Day #1: Introduction to course: Masculinity, Equity, Diversity and Social Justice outside the box

Day 1 - June 19, 2017

Introduction to course, teacher and each other & how to use website. 

1. What's the Problem with Black Masculinities? 
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5DixllWE18eYlBaNlNpaG1xUjA/view?usp=sharing

2. Understanding Patriarchy (bell hooks)
http://imaginenoborders.org/pdf/zines/UnderstandingPatriarchy.pdf

Question: How does a theme develop over a course of a text?

Part II

Activity: What is Fake News?

PowerPoint & Lecture (PP)

• Can you identify a reliable source?
• What makes a reliable news source? 
• Thinking of your culture, background and history, can you find a story in today's newspaper that represents you? 
• What is bias?
• What kinds of websites would we expect to be biased?
• What kinds of websites would we expect to be unbiased?
• How do we decide who won the election
• Who won the 2016 US presidential election?
• What is the difference between the popular vote and the electoral college?

Option: Read this article (http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/07/politics/trump-picks-scott-pruitt-to-head-epa/index.html) and rewrite it as fake news

Imagine you wanted to persuade / move / influence people on this issue

What psychological theories and practices would you use? Would you appeal to fear? Perhaps propose a secret conspiracy?

Write a new headline and a new article

Bonus: Create a chart or graphic to support your new article

Benchmarks, Standards and Assessments for Summer Session 1 2017 (Teacher Notes)

SWBAT...

The following information is aligned with the teaching of ELA. 

• 2010 Minnesota Academic Standards – English Language Arts K-12Curriculum and Assessment Alignment Form  Grades 6-12 English Language Arts 
• Minnesota Academic Standards in English Language Arts

Grade 9-10 Standards (ELA)

9.7.7.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. 

9.7.8.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. 

9.7.9.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. 

a. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”). 

b. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning”). 

9.7.10.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. 

a. Independently select writing topics and formats for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. 

9.12.1.1  Cite specific textual visual or physical evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information. 

9.12.2.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text. 

9.12.3.3 Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them. 

Day 18: Last Day of Summer Session #1

Thank you so much for participating in the Summer 2017 English Class at Gordon Parks High School. Today is the day to turn in all papers, updated for a better grade (including papers 1 & 2) and all assignments. Make sure you posted a conversation to the discussion board for every question; this will only assist you in getting a better grade.

Thank you.

Mr. Allen, M.Ed.
Teacher - Gordon Parks High School
Summer 2017 - Session One

Day 17: English Class Academic Conversation Workshop - Let's talk Critical Lenses for reviewing Literature

What is a critical lens?

A critical lens essay is a type of analytical essay that focuses on a quotation from a piece of literature. The essay states whether the quotation is valid, and explains why using literary devices. It is an analysis of the quote and uses literary elements and techniques to do so.

Described below are nine common critical approaches to the literature. Quotations are from X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Sixth Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), pages 1790-1818.

• Formalist Criticism: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure, tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers. 

• Biographical Criticism: This approach “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.” Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life.... Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.” 

• Historical Criticism: This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers. 

Day 16: Group Reading Workshop - BloodChild (Butler)

Reading: Octavia Butler's Bloodchild (PDF) - reading aloud in class. 

• Class Discussion (Small group and Full Class)

Assessment: Exit Slip

Day 15: Presenting Information...the approach

Discussion Question: How can I present information in an effective way?

Reading: 17 Killer Presentations Tips for Students Who Want to Stand out

                    9 Easy Ways To Create PowerPoint Slides That Suck Less

                                             Video: Top 10 Ways to Present Information 

Assignment: Pick a topic (any topic: person, place or thing) and make a 10-slide PowerPoint Presentation. Be prepared to present when called on Day 18.

Day 14: How do you sound? The Gift of Speech, Language and Sound (Assessment/Survey Day)

Discussion Question: How should talk be evaluated?

The first half of class we will discuss this article. The second half of class, you will have time to work on your final paper and fill out a class survey and exit sheet.

Thank you very much, it was a pleasure to have you in my class this summer!

Talk with thunder, write like lightening!

Class Reading (Article): The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why - by Deborah Tennen FROM THE SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 1995 ISSUE of The Harvard Review