Week 9- Distribution and Collaboration

As I write this more than half my third period students are off taking the CAHSEE for the second time. The rest of third period is working on the drafts of their first news report. A small but vocal majority are "assisting" me as I update the blog for this week. They gave me some suggestions for the new poll to the right. Make sure to vote.

If you have never been to this blog before you probably came today because you are looking for this link to help you with the bibliography of your news report.
http://citationmachine.net/

For those of you who are wondering what we've been doing this week let me give you the update.

Monday we used distributed analysis to work out the finer points of Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. We divided ourselves into ten groups. Each group took a two to four sentence section of the text and determined it's meaning. When we read the selection of the essay in our textbook each group presented their explanation to the class. If you missed that experience you should use this link to Self Reliance, but there you will find the entire essay and that is way more than what we have in our textbook. I also recommend this site as a source to help you understand Self Reliance. http://www.transcendentalists.com/self_reliance_analysis.htm

Tuesday (today as I write this) we are working on our drafts. News Report Drafts are due on Wednesday 11/7. As I said in class you should turn in your draft even if you are taking the CAHSEE.

Wednesday I expect we will still have a large number of people testing. I am currently considering several alternatives for our Wednesday activities.

Thursday we will have writing groups. If you did not turn in a draft on Wednesday please make sure to bring copies of your draft for your group to give you the best feedback.

Friday we will be reading excerpts from Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. (Have you noticed that these Transcendentalist writers love to use all three names?) A site for additional information is http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html Once again the on-line version is the complete version of his essay and our textbook just has sections of it.

What I hope you will see is how Emerson's ideas lead Thoreau to his ideas. Those ideas were later read by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. These ideas about non-violent protest changed the world.