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| This is the white board diagram from 10/9/14. Memorize these relationships. |
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Diagram of F. Douglass's Relationship to his Masters
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Notes Relevant to the First Chapter of NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE ...
I will be posting here on my blog throughout (I hope!) our reading of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I want you to keep up with these posts, as I think they will aid your understanding of the finer points of Douglass's text.
First of all, I want to "back-up" a bit and point out something about the reading you have been doing over the past ten days ...
You have been reading primary source documents in my class, at least insofar as you completed the "Representing Slavery Project." The "document sets" you read from the Rochester Libraries are all primary sources -- that is they are original historical documents, written by people who experienced the events firsthand. F. Douglass's Narrative is a primary source too. By contrast, for instance, your history textbook is, mostly, a secondary source -- that is one that is written by experts discussing events after the fact. When you study history, these distinctions are important to your full understanding of the readings. I have a feeling that your U.S. history teachers will be talking more and more about this.
Just as an interesting example of the power of primary sources and the wealth of their scope, consider one of the questions we have before us: how did Southern politicians and "statesmen" (to use F. Douglass's word) justify slavery? We have discussed this briefly in class (see again end note 15 in our edition of the Narrative), and we will continue to look at the question, yes. But here's an interesting primary source (published in 1856) that presents justification for enslaving African Americans. If you skim just the first few pages, you will recognize the Biblical argument, erroneously founded on Genesis. Hard to believe, right?
Just to reiterate from our discussion on Friday, Southern slaveholders believed that, based on Genesis 9:18-27 , Caanan and all of the children of Caanan as well as (by extension for some reason) his nieces and nephews were rightfully enslaved. We will continue to discuss this Southern "argument" for the next few days and weeks ...
I want to also remind you about our "learning target" for last Friday: "I can recognize a common inductive pattern (of F. Douglass's)." So, to remind you, Douglass begins his narrative (identically like all "slave narratives") with a short discussion of his origins, insofar as he knows them. Soon, he shares some difficult revelations about himself -- namely that his mother was black but his father was white. Then, he goes on to explain how he is the kind of child/person, one of mixed race heritage, who could bring down slavery. Douglass clarifies that Southerns could not possibly continue support the enslavement of Caanan's progeny, especially since so many now are mixed with generations of white blood. I tried to illustrate Douglass's "inductive pattern" with a diagram on the white board. Keep in mind that "inductive" means to reason from the specific to the general -- that is from something small to something very large. (In fairness, yes, inductive reasoning can also be deeply flawed, especially in the case of stereotyping.)
First of all, I want to "back-up" a bit and point out something about the reading you have been doing over the past ten days ...
You have been reading primary source documents in my class, at least insofar as you completed the "Representing Slavery Project." The "document sets" you read from the Rochester Libraries are all primary sources -- that is they are original historical documents, written by people who experienced the events firsthand. F. Douglass's Narrative is a primary source too. By contrast, for instance, your history textbook is, mostly, a secondary source -- that is one that is written by experts discussing events after the fact. When you study history, these distinctions are important to your full understanding of the readings. I have a feeling that your U.S. history teachers will be talking more and more about this.
Just as an interesting example of the power of primary sources and the wealth of their scope, consider one of the questions we have before us: how did Southern politicians and "statesmen" (to use F. Douglass's word) justify slavery? We have discussed this briefly in class (see again end note 15 in our edition of the Narrative), and we will continue to look at the question, yes. But here's an interesting primary source (published in 1856) that presents justification for enslaving African Americans. If you skim just the first few pages, you will recognize the Biblical argument, erroneously founded on Genesis. Hard to believe, right?
Just to reiterate from our discussion on Friday, Southern slaveholders believed that, based on Genesis 9:18-27 , Caanan and all of the children of Caanan as well as (by extension for some reason) his nieces and nephews were rightfully enslaved. We will continue to discuss this Southern "argument" for the next few days and weeks ...
I want to also remind you about our "learning target" for last Friday: "I can recognize a common inductive pattern (of F. Douglass's)." So, to remind you, Douglass begins his narrative (identically like all "slave narratives") with a short discussion of his origins, insofar as he knows them. Soon, he shares some difficult revelations about himself -- namely that his mother was black but his father was white. Then, he goes on to explain how he is the kind of child/person, one of mixed race heritage, who could bring down slavery. Douglass clarifies that Southerns could not possibly continue support the enslavement of Caanan's progeny, especially since so many now are mixed with generations of white blood. I tried to illustrate Douglass's "inductive pattern" with a diagram on the white board. Keep in mind that "inductive" means to reason from the specific to the general -- that is from something small to something very large. (In fairness, yes, inductive reasoning can also be deeply flawed, especially in the case of stereotyping.)
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
outling is a reading skill too!
Advanced Composers,
Today in class seemed to confuse a few of you, so I wanted to provide a bit of clarification in this blog post. First of all, the homework to complete tonight is a reading task not a writing one. You are to outline your "expertise book" author's "opening matter" -- that is the Introduction, Preface, Preamble, or Forward.
This outline is the "skeleton" of the author's argument, and our various authors will include these bits of "opening matter" in an effort to lay out the much, much longer work's cogent features and arguments. In essence, the "opening matter" in book-form non-fiction is a "road map" for the rest of the text, and, reading the "opening matter" along with the Table of Contents will provide a complete picture of the depth of the longer work's full revelations and insights.
I've found a relevant post from Salisbury University (in Maryland), and I will re-post the best bit here:
Today in class seemed to confuse a few of you, so I wanted to provide a bit of clarification in this blog post. First of all, the homework to complete tonight is a reading task not a writing one. You are to outline your "expertise book" author's "opening matter" -- that is the Introduction, Preface, Preamble, or Forward.
This outline is the "skeleton" of the author's argument, and our various authors will include these bits of "opening matter" in an effort to lay out the much, much longer work's cogent features and arguments. In essence, the "opening matter" in book-form non-fiction is a "road map" for the rest of the text, and, reading the "opening matter" along with the Table of Contents will provide a complete picture of the depth of the longer work's full revelations and insights.
I've found a relevant post from Salisbury University (in Maryland), and I will re-post the best bit here:
"The key to both outlining and summarizing is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples. The main ideas form the backbone, the strand that holds the various parts and pieces of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps you to discover this structure ..."
So, you are outlining the main points (essentially listing the main points in an organized, tiered fashion). Your own outline will look nothing (really) like mine, as no one of you is reading To End All Wars. (I also sent you via email a handwritten, .pdf copy of the Google Doc that is linked in the previous sentence.)
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
rhetorical analysis resources -- all in one place!
Advanced Composers,
I want to remind you of all of the resources at your disposal for writing the Rhetorical Analysis. I would review them in this order:
I want to remind you of all of the resources at your disposal for writing the Rhetorical Analysis. I would review them in this order:
- the initial instructions (including information on proper MLA formatting)
- the Rhetorical Analysis Slide show (with good details regarding the parts of your analysis)
- the rubric I will use to evaluate you
- the "whip-around" feedback from all three sections (or the essential components of the two "model" RAs)
- the pre-writing questions you need to answer before composing
- and finally the peer-critiquing grid you will set-up tomorrow for peer-critique (refer to the eight questions at the top)
Also, I have done a bit of internet searching on your behalf, and I have three good college writing center pages to share. (The college writing center information is particularly rich in general and the various approaches to writing this type of assignment are often pointed and highly relevant.)
Try these three:
Thursday, February 13, 2014
you are blogging now!
Students,
Yesterday and today in class you will be working on your new blog -- you are an author now! I put together this short presentation to assist you in setting up your account properly and getting started with a few initial edits. Write about anything (and the assignments I will give you). Most of all - have fun!
Yesterday and today in class you will be working on your new blog -- you are an author now! I put together this short presentation to assist you in setting up your account properly and getting started with a few initial edits. Write about anything (and the assignments I will give you). Most of all - have fun!
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