Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Week 14: Day One
We did a review for the final test today in class. Students each took a chapter and wrote a series of questions around that chapter. We had some time at the end of class to do a competition pitting one side of the room against the other answering the questions.
I went over the top visual argument papers which I will post here for your review. The visual argument was accompanied by a letter to the instructor in which the student had to evaluate the visual argument that was made. The questions the students were to address were the following:
Erica's Bystander Effect PowerPoint
Here is Carly's PowerPoint on Ritalin
Check out Mckenzee's PowerPoint
Last but not least is Rolando's PowerPoint on Carbon Credits
I went over the top visual argument papers which I will post here for your review. The visual argument was accompanied by a letter to the instructor in which the student had to evaluate the visual argument that was made. The questions the students were to address were the following:
Erica's Bystander Effect PowerPoint
Erica b's paper 3 visual argument
View more presentations from BolducSimpson.
Here is Carly's PowerPoint on Ritalin
Carly hamilton s_paper_3_visual_argument
View more presentations from BolducSimpson.
Check out Mckenzee's PowerPoint
Revised mckenzee stephens paper_3_final
View more presentations from BolducSimpson.
Last but not least is Rolando's PowerPoint on Carbon Credits
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Week 13 Day Two
Today's online class assignment was a blog post....the last one. I chose to assign the Gordon Parks essay called Flavio's Home. It is one of my favorite pieces in The Longman Reader. Gordon Parks was not only a journalist, but a photographer as well. I found a picture of Flavio on the internet. Here it is.
Here are the directions to the post. The students had to respond to two questions.
This is a photo taken by Gordon Parks of Flavio. This picture says it all. In two paragraphs summarize the essay by Gordon Parks entitled Flavio's Home and then write a personal response to the essay.
2. The problem of poverty has provoked a wide array of proposed solutions. One controversial proposal argues that the government should pay poor women financial incentives to use birth control. Argue for or against this proposal, state at least two reasons with supporting evidence. Be sure and cite any sources you use.
There were many excellent response to the post. Below is Valerie's post.
In my opinion, poverty is probably the saddest thing in the world. It breaks my heart to hear about a family like Flavio's with barely any food and with sick siblings. Sometimes I wish I could save them all at the same time, but it is very hard. People do not realize what they take for granted. People think they need new clothes every week, new shoes, their nails and hair done, and etc. But they do not realize that there are people out there who need food and shelter to survive. I wish people all around the world could help end poverty so that there would be less families like Flavio's.
2. I understand that the problem of poverty has provoked a wide array of proposed solutions and that one controversial proposal argues that the government should pay poor women financial incentives to use birth control, but I disagree with this solution. I do not think it is right that women are not allowed to have as many kids as they want. It is their body, and they should be able to do whatever they want with it. I read in an article that "The Women's Health & Justice Initiative and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic condemn Representative John LaBruzzo's recent legislative plans to pay poor women to get sterilized and reward rich, educated people to have children. The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative LaBruzzo is a blatant form of reproductive violence and population control policies of blame and disenfranchisement, rooted in this country's long and continual history of eugenics." How can people do this to humanity? These people seem like people who would be for abortion. This is very wrong.
"A Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan
A Katrina Reader." Challenging White Supremacy Workshop Home Page. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .
This is a photo taken by Gordon Parks of Flavio. This picture says it all. In two paragraphs summarize the essay by Gordon Parks entitled Flavio's Home and then write a personal response to the essay.
2. The problem of poverty has provoked a wide array of proposed solutions. One controversial proposal argues that the government should pay poor women financial incentives to use birth control. Argue for or against this proposal, state at least two reasons with supporting evidence. Be sure and cite any sources you use.
There were many excellent response to the post. Below is Valerie's post.
"Creating Hope and Opportunity in Haiti for Extremely Poor Women and Their Families." BRAC Blog. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .
1. The essay by Gordon Parks entitled Flavio's Home is about him visiting a favela in Brazil named Catacumba and meets a 12 year old boy named Flavio de Silva who changes his life. Parks visits this favela to interview a father with a family who is in poverty. They interviewed what he is going through and his beliefs on his situation. During their time there, they meet the 12 year old boy, Flavio, and they had a feeling that this boy would have a better story than any other father, because his legs were like sticks that were just screwed into his ankles. Parks and his partner visited Flavio's family and realized that Flavio's health was really bad. They took him to the clinic to try to get a doctor to help him but Flavio had sypmtoms of bronchial asthma, malnutrition and tuberculosis, which didn't give him much longer to live.In my opinion, poverty is probably the saddest thing in the world. It breaks my heart to hear about a family like Flavio's with barely any food and with sick siblings. Sometimes I wish I could save them all at the same time, but it is very hard. People do not realize what they take for granted. People think they need new clothes every week, new shoes, their nails and hair done, and etc. But they do not realize that there are people out there who need food and shelter to survive. I wish people all around the world could help end poverty so that there would be less families like Flavio's.
2. I understand that the problem of poverty has provoked a wide array of proposed solutions and that one controversial proposal argues that the government should pay poor women financial incentives to use birth control, but I disagree with this solution. I do not think it is right that women are not allowed to have as many kids as they want. It is their body, and they should be able to do whatever they want with it. I read in an article that "The Women's Health & Justice Initiative and the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic condemn Representative John LaBruzzo's recent legislative plans to pay poor women to get sterilized and reward rich, educated people to have children. The sterilization policy currently being advocated by Representative LaBruzzo is a blatant form of reproductive violence and population control policies of blame and disenfranchisement, rooted in this country's long and continual history of eugenics." How can people do this to humanity? These people seem like people who would be for abortion. This is very wrong.
"A Feminist Response to LaBruzzo's Sterilization Plan
A Katrina Reader." Challenging White Supremacy Workshop Home Page. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Week 13 Day One
Today's lesson was based on an essay by Star Parker called Se Habla Entitlement. This essay focuses on the claim that illegal immigrants have no rights or entitlements in the United States, and they are a strain on U.S. society.
This author's rhetorical stance is in sharp contrast to Roberto Rodriguez's essay The Border on Our Backs. Rodriguez claims that illegal immigrants should no longer accept the second-rate status they have been allotted in the United States.
Here is a YouTube video that had 3 million hits. You will see why it is so good.
Both essays were opinion pieces targeted for a sympathic audience. I had as an activity to do a debate on a slightly different proposition:
Should America maintain/increase the level of legal immigration?
The class was divided up into pairs with each pair given a pro or con reason. I got the argument from a great site called Balanced Politics. It can be found at http://www.balancedpolitics.org/
From that site, the Pro and Con Arguments were as follows:
PRO
1. Some of the most intelligent and ambitious individuals, who are unsatisfied with their own countries bring skills to America.
2. It increases the diversity and expands the culture of the country.
3. immigrants often take the low-paying jobs( like food service and hotel cleaning) that most Americans don't want to do at such low wages.
4. Decreasing or eliminating legal immigration will inevitably create more incentive to come to the country illegally, which leads to less assimilation and fewer taxpaying, law abiding citizens.
5. It improves the overall image of America internationally, as it is seen as an open, welcoming country; and immigrants who return home or maintain contact with family back home have a true image of America, not the one propagandized in much of the international media.
6. Adding an additional group of cheap labor adds to the flexibility of business, leading to cheaper prices, better quality products, and higher profits.
7. It gives struggling people all over the world an opportunity for a better life. This country was built on immigrants who sought opportunity, political and religious freedom.
CONS
1. More immigrants means more opportunity for terrorists, drug dealers, and other criminals to enter the country.
2. Immigrants, especially the poorer ones, consume a high amount of government resources (health care, education, welfare, etc.) without paying a corresponding high rate of taxes.
3. The national identity and language is disappearing. The great "melting pot" is being replaced by divisive multi-culturalism.
4. The emigration to the United States hurts the home country, as much of the male population, workers, and top intellectuals often leave their country.
5. Less skilled citizens earn less money and have fewer job opportunities because they must compete with immigrants in the job market.
Alex and Tim provided excellent evidence to back up their pro argument related to business.
Ryan and Rikki provided examples of citizens being forced to take low paying jobs by providing examples of Disney and the cruise ship industry but failed to go into detail. I had heard that Disney was a great company to work for in terms of benefits. I would have liked information on the salary ranges.
Brittany and James provided lots of stats using the Pew Research Center survey.
Rolando and Kasie also provided lots of stats on the con side of the argument.
Carly and Valeria actually found the balancedpolitics.org site and copied the information related to their pro argument. I was hoping the students wouldn't find the site because the site goes into detail on each of the reasons.
Okay, so this perfectly planned lesson that I imagined would ignite the masses to engage in a fiery debate fizzled. I know why.....I was micromanaging the whole thing by critiquing each person's evidence in the attempt to teach how evidence should be collected and presented.
The next time I do this kind of thing, the students will have a presentation of how evidence should be linked to reasons in a claim. I put the cart before the horse. Therefore, the whole activity became a chore. I didn't allow the cons to say anything. What I should have done was to have one pro present, followed by a rebuttal and then a con, then a rebuttal, a pro, etc.
The students were trying to engage in the debate and I held them off.
I think the activity is a good one. The procedure needs work. In the process, I found that great balanced politics website. I noticed that lots of students wrote down the link, so that was good for any students writing in other classes.
Two more weeks of classes. I think everyone is tired. Alas...always pidgeons in the grass.
This author's rhetorical stance is in sharp contrast to Roberto Rodriguez's essay The Border on Our Backs. Rodriguez claims that illegal immigrants should no longer accept the second-rate status they have been allotted in the United States.
Here is a YouTube video that had 3 million hits. You will see why it is so good.
Both essays were opinion pieces targeted for a sympathic audience. I had as an activity to do a debate on a slightly different proposition:
Should America maintain/increase the level of legal immigration?
The class was divided up into pairs with each pair given a pro or con reason. I got the argument from a great site called Balanced Politics. It can be found at http://www.balancedpolitics.org/
From that site, the Pro and Con Arguments were as follows:
PRO
1. Some of the most intelligent and ambitious individuals, who are unsatisfied with their own countries bring skills to America.
2. It increases the diversity and expands the culture of the country.
3. immigrants often take the low-paying jobs( like food service and hotel cleaning) that most Americans don't want to do at such low wages.
4. Decreasing or eliminating legal immigration will inevitably create more incentive to come to the country illegally, which leads to less assimilation and fewer taxpaying, law abiding citizens.
5. It improves the overall image of America internationally, as it is seen as an open, welcoming country; and immigrants who return home or maintain contact with family back home have a true image of America, not the one propagandized in much of the international media.
6. Adding an additional group of cheap labor adds to the flexibility of business, leading to cheaper prices, better quality products, and higher profits.
7. It gives struggling people all over the world an opportunity for a better life. This country was built on immigrants who sought opportunity, political and religious freedom.
CONS
1. More immigrants means more opportunity for terrorists, drug dealers, and other criminals to enter the country.
2. Immigrants, especially the poorer ones, consume a high amount of government resources (health care, education, welfare, etc.) without paying a corresponding high rate of taxes.
3. The national identity and language is disappearing. The great "melting pot" is being replaced by divisive multi-culturalism.
4. The emigration to the United States hurts the home country, as much of the male population, workers, and top intellectuals often leave their country.
5. Less skilled citizens earn less money and have fewer job opportunities because they must compete with immigrants in the job market.
Alex and Tim provided excellent evidence to back up their pro argument related to business.
Ryan and Rikki provided examples of citizens being forced to take low paying jobs by providing examples of Disney and the cruise ship industry but failed to go into detail. I had heard that Disney was a great company to work for in terms of benefits. I would have liked information on the salary ranges.
Brittany and James provided lots of stats using the Pew Research Center survey.
Rolando and Kasie also provided lots of stats on the con side of the argument.
Carly and Valeria actually found the balancedpolitics.org site and copied the information related to their pro argument. I was hoping the students wouldn't find the site because the site goes into detail on each of the reasons.
Okay, so this perfectly planned lesson that I imagined would ignite the masses to engage in a fiery debate fizzled. I know why.....I was micromanaging the whole thing by critiquing each person's evidence in the attempt to teach how evidence should be collected and presented.
The next time I do this kind of thing, the students will have a presentation of how evidence should be linked to reasons in a claim. I put the cart before the horse. Therefore, the whole activity became a chore. I didn't allow the cons to say anything. What I should have done was to have one pro present, followed by a rebuttal and then a con, then a rebuttal, a pro, etc.
The students were trying to engage in the debate and I held them off.
I think the activity is a good one. The procedure needs work. In the process, I found that great balanced politics website. I noticed that lots of students wrote down the link, so that was good for any students writing in other classes.
Two more weeks of classes. I think everyone is tired. Alas...always pidgeons in the grass.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Week 12 Day Two
Blog Post 4 was today's assignment. Here are the directions:
Answer BOTH questions.
1. Martin Luther King in his essay, Where Do We Go From Here: Community or Chaos? that we mount a peace initiative. Outline your plan to transform the nuclear arms race into a peace race. Research peace intiatives to support your argument. Be sure and cite your source.
2. Martin Luther King in his essay World House talks about "bridging the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress." Explain the two realms he speaks about (p.598)and suggest how we, as a nation, can balance our scientific and technological abundance with living a moral and spiritual life.
NOTE: include a graphic (with citation if you don't use a royalty free one) and/or YouTube video with your post.
I noticed that the students have been making dramatic improvement in the quality of their posts, incorporating sources, great insights, and attending to the grammar and mechanics. The one thing I have had to remind them of is to cite their sources and, in particular, their graphics.
Here is the featured blog post of the week from McKenzee is reflects deeply on everything and always rises to the challenge.
1. The question for this topic is hard to answer, I see peace not exactly the same as the book described. In today’s society even in the past, we try to create a peaceful world. History in books and movies describe peaceful as a world such as Utopia, the beautiful, the impossible. This world has not and will not ever exist. With today’s technology and new creations I don’t think the world will ever get rid of the nuclear demons they have created. I think America as well as the other nations are too busy competing with one another about the future that they forget to focus on the present. Well, news flash the present determines the future. Instead of focusing on disarming the nuclear weapons we should focus on other things, a tactic that America has been using is the threat of nuclear retaliation in the event of conflict, instead of actually enforcing it. This defense has helped keep governments throughout the world in check. Although there are many smaller conflicts around the world, we have not seen anything approaching a “World War” in over fifty years. i believe that the U.S. strategy on nuclear weapons has helped to promote this limited warfare into smaller regional scrimmages that are going on today. It is only the threat of these weapons that we can maintain a strong defense to keep as peaceful of a world as possible. The sinful nature of man is in direct contradiction to peaceful existence. For over two thousand years man has been at war with itself, and to think the elimination of nuclear weapons will create an Utopia of peace is fool -hardy.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/missile-defense/history/reagan_on-strategic-defense-iniative.htm
2. We are making advances in science to the point that we have to ask ourselves, “Is this morally correct, even though we have the power to do something should we do it?” In Martin Luther King’s essay he explains that there is two ways in which everyone lives, internally and externally. The internal deals with morality and separating what right and what’s wrong. External deals with the materialistic and scientific progress. He explains that we are living too much of an external life that we are losing our internal life. We are losing our morality. This is hard to create a balance and has always been an issue. Stem cell research is just one example of many topics that relate to internal and external decisions. I think the only way we can create a balance of each is to have meetings of debates. Let the debates point of the pro and cons to each and if it passes, set certain rules and regulations for each advance taken. I think we should have a “watch dog” group specially assigned to each scientific or technological advance to make sure each is not exceeding to interfere with morality.
Answer BOTH questions.
1. Martin Luther King in his essay, Where Do We Go From Here: Community or Chaos? that we mount a peace initiative. Outline your plan to transform the nuclear arms race into a peace race. Research peace intiatives to support your argument. Be sure and cite your source.
2. Martin Luther King in his essay World House talks about "bridging the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress." Explain the two realms he speaks about (p.598)and suggest how we, as a nation, can balance our scientific and technological abundance with living a moral and spiritual life.
NOTE: include a graphic (with citation if you don't use a royalty free one) and/or YouTube video with your post.
I noticed that the students have been making dramatic improvement in the quality of their posts, incorporating sources, great insights, and attending to the grammar and mechanics. The one thing I have had to remind them of is to cite their sources and, in particular, their graphics.
Here is the featured blog post of the week from McKenzee is reflects deeply on everything and always rises to the challenge.
1. The question for this topic is hard to answer, I see peace not exactly the same as the book described. In today’s society even in the past, we try to create a peaceful world. History in books and movies describe peaceful as a world such as Utopia, the beautiful, the impossible. This world has not and will not ever exist. With today’s technology and new creations I don’t think the world will ever get rid of the nuclear demons they have created. I think America as well as the other nations are too busy competing with one another about the future that they forget to focus on the present. Well, news flash the present determines the future. Instead of focusing on disarming the nuclear weapons we should focus on other things, a tactic that America has been using is the threat of nuclear retaliation in the event of conflict, instead of actually enforcing it. This defense has helped keep governments throughout the world in check. Although there are many smaller conflicts around the world, we have not seen anything approaching a “World War” in over fifty years. i believe that the U.S. strategy on nuclear weapons has helped to promote this limited warfare into smaller regional scrimmages that are going on today. It is only the threat of these weapons that we can maintain a strong defense to keep as peaceful of a world as possible. The sinful nature of man is in direct contradiction to peaceful existence. For over two thousand years man has been at war with itself, and to think the elimination of nuclear weapons will create an Utopia of peace is fool -hardy.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/missile-defense/history/reagan_on-strategic-defense-iniative.htm
2. We are making advances in science to the point that we have to ask ourselves, “Is this morally correct, even though we have the power to do something should we do it?” In Martin Luther King’s essay he explains that there is two ways in which everyone lives, internally and externally. The internal deals with morality and separating what right and what’s wrong. External deals with the materialistic and scientific progress. He explains that we are living too much of an external life that we are losing our internal life. We are losing our morality. This is hard to create a balance and has always been an issue. Stem cell research is just one example of many topics that relate to internal and external decisions. I think the only way we can create a balance of each is to have meetings of debates. Let the debates point of the pro and cons to each and if it passes, set certain rules and regulations for each advance taken. I think we should have a “watch dog” group specially assigned to each scientific or technological advance to make sure each is not exceeding to interfere with morality.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Week 12 Day One
What a great morning we had with our lesson related to Leslie Savan's essay Black Talk and Pop Culture.
We had an arts and crafts day with the students taking on the vernaculars of different groups in America and creating a poster of vocabulary which has been incorporated into American talk from that group. Here are the directions for the task:
DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN?
ROLES: RESOURCE PERSON
POSTER MAKER
PRESENTER
Directions:
a. Work in your group to do some research on a vernacular of a particular group of people by clicking on the links below.
b. Create a poster of the words used in the vernacular assigned to you.
c. The words should accompany definitions and be those that have crept into the English language.
d. Print out pictures to add to your poster. Use the markers to make the poster visually appealing.
e. Provide any background of the origin of the words in your group presentation.
1. SPANGLISH: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1438900
2. YIDDISH: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/
3. TEXAN: http://donnasue.net/How_to_Talk_Proper_Texan.html
4. BOSTONIAN: http://www.universalhub.com/glossary
http://www.universalhub.com/glossary/a-b
5. CAJUN TALK: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/cajun_culture/33756
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jmeaux/cajundict.html
6. AMERICAN INDIAN WORDS: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmwords1.html
7. NEW YORK CITY TALK: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/47164/new_york_city_vernacular_slang_and.html?cat=9
The posters were all good. After I got the students to stop limiting themselves to how they were to make the poster, they went to town. Here are a few of their products.
We had an arts and crafts day with the students taking on the vernaculars of different groups in America and creating a poster of vocabulary which has been incorporated into American talk from that group. Here are the directions for the task:
DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN?
ROLES: RESOURCE PERSON
POSTER MAKER
PRESENTER
Directions:
a. Work in your group to do some research on a vernacular of a particular group of people by clicking on the links below.
b. Create a poster of the words used in the vernacular assigned to you.
c. The words should accompany definitions and be those that have crept into the English language.
d. Print out pictures to add to your poster. Use the markers to make the poster visually appealing.
e. Provide any background of the origin of the words in your group presentation.
1. SPANGLISH: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1438900
2. YIDDISH: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/
3. TEXAN: http://donnasue.net/How_to_Talk_Proper_Texan.html
4. BOSTONIAN: http://www.universalhub.com/glossary
http://www.universalhub.com/glossary/a-b
5. CAJUN TALK: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/cajun_culture/33756
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jmeaux/cajundict.html
6. AMERICAN INDIAN WORDS: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmwords1.html
7. NEW YORK CITY TALK: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/47164/new_york_city_vernacular_slang_and.html?cat=9
The posters were all good. After I got the students to stop limiting themselves to how they were to make the poster, they went to town. Here are a few of their products.
Valerie, Brittany, Tim Poster
McKenzee, Jennifer, Kaydee Poster
Ryan, Rikki, and Kelles Poster
Jared, Clay, Rolando Poster
Alex, Kasie, Laura Poster
Tom and Ben Poster
Erika, Nick, and James Poster
As you can see, everyone seemed engaged with this activity and seemed to be having fun. Moreover, in the presentations afterwards, the class learned about other groups. Some didn't know what Creole was or where Cajun came from. Alex gave us a lesson on Bostonian talk, while Jared talked about the origins of Yiddish.
I was pleased with the way the lesson went. Only wish I had time to do the journal free write on hip hop language from the YouTube I found. Check it out.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Week 11 Days One and Two
This week I was in San Diego for the 2010 Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. My husband, Mark Simpson, and I attended lots of great presentations and also presented a poster session entitled I Think, You Think: Teacher-Student Reflections Using Free Online Technologies. Below are some photos of our presentation.
We learned lots and can't wait to apply some of it in our classes.
In the meantime, my Creative Composers were busy at work peer editing one another's visual argument papers and submitting their first drafts of their letters to me in which they evaluated their visual arguments.
This assignment needed much more guidance as the majority of the students used too much text in their argument. I will take some time on Monday to go over the problems. They will have about 10 days to do their final drafts.
The end of the semester is coming upon us quickly.
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