Obama's 2nd Inaugural

Tonight take a little time to

1. explain Obama's rhetorical strategy in his 2nd inaugural address. Focus on a) how he is responding to the context we talked about today and b) what he was doing to set the agenda. 
2. Then, draw some comparisons between this and JFK's inaugural address.

Link to the address.

What's on the final?

Well,
The Toulmin Model
A wee bit of using the Toulmin Model
The Aristotelian Triangle (p. 3-4 of the TLC book and page 6 in the Everyday Use book)
What's a Rogerian Argument?
AP squared is persona, purpose, audience, argument (outside for each facet goes the claim about that facet -- inside goes evidence from the text supporting that claim)
A tad bit of rhetorical vocab (the stuff from the summer assignment)
Oh, and an analysis timed write.
I think that's about it.

Allegory of the Cave

Please blog the following questions concerning Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

1. In the first paragraph, what does the speaker identify as his purpose?
2. Explain the analogy the speaker makes in paragraph 5.
3. Characterize the tone of Socrates, the principal speaker.
4. Characterize the attitude of Glaucon.
5. Read paragraph 29 carefully. Explain the implication the speaker makes about the way humans live. Does such a characterization apply to life today?
6. In paragraph 35 Socrates explains the allegory he has thus far made. How persuasive is he?
7. Inferring from Plato's argument in this allegory, where can we assume morality and ethics come from? (Just to look a tad deeper..)

Note about tomorrow: Christine successfully lobbied for a study day for the vocabulary final (she accepts flowers, chocolate, and gift cards). If people use the time, wonderful. If people do not use the time, there will be an assignment at the ready to fill the gap. :)

This I Believe Paper

Ninja Nakayla Chan

Your This I Believe essay is due on Tuesday January 22nd. It should be uploaded to your blog and you will be reading it aloud in class as well. I will read along and grade the live presentation. Here are the requirements adapted from the This I Believe submission page (I encourage you to submit them to This I Believe if you wish). Keep the following in mind when you write your essay:

1. Limit your essay to 350-500 words.
2. Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.
3. Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!
4. Read more of the This I Believe essay-writing tips.

You can peruse multiple examples at http://thisibelieve.org. Often the ones put on the radio are a bit better, but not necessarily so.

Andrea Kang's (Class of 2009) This I Believe essay. They re-posted it from its original posting so all of the comments are gone, but her essay is there.

MLK day note: Did anyone else recognize some rhetoric echos in President Obama's inaugural address this morning? Maybe we'll take a look at that after finals.

So, what exactly do they believe?

This weekend read the rest of chapter 1 from the Everything's an Argument. Also read I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe by Robert Coles in your packet and blog your answers to both the comprehension and Rhetoric questions.

Go Hawks!

Everything's an Argument

Please read to page 20 for tomorrow (stop at the heading Kinds of Argument). Actually you can read the whole thing if you have time. We will read it all anyway. This is an introductory chapter, so it is laying out the landscape of argument for you. It's a good foundation.

To be or not to be?

Should the state make that decision?

You have now read two articles on the death penalty. The first was by H.L. Mencken who thought it a good idea, but that it was cruel to make people wait months (I wonder what he would think of us now that we make death row inmates wait years?). The second was by Coretta Scott King, who thought the use of the death penalty degraded our society. Using these two perspectives and your own background knowledge, write your own argument for or against the death penalty either in America or in general. Make sure that you make a nuanced claim that recognizes the complexity of the issue and that you support that claim (or those claims).
Some of you may feel passionately about this. This is not meant to be a full blown essay, so cap this off at about 300-400 words (about the size of the assertion journals -- you could even use that as a model for doing this if you want to).

PS See a couple of posts down for a link to the Toulmin model. Also, see this model. We'll talk about that soon.

See if downloading this works. It will likely be seen better on a computer than a phone. You need to be logged into your Fifeschools account to download this one.

Just read...

...the packet you got in class today (Friday). Well, not the whole packet. Read the introduction (pp. 483-4), then read H.L Mencken's The Penalty of Death on pages 485-7 and Corretta Scott King's The Death Penalty Is a Step Back on pages 488-490. In other words, read from page 483-490.

Before you read each of the two short essays, peruse the comprehension questions for each essay as they may aid you in focusing on their argument (the rhetoric questions deal with how they are making that argument). No blog this weekend. Just read and be ready to discuss.

Toulmin Model

Stephen Toulmin

For some notes on the Toulmin method we looked at today, click here. We'll look at a piece tomorrow that demonstrates another argument approach, and we'll try to apply Toulmin to it as well. Happy writing!