week 9--October 26-30

Monday 10/26

Check in LTE drafts on gun control issue

Peer editing class work

Whole class writing seminar

HW)  Final draft of gun control letter to the editor (50 pt assignment)

Tuesday 10/27 and Wednesday 10/28

1  class review and reading of NYTimes article "Racial Disparity in Traffic Stops"

2.  Civil Disobedience excerpts from Thoreau

3.  CLASS WORK:  Summarize one and paraphrase a second passage of Civil Disobedience

4. Read intro and pages 1-15 of "Night Thoreau Spent in Jail"

HW) Read and answer the following question in 1 page MLA format for the Thoreau excerpt from "Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" and "Civil Disobedience"
How does Thoreau's view of an individual's relationship to his government create his response to the Mexican American War?

Thursday 10/29 and Friday 10/30
Civil Disobedience in US and around the world
Gandhi in India 1930's 
Salt Works protests
South African students protest high tuition fees
Readers Theater for "Night Thoreau Spent in Jail"
HW) Read and annotate Thoreau on education excerpt from "Night Thoreau Spent in Jail"

week 8--October 19-23

Please get the paperwork for a school-issued iPad, get it signed, talk with Ms. Govoni to find out how much you have to pay, and get an iPad.  YOU NEED ONE FOR THIS CLASS BY NOVEMBER 1ST!!

Monday, periods C and D

group work quiz with seven fallacies, examples and definitions

more practice identifying fallacies in letters to the editor

read and mark up packet with three articles on various sides of gun control issue

identify thesis and 3 major claims for each article

Hw) prepare for debate on gun control

Tuesday, periods E and F

group work quiz with 
eight fallacies, examples and definitions

more practice identifying fallacies in letters to the editor

read and mark up packet with three articles on various sides of gun control issue

identify thesis and 3 major claims for each article

Hw) prepare for debate on gun control

Wednesday and Thursday, periods C and D

debate

hw) first draft of gun control letter to the editor, 
first two letters per class who submit to Mr. Howell via google docs get +5 and will be used for class writing workshop

Friday, periods C and D
sentence editing practice
revising letters to the editor
class work:  identify in your partner's letter the thesis, areas of improvement for grammar, 2 transitions, 1 claim/evidence pattern, and the conclusion

HW)  final draft of gun control letter to the editor

Fallacies in Letters to the Edtior

• The following letters either point out the fallacy in an opponent's argument or commit a fallacy in the process of its own argument.
• Choose from Straw Man, Red Herring, Ad Hominem or False Analogy
  

  A

  Don't ban all guns — just attack weapons

• Posted Oct. 15, 2015 at 2:01 AM
  
  
  

  In typical fasion there’s been pushback from the National Rifle Association and its members since the killings in Oregon. The propaganda is that the government (headed up by that liberal we hate) wants to take our guns away. But no one is advocating that.

  The problem is not gun ownership, but the type of gun that is owned. No one denies the right to own a pistol to defend one’s home. No one denies the right for hunters to own rifles. What is questioned is the need to own assault rifles that spew out hundreds of bullets in a matter of a minute. These have been the weapon of choice in most of the mass murders.

  Why does the NRA defend the sale of these weapons? It says that if they are in the hands of good, sane people, they could be used for defense. That is a false argument. Ask people who defend the right to have assault rifles, and they will say that they are to protect against the real enemy — the U.S. government — when it attacks our homes to take our guns away.

  When paranoia leads to such imbecilic reasoning, cooler, more rational people must enact stopgaps against the ease with which attack weapons are obtained.

  Michael Williams

  Brewster

  
   B
  

  • Democratic debate was so pleasantly adult

  • Posted Oct. 15, 2015 at 2:01 AM
    
    
    

    What a difference between the first Democratic debate and the clown shows the Republicans put on.

    No name-calling, no misogyny, no bigotry, no thinly veiled racist dog-whistle code words like “thug” or “urban” or “takers,” no xenophobia, no religious intolerance, no warmongering, no personal insults, no blanket criminal condemnation of any segment of our population, no kowtowing to the National Rifle Association, no prostrations before the altar of the gun lobby, no claims of running under God’s personal endorsement.

    Instead the candidates politely and knowledgeably discussed and — yes — debated the central issues facing our nation today: the economy, foreign policy, Syria, Russia, Iran, infrastructure, trade, climate change, education, tax reform, Wall Street reform, empowering the middle class, elevating the poor, the minimum wage, wage equality, women’s rights, immigration reform, Social Security protection, Medicare expansion, veterans care, green energy and much, much more, including the right-wing Supreme Court’s bastard child and constitutionally protected core of political corruption, Citizens United.

    They presented real and viable solutions and alternatives without hyperbole or outrageous and impossible claims. No mass deportations, no 2,000-mile walls, no cakewalk through Syria, no bull.

    The adults were in the room. And it showed.

    Tim Crowninshield

    Sandwich

    
    C
    

    • Let Obama take lead on changing gun laws

    • Posted Oct. 13, 2015 at 2:01 AM
      
      
      

      In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama laid down an ultimatum for Congress: “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” he said with respect to ... climate change.

      After the Umpqua gun massacre, he stated: “... we can actually do something about it, but we’re going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I’ve got to have a Congress and I’'ve got to have state legislatures and governors who are willing to work with me on this.”

      With all due respect, if he can enact executive orders to protect the environment or grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, he can certainly do the same with mandatory background checks. He shouldn’t blame Congress, legislatures or governors, nor the National Rifle Association. He should just look in the mirror if he wants to see who owns this. His carbon footprint would appear to be much more important to him than the chalk outlines around dead Americans.

      Kevin Keras

      Yarmouth Port

     D
    

    • Tribal instincts govern our political antagonism

    • Posted Oct. 13, 2015 at 2:01 AM
      
      
      

      It is easy for liberals to demonize conservatives as being selfish, greedy, heartless and mean-spirited — oversimplifying by dismissing them as excessively afraid of change, complexity and novelty, suggesting that conservatives have a simplistic model of the world, with no compassion for the poor and no political shades of gray as regards same-sex marriage, gun control, economics, abortion and other incendiary issues.

      I would like to assume that conservatives and liberals alike are sincere, are patriots, and that our differing opinions are well-reasoned and deserving of respect. But that’s just an attempt at mutual survival.

      What is it that both sides fail to understand? It’s that, at our core, we are all — liberals and conservatives alike — irrational creatures, governed first and foremost by our reptilian brains, acting on impulse, satisfying our most basic hungers and desires without regard for social consequences. Then we rationalize our behaviors, fiercely defending our decision-making, belief systems, buying habits, artistic choices, religious convictions, political persuasions, and complex human emotions as if there were some logic to them. There isn’t. It’s all hot air, borne from a lack of self-awareness and an unwillingness to honestly recognize and confront our tribal instincts.

      Peter A. Schaible

      Brewster

Gun Violence vs Gun Rights Source Page

"Who The NRA Really Speaks For"

GUNS NEED TO STOP

Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?

Bloomberg gun group

Brady Campaign to stop guns key statistics

 

Concealed guns 

Both

American gun facts

CATO

Gun Control is a Charade by Charles Krauthammer

 

Week 7--October 13-16

Please get the paperwork for a school-issued iPad, get it signed, talk with Ms. Govoni to find out how much you have to pay, and get an iPad.  YOU NEED ONE FOR THIS CLASSS BY NOVEMBER 1ST!!

Tuesday, October 13

Periods C and D

Collect late work under Amnesty plan

PSAT practice

Direct Instruction in Fallacies

Identifying fallacies in letters to the editor

Begin reading packet of gun control articles pro-con

HW)  find 3 fallacies among the articles about gun control either pro or con

Wednesday, October 14

Periods E and F miss due to PSAT

Thursday, October 15

Periods C and D

PSAT debrief

Finding more fallacies in letters to the editor

Sharing fallacies in gun control argument

Outlining arguments for gun control pro or con

HW)  find 4 more pieces of evidence on the side of your choice, explain the evidence, and evaluate the source

Please get the paperwork for a school-issued iPad, get it signed, talk with Ms. Govoni to find out how much you have to pay, and get an iPad.  YOU NEED ONE FOR THIS CLASS BY NOVEMBER 1ST!!

Friday, October 16

Periods E and F

Collect late work under Amnesty plan

PSAT debrief

Direct Instruction in Fallacies

Identifying fallacies in letters to the editor

Begin reading packet of gun control articles pro-con

HW)  find 3 fallacies among the articles about gun control either pro or con

week 6--October 5-7

Monday 10/5

• MLA quote integration practice
• previous hw collected
• class reading of "Young Goodman Brown"
• discussion and connections to American Dream vs American Nightmare

HW) 1 page summary/analysis of "Young Goodman Brown" answering the following question and integrating at least two properly cited quotes:
How does the author Nathaniel Hawthorne express this class's major theme of the American Dream vs. the American Nightmare?

Tuesday 10/6 and Wednesday 10/7

• collect Hawthorn hw
• Individually read Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman"
• Fill in rhetorical analysis graphic organizer
• Socratic Seminar with Truth's text
• Number and identify in complete sentences 6 steps to Truth's argument

HW) finish Truth's argument work and make up all missed work over long weekend.