Week 7: February 19-22

UPCOMING DUE DATES

Tuesday 2/14: Whitman and Dickinson Explication + Response Assessment

Friday 2/22: Research Brainstorming -- five names and rationales due (will accept on time until Monday 2/25)
Monday 2/25: Research Pre-Interview Survey due (will accept on time until Wednesday 2/27)
Monday 3/4: Research Interview Questions Due
Monday 3/11: Research Interview MP3 due
Monday 3/18: Interview Transcript and Summary Due

Thursday 2/21: First Biography Reading Check (see schedule below)
Thursday 2/28: Second Biography Reading Check (see schedule below)
Thursday 3/7: Third Biography Reading Check (see schedule below)
Thursday 3/14: Biography Parallel Final Assessment

RECENT HANDOUTS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Imagining Emily Dickinson -- article and assignment
• Imagining Emily Dickinson -- poems
• Emily Dickinson -- background and photos
• Dickinson -- I'm Nobody! Who are You? 
• Dickinson: Explication Outline Assignment
• Whitman:The Poet of Democracy -- notes on style, article, poems, assignment  
• Whitman: Explication Outline Assignment 
• Whitman "O Me, O Life"
• Biography Reading Schedule and Assignment

• Research: Interview Subjects Brainstorming 
• Research: Pre-Interview Survey 

 

Tuesday 2/19

 Whitman Dickinson Explication Quest (Part I)

Wednesday 2/20

• Finish Whitman Dickinson Quest Part II
• Introduction to American Voices Research Project
• Need to find a research subject that is not a family member so you can objectively examine the way that they have experience American cultural and historical events
• It's important that you choose carefully -- that you select someone who can reflect on their life so that you will be able to examine the way that historical events or cultural
• Talk to your folks to see if they have thoughts about a neighbor or family friend who has a interesting perspective on America or who has had an experience that relates to a historical or cultural shift in America.

• View Story Corps video to help you see how you could connect a person's life story to historical events or cultural shift -- what would you research to bring secondary sources?
• Brainstorm five possible candidates for your research interview assignment and write the rationales
• Homework: finish reading your biography for the quiz

Thursday 2/21

• Biography Reading Check
• Discuss progress on brainstorming for interview subjects
• Problem solving how to find an interview subject -- how you present yourself is key; you must establish ethos (your credibility which gives the subject a reason to trust you and volunteer to help you) -- speak clearly and articulately, explain what you need, present yourself well -- dressed nicely, good posture. Remember that people make judgements about you in the first five seconds -- before you even open you mouth, they will decide whether they can trust you.  Right or wrong, it is the way our society works. So consider this exercise of finding a person to help you a dress rehearsal for when you look for a job or visit a college recruiter.  You have to sell yourself and your ideas in the right way.  I believe in you -- you have to believe in this project, or else this will be a very bumpy road for the next month.
• Look at Story Corps video and connect the subject's life to historical context:

Friday 2/22

• Work on reading schedule -- subtract the page number where you are now from the page number where you need to be next Thursday and divide by six; now multiply by how many minutes it takes you to read a page (and to read actively, absorbing what you are reading) -- probably two.  Now you know how much time you need to devote to reading each day so that you can get a better score on next week's quiz than you got on this week's quiz.  If you miss a day, you need to double the time the next day.  READ!
• Write five discussion questions that get at the meaning of the text -- these should not be what-questions that can be answered with a short plot question, but rather it should be a why-question that you reflect on what the text has to say about life, human nature, society.
• In your groups (if you met the 10% benchmark), you will write a two-chuck paragraph to discuss your answer to one of the questions you devised.  If you did not meet the benchmark, you need to finish reading and write the paragraph for homework -- due Monday.
•  Here are the guidelines for the paragraph:
• For the topic sentence, answer the discussion question with what you believe to be a key idea in this section of the book
• Chunk 1 – an example from the text that shows this idea with commentary about how it proves your point about the book:
• Introduce and give the background to an event in the book that shows this is an important idea
• Give textual evidence – a quote or a paraphrase
• Comment on what this example shows – go beyond the surface and analyze the situation for what it infers about human nature, society, power/powerlessness, integrity, honesty, strength of character, moments of weakness 
• Transition to chunk 2 – how does the second example compare or contrast to the first example
• Chunk 2 – repeat the process
• Clincher sentence – what do you think is the most important idea to note about your character or situation