Thursday and Friday's class

After correcting the Fallacy quiz from yesterday (in 6th we will take it and correct it in one period), we reviewed Persuasive Techniques in Advertising today and watched the videos posted on my blog yesterday.

Tomorrow, you will be Analyzing Ads in your Socratic groups, filling out the chart I just linked for you in this sentence.


For the weekend, I would like you to conduct a Commercial Dig.  (I think this will work if you watch a show on your computer too.  Usually there are commercials periodically spaced or even just at the beginning?)

On Monday we will be analyzing POLITICAL CARTOONS, so if you want to bring one that you have found yourself, please feel free.

Vocabulary Lesson 5 will finally be introduced tomorrow.  See my quizlet page for links to words online.

Persuasion and Fallacies in Advertising

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

Below are a few videos that I hope we will be able to watch in class that demonstrate a few of the fallacies we have discussed in class on Wednesday.  

Your homework for FRIDAY is to find a print ad, a television commerical, or an internet-based ad to bring to class to share with your group and analyze together. 

This link can help you find suitable examples of internet advertisements: Web Resources

Here is an example of something you could post on edmodo for us to examine on Friday/Monday.

What appeals or fallacies can you spot in this advertisment for perfume? (In other words, what works...what doesn't?)

Monday: Intro to Argument

We started class by discussing the argument in this political cartoon, one of the types of visual texts we will be analyzing during this unit.

Then, we read the short introduction to Argument from Everything's an Argument and took notes on the graphic organizer I attached on Friday's post.

On the back side, I showed students a different definition of argument that refers to academic writing and draws a clear distinction between argument vs. persuasion.  Students took notes onto the four square. Here is the handout we took notes from:

Tonight the homework is to reflect on what you learned from reading the chapter and the difference between argument (which applied to the EA chapter is really the argument to convince) and persuasion.

Tomorrow---fallacies!

Weekend post: a Critique of The SAT persuasive essay

Listen to this: drawbacks of SAT essay on NPR

Monday and Tuesday: Heads up!

For Monday's class.  We are reading a chapter from Everything's an Argument.  
Graphic Organizer for Argument Intro

On Tuesday, we will be studying FALLACIES

Purdue Owl: Logical Fallacies
After we read about them, I would like you and your partner to take these Fallacy Quizzes.

Coordination and Subordination

Thursday and Friday are devoted to learning more about how to use coordination and subordination as a strategy for writing more effectively. Friday we will read from The Language of Composition, from which these notes are taken.

1. COORDINATION:

      Markers: involves coordinating conjunctions (fanboys), or semicolons.
   
     Functions:        

• increases coherence between ideas--by combining two short sentences into one
• adds to fluency of prose
• can emphasis two things equally
• to show the relationship between two ideas (cause and effect/ contrast)
• a semicolon is used to signal that two ideas are closely related (balance or alternation, general to specific) watch out for comma splices!  ( The semicolon as fulcrum)
• starting a sentence with a FANBOYS can work as long as you have good reason for it!  For transition or emphasis

POLYSYNDETON: the deliberate use of a series of conjunctions, usually for emphasis or increased pacing. 

ASYNDETON: the deliberate omission of conjunctions, usually for separating ideas more distinctly and giving them greater emphasis.

2. SUBORDINATION: the use of a subordinating conjunction (see below) to make the meaning of one clause dependent on another clause.

Functions:

•         for logic and clarity

They can indicate relationships (contrast or concession---although, even though, though, while, whereas/cause and effect or reason---because, since, so that/condition---if,once, unless/ time---when, whenever, after, before, as, once, since, while)

• to blend short sentences into graceful, longer sentences
• you can choose which one will be subordinate, but keep in mind that the independent clause usually carries the most force.

PUNCTUATION RULES:  You need to put a comma at the end of an opening subordinate clause, but not necessarily if the clause is at the end of the sentence (remember RESTRICTIVE and NONRESTRICTIVE clauses).

Partner work goals for today:

Coordination:  Excercises 1 and 2

Subordination: Exercises 1 and 2

Tuesday's Class: A "Museum Walk"

Today we reviewed for the Final Assessment on The Scarlet Letter tomorrow by gathering in groups to explore different theme statements about the novel. Here are a few of them:

The central theme of The Scarlet Letter is

1. The orthodox Puritan view that sin is permanently damaging and its inevitable destructiveness is inescapable.

2. the concept of the Fortunate Fall, which acknowledges the reality of sin but considers it the source of wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.

3. the Romantic idea that society is guilty; that Hester and Dimmesdale did not sin but responded to a natural urge and society has sinned against nature in persecuting them.

4. that the sin of adultery is unimportant; what is really important is the sin of concealment, the sign that the lovers have not been true to who they are.  Theirs is a sin of the soul, a failure of self-trust. This approach would, like the Romantic interpretation, reject the social mores of the Puritan world and accept natural passion, but would still see the lovers as sinful.

5. the pyschological interpretation that sin is of no significance in itself; what is more important is the effects of sin on the human pysche; sin is only a reality in terms of what the character thinks is sinful and there is no absolute moral law but only the morality of individual responses to particular circumstances.

6. the feminist view that the evil is the product of a patriarachal church and social system in which women are victimized by their economic dependence and subservient roles.  Hester is a strong character whose individuality develops through her sexual  independence, but she is defeated by a patriarchal system because she submits to Dimmesdale's commitment to the laws of patriarchy....Hester remains bound to Dimmesdale's world because of her love for him, but she recognizes the injustice of the female's role in it.

7. that isolation causes each character to change or become an exaggerated version of himself or herself.

8.  that intolerance and lack of forgiveness create more problems than they intend to solve.

Students used handouts to find key quotations from the novel to support their assigned statement. (2nd period).  They wrote them on butcher paper and posted them on the wall.
Students in 6th period will extend their examination of that theme by a) finding more quotations/symbols/irony that support the theme and b) adding illustrations of symbols or key scenes to the theme statements.

In the final review of the theme statement presentations, I would like students to do a "museum walk" around the class, adding a) questions and commentary  b) a star next to presentations they think are persuasive and c) a star in a circle for the one they would write about if they could.

Monday's class

Today, we finished the Socratic Seminar discussion and students reflected in writing (on the bottom of the handout) about class on Friday.  Then everyone turned in the chart.

We then met in partners to fill out "Comparing Two or More Texts," using chapter 2 and The New York Times column by Frank Bruni.  We shared out in a full class discussion at the end of class.

I have moved the final assessment to Wednesday, since tomorrow is a short day.  I am attaching a link to a great site with practice tests for the Scarlet Letter.  I hope you find it helpful. Tomorrow we will spend some time reviewing themes, symbols and plot in a friendly competition.


Scarlet Letter study help

One last thing....we have just discovered that three of us have signed up to teach the same book (The Grapes of Wrath) at the same time. Argh!!!!  If there at at least 33 of you who are willing to purchase this book, we would like to know ASAP.(see the poll on the top right of this blog)  We are hoping to start it next week.

Weekend homework: Text to Text Analysis

Key Question: To what extent is there still a sexual double standard, and how does that double standard play out in contemporary culture?


Comparing Two or More Texts

Double Entry journal


Reread Chapter 2, focusing specifically on the first few pages, to where Hester exits the prison.

Then, read the following excerpt from a New York Times editorial and fill out the double-entry chart.  On MONDAY we will work in partners to fill out the Comparing Two or More Texts handout.

Op-Ed: Sex and the Single Murderess
From The New York Times, May 5, 2013, by Frank Bruni

Earl Wilson/The New York TimesFrank Bruni

“Sex game gone wrong,” “sex game gone awry,” “sex-mad flatmate,” “sex-crazed killer.”

That’s from just the first three minutes of the ABC News special on Amanda Knox last week, a veritable drumbeat of sexual shaming that leaves no doubt about what elevated a college student accused of murder into an object of international fascination, titillation and scorn.

It wasn’t the crime itself. It was the supposed conspiracy of her libido, cast as proof that she was out of control, up to no good, lost, wicked, dangerous. A girl this intent on randy fun was a girl who couldn’t be trusted and got what was coming to her, even if it was prison and even if there was plenty of reason — as the eventual reversal of her initial conviction made clear — to believe that she might not belong there.

… Men get passes, women get reputations, and real, lasting humiliation travels only one way. The size and scope of that mortification, despite many decades of happy talk about dawning gender equality, are suggested by recent news stories of one teenage girl in California and another in Nova Scotia who hanged themselves after tales or cellphone pictures of their sexual violation circulated among peers. It’s impossible not to wonder if shame drove them to suicide, and it’s impossible not to ask what sort of world allows the victims of such assaults to feel more irredeemably branded — more eternally damned — than their accused assailants by all appearances do.

I’ll tell you what sort: a world in which there’s a cornucopia of synonyms for whore and slut and no comparably pejorative vocabulary for promiscuous or sexually rapacious men.

… When we chart and lament the persistence of sexism in society, we look to the United States Congress, where women are still woefully underrepresented. We look to corporate boardrooms, where the glass ceiling hasn’t really shattered. But we needn’t look any further than how perversely censorious of women’s sex lives we remain, and how short the path from siren to slut and from angel to she-devil can be.

Thursday's class

Today we started with a few practice SAT writing questions: SAT online practice test: Improving Sentences

Then, students pulled out one important piece of dialogue from the last 4 chapters to use to "quiz" the other side of the classroom.  It went up on the ladybug, and I gave points to the left/right side if they could identify the speaker, context, and significance of the quotation.

Tomorrow is our 3rd Socratic Seminar of the year.  If you were absent, you need to print and fill out column 1 and column 2 of the form in our shared folder.  The link to it is here: Socratic Form for Friday

Final Assessment on SL is on Tuesday.

Tuesday's class

I was at the District Office yesterday (Tuesday).  The plan was for students to take notes on vocabulary Lesson 4 from the Power Plus book.  Flashcards are also posted for you (see Pages).

The last 30 minutes, students were asked to write a paragraph about Chapter 20, using the following prompt:

The title of this chapter is "The Minister in a Maze."  Use specific details from the text that illustrate the "maze" Dimmesdale finds himself in walking back to town.  Why is he so lost? 

One paragraph of at least 10-12 sentences.

THIS PARAGRAPH WAS DUE AT THE END OF THE PERIOD.  If you did not do that, be sure to have it the minute class starts Thursday.  

Read chapters 21-24 for Thursday.  Highlight or write down key quotations as you read that you will use in a quiz for the class.  :)

Monday's class

Today we started with a quotation from chapters 16-19 as a reading quiz.

Then I assigned partners to work on one question from the close reading questions for 16-19.

Read chapter 20 tonight.  Tomorrow you will be writing a journal on Chapter 20 and working on your new vocabulary words, possibly even starting the coordination/subordination lesson for The Scarlet Letter.

Please continue sticking to the schedule, although I will not see most of my second period students on Wednesday.  We will try to tackle 21-24 (the ending) on Thursday.

Friday's class: Assessing your paraphrasing

Today we started by taking the Vocabulary Test Lesson 3.

Then, we reviewed the paraphrasing and students gave themselves a score on the assessment based on my marks and our discussion.  Then we did the same with the elaboration side, focusing on this question:

How do the two quotations provide us with support for the idea that Dimmesdale's only hope is in publicly confessing on the scaffold?

We also discussed the possible meanings of "The Scarlet Letter had not done its office." (Chapter 13)

Read chapters 16-19 for Monday.  Questions are in google docs folder but also linked here: Chapters 16-19

Thursday's class: The Scarlet Letter

Today we started class debriefing the assembly today,  then combined two more sentences, using participial phrases.

The bulk of class was used for finishing the Assessment 2 on The Scarlet Letter.  All papers were turned in to me.

The next assigned reading--16-19 is for MONDAY, since we have a vocabulary test tomorrow on Lesson 3.

The last 15 minutes of class were used for Vocabulary Volleyball.  

Class Wednesday: Paraphrasing and Elaborating

Today we will work on paraphrasing key quotations from Part Two of  The Scarlet Letter, (chapters 9-12).

Before we practice doing this with actual quotations from the text, we will need to be sure everyone is clear about what paraphrasing is.  Paraphrasing, Summarizing and Quoting

There are times when it is absolutely essential to quote the text directly because what is being said is "particluarly striking: in its phrasing or word choice (Purdue Owl).  Whether you choose to paraphrase or quote directly, it is important that you begin to DO SOMETHING with the quotations that takes us deeper into the text and/or supports a particularly interpretation about it.  The GUIDING QUESTION you should think of at these times is "SO WHAT?"  Or a sentence frame you may use is "These lines demonstrate....."


If you are absent today, you can find the Assessment for Part Two in your google doc folder.

Tuesday's class

Today we started class with students attempting to imitate 4 professional writers in their use of participial phrases.

Then, we corrected the quiz from yesterday together.  TREND DATA:  There is a key difference between paraphrasing and elaborating on significance.

We had very little time to discuss the reading, but did spend some time studying the very end of chapter 10 and what it is that Chillingworth might have seen on Dimmesdale bare chest...and why does Hawthorne not show it to us?????

Homework is to read chapters 11 and 12 for tomorrow.