Friday, March 11, 2011

Class Systems in History

Basic system for figuring out who's rich and who isn't, according to Monty Python.

Last Day

Last Day

Bonus Points.

H/I Cover Letter?

H/I "Second Chance" Draft?

Due Monday by noon in my office.

Essays must include my comments

Paper clips/staples

Complete Feedback.

Return of Essays, etc

First week of Spring Quarter—ask Kelley in English Department.

Grades mostly.

For more feedback from me, bring your essay in and we'll go over it.

Grades due Next Friday, posted online under schedule that day

My schedule

Spring 70 x3

Fall 101 x2 and Creative Writing

Winter 102 x2 and American Lit Post WWII.

Spring 70 x2 and Student Literary Journal.

Also, you can ask about anything anytime.

You can say hi to me on campus. Say your name and I'll say mine.

You can say hi to each other.

Andy Blevins' story.

One in there Americans in their mid-twenties attended but did not finish college.

Only 41 percent of low-income students entering a four year college managed to graduate within five years. (66% of high income did).

75 percent of students enrolling in community colleges said they hoped to transfer to a four year institution. But only 17 percent of those made the switch within five year. The rest were out working or still studying toward the two year degree.

This is not the path you are on.

This is the path you are on:

"As you walk, you cut open and create that riverbed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow." --Nikos Kanzantzakis

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Two Things

First, if you are posting comments on this blog you might want to reconsider your screen name if it might be considered offensive, whether you intend it to be or not.

Second for those of you making the "Parenting" argument, here's "Tiger Mom" on Colbert:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Amy Chua
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

Smart People Attract Smart People (and Money)

This article is fascinating:

A great paradox of our age is that despite the declining cost of connecting across space, more people are clustering together in cities. The explanation of that strange fact is that globalization and technological change have increased the returns on being smart, and humans get smart by being around other smart people.

Dense, smart cities like Seattle succeed by attracting smart people who educate and employ one another.

A person’s earnings rise by more than 7 percent as the share of people in his or her metropolitan area with a college degree increases by 10 percent, holding that person’s own level of education constant. Educated neighbors are particularly valuable in dense cities, where contact is more common.

Skilled people have often chosen to come to already educated cities, and the share of Seattle adults with college degrees has risen to 56 percent from an already high 47 percent in 2000.

Day 46

English 102 Winter 2011 Day 46

1. Learn from Leon and Lindsey and the Tour De Dumb and ANOTHER Leon.

2. Bonus points?

a. Science Lecture (march 9th)
b. Faculty Lecture, Brock Eubanks
c. Open Mic Night Allied Arts

Cover Letter due Monday. See post below for sample formats.

3. Angela Whitiker’s Climb—slideshow.


10. Juan Peralta slideshow and discussion.

9. Some suggestions with discussion.

What about immigration, too?

6. Colbert, again.

2. Stewart.

9. Robots from yesterday’s paper.

10. Transit from today’s paper.

Drug and Alcohol Assembly.

Race and mobility. again, with Yakima angle.

11. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2001.

12. How to handle CM in text and in works cited:

A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection

Works may include an essay in an edited collection or anthology, or a chapter of a book. The basic form is for this sort of citation is as follows:

Lastname, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication.

Some examples:

Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34. Print.

Swanson, Gunnar. "Graphic Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and The 'Real World.'" The Education of a Graphic Designer. Ed. Steven Heller. New York: Allworth Press, 1998. 13-24. Print.

Note on Cross-referencing Several Items from One Anthology: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited collection, MLA indicates you may cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. You should consider this option if you have several references from a single text. To do so, include a separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name as below:

Rose, Shirley K., and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999. Print.

Then, for each individual essay from the collection, list the author's name in last name, first name format, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page range:

L'Eplattenier, Barbara. "Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on WPAs." Rose and Weiser 131-40. Print.

Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser 153-67. Print.

Learn from Lindsey and the Tour De Dumb


Oh Lindsey Jacobellis
Uploaded by joshsports10. - Watch more comedy videos and sitcoms.



One More Time!

Learn from Leon

Business Letter Format

Here.

More on China

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Evan Osnos
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Change in pay since the recession

College is looking like the place.
Globalization in action.

Day 45

English 102 Winter 2011 Day 45

1. Colbert.

2. Stewart.

3. Bonus points?
a. Science Lecture (march 9th)

4. Tourism from yesterday’s paper.

5. Final draft due Thursday.

a. NARROW= Supportable/researchable.
b. BROAD= Temptation, but this essay is about making hard choices.
c. Easy thesis: We can create more AW’s by doing A, B and C.
d. CA: practical? costs? other ideas are better? government intrusion?
i. Definitions from the books of the obstacles are highly encouraged.
ii. Examples of the problems from the books are highly encouraged.
iii. Examples/Definitions of the solutions from the book are highly encouraged.
1. These keep your paper narrow and specific and help you avoid the axe to grind, biased, unsubstantiated claims.
iv. Examples of solutions from the Yakima Valley are Golden.

6. Angela Whitiker’s Climb—slideshow.

7. Brooks’ Human Capital (CM Social Capital).

8. How do we increase our skills in these areas?

9. Some suggestions with discussion.

10. Juan Peralta slideshow and discussion.

11. Tomorrow, MLA information on N&D’d and CM.

Monday, March 07, 2011

Top 1%

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.


Sample Essays

Here's One, Two, Three

Class sizes going up

All over.

Some (including Gates) don't see a problem if the teachers are good.

I say, 43 students x 5 classes= 215 essays to grade, if I assign only one.
Paper grading robots, where are you??!?!?

More ideas

Social Capital

1. Parenting
2. End "marriage penalty"
3. Promote marriages in PSA's etc (LDS does this and others)
4. Require classes for license
5. Allow gay marriage
6. Leadership/Bully Pulpit

Human Capital

1. Parenting
2. Word of the Month
3. Gear Up
4. Attendance rewards
5. Grade rewards
6. Big Brothers
7. Peer Mentors
8. DARE
9. Parenting classes
10. Tough love
11. "Stable, predictable environment, good behavior is rewarded +practice"
12. Universal Preschool
13. Personal finance classes
14. Public Speaking classes
15. Leadership/bully pulpit

Other

1. Race
2. Increase minimum wage to living wage?
3. Wage Insurance?
4. Faith Based programs?
5. Volunteering
6. Reaching out/Mission work

7. Prohibitions?
a. Make divorce harder, for ex
b. Smoking/Drinking
Drug Test Welfare Rolls? (does that include farm subsidies? or bailed out bankers?)
c. Number of children
d. Censorship? tv/video games
e. What about drugs/alcohol?

text4baby

Here's a flat world approach to parent education.

Babycenter.com, too.

Prepard by 20

Here's the site.

More research for AW and others

Family Structure (Nobody Gets Married Anymore, Mister)

UW has a program started by a former student of mine that fits in this conversation well. It's called the "Dream Project"--she started it as her senior project and it's now her doctoral work. It matches UW students as mentors to low income high school students. And it's really working.

Central raising tuition again. (This is a year old. The numbers for next year will be worse)
The president says those hurt the most are in the middle class.

Teach for America (maybe a way to find better teachers?)

Ultra fast, ultra cheap broadband (in Hong Kong)

STEM grants (science, technology, engineering and math), locally

Lawyers, outsourced to the future.

College the Easy Way (this is not good news)

To Get Into College, It Helps to be Rich

Friday, March 04, 2011

Links and more links

Immigrant Parents Learn Lessons on Raising Ninos--YHR

Prosser, the Catholic Church and Affordable Housing: NIMBY.

from previous essays:

The case for Vocational Education and Community Colleges.

Wine Tasting at Farmer's Markets considered in new bill.

Ambition and college costs

UW has a program started by a former student of mine that fits in this conversation well. It's called the "Dream Project"--she started it as her senior project and it's now her doctoral work. It matches UW students as mentors to low income high school students. And it's really working.

Central raising tuition again. The president says those hurt the most are in the middle class.

Rewards for Students

Here's an article from today about attempts to deal with the ambition gap.

(AND, if you comment on this article, you get a point. Should you?)

Some more links

If you think Drug and Alcohol education programs are a good solution to obstacles, things just got a bit harder.

If you are working on how to create a spark, here's an idea from Today's Paper: Young Achievers.

And if you are interested in education costs and visibility of the conditions of the working poor, YVCC and Berkeley have you covered.

Promoting Healthy Families

Here's one place.



Here's google results.

Faith based solutions

Here's some from the Christian tradition.

Here's what Bush was doing.

Here's what Obama is doing.

Day 43

English 102 Winter 2011 Day 43

1. Bonus points?
a. Science Lecture (march 9th)
b. Play tonight and tomorrow.

2. Business essays--questions about handwriting, see me's.

Homework: Bring 2 copies of your revised rough draft for Monday. We'll try to have peer editors look at it.

Final draft due a week from today.

a. NARROW= Supportable/researchable.

b. BROAD= Temptation, but this essay is about making hard choices.

c. Easy thesis: We can create more AW’s by doing A, B and C.
d. CA: practical? costs? other ideas are better? government intrusion?

i. Definitions from the books of the obstacles are highly encouraged.
ii. Examples of the problems from the books are highly encouraged.
iii. Examples/Definitions of the solutions from the book are highly encouraged.
iv. Research: There are many programs in place. Maybe you want to argue for another, but maybe you want to argue for expansions? Do some digging locally.

1. These keep your paper narrow and specific and help you avoid the axe to grind, biased, unsubstantiated claims.

iv. Examples of solutions from the Yakima Valley are GOOOOLDENNNNNNN.

3. Why is this important in Yakima?

a. So far, the unemployment is up, but not as up as most places.
b. So far, housing prices are down, but not as far down as most places.
c. But…

d. 42-50 percent on public assistance.
e. ENI ranking.

f. Right now, the budget is being balanced by cutting social services and public employment (teachers, firefighters, police, parks, schools etc) vs. asking people who start out on third base to share the pain. In fact, through bailouts and tax cuts, we've sweetened the pot for them. This is somewhat of an editorial, but it's also factual.

g. Add it up and what do you predict?
h. In third world countries…

4. What would Friedman say?

5. What would Ehrenreich say?—Page 213-214
Why is the government needed? or put another way, Why is it the governments job?

6. What does Brooks say?
a. Marshmallows and public policy—paragraph 5 and last three
b. Types of human capital (note his definition is different than CM’s).
c. Safe, predictable environment…

7. What are the advantages/disadvantages of these approaches?

8. What is happening in budgets RIGHT NOW to these ideas?

a. What does this do to our solutions?

b. What doesn’t cost money, but still works?

c. What costs money, works and is worth raising taxes? Just because it’s not popular doesn’t mean you can’t argue for it. Recent attempts to raise taxes on candy and pop and bottled water/income tax on wealthy (200-400k), and nationally on 250k+.

d. The idea of "class warfare" is a dangerous one, but it goes both ways.

e. I'll show you some of my cards. Sunday school and growing up here. But, as a teacher, I strive to for objectivity. I go to extremes in this regard and take pride in it as a professional obligation.

f. I get most excited when I'm reading a paper if the writing is well organized, logical, researched, anticipates opposition and questions. Not whether I agree with the ideas politically. I'm looking for good writing/thinking.

Parental Leave?

Family Values in Sweden.

is this a better way than Universal Preschool?
or fend for yourself?

Here's a handy table to compare.

Obama's Controversial School Speech

Work hard. Stay in school.

Huckabee Slams Portman

Hey, Lay off Senator Padme.

or,

Maybe this is leadership on the issue?

The New Normal

Where to cut the budget, according to David Brooks:


A second austerity principle is this: Trim from the old to invest in the young.
We should adjust pension promises and reduce the amount of money spent on health
care during the last months of life so we can preserve programs for those who
are growing and learning the most.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Day 42

English 102 Winter 2011 Day 42

1. Bonus points
a. Latino Film Fest” March 3rd
b. Science Lecture (march 9th)
c. Play

2. More time for rough drafts.

a. 3 pages due by End of Period.
b. I’ll try to have these back to you by Monday, but it’s going to be a quick read.
c. Use the writing center, your family and friends as readers, too.
d. Final draft due a week from today.

i. Remember, according to CM and Friedman, much of the slowing of mobility is the result of globalization putting a premium on certain skills and knowledge. That’s the real big picture: those at the bottom of the economic ladder are competing against people making $2 a day who appear to work harder than they do in countries with lax standards and safeguards for people and the planet.

ii. Definitions from the books of the obstacles are highly encouraged.

iii. Examples of the problems from the books are highly encouraged.

iv. Examples/Definitions of the solutions from the book are highly encouraged.

1. These keep your paper narrow and specific and help you avoid the axe to grind, biased, unsubstantiated claims.

v. Examples of solutions from the Yakima Valley are GOOOOLDENNNNNNN.

3. Essays nearly graded. Bring your Business essay to class tomorrow (regular classroom).

4. We’ll talk about the other obstacles and solutions and the sad reality of the chance any of this comes to pass if it costs money to do.

Portfolio Review

Portfolio Revision Worksheet Due Tuesday—Answer on a separate piece of paper
11 prewriting points

1. Which essay do you think is strongest? Explain your answer in detail, including a quote or paraphrase from the essay.

2. Did your peer readers agree with your assessment? What did I have to say about the essay? Paraphrase or quote from a peer and from something I wrote to support your answer.

3. What is your weakest essay? Explain why you think it’s weak, using quotes or paraphrase.

4. Did your peer readers agree that it was your weakest? What did I have to say? Paraphrase or quote from a peer and from something I wrote to support your answer.

5. What revision would you need to make to the Education assignment? List all the tasks you would need to complete.

6. What revision would you need to make to Business assignment?


7. What revision would you need to make to the Angela Whitiker assignment?


8. What’s the most frustrating part of writing for you? What’s the hardest part about writing?


9. What do you still need to work on?


10. What are your strengths as a writer?


11. What do you like about writing? What’s the most satisfying part of writing for you?

Made in America

Maybe not the cure . Friedman would love these stats.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Outline suggestions

Here’s the process we’re walking (or running) through.

1) What are the obstacles that you think are the most important/fixable

a. Find 2-4. (For rough drafts)
i. Put in your own words
b. Find page numbers and quotes to help define these obstacles.
i. Explain the quotes

2) What are the solutions to those obstacles as presented in the books

a. Find 1-2 solutions
i. Put in your own words (for rough drafts)
b. Find page numbers and quotes to help define the solutions
i. Explain the quotes (For final drafts)

3) What are the solutions you or your classmates have come up with?

a. Put 1-2 in your own words
b. Find evidence outside the books to support your ideas.


One Way to Organize This Essay

Paragraph 1: Intro (hook, background, thesis)

Paragraph 2: Obstacle 1 (define using texts)

Solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)
Other solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)
Option for each body paragraph—add an example of the obstacle and solution from the texts or from other source.

For ex: (obstacle) Angela Whitiker struggled to complete her degree because she lacked reliable childcare. –find quote that explains family structure from CM and/or childcare dilemma in N&D’d
(solution) She would have been able to complete her degree more quickly if she didn’t have that concern and instead could have put her children in a clean, safe, predictable environment, like the ones proposed by Ready By Five.—quote Ready by Five website.

Paragraph 3: Obstacle 2 (define using texts)
Solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)
Other solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)

Paragraph 4: Obstacle 3 (define using texts)
Solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)
Other solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)

Paragraph 5: Obstacle 4 (define using texts)
Solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)
Other solution to obstacle (define using texts, outside sources)

Paragraph 6: C-A: Some might say, others might say, I say. (Right before end or right after intro is a good place for this) Acknowledging the other ideas is a good start. Conceding/Defeating them as top priorities will be more credible and convincing, thus putting you on the fast track to better score for C-A.

Paragraph 7: Conclusion

Obstacles and Solutions

Obstacles and Solutions

Meet in Labs Thursday (C230)

Now, for some help with the rough draft:
Pick your top three from the list
How do we help Angela Whitiker overcome these sources of economic friction?
What are the solutions offered by the books?
Research for some of these is in your books.
What are our original solutions?
Research for these topics is encouraged.

Education

1. Parenting
2. Collect at state level and spread equally
3. Emphasize:
• CQ+PQ
• Math/Science
• Right Brain
• Learn to Learn
• Collaborators
4. Tougher tests
5. Longer school days
6. Longer school years
7. Universal Preschool
a. Head Start/RB5
8. College Aid
9. Increase vocational/trade programs
10. Classes through work

Health Care

1. Expand congressional health care to 30 million w/o coverage
2. Portable coverage

Isolation

1. Protest
2. Social Activism
3. Change Housing rules/styles
a. We've tried large projects
b. We've tried easier loans
4. Credit Crisis-is there an ironic benefit to it?
5. Required class in teacher prep.
6. Immigration reform
7. Language classes
8. News catching up with this?

Family Structure

1. Shift focus of sex ed
2. Leadership

Transportation

1. Mass transit

Information

1. Expand broadband
2. 211

Child care

1. Universal pre-school
2. Expand government care
3. Be more generous with paid leave

Social Capital

1. Parenting
2. End "marriage penalty"
3. Promote marriages in PSA's etc
4. Require classes for license
5. Allow gay marriage
6. Leadership/Bully Pulpit

Human Capital

1. Parenting
2. Word of the Month
3. Gear Up
4. Attendance rewards
5. Grade rewards
6. Big Brothers
7. Peer Mentors
8. DARE
9. Parenting classes
10. Tough love
11. "Stable, predictable environment, good behavior is rewarded +practice"
12. Universal Preschool
13. Personal finance classes
14. Public Speaking classes
15. Leadership/bully pulpit

Other

1. Race
2. Increase minimum wage to living wage?
3. Wage Insurance?
4. Faith Based programs?
5. Volunteering
6. Reaching out/Mission work
7. Prohibitions?
a. Make divorce harder, for ex
b. Smoking/Drinking
c. Number of children
d. Censorship? tv/video games
e. What about drugs/alcohol?