Comma Usage Notes

Do your parents let you win?

This is an interesting article I came across in the NY Times.  Check it out!

Is it better to teach children tough life lessons, like the thrill of victory is sweeter if you have known the agony of defeat? Or is it better simply to let a child win? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/garden/the-role-of-competitiveness-in-raising-healthy-children.html

Structuring Your Essay

Remember, for HW you need to finish the questions on the "Alphabetism" article and finish annotating what kinds of paragraphs the author uses.

Also, you need to write 2-3 sentences explaining YOUR structure (whether it is from my list of essay organizing strategies below or you make up your own "recipe").

Here are types of paragraphs you might use (this can also give you ideas as to how you can expand your essay, if need be).

• Introduction
• Narration/anecdote
• Explanation of argument or opinion
• Definition of major terms or ideas
• Personal example
• Research example 
• Book/movie/game etc. example
• Counter point
• Compare/contrast
• Wrapping it up/Conclusion

Here are different strategies for organizing the order of your paragraphs (you can make up your own name for your special recipe of structure)

• The Chronological:  showing development over time (works great for a personal essay).
• The Traditional:  Start off with an illustrative anecdote, present your argument, give examples, then wrap it up.
• The Traditional Twist:  Like the traditional, but you also address the counter argument and tear it down.
• The Full Circle:  Like the traditional, but you refer back to your initial anecdote in your conclusion.  Such a lovely way to finish off an essay.
• The Step by Step:  You give the reader step-by-step directions (this can be used ironically to great effect)
• The Effect and Cause:  I switched this around because usually you address the effect first then analyze what caused this (this is especially true in our human nature essays).  This should also integrate research as much as possible.

Voice Powerpoint

I had some requests to put the voice slide from my power point up on the blog.  This should just give you an idea of what different voices may look like in word form.  Disclaimer:  these were just some ideas off the top of my head, so this is certainly not a comprehensive list, nor does each "trait" need to look like that in writing.

VOICE

• Your style or personality that comes out in your writing (or any other creative medium you express yourself in)
• Your writing should be a self-portrait, but instead of using different colors or brush strokes, you are using diction, syntax, figurative language etc.
• Are you a no-nonsense kind of person and have a really clear and to-the-point sentence?
• Are you quirky and have an image that sticks out and shows some “out of the box” thinking?
• Are you energetic and have a series of short sentences that build energy?

Can't Get to 700 Words?

One of the main reasons I notice that students fall short on word count (especially when it's as small as 700) is that they have not supported their ideas with ACTUAL evidence or examples.

Here's the fix:  Do some research!

1.  Go here
2.  Sign in (username and password are both neistm)
3.  Click on "My Products Page"
3.  Type your topic (Santa Claus, Jersey Shore, humor, hoarding etc.) in the search box
4.  Click on "Full Text" right underneath the search box.
5.  Click the magnifying glass to search

Once you find your article, you can integrate what the author is saying into your own essay, showing that you aren't the only person with this idea.  You can also tear down people you disagree with.  In any case, adding actual research to your essay will beef it up and make it more credible.

For example, when I looked up "reality tv" I found this article:

Reality TV's Effect on Teens

Kolich, Heather N. Listen64. 8 (Apr 2011): 16.

Turn on hit highlighting for speaking browsers

Hide highlighting

Abstract (summary)

TranslateAbstract

Cheryl Dellasega, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, links the abundance of reality TV "mean girls" who benefit from bad behavior to a real-world rise in relational aggression (bullying) among teen and adolescent girls. Jon KraszewsM, assistant professor of broadcasting and film at Seton Hall University, thinks MTV's The Real World uses casting, editing, and production choices to construct a reality- and support a particular ideology - for its authence.

Full Text

• TranslateFull text
• Turn on search term navigation

Reality TV aims for coarseness and shock Value. Viewers get a glimpse at the lowest aspects of human behavior: greed, cruelty, promiscuity, betrayal, rudeness, and deceit beyond imagination. There's little that's actually real in manufactured, highly edited gamedocs, docusoaps, and reality sitcoms. But for entertainment, you can suspend your disbelief and imagine your friends or yourself acting like the characters from a particular show.

The brains and experiences of younger viewers aren't developed enough to process many of the prefabricated settings and situations posed by reality TV. Older teens have an easier time dismissing the antics of the actors as fiction. But do you get away scot-free? Or does the descent into depravity linger in your perceptions andinteractions with the real world?

Cheryl Dellasega, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, links the abundance of reality TV "mean girls" who benefit from bad behavior to a real-world rise in relational aggression (bullying) among teen and adolescent girls. Laurie Ouellete and Susan Murray, editors of Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, state in the introduction that reality TV "encourages viewers to test out their own notions of the real, the ordinary, and the intimate against the representation before them." This includes spying on others, accepting being watched by surveillance cameras as we go about our business, and posting homemade reality episodes on the Internet.

Jon KraszewsM, assistant professor of broadcasting and film at Seton Hall University, thinks MTV's The RealWorld uses casting, editing, and production choices to construct a reality- and support a particular ideology - for its authence. President of Media Research Center Brent Bozell claims that MTV's reality show lineup promotes sexual liberation, experimentation, and adopting new sexual identities. The programming pushes distorted sexuality on teens and kids as young as 12, most of whom don't want to ask an adult for the straight scoop.

The negative effects of reality TV go beyond emotional and psychological. If you're like most teens, you spend an average of 23 hours per week watching television. This has relationship, physical, and academic consequences. When you're watching the tube, you're disengaged from family and friends. Every hour spent idly watching as a couch potato increases your risk of obesity by 2 percent, further distancing you from the idealized stereotypes depicted in reality TV. And watching more than one or two hours of television daily lowers your academic achievement, particularly in reading.

Copyright Review and Herald Publishing Association Apr 2011

Rousseau, Fromm, Locke

Here are the major points you should have in your notes for both of these thinkers.

***Remember, do not copy these verbatim into your notebook.  Use them as a guide to add to your notes in your own words!  You cannot use a print out of this on the quiz (nor can you use them if you copied them exactly into your notes!).

Jean Jacques Rousseau

1.  Similarities between humans and animals:

• We have similar needs (food, water, shelter)
• We are treated alike by nature (no one animal is favored over another)
• We all have a sense of self-protection
• We all have thoughts/ideas

2.  Differences between humans and animals:

• Humans are less strong and agile
• Humans have a "better constitution" (means we are more resilient and hardy)
• Humans sample from the instincts of all the other animals (so we can pick and choose what works best for us)
• Humans are "free agents"-- we have a choice to either follow our instincts or not (whereas animals always follow their instincts)
• Humans have more complex ideas:  we make connections where animals do not

3.  Humans have brought many of their problems upon themselves, including:

• Inequality
• Laziness amongst the rich
• Overwork amongst the poor
• Superficial desires
• Problems with digestion (for those who can afford "rich" foods)
• Hunger
• The torment of every day living
• War
• Murder

4.  Natural state of humanity for Rousseau:

• No speech
• No buildings
• No industry
• No war
• We are self-sufficient
• We only work to satisfy our "true needs"
• No progress of intelligence
• No progress of culture (art, music etc.)
• No education
• (For Rousseau, "progress" is not worth all of the problems it causes in #3)

5.  Origin of inequality:

• Inequality came about when people began to gather
• At gatherings, humans would begin to form bonds
• These bonds led people to develop preferences
• Example: people began to judge how "well" others sang and danced
• The judgement is what created the inequality

Erich Fromm

1. Origin of human nature:

• Human nature comes from the "social process" -- our nature develops based on our interactions with other people and our integration into the society in which we live.

2. How human nature has changed:

• We now want fame
• We now notice the beauty of nature
• We now are obsessed with work

3. Human nature is “malleable”

• malleable (definition):  moldable (changeable)
• Fromm means…most of what makes up our nature can change.  HOWEVER, it is not 100% changeable.  There are aspects that do not change, no matter what (our instinct for survival, which involves our need for food, water, shelter)

4. Static adaptation

• Define:  A change you make to adapt to a situation that does not change your personality
• Example:  Eating with a fork and knife rather than chopsticks

5. Dynamic adaptation (In this part, the example is given first, then the definition)

• Define: A change you make to adapt to a situation that changes your personality
• Example: Reacting to an overbearing parent (which may make you resentful and perhaps change you into a more defiant person)

6. Characteristics that differentiate people from each other (some people may have more of one of these traits than another, but this all depends on your interactions with others and the society you live in):

• love
• destructiveness
• submission
• sadism
• desire for power
• detachment
• desire to make yourself seem better than you are
• tendency to want to save money
• enjoyment of sensual pleasure
• fear of sensuality
• THESE ARE FLEXIBLE DURING CHILDHOOD

7. According to Fromm, the main thing that determines how we act is our need for self-preservation or survival:

• In order to stay alive, we need to eat, drink, sleep, and protect ourselves
• In order to do this in our world, we must work
• The type of work is determined by society we live in, and we can’t change this.  (In other words, if you are a teacher, you have certain responsibilities and expectations, you must change yourself to fit these, because otherwise you won't have the money to eat, have home etc.  The changes you need to make to become a teacher could influence your nature)
• The work we do (and the society we live in) determines our  nature or character because need for self-preservation/survival forces us to accept the conditions we live in.

8. Human beings need community

• Because…we need to feel connected and not alone.  We all have a need to feel as if we belong.

9. Summary of overall argument:  Human nature is shaped by

• Our need for…survival (basic instincts that do NOT change)
• Our need for…community (which can change our nature since we need to submit to the rules of the community we live in, and that may result in "dynamic adaptation")

John Locke:

1. The metaphor Locke uses is that our mind is a blank piece of paper

• Locke means…that when we are born, we have no personality or nature at all.  We are a blank slate that can be written upon.

2. Our character ultimately comes from: experience.

Parent Packet

Dear Parents,

Below you will find links to the information distributed at Curriculum Night for English 8.  I look forward to meeting you at Parent Teacher Conferences.

Best,
Vanessa Snowden

English 8 Parent Packet
Edmodo Parent Accounts