Homework due for Monday April 25th--for WOnders of Universe

Ok, this HW is for both the 102 and the 1A classes...


We are doing a draft day on this day... the goal is 6-9 paragraphs...you can do Rule of 3 on 2-3 of the questions to get your paragraphs... you should bring 2 copies of your essay...


see you on monday!

Chronicle of a death foretold ...HW for Wed, the 20th--

The HW that is due Wednesday is at the bottom of this post. But first we need to talk about the #3 assignment. Ok, it looks like we will be doing a different approach to this book than the typical essay assignment. (You are welcome to DO the original essay assignment that was handed out, if this new approach doesn't work for you.)

So, what we are going to be doing is offering you the opportunity to interpret our book using a different artistic medium of your choice. Be thematic: you might want to find a controlling principle to guide your work.  You will want to make your work be ambitious and the product of a good amount of effort. (No Haikus, or stick figure drawings, lol).  There WILL be bumps in the process of creating your interpretation. Along with your finished artistic work, you be writing a 2 page "artist statement" that talks about your work and why you made the choices that you made. (More on how to do this later.)
You should also plan on your work being embedded in a special website that we are going to create that holds all these cool works that you will create.

There are a LOT of different things you can do. Below is the brainstorm that we came up with in class:

Children's book
Song (blues or story)
Obituary scrapbook
Screenplay or scene
Storyboard
Poem
Graphic novel with dialogue
Fan fiction/alternate story/conspiracy theory
Interpretative dance
Tattoo/memoriam portraits
Collage: surrealist/Dada, or mixed media
Telenovela
Photo pages for a novel, with quotes
Fake interview scenes: therapist, police, professor, etc
Diorama
Puppet show
Produce a song, write/perform
Russian nesting dolls with concepts inside each character
Web master


HW for Wed.

1. read the book
2. write up a one page proposal that talks about what you think you want to do for this assignment. It should be specific and should offer intellectual reasons why you want to do what you want to do. Bring this on Wed. ...

 

English—3rd Formal Essay based on Wonders of the Universe —McFarland—Spring—2016

English—3rd Formal Essay —McFarland—Spring—2016

As you know the focus of Wonders of the Universe is on the scientific theories that explain how the Universe works. That material is interesting, no doubt, but for your paper you will focus less on the theories themselves, and more on your own relationship to the kinds of “Big Picture” ideas that a book like this implies. For this paper you will be shaping your discussion around 3 quotes below:

1. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

2. “An inherited cultural mind-set building over millennia lies behind our ever increasing acts of violence to our Earth—and one another.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

3. “Exploration, both intellectual and physical, is the foundation of civilization.” Brian Cox

Here are some questions to consider as you think about these quotes. You don’t need to answer them all if you don’t want, but you should endeavor to build a discussion that comes to some conclusions and has the shape of a thesis, that is to say, an organized response to the quotes:

What is your opinion of these 3 statements?

What is the relationship between these statements?

How do you get outside yourself?  Why might you want to?

What implications do these statements have to you personally in your own life?

A book like Wonders of the Universe focuses on ideas and content that appears to be literally very far removed from the concerns of own little planet. What value if any does a book like this have for us?

What do you think the connection is between trying to live our daily lives and the world of “Big Ideas?”

You may also have other questions that you want to address. In order to support your points, you need to use the ideas found in the book, your research, and in any other handouts, media, etc. that we have access to. It is crucial that most of your quotes come from Wonders of the Universe.

To answer these questions you will want to do Rule of 3. What is Rule of 3?

You will want to come up with “right-sized” concepts with which to control your paragraphs.

You must average a minimum of 1 to 2 short quotes per paragraph. You should try to include more than one quote per paragraph whenever possible. Quote length in a paper of this length should be no more than 1-2 lines. We will be “avoiding headless quotes.” What is a headless quote?

The essay’s page minimum is 6 full pages…(BNDJTM…)

Paragraph topic sentences should start with concepts. Paragraph topic sentences should also feature KEYWORDS, which are taken from the questions that you will be exploring.

The paper is due  Monday May 2nd

First draft is due Monday April 25   

HW to prepare for the essay #3 for Wonders of the Universe

Hey there, so you have the essay assignment for #3 essay. For this week end we need to start thinking about the 3 quotes that are in the assignment....

For next Monday, the 18th, pls write up a 2-3 para response to the 2nd question: What is the relationship between these statements (the 3 quotes.)  bring it Monday... it is the start of your paper....

presenting your chapter for Wonders of the Universe

hey there, so next week you will present your group's chapter to the class. Your job is to pick one of the categories below to respond to. You should plan to talk for 2-3 minutes....(not 10 seconds)
Below are possible categories you can respond to:

• chapter summary...what is the main focus of this chapter...para or 2...
• cool or interesting picture or graphic...talk about that..
• something in the chapter that you don't get....
• something in the chapter that you think can help with the essay...
• interesting concept or idea in the chapter

You might have more than one person doing a category above. (In other words, 2 of you might be sharing 2 different pictures or graphics.)

The goal of these presentations is to make your group the "tour guide" of the chapter. You are the experts and will be guiding the class. You need to read all of your chapter to get a full sense of what is going on....

Starting on "Wonders of the Universe"

hey there, say goodbye to violence and say hello to the Universe!


(which actually can be a pretty violent place, lol....)


Hopefully you have the book, Wonders of the Universe.




Here is what we are going to be doing over the weekend. this will be due on next Monday, April 11.

1. Read the intro of the book, pgs 8-12.
2. On pg 8 of  the intro, he says, "exploration, both intellectual and physical, is the foundation of civilization." What does he mean by this? What's you opinion about this? (Do a para for each question.)
3. Go through the book and find any picture or graphic or paragraph of writing that interests you. Write a para that talks about WHY you picked what you picked. What interests you about what you picked.