Greetings...
Three items below...the first two I mentioned in class on Wednesday; the last item is your assignment for Packet # 7.
1. Mandatory: Due on Monday, April 2nd, typed.
Do not put your name on this. Simply title it: Musings on Immigration.
Then list what comes to mind when you think about or hear the word, "immigration."
It can be a list of words, phrases, or sentences. It can be written in paragraph form. It can be a personal story. There is no wrong way to complete this and no minimum word requirement. It is worth 25 points toward the 50 points possible for Group #3 in a few weeks. And again, please do not put your name on this assignment.
2. Optional: Due on Monday, April 2nd, typed.
It is worth up to 5 additional points toward your out of class essay #2 final score.
Assignment: Research the background of the two authors of the readings in Packet #6 and based on what you discover, how and why does their background affect your response to the readings, specifically.
3. Packet #7 Assignment:
"Immigration Problem could be Solving Itself"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-07-14-Immigration-problem-could-be-solving-itself_n.htm
"States' Immigration Laws Work"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-07-14-States-immigration-laws-work_n.htm
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
Greetings,
I do hope you are thoroughly enjoying your spring recess!
As all of you know, unless you did not attend class during the week before spring recess, I have to cancel class on Monday, March 26th. Reading Packet #6 is due to be read on Monday, so obviously the due date has been moved to Wednesday.
For sections 1 and 6:
Come prepared to discuss Packet 6 on Wednesday. We will also review WPJ procedures. The mock WPJ in class essay 2 will be moved to Monday, April 2nd.
For section 15:
Come prepared to discuss Packet 6 on Wednesday. We will also review WPJ procedures. The mock WPJ in class essay 2 will be moved to Monday, April 2nd.
READING PACKET #6 ASSIGNMENT:
"The Case for Arizona's Immigration Law"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126529117&ps=rs
"Obama Seeks to Woo Latinos with Immigration Push"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126543609
I do hope you are thoroughly enjoying your spring recess!
As all of you know, unless you did not attend class during the week before spring recess, I have to cancel class on Monday, March 26th. Reading Packet #6 is due to be read on Monday, so obviously the due date has been moved to Wednesday.
For sections 1 and 6:
Come prepared to discuss Packet 6 on Wednesday. We will also review WPJ procedures. The mock WPJ in class essay 2 will be moved to Monday, April 2nd.
For section 15:
Come prepared to discuss Packet 6 on Wednesday. We will also review WPJ procedures. The mock WPJ in class essay 2 will be moved to Monday, April 2nd.
READING PACKET #6 ASSIGNMENT:
"The Case for Arizona's Immigration Law"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126529117&ps=rs
"Obama Seeks to Woo Latinos with Immigration Push"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126543609
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
Greetings,
Below you will find the link to Packet #5. As your course outline indicates, this is due to be read by Wednesday.
The reading focuses on the issue of immigration. As with health care, it is considered a very "hot" topic for many. It does not rear its head in Breaking Bad specifically in this first season, but it is an issue in the shadows, especially where Hank is concerned.
Have a wonderful weekend and a safe one.
READING PACKET #5
"What are the Solutions to Illegal Immigration in America? Pros and Cons"
http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000842
Below you will find the link to Packet #5. As your course outline indicates, this is due to be read by Wednesday.
The reading focuses on the issue of immigration. As with health care, it is considered a very "hot" topic for many. It does not rear its head in Breaking Bad specifically in this first season, but it is an issue in the shadows, especially where Hank is concerned.
Have a wonderful weekend and a safe one.
READING PACKET #5
"What are the Solutions to Illegal Immigration in America? Pros and Cons"
http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000842
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012--830 pm
Greetings,
just a few reminders...
1. For section 1--if you choose to revise out of class essay 1, the first revision is due this Friday, March 9th.
2. For sections 6 and 15--if you choose to revise out of class essay 1, the first revision is due on Monday, March 12th.
FOR ANYONE SUBMITTING A REVISION, please remember to attach the original version that has my comments to the revised version. ALSO, please highlight all changes and additions on the revised version.
just a few reminders...
1. For section 1--if you choose to revise out of class essay 1, the first revision is due this Friday, March 9th.
2. For sections 6 and 15--if you choose to revise out of class essay 1, the first revision is due on Monday, March 12th.
FOR ANYONE SUBMITTING A REVISION, please remember to attach the original version that has my comments to the revised version. ALSO, please highlight all changes and additions on the revised version.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Greetings, below is the assignment for Packet 4, due to be completed by Monday, the 5th.
This packet consists of one video to view.
http://www.ted.com/talks/abraham_verghese_a_doctor_s_touch.html
Have a wonderful and safe weekend.
This packet consists of one video to view.
http://www.ted.com/talks/abraham_verghese_a_doctor_s_touch.html
Have a wonderful and safe weekend.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, Feb 27th, 2012
Greetings,
below you will find the following:
1. Out of Class Essay Assignment #2 (assigned in class today)
(if you missed class be sure to check with a fellow classmate for notes)
2. A document titled "How to Critically Read an Essay." Please print this document and bring to class on Wednesday. (this is only for sections 1 and 6; section 15 students already have a copy which was distributed in class today)
3. Reminders about the In Class Essay #1 this week (Wednesday for section 15; Friday for sections 1 & 6)
English 20, Spring 2012---Sections 1, 6 & 15---C. Fraga
Date assigned: Monday, February 27
Rough draft (optional): due no later than Wed. April 4
(for those in Section 15, you will need to submit your rough draft by Monday, April 2; you MAY submit on the 4th, but you will have to pick up the draft on Friday, the 6th at my office)
Final draft due: Monday, April 9
(you have five weeks to research and write this essay)
Details:
1. MLA format
2. At least 4 outside sources on your Works Cited page
3. Please, no Wikipedia
4. No formulaic, 5 paragraph essay
OUT OF CLASS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #2
Among many things, the series Breaking Bad focuses on the family entity and what happens when something quite extraordinary occurs—how do members of the family cope, adjust, and/or “deal” with the event/situation? (In the case of this series, obviously it is Walter’s cancer that is the ‘event’).
I am not referring to the everyday “bumps in the road” that occur for all families. Instead, I am asking you to consider the family unit when faced with an especially challenging situation. These situations could include but are not limited to:
• death
• birth
• infidelity
• serious injury
• dementia
• serious illness
• divorce
• unemployment
• new employment
• moving to a new home/state/area/country
• the return of a war veteran
• moving BACK home after initially moving OUT
• alcoholism
• drug abuse
Select ONE situation that you are most interested in exploring. You will conduct research (and possibly personal interviews, if possible) in order to write an essay that offers the reader background on the topic and makes an assertion about what elements impact a family in the most challenging of ways and supports it logically and interestingly.
Your thesis might read something like this:
When a family member develops dementia, the challenges are often devastating, yet the disease definitely impacts family members more than the dementia patient.
Or…
When a couple divorces, it most certainly impacts the children still living at home; however, it is the older children who have already moved away that are most affected by the split.
**************************
How to Critically Read an Essay
Educated adults exist in a delusional state, thinking we can read.
In a most basic sense, we can.
However, odds are, some of us cannot read, at least not as well as we would like.
Too many college students are capable of only some types of reading and that becomes painfully clear when they read a difficult text and must respond critically about it.
Intelligence and a keen memory are excellent traits and most students have learned to read in a certain way that is only useful for extracting information. Thus, students are often fairly well skilled in providing summary.
However, the act of reading to extract information and to read critically are vastly different!
The current educational system in American primary schools (and many colleges) heavily emphasizes the first type of reading and de-emphasizes the latter.
In many ways, THIS MAKES SENSE.
Reading to extract information allows a student to absorb the raw materials of factual information as quickly as possible. It is a type of reading we all must engage in frequently. However, each type of reading calls for different mental habits. If we do not learn to adjust from one type of reading to another when necessary, we cripple our intellectual abilities to read critically.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN READING TO EXTRACT INFORMATION AND READING CRITICALLY.
1. They have different goals. When students read to extract information, usually they seek facts and presume the source is accurate. No argument is required. On the other hand, when students read critically, they try to determine the quality of the argument. The reader must be open-minded and skeptical all at once, constantly adjusting the degree of personal belief in relation to the quality of the essay’s argument.
2. They require different types of discipline. If students read to learn raw data, the most efficient way to learn is repetition. If students read critically, the most effective technique may be to break the essay up into logical subdivisions and analyze each section’s argument, to restate the argument in other words, and then to expand upon or question the findings.
3. They require different mental activity. If a student reads to gain information, a certain degree of absorption, memorization and passivity is necessary. If a student is engaged in reading critically, that student must be active!!! He or she must be prepared to pre-read the essay, then read it closely for content, and re-read it if it isn’t clear how the author is reaching the conclusion in the argument.
4. They create different results. Passive reading to absorb information can create a student who (if not precisely well read) has read a great many books. It creates what many call “book-smarts.” However, critical reading involves original, innovative thinking.
5. They differ in the degree of understanding they require. Reading for information is more basic, and reading critically is the more advanced of the two because only critical reading equates with full understanding.
ULTIMATELY, WHAT WE WANT IS THE CONSCIOUS CONTROL OF OUR READING SKILLS, SO WE CAN MOVE BACK AND FORTH AMIDST THE VARIOUS TYPES OF READING.
FIVE GENERAL STAGES OF READING
1. Pre-Reading—examining the text and preparing to read it effectively (5 minutes)
2. Interpretive Reading—understanding what the author argues, what the author concludes, and exactly how he or she reached that conclusion.
3. Critical Reading—questioning, examining and expanding upon what the author says with your own arguments. Skeptical reading does not mean doubting everything your read.
4. Synoptic Reading—putting the author’s argument in a larger context by considering a synopsis of that reading or argument in conjunction with synopses of other readings or arguments.
5. Post-Reading—ensuring that you won’t forget your new insights.
*************************
IN CLASS ESSAY #1--Reminders
1. Bring a blue or green book to class.
2. Bring any notes you have taken so far while watching Breaking Bad.
3. You will have the entire class session to plan and write your essay.
below you will find the following:
1. Out of Class Essay Assignment #2 (assigned in class today)
(if you missed class be sure to check with a fellow classmate for notes)
2. A document titled "How to Critically Read an Essay." Please print this document and bring to class on Wednesday. (this is only for sections 1 and 6; section 15 students already have a copy which was distributed in class today)
3. Reminders about the In Class Essay #1 this week (Wednesday for section 15; Friday for sections 1 & 6)
English 20, Spring 2012---Sections 1, 6 & 15---C. Fraga
Date assigned: Monday, February 27
Rough draft (optional): due no later than Wed. April 4
(for those in Section 15, you will need to submit your rough draft by Monday, April 2; you MAY submit on the 4th, but you will have to pick up the draft on Friday, the 6th at my office)
Final draft due: Monday, April 9
(you have five weeks to research and write this essay)
Details:
1. MLA format
2. At least 4 outside sources on your Works Cited page
3. Please, no Wikipedia
4. No formulaic, 5 paragraph essay
OUT OF CLASS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT #2
Among many things, the series Breaking Bad focuses on the family entity and what happens when something quite extraordinary occurs—how do members of the family cope, adjust, and/or “deal” with the event/situation? (In the case of this series, obviously it is Walter’s cancer that is the ‘event’).
I am not referring to the everyday “bumps in the road” that occur for all families. Instead, I am asking you to consider the family unit when faced with an especially challenging situation. These situations could include but are not limited to:
• death
• birth
• infidelity
• serious injury
• dementia
• serious illness
• divorce
• unemployment
• new employment
• moving to a new home/state/area/country
• the return of a war veteran
• moving BACK home after initially moving OUT
• alcoholism
• drug abuse
Select ONE situation that you are most interested in exploring. You will conduct research (and possibly personal interviews, if possible) in order to write an essay that offers the reader background on the topic and makes an assertion about what elements impact a family in the most challenging of ways and supports it logically and interestingly.
Your thesis might read something like this:
When a family member develops dementia, the challenges are often devastating, yet the disease definitely impacts family members more than the dementia patient.
Or…
When a couple divorces, it most certainly impacts the children still living at home; however, it is the older children who have already moved away that are most affected by the split.
**************************
How to Critically Read an Essay
Educated adults exist in a delusional state, thinking we can read.
In a most basic sense, we can.
However, odds are, some of us cannot read, at least not as well as we would like.
Too many college students are capable of only some types of reading and that becomes painfully clear when they read a difficult text and must respond critically about it.
Intelligence and a keen memory are excellent traits and most students have learned to read in a certain way that is only useful for extracting information. Thus, students are often fairly well skilled in providing summary.
However, the act of reading to extract information and to read critically are vastly different!
The current educational system in American primary schools (and many colleges) heavily emphasizes the first type of reading and de-emphasizes the latter.
In many ways, THIS MAKES SENSE.
Reading to extract information allows a student to absorb the raw materials of factual information as quickly as possible. It is a type of reading we all must engage in frequently. However, each type of reading calls for different mental habits. If we do not learn to adjust from one type of reading to another when necessary, we cripple our intellectual abilities to read critically.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN READING TO EXTRACT INFORMATION AND READING CRITICALLY.
1. They have different goals. When students read to extract information, usually they seek facts and presume the source is accurate. No argument is required. On the other hand, when students read critically, they try to determine the quality of the argument. The reader must be open-minded and skeptical all at once, constantly adjusting the degree of personal belief in relation to the quality of the essay’s argument.
2. They require different types of discipline. If students read to learn raw data, the most efficient way to learn is repetition. If students read critically, the most effective technique may be to break the essay up into logical subdivisions and analyze each section’s argument, to restate the argument in other words, and then to expand upon or question the findings.
3. They require different mental activity. If a student reads to gain information, a certain degree of absorption, memorization and passivity is necessary. If a student is engaged in reading critically, that student must be active!!! He or she must be prepared to pre-read the essay, then read it closely for content, and re-read it if it isn’t clear how the author is reaching the conclusion in the argument.
4. They create different results. Passive reading to absorb information can create a student who (if not precisely well read) has read a great many books. It creates what many call “book-smarts.” However, critical reading involves original, innovative thinking.
5. They differ in the degree of understanding they require. Reading for information is more basic, and reading critically is the more advanced of the two because only critical reading equates with full understanding.
ULTIMATELY, WHAT WE WANT IS THE CONSCIOUS CONTROL OF OUR READING SKILLS, SO WE CAN MOVE BACK AND FORTH AMIDST THE VARIOUS TYPES OF READING.
FIVE GENERAL STAGES OF READING
1. Pre-Reading—examining the text and preparing to read it effectively (5 minutes)
2. Interpretive Reading—understanding what the author argues, what the author concludes, and exactly how he or she reached that conclusion.
3. Critical Reading—questioning, examining and expanding upon what the author says with your own arguments. Skeptical reading does not mean doubting everything your read.
4. Synoptic Reading—putting the author’s argument in a larger context by considering a synopsis of that reading or argument in conjunction with synopses of other readings or arguments.
5. Post-Reading—ensuring that you won’t forget your new insights.
*************************
IN CLASS ESSAY #1--Reminders
1. Bring a blue or green book to class.
2. Bring any notes you have taken so far while watching Breaking Bad.
3. You will have the entire class session to plan and write your essay.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Tuesday evening, Feb. 21st, 2012
Greetings,
just a short note...
if you submitted (section 15) or are planning to submit (sections 1 and 6) a rough draft for out of class essay 1, please attach the rough draft with my commentary to the final draft when submitting. Thank you!
just a short note...
if you submitted (section 15) or are planning to submit (sections 1 and 6) a rough draft for out of class essay 1, please attach the rough draft with my commentary to the final draft when submitting. Thank you!
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