Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Day 7

Fall 2011 English 101 Day 7


Quiz Thursday over sections 1 and 2 (Promise and Betrayal)

Bonus Points?

Information Literacy Workshops


Draft a working thesis

a. Katrina

b. Credit Crisis

c. China/Australia/Texas/Southwest Dust storms and? Global Warming/Climate change

Thesis: Main idea. 1-3 sentences. Arguable. Usually at end of introduction. Narrow and specific. Roadmap? (often three points work well in a 3-6 page essay, but you could slice it lots of ways).

We might change some of these terms. You could substitute/add climate change or race into the conversation about Katrina and WHT, for example.

Let’s try to find evidence of the “massive exodus” in WHT 6-10.

Now, more generally, “Betrayal” Notes in groups of four

Chapters 6, 7

Chapters 7, 8

Chapters 8, 9

Chapters 9, 10

Look for examples of the GOOD:
the Human Spirit
Self reliance

Community building
Connection to the land
Resilience & Persistence (tough, tough mothers)
Hopes & Dreams


Look for examples of the BAD:
Foolishness
Neglect,
Warnings,
Hype,
Overconfidence,
Greed
Racism/prejudice

And the UGLY:
Violence from the people
and
the brutality of Nature


SO:

What is the big picture of 1935? What are the big themes?

We’ve seen:

Failure to learn from history

Failure to heed warnings

Environmental devastation brought on by:

Overconfidence/Hubris/Hype

Greed

Technology/Machines

Exodus(ters)

Indifference to the problem by Feds/Rest of us

And on the plus side:

The human spirit

Self reliance

Community building

Connection to the land

Resilience & Persistence (tough, tough mothers)

Hopes & Dreams


Reading: Tonight Ch 14

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was a good exercise in class. I never really thought about all the different emotions and such that the people were acting on. This helped me see that there were good, bad and ugly things going on, which we don't really acknowledge when we glaze over it all and call it, "The Greatest Dust Bowl in American History". There was so much going on behind it, and during it. I also developed a better understanding of what was happening and how that played a huge role in what the citizens did and such.... what an eye opener!

kwilso73 said...

I thought it was a good exercise to it gave me more ideas on how to compare the good, the bad and the ugly in my paper

JIH said...

I thought this was a good exercise, it helped us better understand what we were reading, and to imagine what the people were going through. I also liked Mr. Peters' interpretations on some of the scenes from the book.

AMH6871 said...

I truly liked doing this and helped me see that even though there is a lot of bad and ugly, there is also good. Also nice to see that Hazel is always seeing the good even in all the bad.

Katie said...

Haha I love it when they pan on that guy when they say "The Ugly", LOL, It's great! And once again another good and informing excercise!