forward into our formal debate these are the questions that will animate our future discussions.
Class ended with an assignment that I hope was both fun and informative as you start working on your historical allegories. The distinction here between allegories and narratives was the focus of this assignment, designed to help you see what is unique about constructing an allegory. Though you are using historical events/themes to construct your allegories, don't be lulled into writing a narrative about those real events. You are being asked to take that reality and transport it into a imaginative, fantastical realm that mirrors the meaning of the events in the real world, but not their content. But I understand that it is not easy to create a moral out of historical events, so here is another example:
A number of students are choosing the First World War (wait, the whole world, like Venezuela too, went to war? Wrong, it was every other country BUT Venezuela-Duh. But I digress...) for their historical event. As you've learned in Mr. Fritz class WWI erupted across Europe (which literally covers THE WHOLE WORLD? Am I right? Fine, I'll let it go) because of a complicated set of alliances that committed European governments and monarchs into battle if their diplomatic allies were ever to go to war. The meaningful lesson that can be taken from this war by governments is to be wary of committing oneself to violent conflict on the behalf of other countries; or to put it in simple west Texas parlance: choose your friends wisely. And there is the moral, choose your friends wisely. You can now take this and, like we worked through in class, outline what real characters (e.g., people like Franz Ferdinand, King Wilhelm II, or countries like France or the Ottoman Empire) or events/themes (e.g., events like the sinking of the Lusitania, or the Christmas Day truce, and themes like trench warfare) you want in your story – and match them up with allegorical (read: imaginary, fantastical) characters who you (as the author) choose because they help make explicate the meaning that is inherent to the relationships that communicate to the reader the moral you are trying to get across to them.
I’m so excited to read what you all come up with. It is a joy hearing what you come up with in class, so this is going to be a real treat for me, thank you.
Homework:
Allegories are due 2/25. We will take time on Monday, 2/22, to
work on our allegories in class so if you are drawing an allegory bring your
supplies with you (pen, paper, etc.) Work on your allegory this weekend and on
Monday if you run into any roadblocks hopefully they can be worked out in class
on Monday.
February 25th, 2016
I apologize for missing a post on February 23rd, I'll make sure that I'm keeping up on my posts from now on.
Recap of Events:
Class started out in chaos this morning as it has every morning since we've started playing "When someone claps twice..." Great work this morning acting out and performing the actions written on the slips of paper, much louder, more energetic, and better timing seen all around than when we first started playing the game, keep up the good work because the next show down is for the as advertised "fabulous prize!"
We're finished with Animal Farm- reading Animal Farm that is so DON'T RETURN YOUR BOOKS! The upcoming debate is going to utilize Animal Farm as the primary source for information so keep a hold of the books for now.
We then started working on the Debate Readyness Checklist (which we will finish Monday) and your homework...
Homework:
The practice debate checklist (Click Here for Googlle Doc.) Have your side of the argument (either pro or against) filled out by Monday when we engage in the debate.
Other than that have a great weekend!
NOTE: If you have shared with me your Allegory Assignment on Google Docs please take note of the following announcement: If you are asked to give permission to share your assignment with the email address "derekschmidt024@gmail.com" that is my personal email address so PLEASE share the document with me as soon as possible. I am working on grading the Allegories this weekend so help me get your assignments back to you in a timely manner by sharing your documents sooner rather than later.
February 29th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Wonderful job everyone working as a team the last week and a half during warm ups, I'm impressed how all of you have (if you where ever reserved at all) come out of your shells and are very comfortable acting foolish in front of your friends and classmates.
Congratulations to period 4; one of (if not THE) the largest classes took the competition with an blistering time of 2:10. Well done!
We moved onto the conversions pre-test which I will review this week. I know you are all on pins-and-needles in anticipation of what conversions lessons lay ahead of you so I will make to work fast so I can get you the lessons you crave!
Class then moved onto the AF Debate Recap assignment. Remember, if you have yet to finish and turn in this assignment finish it and turn it in completed on Wednesday. If you're working with a group be sure you add all the group members names onto the paper.
We finished class with the practice debate, which we will start up again on Wednesday.
Homework:
If you haven't finished you AF Debate Recap assignment in class today, finish that and turn it in on class Wednesday.
March 2nd, 2016
Recap of Events:
Great work today in class! You are all working very hard at participating fully in the debate and that's much appreciated, and beneficial to you which you will see soon in the feedback you receive before the formal debate.
Excellent discussion to start off class; whether we forgave Dr. Seuss or not (who cares that today's his birthday!) for his early, racist, and xenophobic comics it was heartening to see how thoughtful your responses to the question where. It was clear you tried to compare Dr. Seuss's impact later in his life (his progressive works like The Sneeches, Yurtle the Turtle, Horton Hears a Hoo, The Lorax, and others) to the extent of the impact his war propaganda had on the uncritical mind of the average solider or citizen who consumed filth like the comic below:
We spoke a little about iconography; that is, the use of symbols by artist in works of art. The symbols in the Seuss comics we looked at where Seuss's depiction of Asian's with glasses, buck teeth, and loyal to the government of Japan over the United States (seen above by the line of people collecting boxes of TNT under the banner "Waiting for the signal from home..." None of these are reflective of the reality of life for Asian citizens of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, but all the symbols used would have passed as politically correct before, during, and even after the war. If you interested in reading more about Dr. Seuss and his racist past, as well as his attempt at redemption, here is an interesting article on the subject.
Then, there was the debate. Way to hang in for the long hall on this one. It was fun watching 'Cher' argue for more open immigration policies during her classroom debate from the movie Clueless, after we finish the debate during our next class we will be sure to spend some more time analyzing what is required to perform your best in a debate using the examples of good debates you bring to class for homework, as well as some Mr. Puterbaugh has shared with me from well known movies.
Oh, those poor Haitians.
Homework:
You will bring to class a piece of paper that has on it the following:
(i) 2 examples of quality debates that you've found online (these can be videos of actual debates or debates from fictional movies, or transcripts from websites, .pdfs, etc.) Make sure you include a way for me to look up the debates (like the url or the title of the transcript, the debate, or a list of words I could use to google the items.)
(ii) 2 paragraphs (3-5 sentences), one for each debate you find, where you describe WHY you think the performance is a quality example. This is in your own words, so don't feel like you have to get technical.
March 4th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Fun day today, I appreciated everyones debate examples that you sent in. The discussion on debate styles brought up a number of examples that should challenge you and inspire you as we enter into the next debate, as well as give you pause in thinking about your own style and if you need to improve your performance as we move along. Two examples that you came up with I want to reiterate:
1) make sure your evidence is strong, which means, it is detailed yet relevant to your central argument and helps to construct focused and bold argumentative claims. The "world's greatest" debater lived up to the bold claim made in the video's title. Notice specifically that the evidence he brings up is very thorough, analyzing the historical record meticulously and showing rather convincingly that arguments condemning Islam for being uniquely violent or reactionary are salient only if one ignores the record of violence and ignorance of other prominent world religions. The take away from you is that you should aim at collecting evidence in just as thorough and thoughtful a way as the speaker below:
2) Related to gathering a group of detailed and focused bits of evidence, take the time to consider your evidence in total and whether or not it all can be summarized into a clear, focused phrase or sentence. If you are able to, it means each of your arguments are drawing from relevant evidence and the claims you make all are clear, bold, and focused themselves. If we remember the lunch scene from Jurassic Park, mathematician Ian Malcolm (played by the devilishly handsome Jeff Goldblum) can summarize his point about the dangers of human manipulation and experimentation with prehistoric genetics with gusto as he describes the power being wielded like "a kid that found his father's gun." You should be able to summarize your arguments about the two Taylors thustly.
Mmmm...love me some Goldblum.
But we didn't talk solely about debates, here is the LINK to the slides from class last Friday. Take note of the due dates for your Error Wall assignments: Quotation Marks (#1) and Commas (#4) need to bring into class their picture of a grammatical error and one to two paragraphs answering the following questions: a) what is the specific grammatical error displayed in your picture? and b) how would you suggest the author of the error fix it? by 3/10. Apostrophes (#2) and Run-on sentences/sentence fragments (#3) need to have their pictures and one to two paragraphs completed and brought to class by 3/17. I'm looking for to what you all have to bring in!
Finally, we gathered some evidence and possibly even created an argument or two to support either the affirmative or negative claims of the proposition "Which Taylor will be more successful in life?" The affirmative argument will be that the "Bleachers" (Blond hair) Taylor will be more successful, meaning that the negative argument will be that the "Cheer-captain" (Burnett) Taylor. Make sure you bring in the your debate worksheets completely filled out, as you will not know on Tuesday which side you are defending.
Homework:
Have the debate worksheets filled out completely when you come into class Tuesday, creating opening-statements, arguments and gathering evidence for both the affirmative and negative arguments.
Don't forget about your Error Wall assignments, due dates can be seen above.
March 8th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Debates are going great! You're all listening to each other's arguments, developing solid reasoning, and helping one another work through the sequence of events. It's very impressive to watch. I will take some time in the next few classes to return your "Taylor" debate packets, notes, and reflections, with feedback so you can be most prepared for the final debate. We aren't doing anything new in the Animal Farm debate, so other than content from the novel the work should feel very familiar.
Speaking of content, Kahoot and similar quiz games will become more common place in the following classes so we can keep the content of the novel in our minds. Kahoot is way too much fun, so as long as you all stay interested I'm down with finding any excuse to add it into our lesson plans.
Homework:
You have two assignments due soon, so play close attention to due dates:
Error Wall assignments will be due for Quotation mark and Commas groups on 3/10
**REMEMBER to PRINT your assignments and bring them to class**
For further instruction check out the LINK.
Animal Farm Final Debates due 3/15.
Here is the LINK for the assignment.
As always, let me know in person (7th period Tutoring Center or at the Lower North teacher cluster) or via email (Derek_Schmidt@beaverton.k12.or.us) if you have any questions or concerns.
February 25th, 2016
I apologize for missing a post on February 23rd, I'll make sure that I'm keeping up on my posts from now on.
Recap of Events:
Class started out in chaos this morning as it has every morning since we've started playing "When someone claps twice..." Great work this morning acting out and performing the actions written on the slips of paper, much louder, more energetic, and better timing seen all around than when we first started playing the game, keep up the good work because the next show down is for the as advertised "fabulous prize!"
We're finished with Animal Farm- reading Animal Farm that is so DON'T RETURN YOUR BOOKS! The upcoming debate is going to utilize Animal Farm as the primary source for information so keep a hold of the books for now.
We then started working on the Debate Readyness Checklist (which we will finish Monday) and your homework...
Homework:
The practice debate checklist (Click Here for Googlle Doc.) Have your side of the argument (either pro or against) filled out by Monday when we engage in the debate.
Other than that have a great weekend!
NOTE: If you have shared with me your Allegory Assignment on Google Docs please take note of the following announcement: If you are asked to give permission to share your assignment with the email address "derekschmidt024@gmail.com" that is my personal email address so PLEASE share the document with me as soon as possible. I am working on grading the Allegories this weekend so help me get your assignments back to you in a timely manner by sharing your documents sooner rather than later.
February 29th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Wonderful job everyone working as a team the last week and a half during warm ups, I'm impressed how all of you have (if you where ever reserved at all) come out of your shells and are very comfortable acting foolish in front of your friends and classmates.
Congratulations to period 4; one of (if not THE) the largest classes took the competition with an blistering time of 2:10. Well done!
We moved onto the conversions pre-test which I will review this week. I know you are all on pins-and-needles in anticipation of what conversions lessons lay ahead of you so I will make to work fast so I can get you the lessons you crave!
Class then moved onto the AF Debate Recap assignment. Remember, if you have yet to finish and turn in this assignment finish it and turn it in completed on Wednesday. If you're working with a group be sure you add all the group members names onto the paper.
We finished class with the practice debate, which we will start up again on Wednesday.
Homework:
If you haven't finished you AF Debate Recap assignment in class today, finish that and turn it in on class Wednesday.
March 2nd, 2016
Recap of Events:
Great work today in class! You are all working very hard at participating fully in the debate and that's much appreciated, and beneficial to you which you will see soon in the feedback you receive before the formal debate.
Excellent discussion to start off class; whether we forgave Dr. Seuss or not (who cares that today's his birthday!) for his early, racist, and xenophobic comics it was heartening to see how thoughtful your responses to the question where. It was clear you tried to compare Dr. Seuss's impact later in his life (his progressive works like The Sneeches, Yurtle the Turtle, Horton Hears a Hoo, The Lorax, and others) to the extent of the impact his war propaganda had on the uncritical mind of the average solider or citizen who consumed filth like the comic below:
We spoke a little about iconography; that is, the use of symbols by artist in works of art. The symbols in the Seuss comics we looked at where Seuss's depiction of Asian's with glasses, buck teeth, and loyal to the government of Japan over the United States (seen above by the line of people collecting boxes of TNT under the banner "Waiting for the signal from home..." None of these are reflective of the reality of life for Asian citizens of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, but all the symbols used would have passed as politically correct before, during, and even after the war. If you interested in reading more about Dr. Seuss and his racist past, as well as his attempt at redemption, here is an interesting article on the subject.
Then, there was the debate. Way to hang in for the long hall on this one. It was fun watching 'Cher' argue for more open immigration policies during her classroom debate from the movie Clueless, after we finish the debate during our next class we will be sure to spend some more time analyzing what is required to perform your best in a debate using the examples of good debates you bring to class for homework, as well as some Mr. Puterbaugh has shared with me from well known movies.
Homework:
You will bring to class a piece of paper that has on it the following:
(i) 2 examples of quality debates that you've found online (these can be videos of actual debates or debates from fictional movies, or transcripts from websites, .pdfs, etc.) Make sure you include a way for me to look up the debates (like the url or the title of the transcript, the debate, or a list of words I could use to google the items.)
(ii) 2 paragraphs (3-5 sentences), one for each debate you find, where you describe WHY you think the performance is a quality example. This is in your own words, so don't feel like you have to get technical.
March 4th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Fun day today, I appreciated everyones debate examples that you sent in. The discussion on debate styles brought up a number of examples that should challenge you and inspire you as we enter into the next debate, as well as give you pause in thinking about your own style and if you need to improve your performance as we move along. Two examples that you came up with I want to reiterate:
1) make sure your evidence is strong, which means, it is detailed yet relevant to your central argument and helps to construct focused and bold argumentative claims. The "world's greatest" debater lived up to the bold claim made in the video's title. Notice specifically that the evidence he brings up is very thorough, analyzing the historical record meticulously and showing rather convincingly that arguments condemning Islam for being uniquely violent or reactionary are salient only if one ignores the record of violence and ignorance of other prominent world religions. The take away from you is that you should aim at collecting evidence in just as thorough and thoughtful a way as the speaker below:
2) Related to gathering a group of detailed and focused bits of evidence, take the time to consider your evidence in total and whether or not it all can be summarized into a clear, focused phrase or sentence. If you are able to, it means each of your arguments are drawing from relevant evidence and the claims you make all are clear, bold, and focused themselves. If we remember the lunch scene from Jurassic Park, mathematician Ian Malcolm (played by the devilishly handsome Jeff Goldblum) can summarize his point about the dangers of human manipulation and experimentation with prehistoric genetics with gusto as he describes the power being wielded like "a kid that found his father's gun." You should be able to summarize your arguments about the two Taylors thustly.
But we didn't talk solely about debates, here is the LINK to the slides from class last Friday. Take note of the due dates for your Error Wall assignments: Quotation Marks (#1) and Commas (#4) need to bring into class their picture of a grammatical error and one to two paragraphs answering the following questions: a) what is the specific grammatical error displayed in your picture? and b) how would you suggest the author of the error fix it? by 3/10. Apostrophes (#2) and Run-on sentences/sentence fragments (#3) need to have their pictures and one to two paragraphs completed and brought to class by 3/17. I'm looking for to what you all have to bring in!
Finally, we gathered some evidence and possibly even created an argument or two to support either the affirmative or negative claims of the proposition "Which Taylor will be more successful in life?" The affirmative argument will be that the "Bleachers" (Blond hair) Taylor will be more successful, meaning that the negative argument will be that the "Cheer-captain" (Burnett) Taylor. Make sure you bring in the your debate worksheets completely filled out, as you will not know on Tuesday which side you are defending.
Homework:
Have the debate worksheets filled out completely when you come into class Tuesday, creating opening-statements, arguments and gathering evidence for both the affirmative and negative arguments.
Don't forget about your Error Wall assignments, due dates can be seen above.
March 8th, 2016
Recap of Events:
Debates are going great! You're all listening to each other's arguments, developing solid reasoning, and helping one another work through the sequence of events. It's very impressive to watch. I will take some time in the next few classes to return your "Taylor" debate packets, notes, and reflections, with feedback so you can be most prepared for the final debate. We aren't doing anything new in the Animal Farm debate, so other than content from the novel the work should feel very familiar.
Speaking of content, Kahoot and similar quiz games will become more common place in the following classes so we can keep the content of the novel in our minds. Kahoot is way too much fun, so as long as you all stay interested I'm down with finding any excuse to add it into our lesson plans.
Homework:
You have two assignments due soon, so play close attention to due dates:
Error Wall assignments will be due for Quotation mark and Commas groups on 3/10
**REMEMBER to PRINT your assignments and bring them to class**
For further instruction check out the LINK.
Animal Farm Final Debates due 3/15.
Here is the LINK for the assignment.
As always, let me know in person (7th period Tutoring Center or at the Lower North teacher cluster) or via email (Derek_Schmidt@beaverton.k12.or.us) if you have any questions or concerns.
Hello people of period 4
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DeleteHi Marquis. We won!!!
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