Enriched 10-04-2012

Drones!  Gosh, I wish I had been in the class today.  It would have been so exciting, first, to see what you thought about America's use of drones...Fair?  Just?  Life-saving?  Evil?  Careless?  Impersonal?...second, to see if you could understand how the structure and organization effected your comprehension, and third, to see if you caught any bias by the author, Michael Crowley.

I know, I know, not all of you grasped what exactly drones were.  (Another reason why I wish I had been there).  That's pretty important too.  Without that, the article may not have made as much sense.  Hopefully, you asked and were able to respond to the prompts effectively.

Time permitting tomorrow, we will spend a bit of time discussing your experience.  You should have all the responses completed for class.  Here are the prompts one more time...just in case.

1) Identify the evidence the author gives that supports the drone program.

2) Identify the evidence the author gives that questions the drone program.

3) Based on the information you uncovered in the article, which side has a stronger case?  Why?  Support your response.

4) Based on the information you uncovered in the article, which side do you believe the author supports?  Why?  Support your response.

5) Now I want you to analyze how the author structures and organizes this piece of writing.  

First, identify his organizational method.  Back it up with support.  

Second, explain how this structure and organization aids in your comprehension of the writing.  (Sound familiar?)  Be sure you explain your self thoroughly. 

When you have completed the five prompts, write a final independent quick write.  Discuss the following two things.  

First, how was your definition of a fair war altered after reading this article?  Explain.

Second, what was the purpose of the article?  Was it successful?  Explain.

I say time permitting because tomorrow's class is pretty full already.  We'll open up with our group discussions.  We'll try and limit them to 20 minutes tomorrow.  We'll follow that up with some final peer editing; make sure you have a clean copy of your C.A.P. paper in class.  I also want to make sure I give credit to the peer editors.  We did pretty well in period five but need to catch up in periods one and six.  We'll try to have an author's chair or two.  We can talk about the parallel structure examples, Acuity questions, and those drone responses.  Oh, and by the way, we only have 55 minutes tomorrow due to Friday Reads.  Please bring back block scheduling!

A word on those parallel structure examples.  I looked at only a couple after the cross country meet tonight and I was, let's say, uninspired.  I saw some completed in pencil (unacceptable); I saw some with cursory explanations (look it up if you don't understand it; I'll sign your Archer card if you tell me what it means); I saw one that looked like it was run over by a bus (Are you kidding me?  Have a little pride!).  As usual my expectations are sky high for this assignment.  Reach for your best or you'll be playing catch up all year.  

As the great Rev. Randall R. Mc Bride Jr. once said, "Success will not lower its standard to us. We must raise our standard to meet success."

Love that quote.  

Sleep well.  The weekend is less than 20 hours away.