Entries Tagged 'AP English' ↓

Not much longer before you have your big 5.5 day break.  I promise to give you the whole break to do your thing, as long as you recognize that when you get back…we’re going warp speed.

First, we’ll get everyone who hasn’t gone today to do their pecha kucha.  Then, I’ll want a little blog-post debrief.  Here are the questions:

1. What struck you most about the strategies most students employed in their pecha kuchas?  What worked best?
2. Who was the strongest persuader in the group and why?
3. What do we — as a class — need to work on most?  Logos, ethos, pathos?  Slide design?  Public speaking skills?  Research?

Next, I’ll give back the Sontag responses and I’ll ask you to read 3 strong student responses.

• Student #1
• Student #2
• Student #3

Then, we’ll talk about what is needed for a strong argument AP prompt response. Presentation.

Finally, we’ll look at synthetic essays.  I’m going to give you the 2007 exam’s notorious museum prompt. In small groups, I’m going to ask you to work together to plan an attack on the essay.

• First, read through the prompts and the sources.
• Second, decide together on a thesis.
• Third, break up the sources and figure which sources can be combined or synthesized in the same paragraph. Which sources, when discussed together, can yield a complex nuanced point?
• Lastly, produce an outlined response (including the synthesized passages) and post it here.

HW:  Take a look at the synthesis anchor papers and write a short 100 word blog post response.

We’ll be pecha kucha-ing all period…

here is where to go for voting.

You know this is ironic, right?

First, in small groups, compare slides and choose a winner–the representative who gets to show his/her 4 slides to the full groups for a workshop critique.  Some questions to consider:

• Is the initial impact powerful without being overly cluttered or garish?
• What do the images convey on a emotional/visceral level?
• Are the choices for font, color, and text flow sound and effective?

Other Gar Reynolds advice is here.

Next, we’ll talk a bit about the write-up.  I’m looking for about a page of reflection that explains your thinking on the following questions:

1. Kairos: How have you adapted your presentation to be effective for this group at this time in this situation?
2. What sources have you chosen? How do you know they are both reliable and persuasive?
3. What images have you chosen? Give me source info and a bit of your thinking on why you used them?
4. What data will you reference? Why is it reliable and how will you present it?

Finally, let’s move our eyes back and forth and design a slide. I’ll give you time to work in class and I’ll try and help individual students.

HW: First presentations on Tue, November 17th

Let’s start with something different.

“Progressive Health” by Carl Dennis is a poem in the voice of a strangely seductive health care official. We’ll see a student rendition of it and then in small groups, we’ll analyze it on 2 levels.

1. How and with what strategies does the speaker attempt to convince the poet?  How does he/she use kairos, commonplaces, logic, and other strategies?
2. What is the poem itself trying to convince us of and through what (obviously more indirect) strategies?

Then, we’ll talk a bit about slide design by seeing the Presentation Zen blog.  This is a blog that deals with presentation styles and issues written by Garr Reynolds, a writer who lives in Japan. Look at the blog and especially click on some of the articles on the right side marked archives. See especially Jobs vs. Gates, What is good PowerPoint design, and Where do I get good images?

In a blog post, respond to these questions after you wander around a bit in Presentation Zen.

1. Give examples of the types of advice and example Presentation Zen uses.
2. What kind of persona does the author of the blog present?
3. Why is Jobs better than Gates?
4. How could PZ’s advice help you in your speech?

We’ll look at 2-3 speeches (or at least parts of them).

• Lawrence Lessig at TED

• Dick Hardt about Identity 2.0

• Hans Roslin at TED

Finally, I hope to give you some time to work.

HW: Design at least 4 slides for Thursday and continue your research.

Extra: Are you interested in Prezi?

After a quick debriefing on the Photog in-class assignment, we’re going to talk a bit about argument. We’ll look at the opposingviews site and choose topics in small groups and note how arguments are created, how they use facts and logic, and what techniques are most persuasive.

Then, I’ll go through the Pecha-Kucha assignment, have students break up into pairs, and then use either procon.org, opposingviews, or the KCLS database (Opposing Viewpoints) to choose propositions.  One student will be for the proposition and another will be against. Also, see this site for examples of pecha kuchas.

Finally, I’ll give you class time to begin your research for your topic. Next week, we’ll talk about presentation construction.

HW: Have 5-7 sources and a rough outline of how your argument will proceed.