Have a wonderful holiday!!!!!

Remember that you'll need to spend some time working on your researched argument. Take your book home as you'll need it to pick your specific question. Remember that you'll need to do this in full MLA format. The Easybib and OWL links to the right will help with your works cited page and the Owl Page has sample MLA style pages. Everything should be as in the sample page, including the name and page number in the header; however, the heading (name, teacher, class, date) should be single spaced instead of double. This one is worth 150 pts and will be due January 8th.

Any questions, feel free to email me at mr.giddings@comcast.net

Here's the Researched Argument Paper assignment in case you lost yours. ;)

Merry Christmas!

Work first, then party...

Tomorrow we'll be doing some more work with the multiple choice packets as well as looking at how the AP test is scored (by request--what service!).  We'll also be reading and discussing the essay taken from The Destruction of Culture on page 922 of our textbooks.

On Wednesday, we'll make sure there are no questions about the paper before break and having a bit of a party.  We'll talk about who would like to bring what as far as food and drinks tomorrow.

To C or not to C? Depends on whether or not you know the answer...

Ah, multiple choice.  It seems like it should be so easy...

For this evening, work on the first ten questions in your packet.  They are the ones that go with the reading that begins "It is not easy to write a familiar style."

• For all the questions, identify what type of question it is.  For instance, is it a diction question or does it deal with description, tropes, antecedents, etc.?


• For the questions you missed, figure out why you missed it.  To do this, look at the line of thinking that led to your answer and then examine the line of thinking that leads to the correct answer.  Make sure you know why the correct answer is the correct answer.

Tomorrow we will take a look at one way gender is affecting the current election and you will have the opportunity to defend, challenge, or qualify the assertion: the angel in the house is dead and no longer lives in the imaginations of either women or men.

image credit

Being a manly man!

All right folks.  There's a bit less for homework tonight.  Read Being a Man on page 378 and do questions 2, 4-7 a the end of the article.

Synthesis Reminder

Remember out of our class activities that you need to take the following Synthesis Question 2 prompt and blog it completely for Friday December 14th.

 Also, your classmates that are putting the results of our synthesis activity on their blogs are:

• Jen


• Aldrick


• Andrea


• Alycia


• Mary

Highbrow Slacker

For more on gender issues, check out this review of Knocked Up.

You say potato, I say patahto...

Read  About Men and There is No Unmarked Woman in your textbook.   For About Men, blog questions 4 & 7.  For There is No Unmarked Woman, blog questions 3, 5, & 6.

Then blog your reflections on how gender stereotypes affect both society and the individual.  Be specific.

Due Wednesday

Orininal AP Class Synthesis Strategy Guides

Mary's Group: Strategy Guide To Better Writing

December 11, 2007

Good
- Understand
- Read ALL sources
- Contextualize for the intro.
- Synthesize
- Multipule sources in the same paragraph
- Answer the “so what” of the issue to conclude
- READ THE DIRECTIONS!

Bad
- Writing in 1st person
- Stretching connections between citing and thesis
- Summarizing
- Summarizing without CM
- Answering part of OR a less complex version of the question
- Answering a different ot wandering a way from the question
- If it says at least 3 sources, using less than 3

Aldrick's Group: Strategy Guide To Better Writing

Developing an Effective Essay

• Good intro, conclusion, body paragraphs


• Cite sources well


• Makes sure you’re answering the right question!


• Make lots of commentary throughout the essay


• Fully develop your argument


• Remember to use a clear control of language


• Choose the examples you use to support your argument carefully


• Clear transitions

 Mistakes

• Forget to use sources


• Use knowledge from a source without citing it


• Leans toward compare/contrast instead of a synthesis


• Argument not well developed


• Summarize the information


• Answer the wrong question


• Bad transitions


• Poor handwriting

Strategy

• Read passages & sources carefully


• Plan ahead


• Pre-write


• Write essay using skills discussed in this quide


• Re-read


• Breathe

Andrea's Group: How to Write a Synthesis Essay

Before you start writing…
1. Figure out what the question is asking you.
2. Determine if you are challenging, defending, or qualifying.
3. Figure out what sources you are going to use and make sure they support your argument.
4. Devolop your points before you start writing the actual essay (organize your argument).
5. Know the purpose of each paragraph.

Writing Process…
1. Don’t forget to cite the sources.
2. Don’t just list the sources, use them in order to support your argument.
3. Don’t leave a thought hanging; be sure to complete them.
4. Use smooth transitions, connecting each paragraph together with the next.
5. When you use a quote, explain it! Don’t expect the audience to know what’s going on in your head.
6. Don’t oversimplify.
7. Don’t be redundant.
8. Stay on topic.
9. Don’t use big words that you don’t know how to use. Write within yourself.

Strategies…
1. Refer to the essay prompt periodically throughout the essay.
2. Read everything thoroughly.
3. It helps if you prewrite or organize your thoughts before you write anything.
4. Read a lot of outside stuff, like articles, novels… Be aware of current events and catch up on your history because you might need them to write your essay.
5. DON’T - under any circumstances - FREAK OUT!!!

Alycia's Group: Synthesis Writing Suggestions

December 11, 2007

Don’t:

• Be stupid (duh)


• Be like Junho (kind of harsh, huh?)


• Make comments about Pokemon (why would you do that?)


• Use outside sources


• Use fewer sources than the prompt asks


• Repeat yourself


• Make a conclusion like the introduction

Do:

• Organize your thoughts clearly


• Site at least 3 sources


• Answer the prompt


• Mall all three sources different


• Use sources to support your claim


• State your position clearly


• (If possible) state a counterargument and your rebuttal

Strategy:

• Stick with what you should do and stay away from what you shouldn’t do


• (Just for you Nakayla) Be like a ninja; aka Nakayla


• Think to yourself “What would Zach do?”

Harvard and Scholarships

Remember that article we read about rich "dim white kids" and smart middle class kids getting shut out of top colleges?  Well, here's some good news!  Harvard is expanding aid to the middle class, and where Harvard goes, others tend to follow.  Read all about it in the NY Times article.

Who's afraid of the big bad Woolf?

First, we are going to read Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf.  Woolf was an influential author, feminist, and essayist among other things.  You'll find this essay on page 356 of your text.  Blog the answers to the following questions for Monday: Questions for Discussion 1 and 4; Questions on Rhetoric and Style 1-4, 7, 11, and 12.

Then on Tuesday, we're going to take an analytical look at the synthesis essay that we wrote last week.  You're already familiar with the question, but it might not hurt to take another look at it and read through the sample essays.

In small groups, we'll sift through the student responses and look at the commentaries. Take notes on your group discussion.  When you get home, go on your blog and reflect on what exactly the synthetic essay is asking you to do and what you need to remember to be successful.

Finally, for homework you’ll take the following Synthesis Question 2 prompt and blog it completely for Friday December 14th.

• Synthesis Question


• Scoring Guidelines


• Comments by the chief reader


• Student Sample Essays


• Scoring Commentaries


• Synthesis Question 2

PS  Do the homework.  This snow likely isn't going to stick around long.

Women's Brains Part II

Now that we've had a chance to discuss the essay some, let's take the opportunity to delve a bit deeper into Gould's text.  Do questions on rhetoric and style numbers 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11. 

Turn these in on the blog if possible.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at a portion of AI, what it means to be human, and finish with some Woolf.

Underfunded Schools Make Drastic Cuts!

The past tense is history!  (Remember, the onion is satire)

Women's Brains...

In your text, read pages 347-354 (the introduction to the gender chapter and the central essay by Jay Gould entitled Women's Brains).  When you finish, do the following:

Questions for Discussion numbers 1, 3, 4

Questions on Rhetoric numbers 1, 3

These questions will require the use of your noodle.  Don't leave them until right before bed.

Exploring the Future of Happiness

All right folks, your assignment is to do questions 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 on page 629 of The Language of Composition.

I prefer that you turn this one in on your blog, but I will accept paper as well.  This is due tomorrow whether it is on paper or the blog.

Some of you are falling off a bit on your homework completion.  Don't let it become a habit.

Designer babies

Read The Future of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on page 623 of the Language of Composition. 

Then map out the argument, noting why he arranges the peices of his argument they way he does and how they work together to make for a compelling essay.  For example, he leads with the historical context for the issue of eugenics, choosing to quote from Plato's Republic.   How does leading with the historical context and the references to Plato serve his argument?  What is the rhetorical purpose?

You may find it helpful to look at the beginning of the book to see what arrangment(s) he uses and then review the point of the arrangement(s) in your textbook (13-25).

 Please do this one on paper as I'd like to have you do some group work on this as well.

AP Text Commenting, Take 2

All right, let's try this again. 

Under "AP" in the sidebar, there are a list of links.  One link says "Text Annotation Site."

Your assignment is to follow that link and make at least one (1) annotation on the Google article we just did some work with (see, I said no new reading!). I know we've already looked at this article a bit, but this is mainly about familiarizing ourselves with this tool.  Note that their are some basic instructions on what to do in the About box to the right of the Google article link.

You will need to input your name and email address in order to post.  It is important that you put in the same name and email address each time you post comments on the text annotation site so that you get credit for your posts.  (Yes, I changed the options on the blog to get around the problems some all of you were having .)

Try to make more detailed observations about the text and the argument-that is what this tool is for.

Interesting reading

What are we becoming?

There is no requirement that you read the linked article, nor is there an assignment associated with it.  I thought some of you might find it interesting.

How to use this blog

Pay Attention

Read the entire post.  People asked me several times today if setting up their blog was all they were supposed to do.  READ THE POSTS. 

 Several people on the Poe assignment did questions 1 through 4.  The post reads "questions 1 and 4".  If you don't pay attention, you won't know what to do and might do too much or too little.

I will do my best to give you clear instructions.  Do your part by reading them.

Hit Publish

When you publish your posts, hitting "save" only saves them.  You must hit Publish for your post to make it on your blog in such a way that others can read it (or give you credit for it).

Learn how to use the site

Visit http://edublogs.org/support and at least watch the video entitled "an introduction to using edublogs".

Make Sure You're Up To Date

Go back and make sure you've done all the assignments and all the parts of the assignments on this blog.

In the future, check this blog every day for announcements and assignments.  You are responsible for doing the work posted here.

Privacy

Read this article and reflect on the issue of privacy and technology a là the chaperone feature on some cellphones.  Create a Toulmin argument expressing your own thoughts using facts from this article and any others you care to use.  Post the results to your blog. 

Note:  there was a bit of confusion about what I meant when I said to dreate a Toulmin argument.  I meant to write an argument based on your reflections that contained the elements of a Toulmin argument, i.e. a claim, fasts, warrant, etc.  When you present your thoughts to someone, leading with "Claim:...isn't going ot be particularly persuasive.

Make sure you do these things

1. Email me your username if you don't see your site linked on the right (mr.giddings@comcast.net)


2. Create a link to http://giddings.edublogs.org on your site (on your dashboard, click blogroll and then add link and type or paste the link).  I recommend bookmarking the site at home too as we will use it for assignments on a fairly consistent basis.


3. Complete the Poe assignment on your blog


4. Complete the iClaim assignment below and email it to mr.giddings@comcast.net

Setting up your blog

1. Go to learnerblogs.org


2. Choose K-12 student


3. Enter a username and your email address


4. Give me the address to your new blog so I can add it to our main page "Giddings Noodleblog"


5. Visit My Profile and pick a password you will remember (don't forget it--I won't be able to help you if you do)


6. Go to the plugin tab on your dashboard and activate advanced editing


7. Go to the presentation tab and pick a theme


8. Go to support and click video tutorials and watch "an introduction to using edublogs"


9. Create a post in which you reflect on Poe's sonnet To Science found in our textbook on page 663.  Include responses to questions 1 and 4.  Feel free to use dictionary.com to help with some of Poe's vocabulary.

iClaim

Complete the iClaim tutorial #1 and submit the work via email to mr.giddings@comcast.net.

Logical Arguments

[slideshare id=173615&doc=logical-argument-1195585762596186-5&w=425]

Thanks to Nate Stearns for this fine slide show. This is really cool. I promise to learn how to do this sort of thing myself.