Thursday, October 28

Freshmen: Today we focused on Step 5; we also focused on how to cite sources. In your essay, you are required to quote from your sources twice: once as an in-text citation, and once as a blocked citation. Search on this blog for examples if you don't remember. Due Monday: a typed draft of your essay. Read 20 minutes twice over the weekend.

Sophomores: Today we concluded Cry, the Beloved Country. Due Monday - read through chapter 17; seminar prep; seminar that day. Keep working on your essays and 3EJ too.

CNF: We conducted a seminar on chapter 1 from Freakonomics.

Tuesday, 10/26 or Wednesday, 10/27

Freshmen: Today we focused on leads, conclusions, and plans. There will be a quiz on leads on Thursday. Your homework is to write two separate leads for your essay, using two different techniques that we learned. The leads should be at least two paragraphs long. Read for 20 minutes Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sophomores: Today we began watching Cry, the Beloved Country in order to build background information on South Africa and the time period we are reading about. We are tracking observations, questions, and synthesis as we go, and you may end up using these ideas to supplement your ideas for your compare and contrast essays. Keep reading; we will have a seminar on chapters 11-17 next Monday.

CNF: We read chapter 1 from Freakonomics; 12 notes are due in preparation for the seminar on Thursday.

Monday, October 25

Freshmen: Today we covered the third step in our seven step essay process: Focus the data. We looked at all our data and answered the question, What is my main argument or message? and then phrased it as a thesis statement. Read for 20 minutes; bring your data to class tomorrow as well.

Sophomores: Today we focused on reading a film scene, focusing on the elements of character, camera, objects, mood, and setting. You should use these ideas as you work on your compare and contrast essay. Keep reading - seminar next Monday - and remember, Echoes of the Tao is due on Thursday. You should have at least one entry for The Power of One.

CNF: Today we focused mainly on how schools can curb cheating. Bring Freakonomics on Wednesday.

Sophomore Compare and Contrast Essay Film Assignment

The Power of One Compare and Contrast Essay
Name:

Choose one of these two topics, Africa, or boxing. Watch a film about it. The film may be either fictional or a documentary. Follow this procedure:
1. While watching, take notes using our analysis, asking questions, and synthesis method that we performed during our Break it Down exercise.
2. Based on your analysis, questions, and synthesis, craft a solid thesis that compares and contrasts how the topic is portrayed in the movie versus how it is portrayed in The Power of One.
3. Write an essay that proves your thesis.

For purposes of a future, parallel assignment, your essay must be typed, at least 1,000 words long, and be sure to save it on your hard drive.

In your essay, be sure that you do the following:
1. State your thesis clearly.
2. Support your thesis with numerous examples from The Power of One and the film you have chosen.
3. Display understanding of various writing lessons from earlier this quarter.
4. Use one of the lead and conclusion techniques I will teach you.
5. Carefully proofread your essay so that it is free of all conventions errors.

You are free to choose any film you’d like as long as you have parental permission. There are only three exceptions – you may not use Rocky 3-5, nor may you use The Power of One or Cry, the Beloved Country. You will also not receive credit for this assignment unless you have the permission slip signed below. You will hand in this signed paper when your essay is due.

Your paper will be assessed using our Six Traits writing rubric. Your essay is due ______________. I will only give credit to those in on time.

NOTE: It’s okay for several students to get together and watch the same film. However, all notes, planning, etc. must be done on your own, alone, without collaboration. To do otherwise will result in a zero.
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Permission Form:


PRINTED student name Title of film



Parent signature

Friday, October 22

Freshmen: Today we took the chapter 4 vocab exam. Chapter 5 is being moved up a day to 11/11 - make note of it. Read for 20 minutes this weekend, and most importantly, remember that your research (survey or interview; 3x5 cards) are due for Monday.

Sophomores: Today we took the chapter 4 vocab exam. Chapter 5 is being moved up a day to 11/11 - make note of it. More importantly, we introduced a compare and contrast essay film assignment. I will post it on the blog. Follow the directions. Chapter 12 from The Power of One is due Monday.

CNF: We continued analyzing the data on cheating.

Thursday, October 21

Freshmen: Today we focused on a poem by Naomi Shibib Nye and did a little work with your questions, surveys, and interviews. Your data needs to be compiled and with you in class on Monday. Read for 20 minutes tonight and the weekend; vocab is due Friday.

Sophomores: We concluded our Break it Down exercise and also practiced reading a film scene; vocab is due tomorrow. Keep reading: chapter 12 due Monday.

CNF: Today we disaggregated the data we compiled on cheating, engaging in Freakonomics-style thinking. Your ideas and insights were really fascinating. We will continue tomorrow. Be sure to have Freakonomics with you in class tomorrow as well.

Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20

Freshmen: Today we continued on with Step 2 of our seven step essay process: Collect data. It is important to learn what others think and know about your topic before you can really figure out what it is you think and know about it - that is the purpose of data collection. So, to aid us in data collection, as well as to aid us in the writing of our essays, we introduced Question Based Research Strategy. The idea is this: write down all the questions you have about your potential topic on 3x5 cards (include only one question on each 3x5 card). As you research, you will answer those questions on the back of the 3x5 card. Your answers should be very brief bullet statements and include the source from whence the information came. As stated in class, you need to have three sources from which your information will be drawn. Two of them, you will use for answering questions on your 3x5 cards: the Internet, and a non-electronic print source. The third source, either an interview or a survey consisting of a minimum of 10 questions, will comprise your third source of information. Some of the questions you research on your 3x5s may also be used in your survey or interview. Due for Thursday are at least 12 questions on your 3x5 cards and the questions you will use on your interview or survey. Due for Monday are answers to the questions you will research and your completed interview and survey. Read for 20 minutes each night and remember vocab chapter 4 is due Monday.

Sophomores: Today we did an exercise in close reading of visual art, music, and film, building on the reading skills we have focused on this semester. Continue to read - chapter 12 is due Monday - and continue to work on your seminar prep for October 25. Vocab due Friday.

CNF: Today we wrote an essay that concluded our reading of Blink and read the introduction to Freakonomics.

CNF:

Monday, October 18

Freshmen: Today we completed the first step in the seven-step essay process we are studying, which was defining your problem - you should have a good idea what your topic is going to be for this project by now. We will move on to step 2 tomorrow, which is gathering information. For this step, you are going to need at least a dozen 3x5 cards, so please bring them to class. Read for 20 minutes Monday and Tuesday, and remember that vocab is due Friday.

Sophomores: Today we conducted our first seminar on The Power of One. Chapter 12 is due next Monday; while you read, work on your Echoes and 3EJ assignment. Remember that vocab is due Friday.

CNF: We concluded our seminar on the end of Blink; be sure to have Freakonomics for later this week.

Tuesday, October 12

Freshmen: Today we talked about what the sample essay response to More does well. You can use it as a model for your own work. We also began the first step in a seven step essay process that we are learning. Read for 20 minutes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the weekend.

Sophomores: Today we began a practice in close reading using a Triple Entry Journal. This is somewhat similar to the Echoes of the Tao assignment we began this quarter. Be sure to finish chapters 1-9 (including 9) for Monday's seminar.

CNF: We began a seminar on the end of Blink; we will likely continue with it on Monday; we will also begin Freakonomics next week.

Monday, October 11

Freshmen: Today we took a look at your essay responses to More, and talked about how to write a piece like this in general. Your job is this: Using the notes you took in class, and the comments posted on your essay on turnitin.com, you are to revise your essay and improve it. Then, on a printed copy of your essay, as neatly as possible, write about the changes you made - where you made them, why you made them, how you made them. This way, a reader should be able to look at the paper copy of your essay and see exactly what you improved and why. This annotated paper copy is due on Monday. Please see the sample essay posted on this blog as a good example of how to do this kind of essay (search "sample More essay"). Your homework is to read for 20 minutes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, plus once on the weekend. On Tuesday, we will focus on the potential essay topics you have in answer to the questions we focused on last week.

Sophomores: Today we focused on the This I Believe essays you liked. Chapter 5 from The Power of One was due today; more importantly, Chapter 9 and approximately two notes per chapter are due for our seminar next Monday. Make time to read each day.

CNF: Today we tried to finish Blink. Be sure to have Freakonomics for next week.

Sample Analytical Response to More

***Note to students: Ignore the format - this is the default format for the blog. Obviously, it should be double spaced with indented paragraphs. Pay attention to how it is written - voice, style, structure, depth of analysis, clarity of thesis, and so on.

October 8, 2010

Wanting More


Mark Osborne’s short film More tells a story that is a scathing indictment of the pressures and illusions of our modern consumption-driven world, but it’s also a story that offers hope. The message is clear: acquiring more (more money, more objects, more power) never satisfies us, and therefore, there must be something more to our world than the material objects and the trappings of the success we pursue.
The film opens with images of children on a merry-go-round, and then cuts to the main character being awakened by his alarm clock. It’s unclear if these first images are his dreams, or his memories, but clearly they haunt him as he goes about his day in the gray, industrialized city that is his home. He is haunted, too, by another dream he has, the dream to create something meaningful that will contribute to society.
This idea for a new invention seems to preoccupy him throughout the day, and is underscored by the fact that, so far, it has been an abysmal failure relegated to a dusty box beneath his bed. He leaves his small, dingy apartment to go to his job on an assembly line where he makes the Happy product. On his way to work, like the thousands of other sad, gray, nearly-lifeless beings in his city, he is exhorted to purchase the Happy product and is bombarded by the constant message to Get Happy! Everywhere he looks this message greets him and his brethren, impossible to miss in its pervasiveness, and also because its yellow logo stands out starkly against the dull grayness of the city.
This world, unfortunately, parallels our own world all too well. We live in a society that constantly bombards us with messages, a constant stream of promises that if we buy these pair of jeans, drive this car, drink this soda, and watch this show, we will be happy. We live in a world that constantly tells us we want and need more, and that happiness can come only from external sources. We live in a society that tries to tear us down so that we will become vulnerable to this message.
The main character in More seems to know better, however. Before leaving for his job, he opens the slot in his stomach and from it glows a powerful light. After being fired from his assembly-line job, he goes into a dressing room and opens that slot again, as if he needs to draw strength from this light. What it is isn’t clear exactly – his soul, his inner-light, his essence? – but what is clear is that it’s this light that gives him strength and vitality, it’s what makes him whole.
He returns to his sad little apartment after having purchased the Happy product and takes out his own invention, also a set of goggles. From the dust-covered box it’s clear this is an idea he’s had for some time, but one he’s grown frustrated with, having made no recent progress toward completing. He breaks apart the Happy product and uses some of its parts to complete his invention.
Yet it needs one more thing: He opens the slot in his stomach and takes some of his essence, some of his light, and places it in his invention.
This transforms his goggles, and through the goggles his world is transformed: His apartment becomes a mansion, the view from his window is not a dead, lifeless city but rather a lush mountain valley with trees and water. He names these goggles Bliss, which is best defined as “perfect untroubled happiness” and “a state of spiritual joy.” Perhaps, it seems, fulfillment can come from external sources, after all. For, with these new goggles, everything seems better. But in time we realize that is also an illusion, no more real than the images the seen through the goggles.
Yet, the main character is named Greatest Inventor Ever, and lauded as a hero. He grows rich beyond imagining. He ascends to CEO of his own company. All his dreams have come true. He should be happy.
We see other characters experience a form of happiness as well. There is a scene of two beings hugging while wearing Bliss, the only form of physical contact we see in the whole film. When the main character yells at a worker on the line just as he had been yelled at previously, the worker simply holds up the goggles and the yelling boss is transformed into a smiling, waving figure.
But this is all illusion, and Osborne seems to be warning us that outside forms of happiness are transitory at best, perhaps even outright dangerous illusions. Drugs, alcohol, material goods – in the end, they don’t fulfill us. They always leave us wanting more, and in the pursuit and acquisition, we are always left empty.
The main character of the film realizes this. In the final scene, he sits in his large office, behind his enormous power-desk. He is wearing his Bliss goggles. He removes them. His eyes are sad and baggy – clearly he is still not sleeping well, and the momentary happiness he attained through his invention and the trappings of success has fled. He sets the goggles on his desk and opens the slot in his stomach. The light is gone. Though he found worldly success, he lost himself, lost his essence. Osborne’s film couldn’t be more clear – success and happiness, as our culture defines it, is empty. It leaves us wanting more and more, but the pursuit and acquisition of that more can never fulfill us, and perhaps cost us our very souls.
The main character comes to this sad realization, but it is yet not too late for him. He gets up from his desk and goes to his window, where something has caught his eye. He looks out the window and the camera zooms in on a forgotten corner of this sad city: children, colorful and vibrant, laugh and play on a merry-go-round together.
They wear no goggles.

Thursday, October 7

Freshmen: Today we had the opportunity to hear about the ULSTER Project; otherwise, we would have done some sharing of your letters to the editor. Check the paper, and if you are published, let me know. Read for 20 minutes tonight; vocab due tomorrow.

Sophomores: Today we had the great honor of hearing Mr. McMillian share his expertise about, and experiences living in, South Africa. Due Friday: Vocab and the This I Believe project; Due Monday: Chapter 5. The Monday after break we will have as seminar on Chapter 1-9 in The Power of One.

CNF: Today we began Chapter 6 and the Conclusion of Blink; 3 notes per section; Seminar on Monday, I hope, if not, on Tuesday.

Tuesday, October 5 and Wednesday, October 6

Freshmen: Today we established a criteria for judging whether or not an essay is effective, and we also began answering a list of questions in an effort to determine what some topics might make good essays for each individual writer in the class. You should read for 20 minutes, answer the questions (you need a total of 12 topics for class on Thursday), and be ready for the vocab exam on Friday.

Sophomores: Today we talked about things to improve upon as writers. You are to review the essay you turned in to turnitin.com, the notes you took today in class, and the citation and transition notes listed on this blog, and improve your essay. A paper copy of your revised essay is due on Friday, October 8. Also due Friday is your vocab work. Continue to read from The Power of One - see the blog for the reading schedule.

CNF: Today we had a seminar on Chapter 5.

Transition Example

Sample transition from the writer’s idea to a citation from a text:


I came home from work as soon as I got my sister’s call. When I got home, my mom was in her bed, barely able to speak. She told me that her head hurt, and that she thought she needed to go to the hospital, and I began to feel very afraid. My fear made me indecisive: I couldn’t decide whether to take her to the hospital now, wait for my dad to get home, or call the paramedics so that someone with expertise could take over the situation. I was frozen by my fear. In Life of Pi, Yann Martel perfectly expresses what I felt. In it, Pi Patel is stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. Despite these extreme life-threatening circumstances, Pi reflects that fear “is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life” (161). Standing there, over my mom, I knew I had to act.
My fear, and not the undiagnosed brain aneurism bleeding inside my mom’s skull, was the greatest threat to my mom’s life. That fear was preventing me from taking action, just as Martel describes it:

fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into
your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries
to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier… You
become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured…
But to your amazement… reasons is laid low. You feel yourself weakening,
wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread (161).

This was what I was experiencing, but somehow I was able to recognize it and break out of my paralysis. “Mom,” I said, “I need you to get up and get into the car with me – I am taking you to the hospital.”

Citation Examples

In-Text Citation:
Biofuels are not the answer to our current climate change problems

and energy needs. Using food for fuel is a problem for many reasons.

First, biofuels don’t slow climate change - they may, in fact, accelerate

it. The journal Science published a study that calculated biofuel

production may release “between 17 and 420 times more carbon dioxide

than… fossil fuel” (Dyer, 11). Second, biofuel production drives up the

cost of food. Between 2006 and 2007, “food costs world wide rose by 23

percent”, something that can be linked directly with conversion of

land from food to fuel production (Dyer, 78).


Blocked Citation:

We are facing a food shortage crisis, plain and simple. The World Food

Program has stated it needs upwards of 700 million dollars this year to

help feed the world’s poor, up 200 million from what they needed last

year to feed the same number of people. Last year it became clear that

the era of cheap food was over.

Food costs world-wide rose by 23 percent between 2006 and
2007. This year, what is becoming clear is the impact of this
change on ordinary people’s lives (Dyer, 11).

What might not be clear is the cause: biofuels. Biofuels are fuels

constructed from…

Monday, October 4

Freshmen: Today we finished up our reading of those essay packets. For homework, read for 20 minutes tonight and Tuesday, and finish your criteria for effective essays list. Your list should be at least a page long; we will discuss those lists on the block day. Don't forget - chapter 3 vocab is due Friday.

Sophomores: Today I provided an overview of the background necessary to understand before reading The Power of One. As I said, it is the longest book we read, so you need to make time for it each day - if you do, it will be well worth it. Check the post on the blog that has the reading schedule (be sure to read the 2010 schedule). Don't forget - chapter 3 vocab is due Friday.

CNF: Today we finished Chapter 6; finish it and your notes (3 per section) for our seminar on Wednesday.

Friday, October 1

Freshmen: We had an introduction to the library. You are to read for 20 minutes this weekend and to add about five items to your criteria for effective essays. Remember, vocab and Letters to the Editor due next week.

Sophomores: Today we did an in-class essay exam on what you felt the theme of Life of Pi is. For Monday, be sure to have a copy of The Power of One.

CNF: Today we began Chapter 5 in Blink. If you don't have Freakonomics, get it. We will start it soon.

The Power of One 2010 Reading Schedule

Date: Due:
10/4 Begin Book
10/11 Chapter 5
10/18 Chapter 9 - Seminar - 18 notes due.
10/25 Chapter 12
11/1 Chapter 17 - Seminar - 18 notes due.
11/8 Chapter 22
11/15 Book Due - Seminar - 14 notes due.
***On the due date, all the reading including the chapter listed must be read (e.g. for the first due date, read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).
***On dates that we have a seminar, you should have approximately 2 notes per chapter for us to discuss - however, you might have 1 note for one chapter and 3 for another. It all depends, and so long as you have the total number listed above, you are fine. These may take the form of comments or questions. Refer to the handout on Socratic Seminars that I gave you.