Pitts and the Power Pose

Honors: What does it mean to have read and annotated an article for homework?  The expectation is that you have done what you need to do to fully comprehend the writing. We discovered today that no one actually did that.

To begin with, large chunks of people had not seen and did not watch the video that went along with the article.  Your comprehension of the writing would have been enhanced if you had done so.

Only one person took the time to see what "misleading statistics" Pitt was referencing. You could have offered more insightful discussion if you had.  

No one could identify all nine of the names Pitt alluded to in his writing.  His point would have been clarified and your input more valuable if you had.

Reading the article is okay.

Annotating the article is an improvement.

But to fully understand it and be ready to discuss the writing, sometimes a bit of additional work is needed.  I trust you'll do that work this evening.

Solid discussion today on the Leonard Pitts article.  I appreciate how many of you were calling into question his presentation.  We discussed how the bias you correctly pointed out in the article could be expected due to the opinion based nature of the article.  Again, all the more reason to consider author, purpose, evidence and source when reading nonfiction writing.

Once we got through that, we began discussing the construction of the article and why he made some of the choices he did.  For those of you who were not in class today, here are the seven questions you should be considering/responding to for class tomorrow.

1. What is Pitts' main idea in this article?

2. What does Bill O'Reilly represent in this article?

3. Explain the "moral squeeze" Pitts refers to in paragraph 7.

4. Identify a sentence from the article that connects to the quote from Jeremiah. Explain your selection and the connection.

5. Who are the nine?

6. What is his point when he mentions the nine names in paragraphs 13-15?

7. I don't like questions. He ends with three! Effective? Why or why not?

We will complete our analysis of the Pitts article tomorrow and then bring in the Hiaasen article.  

Standard: How will you apply Amy Cuddy's lesson to your life? That should be prominent in your mind this evening.  Where do you need to enhance your confidence?  

You'll get the chance to apply it starting tomorrow.  You will either succeed right out or you will fake it until you make it.  Start looking for a few pages to read, a poem to share, a passage to recite in front of the class.  You will do so with Cuddy's six key words:   enthusiasm, passion, confidence, authenticity in a comforting and captivating way.  

Can't wait.