Final Activities

THE GLOUCESTER PROJECT FINAL CHALLENGE:

Come up with a name for your group that reflects the topic(s) about which the members have written. (For some groups this will be easy; for other groups you might need to use a bit of imagination.):

________________________________________

(title of group)

A/F-block you have until 8:50 to the following:

1.  Choose a short excerpt (a paragraph or a poem) from your multigenre paper to read aloud.

2. Create a catchy advertising slogan and design for your group that can fit on a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker should be somewhat like a title and somewhat like a thesis. It should be short, memorable, and convey the essence of your group’s attitude toward the topic(s). Have fun.

3. Create a tour of Gloucester related to your group’s topics. (Google maps might help.) Include a reasonably clear sketched map of the tour. Include at least five stops on the tour related to your group’s topics.

4. Write a list of ten things Gloucester should know about your group’s topic(s). Order the list from least important to most important. What is relevant? What is essential? What will help the city understand who we have been, who we are, and who we will be?

5. Make a schedule of events for a day celebrating your topic(s).

You must schedule an event related to your topic (a speaker, a demonstration, a game, music, etc.) for each of the following times. Be creative! Write a few sentences explaining the event.

Remember, money is no issue, so how could you really teach/show Gloucester about your topic?

9:00am to 10:00am

10:30am to 11:30am

2:00pm to 4:00pm

6:00pm to 8:00pm

Swiggity Swock, Here You Go A Block; Oppa F-block Style

F-block
Hope Weaver - Banana Bread
Emily Murray - Mini Bagels
Alan Davis - Chocolate x2
Nicole Bauke - Fruit Salad, yummy yummy
Liz Murphy - Munchkins
Olivia Parsons - OJ/Milk/Apple Juice
Cara O'Connell - Cupcakes
Kevin Rogers - Lucky Charms and Bowls
Carren Jepchumba -Cups, napkins, spoons, forks
Katie Manning - Chex Mix Mix

A-block
Ivy: fruit salad w/o apples (Jordan's allergic, so be nice)
Kirsten: hashbrowns
Arly: donuts
Jordan/Hannah Ellis: bagels
Kacie: waffles and *sigh* s'mores goldfish
Christina: muffins/ pastries
Bethany: syrup, ketchup, butter
Corinne: tea
Kelly Foster: juice
Yazmeen: cups
Anna: plates
Dianna: utensils

And yours truly, your lovely teacher, I, J Cook, will bring  in sweet Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Thanks.

<3 xoxox <3

Gloucester Project: Reflecting on Poems

Tell me about the poems you've made.

1. Did you use a prompt? What was your inspiration? (A photo, a painting, a poem, a text?) Did you use a traditional form? Did you invent a form? Did you alter a prompt or form that I gave you?
Also, tell me about your trials and tribulations as well as breakthroughs and success.

2. What worked for you, stimulating your poetic ear and imagination? What are you proud of?

3. What are you still frustrated by or concerned with? What would like to know more about or practice more? What would you do if you had more time?

Creative Writing Genres and Assignment

Creative Writing Genres for the Gloucester Project 2013

(On Friday June 14, 2013 you will pass in at least three poems adding up to at least seventy-five lines. I'm not very worried about these limits, but I want to make sure you produce substantial work. The poems will be proofread and typed, as well as imaginative, insightful, engaging, daring, vivid.)

Poetry

Go Inside a Photograph by Hoa Nguyen

“For this exercise, you will need a photograph. This can be a photo of yourself, family members, or strangers. I find it most generative if there is some temporal distance between yourself and the subject of the photograph i.e.: an archival or historical photo for which you have no direct memory.

Study your photo in detail. Imagine what is just beyond the borders of the frame. If it is in black and white, imagine it in color. Assign it smells, textures, sounds. Imagine that you can step inside the frame and walk around, experiencing that moment in time.

Now begin to write. Include as much sensory detail as possible; make up other detail, speculate. Be sure to pay attention to the rhythm and sound of your lines as you lay them down. If you get stuck, try repeating a word or phrase. Read your text out loud and strike out any awkward sounding lines. Arrange the lines on the page, give it a title and call it a poem.”

Spontaneous Poem based on an exercise by Rita Dove

To activate your subconscious mind, do the following:

·         Free write about your topic for five minutes. (This is stream of consciousness writing.)

·         Pick ten vivid, interesting, revealing words from your stream of consciousness free-write.

·         In five minutes write a ten-line poem in which each line contains at least one of the ten words and in which each of the ten words is used at least once.

·         Make a title using a phrase from your stream of consciousness free-write.

·         The point of this poem is to emphasize spontaneity, whimsy, seeming randomness, linguistic daring, absurdity, surreality, etc.

Metaphor Poem

·         Start with your topic. Brainstorm aspects of the topic (for example, Fitz Henry Lane=schooners, house atop Harbor Loop, oil paint, crutches, apple-peru, etc.) as well as feelings and concepts associated with the topic (for example, Fitz Henry Lane=luminism, beauty, realism, observation, etc.)

·         Then create metaphors for items in either list. (From the F.H. Lane list of concepts: Luminism is a painting with a light bulb inside. Or, a bit more vivid: The sky in the painting swallowed a light bulb. From the F.H. Lane list of objects: Crutches are legs Lane shed to sit and paint.

·         String the metaphors together. Edit them. Revise them. Expand them. Contract them. Use your ear, your mind’s eye, and your sense of the language of images to guide your revision.

Ekphrastic Poem

·         Choose an object or work of art (a photograph, statue, song, film, poem, story, painting, etc.) related to your topic.

·         Write a poem in which you respond to the work of art as if you were speaking directly to it, or as if you were an outsider (a newcomer, a tourist, a foreigner, an alien) seeing it for the first time without context, or as if you were inside the art, or as if you were the art/object.

·         In the title of the poem let the reader know what object or work of art you are responding to and from what perspective you are responding to it.

·         Many students like to write ekphrastic poems using a poetic form. (See below.)

Poem-based-on-another-Cape-Ann-poem Poem Write a poem in response to one of the poems in the Cape Ann poet packet. (In the poem, in the title, or in a note, let the reader know to what poem you are responding.)

Visual-Found poem using your research  

• Take sentences directly from your research and/or from anything you’ve already written for the Gloucester Project.
• Make the sentences into a poem by using a title, arrangement, line breaks, spacing, and font size and type. The purpose of this activity is to emphasize the visual aspect of poetry.
• Create a title.

Erasure poem using your research

• Take sentences directly from your research and/or from anything you’ve already written for the Gloucester Project.
• Make a poem by eliminating words in the sentences, by adding linebreaks, by adding spacing, and/or by playing with font size and type.
• Create a title.

Found vocabulary poem using your research

• Take a passage from your research
• Write a poem using only words from the passage.
• Don’t forget a title.

Traditional Form Poem (Italian sonnet, English sonnet, villanelle, sestina, tanka): Write a poem about your topic using a traditional poetry form*. (Forms are posted below.)

Combine any of the poetry exercises with a particular poet form. Or try the same prompt using different forms.
 ********************************************************************************************

Traditional* Forms of Poetry

Sestina

Length: 39 lines (six six-line stanzas with a final stanza of three lines)

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: varied

Other: 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531. These six words then appear in the final tercet as well, with the tercet's first line usually containing 1 and 2, its second 3 and 4, and its third 5 and 6.

Italian Sonnet (in English)

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme: ABBAABBA CDECDE

Meter (rhythm): iambic pentameter

Other: volta (shift) at line nine

English Sonnet

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Rhythm: iambic pentameter

Other: volta at line nine, couplet provides closure or resolution or twist.

Ballad

Length: varies

Rhyme scheme: usually ABCB

Rhythm: four-beat line followed by three-beat line, etc. (Beat=stressed syllable)

Other: ballads tell a story

Villanelle

Length: nineteen lines

Rhyme scheme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

Rhythm: usually tetrameter or pentameter

Other: The first and third line in the first stanza are repeated in several places. The first line is repeated at the end of the second and forth stanzas and in the third line of the last stanza. The third line is repeated at the end of the third and fifth stanzas and in the very last line of the poem. Here’s the scheme: A1bA2  abA1  abA2  abA1 abA2 abA1A2.

Limerick

Length: five lines

Rhyme scheme: AABBA

Rhythm:

anapestic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed syllables: da, da, DUM)

or amphibrachic (unstressed, stressed, unstressed syllables trimeter: da, DUM, da)

with three stressed syllables in lines 1, 2, and 5; and

two stressed syllables in lines 3 and 4.

Other: Limerick’s are usually playful, often absurd.

Haiku

Length: three lines

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: five syllable, seven syllables, five syllables

Other: traditional haiku refer to the seasons directly or indirectly (kigo), and include a “cutting word,” a break in the text (kireji).

Tanka is a variation with the following syllable pattern: 5-7-5-7-7.

Renga is linked “tanka” 5-7-5, 7-7; 5-7-5, 7-7; etc.; finishing with an additional 7-7. 

Less Traditional Poetic forms that might help you create your own form

Acrostic variations: end-acrostic, double acrostic, mesostic

Anaphora (repetition of line or sentence beginnings), epistrophe (repetition of line or sentence endings)

Kerouac’s book of blues: one page poem

Olson’s projective verse (composition by field): treat the page like a musical score and/or artist’s canvas

Oulipo Experiments:

N+7: where each substantive or noun in a given text, such as a poem, is systematically replaced by the noun to be found seven places away in a chosen dictionary.

George Perec’s La Disparition (A Void in English): no words in the work include the letter “e”

Create-Your-Own-Form

·         Choose a form (tanka, haiku, acrostic, mesostic, double acrostic, sonnet, villanelle, limerick, sestina, etc.) and revise the rules so there are at least three constraints* (rules), or invent a form of your own with at least three constraints (rules).

·         Use the constraints to write a poem in response to your topic or some aspect of the topic.

·         In a note below the poem write down the three rules.

* Constraints can refer to rhythm and sound: rhyme scheme, alliteration, syllable count, stressed syllable count, etc. Constraints can refer to words and concepts: a particular word has to be in each line or stanza, a particular word cannot be used, a particular type of word (a color, a season, a name, etc.) must be used, etc. Other constraints: no words with the letter “e” or every line must have one word than the line previous or the words on the page must be arranged to look like the object being described.

Someone Else’s Form Write a poem using a form one of your classmates created.

Reflecting on Gloucester Project Researched Arguments

Before you turn in your essay...

Complete the self-assessment checklist.

At the bottom of the checklist write what types of sources you used. (Match the type to thecitation. For example, "Google books>>>>> Garland, Down to the Sea" Or, "Personal Interview>>>>>Papows, Albina")

Then, reflect on what you have done well, what you are proud of, and/or what aspects of the essay are effective. (Consider the checklist.)

Finally, reflect on what you are still concerned about, what you would like to improve upon, and/or what you would do if you had more time.

Reflecting on the Creative Real World Rhetoric Project

Respond in the comment box.

1. Narrate your role in the creation of your group's real world rhetoric. How did you contribute? What did you do?

2. Compare your group's original vision as expressed in your proposal letter with the actual final product.
a. What turned out as you hoped--or better? Explain.
b. What (if anything) changed? Why?
c. What didn't go as well as you had hoped? What would you work on if you had more time? What might you do differently? Explain.

3. Explain how the particular choices made by your group contributed to effectively conveying your message and achieving the purpose of your rhetoric.

Reminders

Due on Monday, May 20.

1) 10+ responses to quotations from a Gloucester book. Read this post for comments about the books or what the responses should include.

2) 10+ responses to quotations from a work of a book-length research-based argument. Read this post for comments about the books or what the responses should include.

3) A work of creative rhetoric with a real world audience: hand in (or send me a link to) your creative rhetoric & hand in an up-to-date version of your proposal letter. As I have told you in class, the letter must be revised to reflect any changes you have made in the project. Read this post for comments about my expectations for the project and the letter.

Glouceter Project: Getting Started

On Monday you will begin conducting preliminary research in the Gloucester High School library.
Before you get in there I want you to have a starting place: an essential question and a topic .

Here some of the essential questions related to Gloucester (or, more broadly, Cape Ann) culture. Under each question are topics that might be explored to address the question.

Question #1 about change:
Change is inevitable. However, some changes are radical and severe; such changes can--for good or ill--alter the character of a polis. Other changes are built upon, nourished by, and informed by an understanding of the past. What changes should and should not take place in Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* The proposed changes to the Fort
* The future of the fishing industry in Gloucester
* The role of maritime industries/business other than fishing
* The role of tourism in Gloucester
* The role of the arts in Gloucester
* The possible uses of Fuller School
* The future of public education in Gloucester

Question #2 about change:
How are cultural changes that have already taken place significant?
* the changes in the fishing industry
* the changes created by Urban Renewal (particularly in the 1960s)
* the changes in parts of Gloucester: Dogtown, Stage Fort Park, the Fort, Rocky Neck, Lanesville, etc.
* the changes in public education in Gloucester
* the changes in writing and the arts (Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, and T.S. Eliot created and adapted new, innovative kinds of poetry in the 20th century; Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley, Nell Blaine and others created and adapted new kinds of painting in the 20th century)
* the changes in gender roles (Judith Sargent Murray, women working in fish factories and for Mighty Mac, the Fishermen's Wives Association)
* the changes in religious observance and celebration: the Portuguese Crowning Ceremony, St. Peter's Fiesta, the arrival of the Unification Church, the rise of the Universalist church and the separation of church and state, etc.
* the conversion of the Haskell-Pierce House into a parking lot and pocket park by the Cape Ann Museum
* the changes in the economic and cultural use of particular places, such as Stage Fort Park, the inner harbor, Magnolia, Lanes Cove, Dogtown, etc.
* other?

Question #3 about change:
How has Gloucester been a site of innovation?
* scientific innovators in Gloucester and Cape Ann: John Hays Hammond, Clarence Birdseye, schooner designers, etc.
* poetic and artistic innovators in Gloucester and Cape Ann (see above)
* educational innovations: Project Adventure, lots of art schools in Magnolia and East Gloucester, the now closed charter school, O'Maley Innovation School, Charles Olson's role in Black Mountain Colleg
* other?

Question #4 about change:
How has Gloucester been a site of cultural preservation?
* artistic conservatives in Gloucester and Cape Ann (many artists resisted modern changes to art and wanted to preserve older ways of creating art)
* Cape Ann Museum, The Sargent House Museum, Babson Museum, Sleeper House, White-Ellery House, Captain Elias Davis House, etc.
* other?

Question:
What parts of Gloucester culture do we know, what do we not know, and what do we think we only know? What aspects of Gloucester culture are people referring to when they say "that's so Gloucester" or "the Gloucester way of life"? What aspects of Gloucester culture are generally excluded from what people mean by Gloucester culture? How do different parts of Gloucester have unique and separate cultures?
Possible topics:
* heroic and/or tragic figures and events: The Perfect Storm, Howard Blackburn, the original settlers in 1623, any and all of the men on the Man at the Wheel cenotaph, any and all of those who served in the wars, Gloucester privateering

teen pregnancies in 2008 (and before and beyond)
* lesser known significant cultures: Cape Ann's Jewish community, Native Americans on Cape Ann, Maritime Canadian immigration
* lesser known significant industries: 19th quarrying in Lanesville and Rockport, 18th and 19th century trade with the far east and the west indies, grand hotels in Magnolia, etc.
* lesser known figures: Newman Shea (fisherman labor leader), Mason Walton (the Hermit of Magnolia),
* the cultures of Fort, Portuguese Hill, East Gloucester, West Gloucester, Magnolia, Annisquam, Lanesville, etc.
* other?

Question:
How has Gloucester played a significant role in major historical events? How have people associated with Gloucester played a role in those events?
* Gloucester trading vessels, West Indian slavery, and the triangular trade
* Newman Shea and the fight for fair labor practices for fisherman
* the Unitarians and the separation of Church and State
* the early feminism and philosophical beliefs of Judith Sargent Murray
* the military and political career of Benjamin Butler (the Civil War and beyond)
* the political and social beliefs of Mason Walton, the Hermit of Dogtown
* Roger Babson's influence on economics and politics (before, during, and after the Great Depression)
* A. Piatt Andrew from the American Field Service to the bridge over 128
* Gloucester's first poet laureate Vincent Ferrini and radical labor politics in Lynn
* Charles Olson in FDR's administration and at Black Mountain College

Question:
What role has Gloucester had in shaping the work of writers and artists? What role have writers and artists had in shaping Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* any writer, poet, painter, sculptor, photographer, architect, dancer, actor, etc.
* Other?

Question:
What is the significance, meaning, and value of public art, monuments, memorials, parks, and/or architecture?
Possible topics:
* the meaning, value, and effectiveness of public art: the Fisherman's Statue (the Man at the Wheel), the Fishermen's Wives Memorial, Babson's rocks in Dogtown, the Spanish-American War Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Joan of Arc Statue
* the significance of architecture: Sleeper house, City Hall, Hammond Castle, etc.
* the significance of parks: Dogtown, Ravenswood, Stage Fort, etc.
* Other?

Question:
What role has Gloucester had in shaping the cultures that come to Gloucester? What role have those cultures had in shaping Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* the role of immigration: English, Canadian, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, Brazilian
* the role of religion: Puritanism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Catholicism, Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, Unificationism
* Other?

In the comment box tell me what question and topic you want to start exploring on Monday. (Create your own if you have ideas of your own. You're also welcome to modify one of the ideas above.) See you Monday.

Getting Ready... (One Week to Go)

I made a mistake.

On Friday here was my plan: correct the multiple choice questions, calculate scores, read a strong response to the JFK rhetorical analysis (Q2) prompt, and then, with the model essay and the rubric in mind, give each other feedback on our own essays.

But in A-block we got bogged down in the example essay. That was my fault. My intent in showing you the example essay was to convey to you that it is more important to be able to explain how the rhetoric conveys the purpose than to identify fancy strategies with Greek names. I also wanted to make sure that your essay conveyed an understanding of how rhetoric works in the whole--the beginning, middle, and end of the reading--not just in a few patches.

You can successfully organize your rhetorical analysis two ways: (1) by breaking down the reading into sections and then analyzing each section of the reading or (2) by analyzing one rhetorical strategy at a time. But sometimes using the second method leads students into narrow arguments that don't convey a sense of the most important ways that rhetorical strategies contribute to the purpose.

Some of you have been very successful using the strategy-by-strategy method. Keep going that if it works. If it has not worked for you then I invite you to try the section-by-section method this weekend. Use whichever strategy best suits you and the task.

Go to page 9 after clicking on this link to find a Q2 from the 2011 (Form B) exam. I think the best way to analyze the rhetoric in this reading is section-by-section. Take forty minutes to write a response and bring it to class on Monday.

***

As requested here is a link to more information about the exam. Scroll down for every essay question asked from 1999 to 2012. If you're worried about the synthesis question take a look at "Question 1". (Synthesis questions were not asked before 2007.)  If you're worried about rhetorical analysis look at "Question 2". If you're worried about argument look at "Question 3".

If you go to the link above you can prepare for the exam by...
(1) reading prompts and writing plans/outlines for essays,
(2) looking at sample essays (What is strong about the sample essays? What is weak?),
(3) looking at the grading commentary at the end of the sample essays, and
(4) looking at "Scoring performance Q & A" (This is where the graders talk about what students did well and not so well on each question.)

See you on Monday.

Responding with Creative Rhetoric

Responding with Creative Rhetoric

Write a proposal letter. (Use a business letter format.) Submit it to me using your group’s Google Doc. Due Monday, April 29.

What message do you want to convey with your rhetoric? Why? Who is your audience?

What point do you want to get across to what audience?

Attach a SOAPSTone for your rhetoric. Use complete sentences.

What medium (or media) do you want to use to convey your message? How does the medium (media) suit the message? What will make it rhetorically effective? (In other words, how will it persuade, inform, and/or engage an audience?)

ideas:

anti-ad(s)(Adbusters Culturejamming)

satire (writing, visual, video) (The Onion, "A Modest Proposal")

public service announcement (PSA)

a short documentary

informative, persuasive visualization (on wealth inequality, on drone strikes)

dystopian fiction (Brave New World) (This could be in the form of prose, a script, 

                                                                   and/or video.)

activist fiction (The Jungle by Upton Sinclair)

poem-to-the-editor ("A Scream to the Editor" by Charles Olson 

                                       read by Jimmy Tarantino)

letter-to-the-editor (Gloucester Daily Times, New York Times, etc.)

letter writing campaign (Action Tips: Organize a Letter Writing Campaign)

public protest (including signs)

public meeting (including speech and visuals)

private meeting (including hand-out and visuals)

How will you use research to make your rhetoric effective?

Consult at least three sources of information related to the message.

Consult at least three sources of information related to the medium.

Attach an annotated works consulted page.

How will each member of the group contribute to creating the rhetorical response to your topic?

What do you hope to accomplish with your rhetoric?

AP Vocabulary (from 1996 packet)

Post part(s) of speech and definition(s) for the word(s) you have been assigned in the comment box below.

General Use Words
aesthetic, coalesce, behemoth, troglodyte, precocious, didactic, combative, plumule, crux, pelagic, wanton, tern, stave, wrest, circumscribe, precipitous, paucity, delegation, dubious, brusque, enigmatic, undercut

Rhetorical and Literary Terms
antecedent, syllogism, ad hominem, syntax, elegiac, deductive, colloquial, apostrophe

Nonfiction Reading!

The Gloucester list is complete. The other list is a work in progress. (You may propose your own book-length researched argument.)
In the comment box please let me know when you have selected a book.
For each book you will submit a quotation response journal of at least ten quotations and responses. Responses should show an understanding of what the quotation means, how the quotation conveys that meaning (rhetorical strategies), how the quotation relates to the work as a whole, and how the quotation connects to yourself, other texts, and/or other learning.

Gloucester Narratives
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky
The Lone Voyager by Joseph Garland
The Fish and the Falcon by Joseph Garland
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw
Decline of Fishes by Peter Anastas
Broken Trip by Peter Anastas

Book-length Researched Argument
Technology
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier
Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now by Douglas Rushkoff
The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath by Nicco Mele

Work and the Economy
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and 
Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies by Naoimi Klein
Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government--and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead by David Rothkopf

Sports and Culture
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
How Soccer Explains the World: an Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer
  
Other
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain [Here's a link to an interview with Cain about how teachers can better engage introverts.]
Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander

Writing a Thesis Statement about a Social Issue

Narrow your large topic to a topic-within-the-topic.
(The narrowed topic should be something you care about deeply, something you want to understand more fully, and something you want to present an opinion on.)

Then make a clear, insightful, meaningful, debatable, supportable claim (also called a thesis, an assertion, a statement) about the topic.
(In other words state a carefully thought out opinion you have about the topic that you could support with some of the research you've conducted and perhaps some more research you will do.)

Go to Purdue's OWL for more about creating a thesis statement.

Go to Purdue's OWL for more about evaluating and strengthening a thesis statement.

& use this to self/peer assess:

Researched argument thesis

Metacognitive Self-Assessment

What is your topic-within-the-topic? How does the thesis suggest something significant about your topic? Discuss with a peer (or peers).

Our school-wide rubric for writing says that students should write thesis statements that are clear, supportable, debatable, insightful, and meaningful. I want to add that the thesis statements

CLEAR: Presumably, the thesis is clear to you but double check. Try to look at it with new eyes. Imagine you are someone who has not researched the topic and who has not yet thought much about the topic. Is the thesis still clear? Is every word precise? Is the sentence structure logical?

SUPPORTABLE: Could you support the thesis using the research you have already gathered or using research that you think is available with a bit more digging? Discuss with a peer (or peers) the kind of supporting evidence you plan to use to support your thesis.

DEBATABLE: Does the thesis need to be developed, explained, argued for, and supported? (Or is the thesis too obvious or too easily proven?) To test if the thesis is debatable imagine a person disagreeing with your thesis. If that is possible then the thesis is debatable.

INSIGHTFUL: Does the thesis offer an insight into some specific aspect of the larger topic: an idea, an interpretation, an analysis, an evaluation, a diagnosis, a complex definition, a causal relationship, a rebuttal?  (Often times a thesis can be made more debatable, insightful, and meaningful by adding a “because” clause: “Education in America stymies creativity” becomes “Education in America stymies creativity because artificial boundaries between subject areas get in the way of students synthesizing information from different subject areas to create new understandings.”) Discuss with a peer (or peers) what you believe to be the insight in your thesis.

MEANINGFUL: Does the thesis address something about the topic that is vital, crucial, significant, maybe even essential. Explain to a peer why your thesis (your insight, idea, interpretation, analysis) matters!

Give your thesis and this sheet to a peer to get some feedback.   

Peer-Assessment

Is the thesis clear? Restate it in your own words. (Answer here.) Does the thesis need any editing?

Is the thesis supportable? What kind of supporting evidence will you expect to see in the body of the paper? (Answer here.)

Is the thesis debatable, insightful, and meaningful or when you read it do you think “so what”? Explain. (Answer here.)

***

The next step will be taking a look at the sources you and your group members have already gathered, summarized, and evaluated. What there might be useful to you?

& what other sort of support will you need in order to develop your thesis into a convincing argument?

***

Then make a plan.

Researching a Social Issue: Reading Widely, Taking Notes, Creating an Annotated Bibliography

AP English Language and Composition
Engaging Actively in a Social Issue
From Interest to Research to Argument to Participation to Social Change (?)

Earlier we brainstormed and prioritized possible topics. Based on the feedback I got from you and others here is the social issue you will research:


apathy and engagement: young people and social issues (JW, BG, CD)
the influence of technological advances on our culture (JK, YS, AM)
the prevalence and implications of prejudices in our culture (CS, AG)
the prevalence and implications of violence in our culture (HE, DD, IG)
the role, methods, and implications of education in our culture (KQ, KS, KF)

the role, practice, and implications of religious belief in our culture (EM, OP, LM)
the science and implications of genetic engineering in our culture (CO, JD, MJ)
the role, methods, and implications of education in our culture (AD, NB, HW)
the role and implications of prescription and recreational mood altering drugs in our culture (CJ, ZS, SI)
the role and implications of body image and sexuality in our culture (KR, SO, KM) 


First, you and your fellow group members are responsible for finding 21 different sources of information and/or informed opinion about the social issue above. Of that total you are responsible for seven (7) sources.
Of that total at least one source must come from each of the following categories:

• a text accessed through a database subscribed to by the GHS library
• a text accessed through Google books or Google scholar
• a text found on a university, nonprofit, or government website
• a text found in the popular press (magazine or newspaper). This text could be accessed in print form, in electronic form, or (at Sawyer Free Library) in microfilm form
• a text found at the Sawyer Free Library
• a section of a text found using a book’s index
• a recorded lecture (such as a TED talk), recorded interview, or documentary film/video

By Monday, March 25 you will have completed double-entry notes for all of your sources (21 as a group, 7 as an individual).

By Monday, March 25  each group member will have completed a draft of at least one annotated citation, which will be ready for viewing in your group's Google document. Use the links in the right column of this blog for directions and samples of annotated citations.


On Wednesday, March 27 you will submit the final draft of your annotated bibliography*. (You will submit the work as a group, both in print form and using a Google Document. Your individual work will bear your name; you will be assessed on your own work.)

*Use MLA format for heading, citations, format, etc. Remember alphabetical order. Pay attention to spacing. Make sure citations are not only formatted properly but also thorough. Annotations should be 150-200 words in length (not longer); they should provide a summary of the source, an assessment (analysis and evaluation) of the source, and (if not immediately obvious) a discussion of the relevance of the source. Make sure you include your name after the annotations you wrote.

There are many links here on the blog to additional information about taking double-entry notes, writing annotations, and formatting the annotated bibliography. Use the resources that are available to you.