due Friday 12/18

Read "Can Anybody Make Movie for Women?" by Daphne Merkin in the NYT.

Three journal entries this week. One may be written Friday.

due Thursday 12/17

Form a claim based on the "positive and negative" interpretations of the 9/11 statements. Base it on at least two articles. Then write a paragraph discussing that claim. Include, in a separate section, the "positive and negative" interpretations that pertain to your discussion.

due Wed. 12/16

A positive interpretation of Bush's first 9/11 response, and a critical-spirited response (at least one complete sentence each);

A positive interpretation of Bush's second 9/11 response, and a critical-spirited response (at least one complete sentence each;

A positive interpretation of Susan Sontag's response, and a critical-spirited response (at least one complete sentence each); YOU HAVE THESE ALREADY

A positive interpretation of the open letter to Susan Sontag, and a critical-spirited response (at least one complete sentence each).

due Tuesday December 15

1. Read "Obama's Condolence Problem" by Paul Steinberg in he New York Times.

2. Please write three old-fashioned journal entries (entries about community, inspired by something you've read or experienced) during the course of this week.

due Monday 12/14

Final copy of your discussion of Orwell's values as illustrated by 1984; include all pre-writing, including a list of five pieces of evidence.

Continue to bring in your 9/11 materials.

due Thursday 12/10

A. Be ready to hand in

1. Your claim about Orwell's implied value(s)

2. A list of five quotations that could be used to support your claim

3. A discussion you write within twenty-five minutes in which you explore/demonstrate your claim, using however many of your examples you find appropriate.

B. Read the NYT

C. Bring your materials related to 9/11 please

due Wed. 12/9

In honor of The Nutcracker, no homework.

due Wed. 12/9

In honor of The Nutcracker, no homework.

due Tuesday 12/8

1. Read "The Analytic Mind" by David Brooks in the New York Times. You'll probably have to search for it.

2. Write a sentence describing what you see as Orwell's value concerning TWO of the following total two sentences):

power

ends v. means

understanding, knowledge

sanity

freedom

pleasure/pain

or some other topic concerning what the author seems to feel strongly about.

3. Research your assigned chapter, finding passages that bear on each of the subjects you addressed in your two sentences.

1. Read 1984, 287-312

2. art project

3. NY Times article: "A Generation in the Balance" by Ross Douthat

due Friday 12/4

1. 1984 pp. 274-287

2. Read in the NY Times "In Month of Giving, a Healthy Reward" by Tara Parker Pope. You will need to search for it.

due Thursday 12/3

1. Please read to pages 260-274 in 1984.

2. Please read in the New York Times an article about the contagiousness of loneliness. The link is http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/why-loneliness-can-be-contagious/?scp=1&sq=loneliness%20contagious&st=cse , or you can use the search box at the Times' site, or you can go to http://well.blogs.nytimes.com and look for it.

3. keep working on your art project. Bring to class what you'll need to work on it tomorrow.

due Wed. 12/2

By Wednesday, 12/2, please be ready to show your progress on your art project about your sage.

Also, please read to page 260 in 1984. This will be a lot of reading if you try to do it all on Tuesday night, so spread it out over two days.

Please keep reading articles in the New York Times.

Keep bringing your 9/11-related texts.

due when back from vacation

1. Read up to p. 224 in 1984.

2. Work on your art project for your sage if it is physically possible.

3. Read the NYT.

due Thursday 11/19

1. Read 117-126, do four-part reading journal

2. Work on art project

3. NYT

4. Wear riverdance clothing to assembly

due Wednesday 11/18

1. Work on your art project.

2. Read pp. 105-117 in 1984. Do a four-part reading journal.

3. NYT.

due Monday 11/16

1. Sixty minutes of progress on your art project.

2. 1984 pp. 63-81, no reading journal

3. old-fashioned journal about community

4. NYT

1. 1984 pp 48-63 plus four-part reader's journal: email it to me.

2. NYT.

3. art project about sage.

due Wednesday 11/11

1. Read 1984 pp. 37-48; do reading journal:

(a) three sentence summary

(b) a question or two

(c) an important word, and a sentence about why it might be important

(d) an image, and why it might be important

2. a New York Times article

due Monday 11/9

1. Read 1984, pp. 8-20.

2. NYT

3. journal entry if you still need to do one for this week

4. rehearse or otherwise do what you need to do for your fundraiser contribution

5. Write your claim about your three songs at the top of the page. Discuss your claim, citing each of your six pieces of evidence. Explore each piece of evidence with at least a few sentences dedicated to that piece of evidence.

Due Thursday 11/5

1. Email me a claim about the three songs (one claim, not three). The goal is specific, and non-obvious yet supportable, and two specific pieces of evidence per song.

2. NYT.

3. One journal entry due this week.

4. Sage pieces.

5. Schedule appointments/rehearse re fundraiser.

due Wednesday 11/4

1. Listen to the songs again while looking at the lyrics. Want to add anything or to revise your earlier remarks? Email me about it.

2. Read 1984 up until the main character writes in his journal "April 4th, 1984."

3. NYT

4. One journal entry due this week.

5. If you haven't given me your Sage piece . . .

due Tuesday 11/3

1. Work on your Sage piece if it hasn't been done yet.

2. Rehearse/schedule/work on your fundraiser act.

3. Write and email to me two lists: how are the three previously assigned songs alike? How are they different?

Then in a sentence or two, say what "Sweet Home" is saying about the first song, "Alabama";

what "Play It All Night Long" is saying about "Sweet Home Alabama";

and what Neil Young seems to be trying to say in "Alabama."

4. Read a NY Times article.

There will be one journal entry due for this week.

due by Monday 11/2

Listen to "Alabama" by Neil Young, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Play It All Night Long" by Warren Zevon, all on youtube.com, while looking over the song's lyrics. Due Monday.

Keep working on your Sage piece unless it's done. To those of you who "got there" by today: well done.

Write a journal article.

Keep reading NYT articles and keep up your list.

Also: Pick up a copy of 1984 from the bookstore when you have a chance.

due 10/29

1. Work on Sage piece.

2. Read an article in the New York Times.

due 10/27

1. Read an article from the NY Times--your choice.

2. Work on your sage piece. A usable piece of writing is due on Thursday, October 29, and by "due" I mean physically in your hand, ready to practice reading to the class. A significant grade penalty will result from not having something.

due Friday 10/23 and over the weekend

1. Read "To Bedlam and Back" in the NY Times.

2. Work on your piece about your sage.

over the weekend:

1. Read another article from the NY Times, your choice

2. Work on your piece about your sage OR if you absolutely must write a journal entry about writing about your sage. Free write. Rant and rave. Write a poem full of specific nouns. Make up a rap song. Whatever.

due Thursday 10/22

1. Read the NYT article at

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/middleeast/22nuke.html?hp

"Iran Agrees to Draft of Deal on Exporting Nuclear Fuel," and write an answer to one of the following prompts:

a. What do you see as the three most important (separate, distinct) words in this article? Briefly explain in the case of one of these words. For example, if your three words are "timing," "suspicions, " and "weapons," choose just one and briefly explain your choice.

b. Can you find any passages that suggest that the author is trying to be as objective and balanced as he can? Cite one and briefly explain. Or can you find a passage that indicates that the author is biased, even if only slightly? find such a passage and briefly explain.

due Wednesday 10/21

1. Read in the NYT "Iran Threatens to Back Out of Fuel Deal."

2. Write a response to one of these prompts as a comment on this post:

a. Come up with a question concerning something that you don't understand about this article.

b. Attempt an explanation in response to the question raised in response to (a).

c. What, in your own words, is the big-picture conflict that the negotiations are designed to help solve?

d. If someone else has answered (c) in a way that you think is not completely satisfactory, respectfully offer a revision to that person's comment.

e. What, in your own words, is the specific problem that has come up, motivating this particular article?

f. If someone else has answered (e) in a way that you think is not completely satisfactory, respectfully offer a revision to that person's comment.

g. At different points, people are quoted without attribution--their names are withheld, because they're not supposed to be talking about what they're talking about. Do you approve or disapprove, and why?

due Tuesday 10/20

1. Read at the NYT site "Rebranding America" by Bono. Find it by searching on the site.

2. Spend at least twenty minutes writing about your sage: either more free writing, or something more focused, or editing of what you came up with in class.

3. Come up with an offering if you haven't so far.

4. Make a paper tent to advertise your offering. Keep it simple, clear, and bold.

due Friday, 10/16 and Monday, 10/19

Due Friday 10/16

1. Write a journal entry about possible ideas for your writing project about your sage. This should be your twentieth journal entry.

2. Read a NYT article.

3. Bring with you to the Senior Center any props needed for your skill-teaching.

4. Bring with you to the Senior Center a meaningful object.

Due Monday, 1/19

1. After looking over your previous journal entries, write a journal entry about your journal entries. What has gone well? Have you made any discoveries? Do you see any patterns? Aside from competing obligations, has anything made the journal entries difficult to write?

2. Email me what you are going to contribute to our fund-raising auction. Write it out in a form I can use to advertise your offering (along with everyone else's).

3. Bring Strange Bedfellows to class.

due Thursday 10/15

1. New York Times article

2. journal entry

3. be prepared to teach your skill in class unless you taught it on Wednesday.

4. Read the rest of Cat's Cradle. You can't really prepare for it except to have done the reading. If you got ahead and haven't looked at the book for awhile, you might reread a chapter here or there in order to get the book back into your mind.

due Wednesday 10/14

1. journal entry (Note: If you have a recommendation or question or complaint or difficulty concerning our time at the Senior Center Friday, please turn it into a journal entry, email it to me, and count it as one of your entries for the week.)

2. NYT

3. be ready to teach your skill to someone; bring props if necessary.

4. Cat's Cradle, 250-266.

due Thursday: finish Cat's Cradle, be ready for part I of a TEST that will count. Part II will come after we have had a chance to discuss the book in class.

This is what part I will look like:

You must have your book. I will ask everyone to turn to a chapter and ask them to pick brief quotations that would use to analyze if you had to find quotations that would help you answer a Guiding Question, then explain why you chose these passages.

(For example, in analyzing the "Just Walk On By" essay and the "Obama Ruined My Game" essay I asked you to choose quotations bearing on the Guiding Question, "in what important ways are the essays similar and in what important ways are they different?")

due Tuesday 10/13

1. Hand in your analysis of the MLK speech and the Henry V speech, including your original piece on each speech, plus a new discussion in which you argue your claim. You may include ideas from your original two discussions.

2. Have read pp. 235-250 of Cat's Cradle.

3. Write a journal entry for next week; keep reading (and recording the titles of) New York Times articles.

4. If you have a recommendation or question or complaint or difficulty concerning our time at the Senior Center Friday, please turn it into a journal entry, email it to me, and count it as one of your entries for the week.

Due Friday 10/9

1.Cat's Cradle 235-250

2. NY Times article

3. journal entry if you're behind

due Monday: analysis of the two speeches

Due Thursday 10/8

1. NYT article.

2. Journal entry.

3. Cat's Cradle pp. 220-235

Remember that your analysis of the two inspirational speeches is due Monday. Include the original pieces you wrote on the Martin Luther King and the Henry V speeches.

due Monday 10/5

1. Two journal entries for this week.

2. Keep reading five NY Times articles a week and keeping your list of titles.

3. Please read Cat's Cradle up to p. 188. We'll be discussing the book Monday.

4. Be ready to hand in your written discussion of the Henry V speech in which you quote the speech six times.

5. See you tomorrow (Friday) at the senior center. Remember that if the weather is bad the walkers can have a ride down but we have to leave at 10:40. Remember to bring notebooks and a pen or pencil, and your list of topics.

Thank you!

due Thursday 10/1

1. Write about six phrases from the Henry V speech that seem particularly inspirational. Quote all six. You may hand this in on Monday even though it's officially due on Friday.

2. Keep reading a New York Times article per night. You may take the weekend off if you'd like.

3. By Monday, read up to p. 188 in Cat's Cradle. We'll be discussing the book that day.

4. Only two journal entries are required for the week of 9/28-10/2.

If you're going on Mountain Day, see you Friday at the senior center. Bring your list of topics and notebooks please! Have fun climbing Mount Monadnock.

due Wednesday 9/30

1. NY Times article.

2. Informal discussion of the Martin Luther King speech in which you quote it ten times, exploring what makes for inspiring speech.

Only two journal entries due this week.

due Tuesday 9/29

1. Read Cat's Cradle, pp. 135-

2. Write a journal entry.

Reat an article from the New York Times. Don't forget to record the title.

due Monday 9/28

Use this weekend to catch up. You should have read to p. 135 in Cat's Cradle by now, and should have written eleven journal entries by now. But

DO read an article from the New York Times and note down its name.

Great job at the senior center today.

Have a good weekend.

due Thursday 9/24

1. journal

2. NYTimes

3. Cat's Cradle 98-119

4. game good for playing with the seniors

due Wednesday 9/23

1. Please write a journal entry.

2. Read an article from the New York Times.

3. Write a comment on this post in which you think about the NY Times articles you have read since we stopped blogging about individual articles. Answer one or more of the following questions:

a) What do these articles say about our culture in general?

b) What do these articles say about the New York Times in general? What do its editors consider important?

c) What did your choice of articles say about you?

d) Make up your own topic for a comment.

4. List at the top or bottom of your next journal entry the names of the articles you've read since we stopped blogging about individual articles.

5. Due Thursday: think of a game or two that you think would be fun to play with the sages.

Due Tuesday 9/22

1. Read Cat's Cradle, 77-97.

2. Read an article from the New York Times.

3. Write a journal entry.

due Monday 9/21

1. Please read Cat's Cradle, pp. 52-75.

2. Read a NY Times article, as usual.

3. Write a journal entry, as usual.

due Friday 9/18

1. Write a comment on this post, discussing Cat's Cradle up to p. 51. Possible questions to consider:

a) In what way or ways is the narrator a complex fellow?

b) If you had to say what the narrator's problem was, what would you say?

c) How would you characterize Dr. Breed, the head of the research laboratory?

d) Does any character seem unlikeable so far? If you dislike the narrator--any character other than the narrator? What might be the implications of your answer?

e) Consider the use of such short chapters.

f) Do you have questions about "ice-nine"?

Remember that direct quotations from the text as evidence make your comment more informative and persuasive.

2. Read an article from the NY Times as usual.

3. Write a journal entry unless you are taking your night off.

due Thursday 9/17

1. NY Times article, as usual.

2. Journal entry, as usual.

3. Cat's Cradle, 35-51.

due Wednesday 9/16

Please read Cat's Cradle pp. 18-34.

Read a New York Times article and write down its title as usual.

Submit a journal entry as usual, unless you're taking this night off.

Thank you!

Homework due Tuesday 9/15/09

from My Book of Indoor Games by Clarence Squareman, at http://www.gutenberg.org

1. Read an article in the New York Times, and carefully note its title where you are keeping a list of such titles.

2. Do a journal entry. (Four will be due this week.)

3. Read Cat's Cradle, pp. .

homework due Monday 9/14

1. Journal as usual

2. quote one excerpt, 1-3 sentences long, and explain what you think you should explain about it. Paste it into a comment on this blog.

3. Read an article from the NY Times as usual and write down its title accurately, and keep that title in a safe place.

4. Complete your act of analysis. Type up your claim and discussion.

homework for Thursday September 10 2009

assignment:

1. Journal as usual.

2. Read an article in the New York Times, but don't do the the usual. Just write "I read [title of article]."

3. Fill out the same observation protocol (OP) you did for "Just Walk On By" on "Obama Ruined My Game." Bring it to class, along with your OP for "Just Walk On By."

homework for Wednesday night, September 9

Same as last night--

write about a New York Times article according to yesterday's instructions. Don't forget to give the title of the article.

Also write in your journal.

Thank you!

Instructions

http://boingboing.net

A. In the on-line edition of the New York Times, please find an article that has some bearing on the question of what it means to be a citizen, engaged or unengaged (of the world, of the United States, of your country of official citizenship, of an artistic profession, of Walnut Hill--of any non-family group you identify with, or consciously do not identify with). After reading the article,

1. Summarize the article briefly but comprehensively in a comment on this blog. This can be done in three sentences, though you may use up to ten sentences or so if you wish.

2. What seems to be the most important conflict presented in the article? This may be stated or unstated in the article. (One sentence, or more if you wish.)

3. Identify at least one important assumption that the author makes. (One sentence, or more if you wish.)

4. Try to identify the author's unstated attitude toward his or her subject. (One sentence, or more if you wish.)

Note: If someone else has already written about your chosen article, your responses to 1-4 must be different from that person's answers. Otherwise, find another article.

5. Return to this blog a half-hour or more after making your entry and read what other people have written, or at least what your "top three" have written. Write the words "I have read."

Thank you!

Other homework:

B. Write your Citizen's Journal entry. Inspired by the article in the Times, by someone else's blog-comment, something that happened during the day, or simply by something that occurred to you, write for half a page or more (i.e 150 words or more) about what the reading or event that inspired you has to do with being an engaged citizen (of whatever community you wish to contemplate: world, country, school, major, dorm). You might try pushing yourself down further and further into your subject as you go along. Or you might try taking a satirical take on your subject; or a lyrical, poetic take. Try to keep going until you think you've gotten somewhere.

C. Read the Brent Staples article (handed out in class).

p.s. Do you notice anything odd about the edition of the New York Times pictured above?