Create a Kahn Academy log in & get enrolled in my class.

1. Sign up at khanacademy.org
2. Visit khanacademy.org/coaches
3. There, in the "Add a coach" field, enter the class code 87MW5K

Once there, being practicing in the Grammar section on the Syntax subsections.

“Little Things Are Big” & "Microaggressions" Article Questions

Directions: In the RESPONSES section of your notebook answer the following questions over the two articles we read & annotated today. Make sure to answer in complete sentences.

1. What happens in “Little Things Are Big”? Why? What roles do racism, prejudice and stereotyping play?

2. “Little Things Are Big” is set more than 50 years ago. Could the same piece be written today? Why or why not?

3. After you have read the entire Microaggressions Times article, look back at this paragraph:

“What is less clear is how much is truly aggressive and how much is pretty micro — whether the issues raised are a useful way of bringing to light often elusive slights in a world where overt prejudice is seldom tolerated, or a new form of divisive hypersensitivity, in which casual remarks are blown out of proportion.”

What do you think? Why? What examples from the text or from your own life experiences support your opinion?

4. What theories does The Microaggressions Times article offer to explain why there has been a recent and heightened awareness of microaggressions? Why do you think there is so much attention focused on them right now?

5. Both the term “microaggression” and the title “Little Things Are Big” play on the idea that, where sensitive subjects like race are concerned, something that may seem small or meaningless to one person can loom large for another. When have you ever had an experience where “little things” seemed “big”? What did you learn from it? Do you think it is better for us as a society to openly discuss sensitive issues like race, class, sexuality and religion with people who are different from us, or do you think some things are better left unaddressed? Why?

6. How are the articles “Little Things are Big” and Microaggressions similar? Support your answer with evidence from BOTH passages. This must be answered in SHORT ANSWER format…1) answer the questions 2) provide evidence from BOTH passages 3) explain the evidence.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.gp54ozYva#.kwMDBQMEe

Microaggression visuals

 

Is There Justice for Juveniles Article

Directions: Follow the hyperlink to the article entitled "Is There Justice for Juveniles" & after reading the article answer the following questions in the RESPONSES section of your notebook. You DO NOT have to write the questions but you must answer in complete sentences.


http://www.layouth.com/is-there-justice-for-juveniles/

1. Who is the author of this article and how old is he?
2. In the first section of this reading, what is the author most upset about?
3. What is Proposition 21?
4. In the second section titled "On the wrong side of the system" what was the author's purpose in talking about the street poets?
5. "As I spoke to the Street Poets, I think the most important question I asked them was, how did it feel to lose your freedom."  How did the street poets respond to the author's question?
6. In the third section titled "It’s do or die in adult prison" according to the author, what's wrong with placing juveniles in adult prisons?
7. In the sections titled "Something beautiful to look at" can juveniles be rehabilitated?  What is "DreamYard"?
8. In the section titled "We need to fix what’s broken" what valid points are being argued?
9. According to the last paragraph titled "What Prop. 21 would do" what is wrong with prop 21? Explain.

“Letter From Birmingham Jail” BY Martin Luther King, JR.

During non-violent demonstrations for racial equality in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed for eight days.  He wrote this letter to white clergymen to explain his actions and to answer those people who urged him to call off the demonstrations he called for.  He responds to his critics who claim that he and other African-Americans should wait for the federal, state, and local governments to make changes.

Directions: read the selection and answer the questions in the RESPONSES section of your Notebook.

Passage ONE:

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.  The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.  Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.”  But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.  There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.  I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

1.  Identify the type of appeal used in this passage & give two quotes that support your claim.

              Appeal:

Quote 1:

              Quote 2:

2.  King uses an abundance of rhetorical devices that have the potential to overwhelm the audience emotionally (antithesis/contrast, metaphor, anaphora, alliteration, and imagery).

King employs antithesis in the second sentence.  Outline the pairs of contrasts.

• Places:___________________________________ to _____________________
• Moves like________________________ (1^st place) and moves like _______________________________ (2^nd place)
• Gains _____________________________ (1^st place) and _______________________________ (2^nd place)

3.  In a sentence, explain King’s rhetorical purpose in employing these antithetical places and ideas.

4.  Identify two metaphors in the passage; explain their purpose & the effect they have on the reader.
 

This information will help you answer #5. The 4^th sentence not only contains over 300 words, but it also develops the most powerful emotional argument in the paragraph.  The force of the paragraph depends on King’s use of several rhetorical techniques, but the anaphora propels a driving rhythm that is particularly effective.

5.  Identify the similarly repeated words at the beginning of the clauses (anaphora).  What is King’s purpose for repeating this phrase nine times?

This information will help you answer #6. MLK is a master at using sound devices to add emphasis and detail.  For instance, beginning in line 3, King writes “but we still creep at a horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee.”  The repetition of the ‘c’ sound emphasizes the slow pace of reforms to gain even the smallest right.  Both “creep” and “cup of coffee” are humble things, contrasted with Asia and Africa, which move like jests to gain something much grander than a cup of coffee – “political independence.”  King uses the repetition of consonant sounds to reinforce the idea of struggling for basic rights, rights any one should take for granted.

6.  Find two additional examples of alliteration in the passage.  Write the words or phrases in which alliteration is used; then write a sentence or two that explains the effect of the alliteration.

7.  This passage floods the readers with imagery designed to evoke the pity, compassion, and empathy of King’s critics.  Identify the types of imagery listed below and write a sentence that explains the emotional effect of each one.

• Sight
• Sound
• Touch

High School Behind Bars

Watch the following documentary segment & then answer the question below. You must answer in complete sentences & treat it like a short answer response. In order to do so, you must take notes while you watch the documentary clip. 

http://www.pbs.org/pov/highschoolbehindbars/video/a-high-school-behind-bars/

After viewing it and considering that “Waiting for Superman” also discussed how it would be cheaper to educate inmates than house them once they have committed crimes, is it beneficial for inmates to receive an education while in prison? Defend your answer with evidence from the documentary.

Facebook Helps Develop Software That Puts Students in Charge of Their Lesson Plans

By NATASHA SINGER and MIKE ISAACAUG. 9, 2016

Facebook is out to upend the traditional student-teacher relationship.

On Tuesday, Facebook and Summit Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school network with headquarters in Silicon Valley, announced that nearly 120 schools planned this fall to introduce a free student-directed learning system developed jointly by the social network and the charter schools.

Rather than have teachers hand out class assignments, the Facebook-Summit learning management system puts students in charge of selecting their projects and setting their pace. The idea is to encourage students to develop skills, like resourcefulness and time management, that might help them succeed in college.

“As parents and kids and teachers get access to this type of learning, I think more and more will want it,” Diane Tavenner, the co-founder and chief executive of Summit Public Schools, said in a telephone interview.

The Facebook-backed platform is entering the public school software market when rival tech giants like Google and Microsoft have already established big footprints in education, in an attempt to build brand loyalty among students early.

In June, Google said more than 60 million students and teachers worldwide used Google Apps for Education, a suite of free products that includes Gmail and Google Drive for document-sharing. Many other schools use Microsoft productivity tools and Skype, the videoconferencing tool, in classrooms. Amazon also plans to soon introduce Amazon Inspire, a site where teachers can share free instructional materials.

But the Summit-Facebook system, called the “Summit Personalized Learning Platform,” is different.

The software gives students a full view of their academic responsibilities for the year in each class and breaks them down into customizable lesson modules they can tackle at their own pace. A student working on a science assignment, for example, may choose to create a project using video, text or audio files. Students may also work asynchronously, tackling different sections of the year’s work at the same time.

The system inverts the traditional teacher-led classroom hierarchy, requiring schools to provide intensive one-on-one mentoring and coaching to help each student adapt.

This summer, more than 1,500 educators and leaders of public, private and charter schools participating in the program, called Summit Basecamp, attended sessions to learn how to use the system. Among the 19 schools that introduced the new learning approach last year, at least a few educators and administrators reported a steep learning curve.

“There were many points where we weren’t sure the Summit Basecamp model was what our students needed,” said Claire Fisher, the principal of Urban Promise Academy, a public middle school in Oakland, Calif., which introduced the platform in its sixth-grade classes.

By the end of the school year, however, 31 percent of the school’s sixth graders were reading at or above their grade level, compared with just 9 percent in the fall. That was a larger improvement in reading than students in seventh and eighth grades, which did not use the platform, Ms. Fisher said.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, were the catalysts for the partnership. It is the couple’s most public education effort since 2010 when they provided $100 million to help overhaul public schools in Newark, a top-down effort that ran into a local opposition.

The Facebook-Summit partnership, by contrast, is more of a ground-up effort to create a national demand for student-driven learning in schools. Facebook announced its support for the system last September; the company declined to comment on how much it is spending on it. Early this month, Summit and Facebook opened the platform up to individual teachers who have not participated in Summit’s extensive on-site training program.

Study Questions: Make sure to answer each question in complete sentences in one comment published to the blog.

1. Does this article provide conclusive proof that students perform best without the influence of a teacher with structured lesson plans?
2. What does this new technology mean for the future of education? Does this lead you to think that the public school classroom will look significantly different in 20 or 30 years? Why or why not?
3. What do you think is the intended purpose of this technology? Could this technology be used for another purpose – could it actually be used to reshape public education? How?
4. Could this technology be used to replace teachers at some point in the future? Could it change the role of the teacher in the classroom? How? Explain.
5. Could this be the solution to the many problems facing public education as discussed in the documentary? Why or why not?
6. What appeal(s) is/are being used in this article? Give an example.

"Waiting for Superman" Pre-Viewing Questions

 



Questions 1-5 pertain to the above cartoon & any of your prior knowledge. Make sure to read each question and answer in complete sentences. 

1.      Explain the situation in each cartoon panel.

2.      Based on the cartoon, who was responsible for student learning in 1961?  Who was responsible for student learning in 2011?

3.      Based on the cartoon (and some inferencing), does the cartoon artist believe this change is positive or negative?  How do you know?

4.      Who is the audience for this cartoon? In what publication and/or format would this cartoon likely appear?

5.      What overall message is the cartoon artist expressing in this cartoon?

Questions 6-10 are your opinion. Read the following questions and answer ALL PARTS OF EACH QUESTION to receive full credit. There are no correct or incorrect answers, but I do expect you to respond thoughtfully and critically.

6. How would you define a “good” education? Do you feel you are receiving a “good” education?

7. Do you believe there are “bad” teachers and “good” teachers? How do you define each---in other words, what makes a teacher “bad” or “good”?

8. Without giving any teacher’s name, have you had any really “good” teachers? Again, without giving any names, have you had any “bad” teachers? Why were they “bad” or “good” in your opinion?

9. Based on what you know right now about education in the U.S., do you believe you are receiving a better education in your school than students in the rest of the nation?

10. If you could change one thing about your education, what would it be?