Blog Archives - Ms. Brock

Tuesday, February 27th

2/27/2018

Goals: To be able to use guidelines to assess the bias of a news source

Opener: No opener.

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: objective/objectivity, subjective/subjectivity, propaganda, preconceived, connotation, omission/to omit, partial (to), impartial

Work Assigned and Collected:

You took notes on and participated in a lecture and discussion about how to recognize bias in the news.
- The first 26 slides of this slideshow were covered.

Homework:

Study for the PSAT 10, and get some rest!

Monday, February 26th

2/26/2018

No opener

In-class Assignment: With a partner, write a short hard "news" story about what one of you did over break. Write both your names on it. Include quotes from the person you're writing about, and try to be as objective as possible -- this is NOT an opinion article. Try to make it sound as much like a real news story as possible. 1-2 pages. Turn it in to the sub.

Homework:
-- Study all your vocabulary
-- Work on your annotated bibliography

Friday, February 16th

2/16/2018

Goals: To use a variety of sources and genres for research in order to gain a well-rounded view of a subject

Opener: No opener.

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: see website

Work Assigned and Collected:

You worked on your annotated bibliographies. I recommend having at least three summaries done (and thus articles read) by the end of the week. Six is even better.

Homework:

Continue to study your vocabulary every day -- all of it! Make sure you study for a re-take if you did poorly on the last quiz.
Work on your annotated bibliography. Over break, finish the annotations (paragraphs) for the first 8-10 sources for your project.
- Annotated bibliography guidelines — minimum 14 sources — you may have more!
  - At least five opinion pieces, both opposed and agreeing with your viewpoint
  - At least five news or journalistic pieces (non-opinion)
  - At least two primary historical sources
  - At least two expert informational sources
  - For each source, you must have the following:
    - First, a short paragraph that accurately summarizes all its main points. This first part will be graded on accuracy.
    - Second, a short paragraph explaining why it is a credible or useful source. This last part must be persuasive — imagine your audience is someone who doubts your source is trustworthy.

Thursday, February 15th

2/15/2018

Goals: To use a variety of sources and genres for research in order to gain a well-rounded view of a subject

Opener: No opener.

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: see website

Work Assigned and Collected:

You worked on your annotated bibliographies. I recommend having at least three summaries done (and thus articles read) by the end of the week. Six is even better.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day!
There will be a quiz on the vocabulary and reading tomorrow.
Work on your annotated bibliography.
- Annotated bibliography guidelines — minimum 14 sources — you may have more!
  - At least five opinion pieces, both opposed and agreeing with your viewpoint
  - At least five news or journalistic pieces (non-opinion)
  - At least two primary historical sources
  - At least two expert informational sources
  - For each source, you must have the following:
    - First, a short paragraph that accurately summarizes all its main points. This first part will be graded on accuracy.
    - Second, a short paragraph explaining why it is a credible or useful source. This last part must be persuasive — imagine your audience is someone who doubts your source is trustworthy.

Wednesday, February 14th

2/14/2018

Goals: To use a variety of sources and genres for research in order to gain a well-rounded view of a subject

Opener: No opener.

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: see website

Work Assigned and Collected:

You worked on your annotated bibliographies. I recommend having at least three summaries done (and thus articles read) by the end of the week.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day! The quiz on the next set of words will be right before break.
There will be an open-note test on these articles next week (including “You Still Need Your Brain”).
Work on your annotated bibliography.
- Annotated bibliography guidelines — minimum 14 sources — you may have more!
  - At least five opinion pieces, both opposed and agreeing with your viewpoint
  - At least five news or journalistic pieces (non-opinion)
  - At least two primary historical sources
  - At least two expert informational sources
  - For each source, you must have the following:
    - First, a short paragraph that accurately summarizes all its main points. This first part will be graded on accuracy.
    - Second, a short paragraph explaining why it is a credible or useful source. This last part must be persuasive — imagine your audience is someone who doubts your source is trustworthy.

Tuesday, February 13th

2/14/2018

Goals: To use a variety of sources and genres for research in order to gain a well-rounded view of a subject

Opener: No opener sheet. Take a Chromebook, and log on. Follow the instructions below. Write answers down in your notebook or somewhere else convenient:

Google “Washington Post” and go to the Washington Post main website.
Read the lede for the top left-hand story (this is the short summary that you can see without clicking on the story)
- WHO: Who are the groups of people mainly involved in this story? Which groups do the named people represent?
- WHAT: What does each group and person want? What is going on in this story?
- WHY: Why is this happening now? Why do the people and groups want what they do?
- WHEN: When is this happening? Are there any deadlines mentioned? What span of time is relevant to this story?
- WHERE: Where is this taking place? What area is it most relevant to? Is there more than one?
- HOW: How did this happen? How does it seem like people will deal with it?

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: none

Work Assigned and Collected:

We discussed and practiced how to navigate and read hard news stories.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day! The quiz on the next set of words will be right before break.
There will be an open-note test on these articles next week (including “You Still Need Your Brain”).
Work on your annotated bibliography.
- Annotated bibliography guidelines — minimum 14 sources — you may have more!
  - At least five opinion pieces, both opposed and agreeing with your viewpoint
  - At least five news or journalistic pieces (non-opinion)
  - At least two primary historical sources
  - At least two expert informational sources
  - For each source, you must have the following:
    - First, a short paragraph that accurately summarizes all its main points. This first part will be graded on accuracy.
    - Second, a short paragraph explaining why it is a credible or useful source. This last part must be persuasive — imagine your audience is someone who doubts your source is trustworthy.

Monday, February 12th

2/14/2018

Goals: To identify the main claims an author makes in an essay

Opener: none

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: see website or board in class

Work Assigned and Collected:

You re-read the articles in the latest packet, and wrote a summary of the fourth article. You handed this in.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day! The quiz on the next set of words will be right before break.
There will be an open-note test on the articles we have read this week (including “You Still Need Your Brain”).

Friday, February 9th

2/14/2018

Goals: To use a variety of sources and genres for research in order to gain a well-rounded view of a subject

Opener: Take a Chromebook, and log onto your drive. Create a new document and title it “[Last Name] Annotated Bibliography.” For example, if I were making the assignment, the title of my document would be “Brock Annotated Bibliography.”

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: none

Work Assigned and Collected:

You began to work on your annotated bibliography. The final requirements are as follows. It will be due after break.

Annotated bibliography guidelines — minimum 14 sources — you may have more!
- At least five opinion pieces, both opposed and agreeing with your viewpoint
- At least five news or journalistic pieces (non-opinion)
- At least two primary historical sources
- At least two expert informational sources
- For each source, you must have the following:
  - First, a short paragraph that accurately summarizes all its main points. This first part will be graded on accuracy.
  - Second, a short paragraph explaining why it is a credible or useful source. This last part must be persuasive — imagine your audience is someone who doubts your source is trustworthy.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day! The quiz on the next set of words will be right before break.
Read the fourth article over the weekend.
- Summarize the author’s thesis at the top, by the title.
- Annotate for new words you don’t know, and label at least three places where you think the author is using one of the three appeals (logos, ethos, pathos).
- At the end, write out one place you think Zaki is particularly effective at making his argument, and explain why you think he’s so effective.
There will be an open-note test on these articles next week (including “You Still Need Your Brain”).

Thursday, February 8th

2/8/2018

Goals: To analyze how authors use different means of persuasion to create arguments and counter-arguments

Opener: Vocabulary Quiz

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: none

Work Assigned and Collected:

You took a vocabulary quiz
You read the third article together in groups, and annotated two times:
- First, for new vocabulary and basic comprehension
- Second, to summarize the main points this author is making.

Homework:

Study your vocabulary every day! The quiz on the next set of words will be right before break.
Read the fourth article over the weekend.
- Summarize the author’s thesis at the top, by the title.
- Annotate for new words you don’t know, and label at least three places where you think the author is using one of the three appeals (logos, ethos, pathos).
- At the end, write out one place you think Zaki is particularly effective at making his argument, and explain why you think he’s so effective.
There will be an open-note test on these articles next week (including “You Still Need Your Brain”).

Wednesday, February 7th

2/8/2018

Goals: To analyze how authors use different means of persuasion to create arguments and counter-arguments

Opener: Please do this on the Tuesday box from last week’s openers. Re-read your notes on the second article (“Moral Wisdom Requires Empathy”). Annotate at least three (preferably four or five) paragraphs by identifying which of the three appeals you think it uses. For your opener, describe a few places where the author is using logos, ethos, or pathos, and explain how (summarize what he says, and explain why you think it is that particular appeal). Do this for as many examples as you can.

Handouts in Class: none (see last week)

Terms and Vocabulary: none

Work Assigned and Collected:
You turned in your openers for the week.
You annotated the second article using the following questions:

What is the primary appeal that this author uses? In other words, which one of the three appeals does he seem to use the most?
1. Why do you think this is? How does this particular appeal work well for this particular thesis or argument?
2. How does this relate and compare to the first article?
Which appeal does he seem to use the least? Why do you think this is?

Optional: If Zaki were writing this article on its own, and not as a response to Bloom’s article, how might it be different?

Homework:

Due TOMORROW: At the top of the third article, write a prediction of how you think Bloom might respond to Zaki’s argument. Make it at least 1 sentence long.
Ongoing (every day): Study all your vocabulary
Beware of a pop quiz this week on the vocabulary from this unit so far. Make sure you are studying every day! Remember that the expectation is you study your vocabulary every day.