Liberal Arts Education perspectives

Please read Liz Coleman's "A Call to Reinvent Liberal Arts Education" linked here.
While reading consider:
Who is your speaker?  What is her credibility?
What are the main claims Coleman makes?
What is the reasoning behind her argument for change?
Why should we, as an American society, be invested in making a change to the current educational culture?
What is her plan for change?

*Pause here and draw comparisons between Coleman's ideas and Ken Robinson's ideas.

Next, read the follow-up interview with Coleman from 2014.
How is she moving towards making her vision of education a reality?
What is her message to her audience?
How is she trying to influence her audience to affect change and a revolution in education in their own community?

Vocabulary List: Schemes and Tropes

The following is the list of schemes and tropes that we will study this vocabulary unit:
allegory
alliteration
allusion
anadiplosis
anaphora
anthimeria
antimetabole
antithesis
apostrophe
assonance
asyndeton
chiasmus
climax
ellipsis
epistrophe
hyperbole
implied metaphor
irony
litote
metonymy
onomatopoeia
oxymoron
parallelism
parenthesis
periphrasis
personification
rhetorical questions
synecdoche
zeugma

Analysis of essays this week

For this week, we will be spending our time closely analyzing writings completed on exam day.

Tuesday--Work day to ask questions and work on the assignments due this week including:
Wed. & Thurs.-- Peer Rhetorical Analysis Essay is due; we will share these together in class and examine and apply the rubric to student sample essays
Fri.-- Synthesis Essay self-analysis due; we will spend time discussing how to evaluate and utilize sources, and examine and apply the rubric to student sample essays
Mon.-- Multiple choice practice questions from a classmate and vocabulary usage work

To Kill a Mockingbird responses

Over the course of this week, we will be responding to various aspects of speaker, context, and purpose associated with the American novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Please use THIS DOCUMENT to guide you through this unit.

Timeline of due dates:
Wed., 1/7-- Complete characterization journal (for last names A-E) or narration journal (for last names H-V)
Thursday, 1,8-- Complete speaker journal (all students)
Friday, 1,9-- Complete characterization journal (for last names H-V) or narration journal (for last names A-E)
Monday, 1/12-- Complete passage focus, including reading of the assigned speech, create 10 AP-style multiple choice questions, an annotated answer key, and a paragraph explanation for how the speech relates to the novel.

*For creating AP-style multiple choice questions, please use this link to m.c. question stems.

Welcome to class today!

Welcome to class today!  I am happy to see all of you!
Unfortunately, I have almost no voice today, and cannot speak well above a whisper... so, this will be an interesting class period!  In the absence of my voice, we are going to do the following:

1.  Take some time to study vocabulary words, by creating a list of examples of these words "in action" in our readings of the past unit.  This can be done independently or in small groups--20 minutes for this activity.  You will look for examples of each word applied to or found within:
Eudora Welty's "Listening to Words"
Frederick Douglass' "Learning to Read and Write"
Malcolm X's "Learning to Read"
David Brown's "The Importance of Words" and other essays on writing
"Word Power for Babies" from Reader's Digest

2.  Read our final two pieces for this unit:
 "Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie (respond to the two questions at the end with paragraph responses, supported with direct references to Alexie's piece)
"We Can't Teach Students to Love Reading" by Alan Jacobs (respond with your agreement or refusal of at least two of his claims, supporting your ideas with reference to his piece and/or your own experiences in the subject)

For homework, complete the readings above and contemplate memoir project paper 1: what I learned from this memoir.  The planning for this paper should be completed for Thursday and will be checked and reviewed at that time.  Drafting time will be provided for a portion of the class period on Thurs.

Weekend work

This weekend, please work on finishing your memoir book and studying vocabulary words.  To help you study some of the vocabulary words, I have put together this document for you, compiled from segments of different sites that may also be of use to you.  Please use, if you would like, to help clarify word meanings and examples from literature.
Have a good weekend!

The Importance of Words

Read "The Importance of Words" and one other selected essay from the "writing about writing" section of David L. Brown's blog.
1.  While reading, record claims and main ideas that Brown is bringing across to his audience.
2.  At the end of each essay, record what new things you learned about him as a writer from this essay.
3.  At the conclusion of both your readings, write about at least two ideas given in EACH article (4 ideas total) that connected to you personally and/or made you think about the topic on a deeper level.

Next, read "Word Power for Babies" from Reader's Digest 11/2014
1.  While reading, note ideas of strong interest or importance to you.
2.  At the end of reading, write about at least two claims made in this article that further teach us about the significance of language in human development.


Then, dive in and do a "data swim," looking for more info. on these topics.  Explore all the great ways that words, language, and communication have shaped our world!  Create a short keynote with images and words describing what you have learned that is exciting and interesting about the role of language in the world today!