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?