Starter #7:  What do Americans believe?  Complete this sentence in as many ways you can think of (at least 5):

• Americans believe....

Group share

Share your starter with your groups.  Together, decide on your best 5 statements, and write them on the butcher paper.  Try to transcend the superficial and think about the ideologies Americans hold.  (Avoid:  Americans believe in pizza.  Better:  Americans believe in the rights of the individual to make her own destiny.)

Work Time

Draft Refinement 

Edmodo

More critique?

Conference with me?

Homework

Final Draft of "This I Believe" due Tuesday, September 3 before class!  Please submit the draft electronically to jessicaahs11@gmail.com.  

Have a beautiful weekend!!!  Don't stop believin'!  

CRITIQUE: "This I Believe"

Goals for the Day

• Give and receive beautiful constructive feedback on our TIB  essays
• Hone our critical eye for what constitutes an excellent personal essay

PEER CRITIQUE PROTOCOL


Honors reminder
Procure copy of Zinn (most recent version best)
Honors meeting next Thursday at lunch
Read Chapter 1; answer study questions; come ready to discuss (see Honors link)

Goals for the Day 
1.  Add some beauty and style to your draft
2.  Persevere through the difficulty of draft completion

Starter 6
1. What do you like about this assignment?
2. What is proving to be difficult about it?

TURN IN COMP BOOK!!

In pairs, brainstorm as many literary devices as you can remember.
Which of these might come in handy for this assignment?
To review some literary techniques, see Lori's fabulous literary devices handout!
Add at least one of the literary techniques to your draft!

HOMEWORK
Come to class tomorrow with 2 copies of a COMPLETE ROUGH DRAFT.  I know that we lack printer kiosks.  If you cannot print at home, email me your draft, and I will print it for you.

Goals for the Day:

• Write an engaging lead for your "This I Believe" essay
• Develop your ideas into a working draft

TURN IN: CREDO ASSIGNMENT (unless you already posted it to Edmodo)

Starter #5
1. What makes for engaging writing and storytelling?
2. How will you use story in your essay to illuminate your belief and bring it to life for you reader?


In pairs, discuss:

• What makes writing memorable, accessible, and effective?

Review "This I Believe" Guidelines.


Engaging Hooks
Experiment with 3 different leads
Get feedback at our 80's Dance Party!


DRAPES and Audience Appeal


WORK TIME:  DRAFT YOUR ESSAY!!  

HOMEWORK?
Keep Drafting....
Edmodo:  Post your credo and comment on your peers' credos


Complete Draft Due Thursday, August 29

Starter #4

Think of some song lyrics that express some sort of personal philosophy.  What does the voice in the song believe?  How do the lyrics communicate, or fail to communicate, the emotional weight of the belief? Are some beliefs harder to express or personalize than others? Why? 

EDMODO RUBRIC:  Starts....now!!!

In pairs:  Jotting down as many as you can think of in five minutes, make a list of things people believe.
Consider personal, political, social, spiritual/religious.  
Brainstorm together on the board.

What makes for a strong statement of belief?



In your journal, brainstorm 5 of the most formative moments in your life thus far and what you learned from each.  Here are mine.

Credo Assignment

Advice:  If you are having trouble narrowing down which belief/experience you want to focus on, try drafting several, and then decide which you feel the most strongly about.

Examples of Creeds
John D Rockefeller's Creed
Nazi Creed

WORK TIME/HOMEWORK

Credo Writing (Due Tomorrow!!)

Explore "This I Believe"

Edmodo

Brainstorm Essay

Starter #3

Choose a quote from the list that you identify with (or choose a quote that has stuck with you in your life from another source).  How do you relate to this quote?  What experiences from your life have given you that belief?

Pair Share:  Discuss "The Beauty of Contrast."
1. What is her core belief?
2. What is the narrative (story) that she uses to illuminate her belief?
3. How does she reveal her personality to us?
4.  Why should we care? 

Listen to “Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude”

1. What is her core belief?

2. How does she use narrative (story) to illuminate her belief?

3. How does she reveal her personality to us?  Does she seem authentic?  Do we feel her message?

4. Why should we care?   What can we learn?

Personal v. Transactive Writing

What this essay is and is not...

The three criteria of an excellent "This I Believe" Essay

Group Critique of Published Essays

For each essay, discuss the author’s approach to the assignment.  Answer the following in your groups:

1.  Is it personal narrative or personal memoir?

2.  What is the author’s core belief?               

3.  How did the author use story to illuminate their belief?  What elements of good storytelling did they incorporate?  Does the whole piece work together in one unified voice? (narrative coherence)

4.  How does the author establish his/her unique personality through the assignment?  Which sections of the essay strike readers as truthful, either intellectually or emotionally? (authentic voice)

5.  “So what?”  How does the author connect to the human community?   (communal relevance)

"The Ultimate Sacrifice"

James Michener, "All Men are my Brothers"
"The Cultivation of Belief"

HOMEWORK

1. Continue to explore thisibelieve.org.

2. Read or listen to at least 3 essays.  (Choose based on personal interest.  Browse themes!  Listen to many more if you want to!)

3. For each of the three essays:  Without attempting to indicate your agreement or disagreement with the essay, write a 1-2 paragraph summary of the author’s core belief and the way this belief has shaped his or her life in the past or present.

As you read, pay close attention to the author’s authentic voice, narrative coherence, and communal relevance.  For a challenge extension, analyze these three criteria in writing.

4. Begin to brainstorm your own essay.

Goals for the Day
1.  Express our feelings about embarking on the junior's journey and get questions answered.
2.  Articulate beliefs we have acquired in our lives.
3.  Explore "This I Believe" essays as we begin our first mini-project.

Starter #2

Freewrite (on back of "Tell Me" sheet*): 

What are your concerns/fears and excitements about Junior Year? 

What have you learned so far in your HS career to help you excel this year?

What do you still need to improve on in order to be successful (in Humanities and in general)? 

Mini-Seminar:  Junior Year Expectations

*Turn paper into inbox in the back of the room after discussion

Ask me questions!!

Four Corners

˜Pick one of the belief statements from 4 corners and write for 10 minutes in your journal.

˜˜Why do you agree or disagree with the statement?

˜What personal experience has shaped this belief?

"Things I've Learned About Life" Gallery Walk

1. Reflect and write 5 of your own: What are some things you have you learned about life?

2. Pick the 2 most meaningful “lessons” and write them on sticky notes.

3. Pick a spot on the front wall that is eye-level and place your sticky notes there.

4. Spend 5 minutes browsing all other students’ sticky notes.

5. At the end of the time, come back and form a group of 3-4.  

Gallery Walk Debrief

1. What was the experience like?

2. What did you think of the lessons people wrote? Did any resonate with you? Did any surprise you? Did people take it seriously?

THIS I BELIEVE

What is "This I Believe"?˜

Personal essay Focused on a belief or insight about life that is important to the writer

oPersonal narrative Focused on an important event

oPersonal memoir Focused on an important relationship between the writer and a person, place, or object

˜HOMEWORK

1. Read the “This I Believe Invitation”

2. Explore, browse by themes, read one of interest to you (or more if you have time)

3. Write down questions you have about this assignment.  

4. Explore thisibelieve.org.

5. Read "The Beauty of Contrast," identifying the core belief of the author and the story behind the development of that belief.

Welcome to Humanities 11! Let’s Deconstruct America!

Goals for the Day

1.  Get acquainted with each other and the course

2.  Get the wheels turning on the question: What ideas do we have about America?

Starter #1

Brainstorm a list of ways to complete this sentence (5 min)

• America Is…

Welcome to this course! 

Introductions

Pink Houses 

Listen to the song, read the lyrics, and answer prompt questions in writing.

1.  Do you think that John Cougar Mellencamp’s tone is more patriotic or cynical?  Explain why you think so.

2.  Make an interpretive claim about this song using evidence. (1 paragraph) What is he saying?  What is the message?

Discussion:          

Share answers to 1&2

Why are we drawing the conclusions that we are drawing?  What is our evidence?

What do the people in the song believe?  What can we infer about their attitudes toward America?

Syllabus Chat

Do you want to do Honors?

What questions do you all have for me?

Homework

1.  Tell Me About Yourself

2.  Read syllabus, share with parents, get it signed

3.  Create Edmodo account and join our group. (Group Code:  fqroaq)

Post your best “America Is…” and/or your claim about “Pink Houses”  (Feel free to post several. )  Comment on each others’ posts.

Walt Says:

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?

Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.