If you get bored during Winter Break ...

The Circuit Bouldering Gym, otherwise known as The Happiest Place on Earth, is offering high school kids free climbing from December 18th - 24th. Click the link for more info.

Agenda, December 14

• Due Now: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 
• Due Thursday: "On Being a Cripple," by Nancy Mairs, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Friday: Using two of the essays we've read this term, write a synthesis paragraph that answers the question "How do people overcome obstacles?" Typed. MLA. In the unlikely event of a snow day on Friday, this will be due on January 4. 

Agenda:

1. What's a synthesis paragraph again?
2. Santa Stull ... is coming to class ...
3. Research time

Agenda, December 13

• Due Now: "'I Just Wanna Be Average'," by Mike Rose, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Read it with a dictionary open. Add it to your Bib (pay attention to the quotation marks).
• Due Tomorrow: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 
• Due Thursday: "On Being a Cripple," by Nancy Mairs, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 

Agenda:

1. Hall Pass Procedures
2. Violence questions?
3. Device and Purpose
4. One thing you looked up ...
5. An"Average" class discussion

I'm somebody! Who are you?*

*The title of this post is, as is always often the case, a brilliant pun / allusion. You're welcome.


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1.     Chris Kyle 2.     Kyle Carpenter 3.     Somebody who does crazy things 4.     Marilyn Monroe 5.     Michelle Obama 6.     A person who, by existing, made the world a better place 7.     Ruth Bader Ginsburg 8.     Emma Watson 9.     Edward Snowden 10. Neil deGrasse Tyson 11. Donald Trump 12. Walt Disney 13. Jim Jordan 14. Myself 15. Elvis 16. The Rich 17. Rosa Parks 18. The PIGs 19. People who do great things as opposed to the people who do bad things 20. Abraham Lincoln

21. Bill Nye 22. The Supreme Court 23. Steve Jobs 24. Jordan Low 25. Donald E. Knuth 26. Michael Jordan 27. Kanye West 28. The Rock 29. J.K. Rowling 30. David Bowie 31. Emma Watson 32. Alexander Hamilton 33. Nelson Mandela 34. The Bush Family 35. Kim Kardashian 36. Brian Kernighan 37. Maya Angelou 38. Anyone

Agenda, December 12

• Due Now: Review the definitions of rhetorical strategies that you've already been quizzed on this year. Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.
• Due Now: Says/Does/Because for "Two Ways to Belong in America," by Bharati Mukherjee, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Tuesday: "'I Just Wanna Be Average'," by Mike Rose, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Read it with a dictionary open. Add it to your Bib (pay attention to the quotation marks).
• Due Wednesday, 12/14: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 

Agenda:

1. Device and Purpose
2. The synth prompt, just for kicks
3. Who is somebody?
4. Diction in "Two Ways ..."
5. Says / Does / Because ...

Hey, Period 4!

A couple of delinquents stayed after class today to keep talking about the issue of colorblindness in "How it Feels ..." We realized that people were using the same quotes to argue opposite opinions. This is probably because we never actually defined the term "colorblind."

It might be a good use of your time this weekend to figure out what you mean when you say "colorblind."

Agenda, December 9

• Due Now: Review the definitions of rhetorical strategies that you've already been quizzed on this year. Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.
• Due Now: "How it Feels to be Colored Me," by Zora Neale Hurston, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. Take good notes.
• Due Now: Says/Does/Because for "Two Ways to Belong in America," by Bharati Mukherjee, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Now: Hard copy of your Bibliography. Did you add The Color Purple? Please review this post before offering help to your guy. 
• Due Tuesday: "'I Just Wanna Be Average'," by Mike Rose, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Read it with a dictionary open. Add it to your Bib (pay attention to the quotation marks).
• Due Wednesday, 12/14: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 

Agenda:

1. How it Feels to have a whole class discussion
2. Diction in How it Feels
3. Device and Purpose

Agenda, December 7

• Due Now: Review the definitions of rhetorical strategies that you've already been quizzed on this year. Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.
• Due Wednesday: "How it Feels to be Colored Me," by Zora Neale Hurston, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. Take good notes.
• Due Friday: Says/Does/Because for "Two Ways to Belong in America," by Bharati Mukherjee, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Friday: Hard copy of your Bibliography. Did you add The Color Purple? Please review this post before offering help to your guy. 
• Due Wednesday, 12/14: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 

Agenda:

1. Device and Purpose
2. Vocab Quiz
3. How it Feels to have a whole class discussion

Agenda, December 6

• Due Now: Review the definitions of rhetorical strategies that you've already been quizzed on this year. Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.
• Due Wednesday: "How it Feels to be Colored Me," by Zora Neale Hurston, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. Take good notes.
• Due Friday: Says/Does/Because for "Two Ways to Belong in America," by Bharati Mukherjee, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Friday: Hard copy of your Bibliography. Did you add The Color Purple? Please review this post before offering help to your guy. 
• Due Wednesday, 12/14: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 

Agenda:

1. A Game Called Bluff
2. MC Discussion
3. Device and Purpose

Agenda, December 5

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• Due Now: Review the definitions of rhetorical strategies that you've already been quizzed on this year. Know the definitions and be able to recognize examples.
• Due Wednesday: "How it Feels to be Colored Me," by Zora Neale Hurston, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. Take good notes.
• Due Friday: Says/Does/Because for "Two Ways to Belong in America," by Bharati Mukherjee, from 50 Essays, 2nd edition. Add it to your Bib. 
• Due Friday: Hard copy of your Bibliography. Did you add The Color Purple? Please review this post before offering help to your guy. 
• Due Wednesday, 12/14: Optional Essay: Write a narrative or an argument that answers this question: How would you solve the public health crisis of gun violence? MLA format. 650-750 words. Include word count under the header on page 1. 

Agenda:

1. Your next synthesis
2. Topic Sentence Sort
3. Multiple Choice Discussion Groups

"Somebody" Synthesis Prompt

“Somebody” Synthesis Essay
Due Wednesday, January 11^th 

Task: In Alice Walker’s 1970 novel, The Color Purple, when Mr. _________ discovers that Celie is leaving him to strike out on her own, he declares, “You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddamn, he say, you nothing at all” (Walker 206). Based on several of our in class readings, your personal observations and experience, and your independent research, write an essay in which you answer the question, “What does it mean to be somebody in America?” and / or “How does one become somebody in America?”

Support your claim with direct quotations from multiple texts (a minimum of five sources from class or independent research), properly formatted in MLA style.

Typed. Double Spaced. Twelve point. No blank lines between paragraphs, except to indicate a major shift in tone or setting. Four - seven pages. Don’t forget a title.

Required:

·      Underline and label examples of three different rhetorical strategies. 
·      A minimum of two synthesis paragraphs. 
·      A minimum of five sources. 
·      A minimum of two sources from independent research. 
·      Properly formatted Works Cited Page.

Suggested: Define “a somebody” without referring to the dictionary. Consider exemplification and analogy as powerful tools for definition.

Audience: 1) The editor of a nationally published magazine. 2) The well-educated readers of that magazine. 3) Yourself.

Purpose: 1) To explore the definition of success in America. 2) To explore strategies for achieving success in America. 3) To explore the relationship between identity and success. 4) To suggest a plan of action for the future.

How to approach this paper:

·      Develop an opinion on this subject. 
·      Gather evidence (from our texts and from research) to support your opinion. This is an argument; therefore, personal experience is valid evidence and first person is an acceptable POV (when used effectively). 
·      Create clear, defensible topic sentences. 
·      Draft paragraphs with two quotations to support your topic sentences. 
·      Draft paragraphs with an eye towards ethos, pathos, and logos. 
·      Proofread to ensure your quotations are properly formatted and cited. For this essay, “you will need to include the author’s name in your parenthetical citation” (Kline 1). 
·      Create your Works Cited page.