WEEK OF APRIL 7TH to APRIL 13TH

ANSWER QUESTIONS IN YOUR DIGITAL COMP BOOK OR PREPARE FOR NEXT MONDAY'S DISCUSSION GROUPS....

WEEK 2: America’s Industrial Food System



Readings:

• Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Chapters 1-9 (pp. 17-126)
• “Food Miles and Packaging: A Contrarian View”

Videos: 
Optional films for enrichment:

• Food, Inc. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! This is essentially a film version of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and another great book, Fast Food Nation.)
• King Corn (More depth about the role of corn in our food system)
• Fed Up (About the obesity epidemic and the role of sugar and politics)
• Super Size Me! (In which the filmmaker only eats McDonald’s for 30 days YIKES)

The Questions:

1. What are the ADVANTAGES of the U.S. food system?  What do we love and celebrate about it?
2. Why are US Americans “corn people”?  What are the many dimensions of our food system’s relationship with corn? 
3. What are the benefits and problems of the way we raise food animals in the U.S.?
4. What is the relationship between the food industry and the obesity crisis?  Why are the chips (pun intended!) stacked against families with less money?
5. Is factory farming worth the trade-offs?  What would you be willing to give up in order to have a different agricultural paradigm?

Monday, April 6th

Hello, students!  I hope that your first week finds you well and that you have been able to get through the work and enjoy the thinking. Please continue to reach out with questions and issues!

WRITTEN RESPONSE TRACK:
If you have not done so already, please share your new digital comp book with me and your peers indicated below.  This same document can be used to respond to each week's questions, so this should be the only time you need to share it.  Throughout the week, I will be looking at your documents and commenting.  Please hop on your peers' shared docs and do the same in the next few days.  Feel free to move on to the assigned readings for WEEK TWO, as outlined in the food project syllabus.

GROUP DISCUSSION TRACK:
I will see you guys this afternoon on our Zoom discussions at 1 or 2. You should have prepared some sort of prewrite to get yourself ready to discuss the week's questions.  Please be ready to refer to the readings and videos AND ask your QUESTIONS!  After these meetings, you are ready to start WEEK TWO, as outlined in the food project syllabus..


LOGISTICS FOR BOTH TRACKS: 

GROUP DISCUSSION TRACK GROUPS AND ZOOM LINKS (FOR MONDAY, APRIL 6)

Come (with your prewrite) prepared to discuss the week's questions. 

GROUP 1      1:00-1:45ish Zoom link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/389374708	GROUP 2       2:00-2:45ish Zoom link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/760341684
Finn Julia Sage Daniel Amelia Mylie PLUS possible “writers” joining: Rosie Lindsay Anthony	Chris A Mason J Ainsley Lucy Sean Taylor Vinnie Leit PLUS possible “writers” joining: Britt Landon
*NOTES:  People doing written response track are welcome to pop in on these group  meetings if they have questions or thoughts or miss the rest of us. If you want to do this, please let me know, so that I can try to keep the groups even.  (The “writers” indicated above are there because they have already expressed they may like to drop in.) These meetings and groups are for Week One only!  I may change them up each week if you guys want. There is a little flexibility to change time slots as well if you have other obligations to meet at your assigned time.  Just let me know!

WRITTEN RESPONSE TRACK COMP BOOK SHARING CLUSTERS:

Please share your comp books with Jessica and the following people indicated below.  On Monday (or Tues or Wed if better for you), get on your groupmates’ documents and add a few comments of your own.  This way, you will still be engaging with the ideas of a few other people. You may also choose to share it with anyone else that you like to talk to. Don’t worry about it if your group mates aren’t on point for this!  Jessica promises to comment weekly:)

Ryan Patrick Cole	Cormac Nik B Ty	Nick A Joe Sam
Sierra  Darby Riley	Britt Ethan Colby	Xavier Zander Kian
Lindsay Rosie Anthony	Chris P Landon Chandler	Alyssa Sarah Kandice

WEEK OF MARCH 30TH to APRIL 6TH

Hello, Ospreys! Welcome back to junior year, remote edition!  

I hope you have enjoyed your extra week of rest and feel ready to use your brain for some interesting learning. Although we may be socially distanced, we are still a community, and we are still united by our common purpose. I look forward to connecting to you all in the coming days and being together again in the spirit of learning.

And the spirit of eating! It's a great time to learn to cook! It's definitely a great time to think about where your food comes from.

I have distilled our food project into hopefully manageable weekly chunks.  As many of you will be doing LINK,  the content learning for our project will be completed by early May, with just an essay left to finish up.  I realize that different people are in different situations at home, so I wanted to make it flexible and manageable for you.  If there are things I can do to make this whole adaptation go more smoothly for you, let me know.  Even within the options, there might be further flexibility to differentiate for yourself.  I just invite everyone to engage and do some beautiful thinking about interesting and relevant topics WITHOUT GETTING OVERLY STRESSED.  I also want us all to grow in our writing skills, thus I am excited to give you an opportunity to write and get feedback on a personal essay before our time together is through.  

The main thing you should do today is READ OVER THE NEW PROJECT SYLLABUS and make some decisions about how you want to approach your work in Humanities.  You will see that there are options for a few things, so I want to collect data ASAP on which learning track you think you will take.  You guys have commenting power on the document, so feel free to ask questions in the margins.

Once you have read through the syllabus, please give me some quick data.

First, if you have not done so already, please take the survey on how you might procure a book for this project.  Those option again are:

• Order a fresh copy on Amazon for $7.99
• Download (and print?) the pdf version
• Let Jessica know that you need a hard copy and she will send one to your house

TAKE BOOK SURVEY

Second, once you have read the project syllabus, please fill out this survey to let me know what you are thinking in terms of the WRITTEN RESPONSE track or the GROUP DISCUSSION track. I need this data as soon as possible in order to figure out important details.

TAKE FOOD PROJECT LEARNING TRACK SURVEY

Please do the surveys as soon as possible, pretty please by the end of the day today!  Other than that, you have until next Monday to complete the work for Week One.  By then, I will have emailed you with more information regarding discussion group schedule and other pertinent details.  I will be emailing you periodically, and I will be updating my DP weekly, so make sure you are checking in on those things.  I will be checking my email daily, but I appreciate your patience and understanding as I try to navigate the challenges of being home with both of my children.  I will get back to you as soon as I can. I am going to try to hold office hours from 10-11am, Tuesday-Friday on Google Chat/Hangouts, so tune in if you have burning questions or you just miss me and want to talk about food or whatever stage of the existential crisis that quarantine has you in.  

A NOTE ON THE PHILOSOPHY PROJECT:

I realize that many of you have had your ideas compromised by the new situation, and please don't stress about this too much right now.  If that is the case, I will be allowing you to complete your project in a simplified way.  I will communicate about that soon, or reach out if you have concerns.

A NOTE ON HONORS:

Your 2nd essay of the semester is now due May 9th!  For most of you, this is the LITERARY ANALYSIS. For a few of you, it is the PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
See Honors Syllabus for links to support materials.

Instead of our final book club meeting, I would like you each to read a novel of your choosing and enjoy it. Please send me a selfie of you curled up reading it and a quick review by email letting me know what you read, what you thought about it, what you learned from it, and whether or not you recommend it to me.

I MISS YOU GUYS A TON!  BE WELL OUT THERE AND USE YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS!

COURSEWORK FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK:

WEEK 1: What is a “food ethic”?

Readings: ESSAY: Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating” (questions to THINK about as you read) SHORT SHORT STORY Anton Chekov, “Indigestion” BRIEF POEMS: “Vespers” by Louise Glück and “This is Just To Say”, by William Carlos Williams BOOK: Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma Young Readers Edition, Preface and Introduction (pp.1-6) Videos: Jessica’s video explaining the project and the idea of a “food ethic” LINK COMING SOON! Try to discern the “ethic” present in each of these videos: Applebee’s Commercial One Million Gardens  The Questions: What do we mean by “food ethic”? (Think about the ethics contained in the readings.) What are some different ethics that we see present in America’s relationship to food?  How does Wendell Berry’s food ethic run against the grain of the dominant culture’s relationship to food?  What is his thesis? What does he want us to do/feel/change? How is a “food ethic” reflective of one’s relationship to Earth and her resources? What is the “omnivore’s dilemma”?  What does it have to do with the ethics of food, agriculture, and eating?

Thursday, March 5th

FINISH PROJECT!

• Please turn in your finished project, annotated for its intertextuality.  Review my example.
• If you have an extension, please turn in your HIGHLY DETAILED plan for finishing it.

Project Reflection/DP Update (due March 24th)

SLC ACTION PLANS: 
One for each class that you have a C- or lower, plus one for LINK if your internship is not secured.

HONORS:  You have two assignments due by Sunday night.
Reflection on Cat's Cradle seminar
Honors Essay (your choice)
Both assignments detailed here in syllabus

Wednesday, March 4th

HONORS: Cat's Cradle Book Club meeting

WORK TIME!  Project Due tomorrow unless you have an extension!

Tuesday March 3rd

PROJECT WORK TIME

1. Y'all know what to do!  Make progress on your project in the most authentic of ways.  Be resourceful and efficient. Email me with questions.

2.  HONORS:  Prepare for seminar. Draft your essay?  Syllabus for guidelines

3.  If you know you need to do SLC's, you are welcome to start on your action plan(s) today. You will need to do an action plan for each class that you have a C- or lower, as well as one for LINK if you haven't secured an internship.  Here is the electronic version.  There are some hard copies on my desk.  

Monday, March 2nd

STARTER:  What is your plan of action today?  How do you need to use your time?



CHECK IC!  SLC audit is happening now!  If you have to do an action plan for my class, what should it contain?

PROJECT WORK TIME!
1. The project is due Thursday unless you are doing something that requires an extension.  Do not assume you have an extension if we haven't talked about it!  Even if you do have an approved extension, you must submit a plan to me detailing exactly what needs to be done and how you will execute. YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY MORE CLASS TIME!
2. HONORS: Cat's Cradle seminar is Wednesday morning.  Please come prepared.  See this doc for pre-write requirements.  
You have a deadline for the first of two essays this weekend (Sunday night or before).  If you get me a draft by the end of the day, I will still get you some feedback.  Otherwise, don't forget to turn in your essay!  
See Honors Semester 2 syllabus for details on seminar pre-write as well as essay guidelines and resources.
3. Conference with Jessica today?