The New SAT?

For this week's blog, you need to do a little research.  Find articles on the new SAT that the college board is getting ready to launch.  Is it a good idea?  What are the reasons for changing the test?  Are the reasons valid?  Do you think the change will be successful?  Make sure you cite at least two articles in your blog.  Good luck.

NO LOGOS PATHOS OR ETHOS

Professions for Women

Read this essay by Virginia Woolf.  In your blog,  analyze the rhetorical strategies Woolf uses in this speech to reach her specific audience.  Pay attention to the way she uses the tools of the novelist, such as characterization, scene setting, highly textured and specific descriptive detail, and figurative language.

DO NOT list logos, pathos or ethos as rhetorical strategies.  Logos, pathos and ethos are APPEALS.  The question is, how does the author employ rhetorical strategies in terms of organization, structure and form to accomplish or establish those appeals (logos, pathos and ethos)  within the piece?

Gender in the Oval Portrait

http://poestories.com/read/ovalportrait



What role does gender play in Poe's short story. 

The New Normal?

How many ways are there to learn?  We live in a traditional community with traditional schools.  However, there are some very creative, different approaches to education being tested all over the world.  Your job this weekend is to find a non-traditional school, provide a link, and explain in the blog what makes this school unique.  What methods are they using, how is their approach different, and what is it that makes the school successful? 
Here is an example.  Good Luck!
http://academy.interlochen.org/motion-picture-arts-major?utm_campaign=iaa_mpa&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CO_FrdPe37wCFacDOgod2XQALQ


You may not repeat a school and/or a type of school.  So far, I found a film school and Jessica has an alternative education school listed.  Go for different!  There are some really interesting schools out there.

Pick a Controvesey, any Controversey!

Choose one of the topics from the list.  You may NOT choose your own literary specialist topic.  Once you have chosen a topic, speak to the controversy surrounding that topic.  Argue at least one point about the subject and back it up with evidence. Include a work cited at the bottom of the entry. Here are your choices:

Child Abuse
Space Travel and Exploration
Gene Therapy
Poverty
Homeschooling
The Overuse and or Abuse of Social Media
Parenting Strategies
The Holocaust
The Rwandan Genocide
Drug Trafficking
Concussions in Sports
Excessive or Obsessive Running
The Afghan War
Foster Care

Only one person can choose the topic.  That  way, all of them will be discussed.  Log on early to get the topic of your choice!

Two Kinds of Catholics?

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-catholic-showdown-worth-watching/

This is a difficult article so you will have to employ your skills in close reading. You may also need to do some digging to ensure your understanding of the piece.  Look up any people or words with which you are not familiar.  Once you feel you grasp the meaning  behind the article, write about the two "different sides" of Catholicism.  Do you agree with the author's assessment of American Catholics?  With which side to you most associate yourself and or your family?  Perhaps you are still following blindly, but this offers a lot of room for thought and lively debate!  Do not be afraid to give your fellow students a challenging comment, and do not shy away from refuting any comments you believe deserve refuting!
Good Luck! 
FYI Mr. MacDonald will be joining our conversation on this one.  Do not be surprised if you see a comment from him.

"Superman and Me"

Read the following essay, "Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie.
http://www.qcounty.com/SCC/Spring10/Eng305_10035/Readings/ShermanAlexie--Superman.pdf

It is both an eye-opening account of what life was like for an intelligent child on an Indian reservation and a skillful rendering of the moments surrounding language acquisition, the spark for reading and writing, and the influence on a child of a well-loved parent.  Use any or all of these avenues for discussion of the essay.

 Also comment on what rhetorical devices Alexie uses in the essay.  For example, by using the analogy of a paragraph to a fence, Alexie is providing a visual connection that all readers can understand in order to express his moment of epiphany that opened him to the world of reading: an understanding that words "worked together for a common purpose".  The use of this visual analogy between a paragraph and a fence lends meaning to the extension of his analogy in the remainder of paragraph 3.  As Alexie explains his understanding of the reservation as a paragraph within the country, his home and neighborhood as paragraphs on the reservation, and each member of his family as a separate paragraph yet part of a larger "essay of seven paragraphs," the reader grasps Alexie's inherent desire to write and his identity as a writer.  This is just one example.  You should find and cite at least two. Do your best not to repeat the devices used by other students.