"The Somebody" Resources

Can the presence of graffiti be a sign of a healthy society?  (Essential Question)

"The Somebody" (full text of the short story online)

"Graffiti Psychology:  Why Vandals Strike" (article) [Google drive version of article]


"Can Graffiti Be Good for Cities?"  (article) [Google Drive version of article]

"Art Crime:  Graffiti Wars"   [Google Drive version of article]

"The Pyschology of Graffiti--from Gang Signs to Street Art"  (article)

"Why Graffiti?" (article)

"Graffiti:  from Destructive to Constructive" (short history of graffiti plus blurbs on several famous graffiti artists)


Additional Resources:
The Somebody / Graffiti Essay Rubric
Using Quotes in an EssayPunctuating Quotations -- from LEO
The Somebody / Graffiti Essay Mind Map
"The Somebody" Notes from Newclassroom.com
Daniel Lewis James on Wikipedia.com
"The Somebody" Lesson Plan on Teachers.net

Welcome to Senior English

This blog is a home base for Senior English.  Visiting this page often can help you be successful.

Please bookmark this page on your laptop browser.

Reasons to visit this blog include:

• to complete class assignments
• for links for research and reading
• to get caught up in case you are behind or absent
• if you are confused and need more information
• if you want to challenge yourself and complete an honors assignment
• if you missed a class and want to make sure you are on the right track
• if you are interested in something we discussed in class and want to learn more

Future Project Ideas

Guidelines and a rubric for your future project are here.
A slideshow that illustrates how to organize your project is here.

Ideally, the format you choose for your future project will tell something about your interests and your overall future view.  Think imagination will be important?  Make sure your format is imaginative.  Think the future will be hi-tech?  Make sure your format isn't "old-school."  Here are some ideas and formats to consider:

• Use Inklewriter to write an interactive (choose your own adventure) story online
• Storybird is a place to write an illustrated children's story online. In the olds days . . .  Now we . . .  MyStoryEditor allows you to write your own story and add photographs.
• CartoonCamera allows you to take photos and then make cartoons out of them.  These could then be used as the basis for a slideshow.
• Prezi is a website that helps create dynamic and professional-looking presentations / slideshows. 
• MindMeister is similar to Prezi -- some people may like it even more.
• The Haikudeck website allows you to quickly create a visually stunning slideshow that will make your old LibreOffice slideshow look so retro.   Plus it has a built in image search feature that provides you with copyright free images.
• Want to get even more creative and keep things moving?  Powtoon helps your create animated slideshows and presentations.
• Use Flashissue or Lucidpress to create an online newsletter / newspaper of the future.
• Storyworth is a app that helps you create an oral history project involving responses from family members or others.

Macklemore, "Ten Thousand Hours"

Lyrics to the song are here.

Will you step up and give ten thousand hours to something?  If so, what will that something be?   What role will that something play in your future?

Links to the Future

New:  
World Economic Forum, Future of Government
10 Mindblowingly Futuristic Technologies . . . 
What Will Human Cultures Look Like in 100 Years
The Surprising Jobs You'll be doing by 2030
Inspired Minds -- Careers of 2030
Homes of the Future

Information on future climate & more from Big Facts.  (The Big Facts project is led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS is a strategic partnership of CGIAR and Future Earth, led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). CCAFS brings together the world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth System science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security.)

Society and Culture in the Future -- What's Next / Top Trends

What's Next -- Society & Culture

newsoffuture.com Future News for Year 2020 and Beyond

futureforall.org/ A Layperson's View of Future Technology and Society

globalfuturist.com Harnessing the Power of Innovation

thefutureofourworld.ytmnd.com The Future of Our World

wfs.org World Future Society

Fw:Thinking Videos on The Future of Money, Future Fuels, Future Time, and more

10 TED Talks on Predicting the Future

TED talks about the Future

New:  Sources focusing on our energy future:

http://wgbhnews.org/post/power-people

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/14/212020224/the-grid-of-the-future-could-be-brought-to-you-by-you

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90042092

A template and sample outline for an essay response is at:
http://wirthyenglish.blogspot.com/2011/06/sample-outline-for-future-essay.html

Future Articles #1 & #2

An article about the future 100 years from now is here.

A second article on immortality and the "singularity" is here

Biography Project Handouts

A Google Drive folder of handouts and information sheets for the biography project is at:
https://drive.google.com/a/rsu20.org/folderview?id=0B9bbnt4AFVJtOU05V1FLLWlheDA&usp=sharing

You read these documents online, print them out, or make copies that you save within your own Google Drive folders.  

Extending, Revising, & Polishing Genre Pieces

I've spent time reading over your draft genre pieces. Here are some general suggestions that will help strengthen your pieces:

1. Develop your headings and titles. A fully developed heading may be 2 - 3 sentences or more. A title is generally short -- but make the most of it. "Waris Dirie" or "Waris Dirie -- One Determined Woman" The 2nd title is stronger, yet it still doesn't "cost" that much. Agree?

2. Among your 5 pieces, include at least 3 pieces about specific events or moments in your biography. General pieces that give an overview of a person and that person's accomplishments can be useful, but don't stop there.

 3. Aim for at least one piece from the point of view of a "contemporary" of your subject -- someone who knew your subject and had a relationship of some kind with him or her. That person undoubtedly had an opinion on your subject and a way of voicing that opinion.

Write a 5-minute Poem to Kick Start Your Week

Use this site to create your own list poem based on your biography:

http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/listpoem.htm

Notes:

• A list poem may appear random but it is not
• The poem should end with something surprising, insightful, or important.  One way to do this is to move from the literal to the figurative (see example poem below).
• Once you have made your initial list, consider re-arranging the order of the items.  Also consider adding more detail.  Use precise and concrete language as much as possible.  Provide your reader with a clear image of what you see.

Sample below:

________________________________________________

What’s in the canoe
a sharpened axe with a battered wooden handle
a weathered tent green with mold
a bag of pea flour
a plug of tobacco
three long poles with metal boots
four damp wool blankets
a refusal to turn back
a lot of heart 

--based on the book Great Heart:  History of a Labrador Adventure

Procrastination Test

Take the 10-Question Procrastination Test at psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/

Just don't put it off until tomorrow!

You can read more about procrastination here.

According to the article, "Procrastination is, in fact, an emotional issue, not a time-management issue. It is about the fear of losing, the fear of guilt and the fear of making a mistake."

Sample Critical Review

A sample critical review, together with suggestions and an outline, is here.

Sample Character Sketch

Several sample character sketches as well as suggestions about writing a character sketch are at:
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/Character-Sketch.htm

• Annie Dillard's Sketch of Her Childhood Friend Judy Schoyer
  "My friend Judy Schoyer was a thin, messy, shy girl whose thick blond curls lapped over her glasses. Her cheeks, chin, nose, and blue eyes were round; the lenses and frames of her glasses were round, and so were her heavy curls. Her long spine was supple; her legs were long and thin so her knee socks fell down. She did not care if her knee socks fell down. When I first knew her, as my classmate at the Ellis School, she sometimes forgot to comb her hair. She was so shy she tended not to move her head, but only let her eyes rove about. If my mother addressed her, or a teacher, she held her long-legged posture lightly, alert, like a fawn ready to bolt but hoping its camouflage will work a little longer."
  (Annie Dillard, An American Childhood. Harper & Row, 1987)



• Dave Barry's Final Sketch of His Father
  "It was time to go have my last words with my father. He was dying, in the bedroom he built. He built our whole house, even dug the foundation himself, with a diaper tied around his head to keep the sweat out of his eyes. He was always working on the house, more than 35 years, and he never did finish it. He was first to admit that he really didn’t know how to build a house. . . .
  
  "The doctor told us he was dying, but we knew anyway. Almost all he said anymore was thank you, when somebody brought him shaved ice, which was mainly what he wanted, at the end. He had stopped putting his dentures in. He had stopped wearing his glasses. I remember when he yanked his glasses off and jumped into the Heymans’ pool to save me.
  
  "So I go in for my last words, because I have to go back home, and my mother and I agree I probably won’t see him again. I sit next to him on the bed, hoping he can’t see that I’m crying. 'I love you, Dad,' I say. He says: 'I love you, too. I’d like some oatmeal.'
  
  "So I go back out to the living room, where my mother and my wife and my son are sitting on the sofa, in a line, waiting for the outcome and I say, 'He wants some oatmeal.' I am laughing and crying about this. My mother thinks maybe I should go back in and try to have a more meaningful last talk, but I don’t.
  
  "Driving home, I’m glad I didn’t. I think: He and I have been talking ever since I learned how. A million words. All of them final, now. I don’t need to make him give me any more, like souvenirs. I think: Let me not define his death on my terms. Let him have his oatmeal. I can hardly see the road."
  (Dave Barry, "A Million Words." Dave Barry's Greatest Hits. Ballantine Books, 1988)

Biography Project Research

The goal is get started on researching topics related to the biography you are reading.  Don't worry about what the research will be used for.*  Follow your interests.  Find some sources.  Save the source information so you can easily go back later.

1. Identify topics for research, using instaGrok the this handout

2. Set up a place to save and organize all your bookmarks.  This could be a folder with Safari or Firefox Bookmarks.  Or you may choose to set up an account on Delicious or Diigo.

3. Start identifying sites that are potential resources.  Don't just rely on Google.   See the Biography section of  Wirthportal (also on the right sidebar link of this site) and check out Marvel, Internet Public Library, Biography.com, and Google Search tools such as "Advanced Search" and Time Defined Searchs, Google News, and Google Blogs.  New and Recommended:  For deeper search (and an introduction to college level research) see NoodleTools.

4. Save your sites you find within your bookmarks folder (or on Delicious or Diigo).

*Some of your research may be later incorporated into a review of your biography. Some of your research may help you write genre pieces and may become part of your presentation. Even if your research is not directly used, it may help you have a better understanding of your biography and -- importantly -- you will get credit for each source you include as part of your bibliography.

Resources for Persuasive Writing

Overview of Persuasive (Argumentative) Writing from Purdue Owl

Issues & Controversies

ProCon.org  

Hemingwayapp.com -- a web-based "writing coach" that points out overly long and complicated sentences, overuse of adverbs, excessive wordiness, and more.  Try it and you'll learn something about yourself as a writer.

Prove It! An Intro. to Persuasion

Prove It!

You are a lawyer involved in the case spelled out below.  Your job is to read the facts, think about the facts, think outside the facts, and then develop a logical, well-supported case to prove the guilt or innocence of the accused.  We will not actually conduct the case in class, but your job is to spell out what you would research, what you would aim to find out, and how you would support your case.


The case:

The theft of $2 million has been reported by Bangor Savings Bank in Bangor, Maine.  The bank believes it was an inside job because no doors, windows, or locks were broken during this nighttime robbery.  They believe that whoever entered had a key and also had knowledge of the security camera and alarm system.  .  

The accused is Janet Con, a 32-year old former employee of the bank.  Evidence gathered at the bank included a security camera video that showed a shadowy, hat-wearing figure who seems to resemble Janet Con.  Additionally, a partial fingerprint of Ms. Con was found on the door to the vault.   

Create an outline for your case that looks something like this:

Janet Con is __________________________ (guilty/ innocent)  Choose one.

Issues to Investigate:

--Argument 1 and supporting details:

• We would investigate and aim to show . . .
• We would investigate and aim to show

--Argument 2 and supporting details:

--Argument 3 and supporting details

(The more arguments you can present,  and more more closely you are able to tie the details (evidence) with your case, the better chance you have of winning the case.  Be creative.  Think outside the box.  Leave no stone unturned.