Week 11: March 18-22

UPCOMING DUE DATES

Monday 3/18: Interview Transcript and Summary due
Monday 3/25: Secondary Research -- Three Annotated Articles with Reflection due (see assignment posted under Thursday 3/21)
Wednesday 3/27: Outline due
Monday 4/1: Rough Draft due
Thursday 4/4: Final Draft due

RECENT HANDOUTS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Research: Interview Subjects Brainstorming 
• Research: Pre-Interview Survey  
• Malcolm Gladwell "Slackers" for reverse outline 
• Research: Interview Questions
• Research: Interview Tips 
• Secondary Research Guide

 

Monday 3/18

--> Topic Mapping to find your paper's point and focus --  

• Decide where your focus is and be selective: Choose a few points/incidents in the person’s life (choose wisely!) that all reveal the same idea or point
• Decide what the point is – what does your interview subject’s life show? 
• Jot down, in one sentence, the most fascinating aspect of the interview subject’s life or experience – something that says who they are, what they value, etc. 
• What does this one aspect reveal about America, the resilience of character, culture, identity, society? What is the cause of the problem? What are the effects?
• Your paper will typically fall into one of two broad camps about America's society, culture, relationships, etc:  
• does your interview subject’s life reflect an optimistic view of America in which their character or ideals show a positive ideal of America?
• does your interview subject's life reflect a pessimistic view of America in which their challenges and problems reflect a negative view of America?

Map your paper with the notecard/post it system

• Blue cards: narrative detail from interview -- what are the most revealing points about your subject (an action, choice, decision or problem that shows who he/she is) 
• Yellow cards: reflection, commentary, interpretation -- what does this detail reveal about your subject?
• character/morality 
• priorities/values 
• how society impacts their actions, decisions, problems
• causes/effects of problem 
• view of America -- an ideal or an aspect of America revealed by this situation
• Red cards: research topic and questions, findings from secondary sources -- if the blue and yellow cards are about your interview subject; then your red card are about the circumstances of their life -- the historic context of America that influenced their life

Tuesday 3/19

• Decide what the central point of your paper is -- spread out all your yellow and blue cards.  
• Read just the blue cards -- do all of the actions/events/situations from your interview subject's life show a similar view or idea about the person? If not remove the irrelevant ones and replace with more relevant ones.
• Read just the yellow cards -- do the character traits, ideas, and challenges that you have interpreted about the subject's life show a similar view of the person or of American? If not remove the irrelevant ones and replace with more relevant ones.
• On the white card, in several sentence describe the central point that all of these situations and ideas show -- this will be the main focus of your paper.  
• If you cannot describe a central point, you need to keep thinking.  Your paper is more than a recollection of unrelated situations -- you need to choose carefully so that you are working toward a cohesive idea.  You can reflect on how the person's moral character or family structure have influenced his or her life; you can discuss how a societal or cultural problem has impacted their decisions; you can trace the shifts in culture and society over the course of their lifetime -- BUT THERE MUST BE A UNIFYING POINT.

Wednesday 3/20

• On your red cards, brainstorm research topics and search terms that will give context to the events of the person's life.  Remember that your paper will be a blend of narrative writing (describing and telling the story of your interview subject's life) and expository writing (explaining the times in which lived and historical/cultural/societal events impacted the situation)
• Complete research review guide to review effective research practices and open guide quiz
• Begin conducting research

 Thursday 3/21

• Begin conducting research
• It is crucial that you choose articles wisely -- random facts and arbitrary statistics are not going to help you give context to this person's life.  What you need to find are sources that give you DEEP INFORMATION and UNDERSTANDING about the time period -- the cultural norms, the societal beliefs, the political movements, the moral framework, the mood -- optimistic or pessimistic, the relationships and rituals, the technology, work and jobs, etc.  All of these will help you understand why the person did what they did during this time period.  
• So you will need to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find your prince!  What I mean is you need to look at a lot of articles in order to find one that will help you paint a picture of this time period.  On average you should look at ten or so articles to find each one.  
• Before you start reading, consider the source's credibility and timeliness.  Double-check page 3 of the research guide (linked above) for more tips
• Obviously you do not have time to read thirty articles so here are some tips for skimming:
• Read the first and last paragraph to get the overall point of the article. 
• If that looks good, scroll to the middle of the article and read the first sentence of five consecutive paragraphs.
• If that looks good, skim the whole article
• Secondary Research Assignment --
• find and print three credible and relevant articles
• highlight key ideas in the article and annotate to describe how the idea is relevant to you interview subject's experiences
• write one paragraph (informal) to summarize the article's main points and to describe how you will use these points in your paper. 

Friday 3/22

• Vocab Quiz Unit 9
• Work on research -- secondary research due on Monday!
• Also you need to finish your follow up interview over the weekend if you need one to tell the full story of the person's experiences.