Over Break

You have no assigned reading. As I mentioned in class, the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition will take place on Monday, January 7, during tutorial. I encourage you to participate in it. Since you have no other work for me, consider learning a couple of poems to recite from memory. Go here to check out the eligible poems. (One poem has to be from before the twentieth century, and one poem has to have fewer than twenty-five lines. A single poem can satisfy both of these qualities, e.g. a sonnet by Shakespeare.)

Also, as I mentioned in class, when we finish Unflattening, you will write a synthesis essay about it, which is one of the three kinds of essays you will have to write on the AP exam. We will go over the synthesis essay when we get back from the break.

Lastly, you will need to choose your mentor for the STP when we come back in January, so if you missed Tuesday's class when I talked about it, see the guidelines for that in the STP Handbook, which is posted to the right.

Assignment for Tuesday. Dec. 18

In Unflattening, read pp. 69-87. You have no reading over the break, but be sure to have Unflattening with you for the first class on Thursday, January 3, which is a Day 2.

Assignment for Friday, Dec. 14

In Unflattening, read pp. 49-67. If you missed class, we read chapter 2 during class, so you'll have two chapters to read.

Assignment for Monday, Dec. 10

In Nick Sousanis's Unflattening, read to p. 27. You don't have anything to write in response to this reading. The research prospectus is due Wednesday, Dec. 12, so you might want to work on that over the weekend. You will have time during Monday's class to work on it.

Assignments for Tuesday, Dec. 4, and Thursday, Dec. 6

For Tuesday, listen to this TED Radio Hour broadcast. Come to class prepared to answer questions about this broadcast. (Be sure to click on the link to listen to the full episode, which is close to an hour in length.)

For Thursday, as a heads up, read the excerpt from Farhad Manjoo's book True Enough that was handed out in class. (If you missed class, this reading is posted to the right.) You might want to get a head start on this reading over the weekend, and I'll give you some additional background on the events it covers during Tuesday's class. Just like Tuesday, you don't have anything to write, but come to class prepared to answer questions about this reading.

Lastly, click here for polling data from the 2004 presidential campaign so you can see the effect of the advertisements placed by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (the first ad aired in early August), and click here for a link to the 2004 electoral college map.

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 30

Complete the annotated bibliography. Turn it in as one document that includes all five annotation entries. Be sure to include a proper heading. In class, we will resume our investigation of narrative and reality.

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 30

Complete the annotated bibliography. Turn it in as one document that includes all five annotation entries. Be sure to alphabetize your sources by the author's last name, and include a proper heading. In class, we will resume our investigation of narrative and reality.

Assignment for Wednesday, Nov. 28

Write a third annotated bibliography entry. This one should be for a book. If you're in Google Classroom, turn it in there; otherwise, share it with me as a Google Doc.

In-Class Reading and Work

Here is a back-to-basics refresher exercise. Read the two obituaries linked below about the great magician Ricky Jay. Then, compare and contrast their essential rhetorical qualities. Start with their rhetorical situations, and then get into more specific rhetorical features. Feel free to draw on the SOAPSTone and DIDLS schemas. Share your comparison with me in a Google Doc.

New York Times obituary on Ricky Jay.

Slate.com obituary on Ricky Jay.

Assignment for Thursday, Nov. 15

Write one more annotated bibliography entry, preferably from a JSTOR source. For Thursday, you should be up to two annotated bibliography entries. See my comments on your first entry before you write the second one.

Assignment for Tuesday, Nov. 13

Read Salman Rushdie's Truth, Lies, and Literature. You will eventually be assigned this piece, but if you want to take advantage of the long weekend and read it now, go ahead.

In addition, prepare one entry for the annotated bibliography. It will be more manageable to begin with a shorter source, probably from GaleNet.

Assignment for Thursday, Nov. 8

Read the handout distributed in class on evaluating sources (focus on pp. 68-69, and 76-82). Also, see this handout on the STP annotated bibliography that is due on Friday, Nov. 30.

Then, watch this TED talk on the nature of objective reality. Before watching, ask yourself if there is a reality that is objective and the same for all of us.

Lastly, read this interview with Jaron Lanier, an influential pioneer of virtual reality technology, and important thinker about all things related to digital technology.

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 2

Update 2: Here are the assignments, but you don't have anything due for tomorrow. We'll go over them in class, and you'll have class time to work on it.
[Update: Some changes to the following are coming. Don't worry . . . ]
Prepare one page, or about a third, of your final assignment on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. If you're in Google Classroom, submit this work there, or email it to me. (If it's a visual assignment, turn in a picture of your work-in-progress.) Either way, bring it to class; you will have time to work on it.