Tuesday, September 29th

No class meeting today! INSTEAD: Debate tonight! It starts at 7pm. It should last approx 1.5 hours, but you don't have to watch the entire thing. Please try to watch as much as you can! Should be some interesting TV!

Watch it on cable or a TV service that carries the following channels: CNN, Fox News, CBS, ABC, C-SPAN, NBC and MSNBC.

C-Span's Live Stream on YouTube is a good internet based option.

The New York Times Live Stream includes commentary and fact-checking with NYT reporters.

If you miss it, it will definitely be available to go back and watch tomorrow on YouTube.

Please look at the debate through the lenses of rhetoric and ideology that we have been studying.  HONORS crew, don't forget that your first essay will be to declare a winner of one of the 4 debates happening in the next month. This one is certainly fair game!

Also attached here is a little historical look at the Nixon/Kennedy debate that we talked about in class. Many presidential historians see it as a turning point in the way we elect candidates. Here we are 60 years later and we have a TV personality as a president, just sayin'....

Monday, September 28th

Starter: Take Online Attendance!

TO-DO!

1. Google Classroom: Rhetorical Analysis of “I Have a Dream”

2. Finish Herrick reading ("Rhetoric as an Art" section. You do not have to do the exercises at the end.)

3. Catch up in any other necessary ways? Grades will be updated this week.

4. Note: Honors extension on this weeks's assignment. Come to office hours if you are confused!

Tuesday reminder:

“Class” tomorrow consists of watching an hour(ish) of the presidential debate. Check out the Google Classroom announcement tomorrow for links to the NYT livestream.

OR: Watch it on cable or a TV service that carries the following channels: CNN, Fox News, CBS, ABC, C-SPAN, NBC and MSNBC.

Staying on for office hours if anyone wants to talk about Dr. King, Honors, American politics, or anything else! I will also be available for office hours 1-3. If you need a 1-on-1 session, reach out by email and we will work it out.

 

Friday, September 25th

Starter 9.25: A Pep Talk from Kid President

1.  What is his message?

2.  Is it convincing?  Why?

3.  How does he appeal to his audience?

Lesson: RHETORIC AS A TYPE OF DISCOURSE

"I Have a Dream" Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Listen intently and annotate for the characteristics of rhetorical discourse that Herrick outlines in his article. 

FIRST:  What are the components of the Rhetorical Situation?

1.  What is the message?

2.  Who is MLK Jr.?

3.  Who is the audience?

4.  What is the purpose?

5.  What is the historical context?

Google Classroom: Rhetorical Analysis of “I Have a Dream”

This will be due at midnight Monday!

Tuesday: Watch Debate!!! Please finish Herrick reading before watching the debate.

Thursday, September 24th

New Protocol! Four “Corners”:  

America is living up to the ideals set forth in our founding documents.

DISCUSS 1619, Episode 1:

• Why was Nikole Hannah-Jones’ dad proud to fly the flag? How did she feel about it and why?

• How is the 1619 project attempting to reshape the collective knowledge of our society?

• Did this podcast make you feel more patriotic or  more cynical?

• Why do you think there has been conservative backlash against the project? Why do you think Donald Trump mentioned it by name?

• Is this podcast an example of “rhetorical discourse”?

INTRO TO RHETORIC!

LESSON: An Overview of Rhetoric

Homework: Read Herrick article, an "An Overview of Rhetoric" through p 17, you may STOP at the header RHETORIC AS AN ART.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Free Shakespeare in the Park! Much Ado about Nothing is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

Tuesday, September 22nd

Starter 9.22:To the best of your knowledge, what does the U.S. Constitution do? What are its main functions?

A dose of rhetoric from the Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Optional (recommended for your KNOWLEDGE): Watch Crash Course US History about the Constitution! It just might help you understand some important things about our government works:) Alexander Hamilton makes an appearance, just sayin'.....

1619, Episode 1: “The Fight for a True Democracy”

1. What is the central message of this podcast? What does the claim (or thesis) seem to be? Summarize her argument in a few sentences. TRUTH: You might just have to listen to the whole thing to glean this;)

2. REACT! What were some things in this podcast that surprised, disturbed, or enlightened you?

3. Are you convinced by the message? Why or why not?

HONORS Quick Meeting

Check-in on historical thinking skills….

• What is Raphael’s main message? What does he want us to do/think/feel? Who seems to be the audience for this piece?

• Where do we see the historical thinking skills in Raphael’s work?  In our reading of him?  Where are we doing this work?

• How do we construct a view of history?

• How might our ideas about history relate to our politics in the present?

 

Monday, September 21st

Starter 9.21: A Significant Omission…..

Read the omitted passage from the Declaration of Independence and answer the following questions:

• To what is Jefferson referring?
• Why do you think Congress removed this from the adopted  draft?

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither … And he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another."

REQUIRED: Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution:  Crash Course US History

OPTIONAL: If you want to know more about the war itself, here is another John Green video: Who Won the American Revolution? (This one is optional, but recommended: why not learn more? It talks more about how the war played out and the impacts on all the peoples of America at the time)

Respond to these questions on the Google Classroom when you are finished with the video(s).

1. Name 3 reasons that the colonists were frustrated with Britain.

2. Name 3 actions that the colonists took to protest British rule.

3. What major understandings about the American Revolution do you have now that you didn’t have before? Did anything in this video surprise or enlighten you?

4. John Green says, “If you are going to base your society on philosophy, you should try to found it on ideals that are as inclusive and humanistic as possible--because the people executing those ideals will never be ideal.”   What does he mean by this?

NOTE: “An Overview of Rhetoric” reading due dates

This is the hefty reading I handed to your hands on Friday. We will chunk it out as follows:

• Through page 7, due Thursday 9.24

• Through page 17, due Friday 9.25

• Whole reading by next Monday 9.28

If you would like to work ahead, tomorrow’s podcast assignment is also posted in Google Classroom. Please do today’s work first, but feel free to move forward as well if you feel like you have more work time today than you anticipate having tomorrow.

HONORS: We will have a check-in tomorrow during e-class. We will briefly discuss the reading and look ahead to the next assignment.

Friday, September 18th

 Key Questions:

• What were the ideals set forth in the founding of our nation?

• To what degree is America living up to those ideals?

Starter 9.18: CHECK THIS OUT!!!!! REACT!!!!

Brainstorm answers to any of the following questions

1. What do you remember about the American Revolution?  What have you learned about it in your education?

2. What are some of the ideals upon which the Revolution was based?

3. Why was the Declaration of Independence written?  

The Declaration of Independence

History channel excerpt

The Ideology of the Declaration of Independence

Discuss Declaration Packet. (TURN IT IN!)

• What are the ideologies upon which our country is founded?

• What bias did you see in each of the historian excerpts?

IF TIME....

Four corners:  

America is living up to the ideals set forth in our founding documents.

America’s historical hypocrisy undermines the philosophical basis for our democracy.

HARD COPIES OF "An Overview of Rhetoric" This is to be read over the course of the next week. It's a heavy one! Break it up over some days:)

Thursday, September 17th

 Key Question: How is the study of history an ideological act?

Starter 9.17:  Thinking about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:

What does it mean if these histories go untold? What does it mean if they DO get told?  What does it have to do with who WE ARE (America, that is) in the political present?

Discuss Starter and Reading: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Chapter 1

• How does this version of American history differ from how you have traditionally learned it?

• Why is it important to look at this version of history?

• What does it mean for the present if these stories get told?

• What does it mean for the present if they don’t?

• What is “Manifest Destiny”? How did Dee Brown define it?

• Does this ideology continue in the present? How so?

• Check out this source: History Channel historian

• It’s complicated! Beware of history that oversimplifies the past and makes it seem like Americans used to always agree on stuff! There has always been disagreement and ideological diversity. Perhaps this is part of what makes America beautiful?

Tambien La Lluvia: Share out

• How did we draw the throughline to the present?

• Why the title?

• Does this film have an agenda? Is this a biased piece of rhetoric?

What are the arguments in favor of celebrating Columbus Day?

Here are some...

1. What are the benefits/problems with taking a more cynical view of history? 

2. What are the benefits/problems with taking a more patriotic view of history?  

3. Why does it matter in the present?

DISCUSS

• What do we think about the idea that historical figures should be celebrated for their greatest accomplishments and not their worst atrocities?

• Where else do we see this phenomenon nowadays?

• Should Columbus be “cancelled”?

• Should other “heroes” with blood on their hands?

“America the Beautiful,” (8.23.19) by Bret Stephens 

This was a response to the 1619 project, which we will be looking at next week…

1st time: Jessica reads it

2nd time: You read and annotate for things that strike you.  Mark passages that will help you discuss the following questions with your peers in small groups:

“America the Beautiful” DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• What questions do you have?

• Why did Hamilton Warren open the Verde Valley School?  How does the author use this as a symbol for America? (Why does he call it “surely the most American” boarding school?)

• According to the author, what makes America unique?

• Why does he discuss the atrocities/injustices of the past in conjunction with celebrating foundational principles?  

• What does he want us to see about America?  What is his thesis?

• Would you say Bret Stephens’ view of history is more patriotic or cynical? What is the evidence?

• What does this have to do with our deconstruction of the patriotic/cynical binary?

• 
  

Tuesday, September 15th

Starter 9.15: What examples have you seen of indigenous activism and/or resistance in U.S. History? (past or present...)

DISCUSS FOR CLARIFICATION OF THE FILM RESPONSE ASSIGNMENT....
1. What ideology did European explorers bring with them to the Americas? What were their values and their motivations?
2. How did it differ from the ideology of the indigenous peoples that inhabited the lands? (What do we know about this? How do some indigenous belief systems differ from "Western" ones?)
3. Why were these ideologies in conflict?
4. How do we see these ideological conflicts manifest in modern times? Can you think of other examples beyond the Cochabamba protests?

What other questions do you have that will help you write the TEA paragraph? The questions again....

1. How does this film juxtapose historical events to make ideological connections across time? What are these connections? (How can we view “La Conquista” on the same ideological timeline as the events in Cochabamba in 2000? See Wikipedia links below if you want to expand your knowledge of La Conquista and/or the Cochabamba protests.) 2. Why is this film called Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain)? What does this have to do with the ideological conflict portrayed in the movie?

FILM RESPONSE DUE TONIGHT at midnight

Reading assignment for Thursday's class posted on Google Classroom! (DUE before class on Thursday)

HONORS MEETING: 

1. Review Zinn. A&Q
2. Historical Thinking Skills

Monday, September 14th

Starter 9/14 (In the Google Classroom stream): What have you learned throughout your education about  Christopher Columbus and the "discovery of America"? (HONORS: How would you have answered this before this weekend's reading?)

KEY QUESTION: How is the study of history ideological?

Deconstruct….Columbus: Hero or Villain?  

1. What do we remember/what have we learned about Columbus throughout our education?

Mine went a little something like this….

2. Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s Day?

THINK or RESPOND: What are some reasons in favor of celebrating Columbus Day?

Reconsider Columbus Day

Durango and FLC have reconsidered

THINK or RESPOND: Do you think Durango and FLC made the right decision in changing this holiday officially?  Why does it matter?  

***What might one's answer to this question say about their own ideology?

FILM RESPONSE: Tambien la Lluvia/Even the Rain

If you are one of the people that doesn't have a Netflix account, I have created a classroom account. I will be emailing you the log-in. Reach out if this is you and I don't know that!

Questions to THINK about (We will clarify tomorrow in e-class)...

1. What ideology did European explorers bring with them?

2. How did it differ from the ideology of the indigenous peoples that inhabited the lands? (What do we know about this? How do some indigenous belief systems differ from "Western" ones?)

3. Why were these ideologies in conflict?

4. How do we see these ideological conflicts manifest in modern times? Can you think of other examples beyond the Cochabamba protests?

SEE GOOGLE CLASSROOM FOR THE DETAILED ASSIGNMENT! (DUE 11:59 PM Tuesday)

1. How does this film juxtapose historical events to make ideological connections across time?  What are these connections? (How can we view “La Conquista” on the same ideological timeline as the events in Cochabamba in 2000?)
2. Why is this film called Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain)? What does this have to do with the ideological conflict portrayed in the movie?

HONORS: Meeting tomorrow during class time! Please watch the film before tomorrow, as it adds a layer to what you read this weekend.

ALL: If you want to work ahead today, you could begin reading and annotating Chapter 1 of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which will be an assignment due Thursday. This is the reading I gave you a hard copy of last week.

Friday, September 11th

Starter: Take this Google Survey for Student Council! 

The Pathos of Patriotism

Watch this video. How does this video make you feel?  

By decree of the law, today is Patriot Day.

Remembering 9-11

Weekend Homework: Talk to your elders about 9-11. Be an empathetic listener. 

OPTIONAL: Read Osama bin Laden’s open letter to America. Rhetoric! Ideology! Willingness to be Disturbed! Please feel free to add your thoughts and questions to the Google Classroom thread where the assignment is posted. 

GRAB A HARD COPY: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Chapter 1 (DUE NEXT THURSDAY)