The Solution? Tone Map It

A little anecdote regarding how an assignment in AP Lang can become an assignment outside of class. One of my students was having a bit of anger today, and this emotion has a habit of turning this person into a fuming, unhappy personage that none of us would like to see. One of my other students, in a burst of innovation, suggested that the original student should tone map his/her feelings to calm him/her down. While we laughed about that idea (hey, it's AP Lang-related and would any of you really make a tone map to chart your feelings and come to some understanding regarding them?), this person actually made an anger tone map later on in the day. And, guess what? This student said it worked to gather his/her feelings! It's on my board right now as a reminder that tone maps are more than just an assignment - they can actually aid your emotional turmoil or confusion, something that happens on occasion to all of us. Ergo, if I'm having a rough day, I could try out this technique to better my perspective. So thank you to the person suggesting the tone map beyond a reading passage! You never know - it might just work in many circumstances!

Meanwhile in classroom antics, we are in the midst of the January hodgepodge, including the start of allusion posters during next class:

1: Copied down Unit 16 vocab to start next class, discussed English class options for next year (yes, I would love for all of you to take AP Lit, but I know that some of you are natural fits for its parameters of some of you have other goals to pursue - whatever the case, choose what is best for you! And remember, you can take more than those 2 English credits if you are a writer, reader, speaker, and want more learning in this department), created your topic cards for tone paragraphs and read a couple samples to involve you in the future assignments. Make sure you bring your notes regarding "Harvest Song" as we will go into descriptive writing next time.

3: Copied down Unit 16 vocab to start next class, analyzed the descriptive elements of sensory imagery, figurative language, and mood in "Harvest Song," assigned homework to write 1-2 paragraphs describing the hallway here at school during passing period with your audience a person who has never witnessed this scene and utilizing all those sensory image and figurative language,  discussed English class options for next year (yes, I would love for all of you to take AP Lit, but I know that some of you are natural fits for its parameters of some of you have other goals to pursue - whatever the case, choose what is best for you! And remember, you can take more than those 2 English credits if you are a writer, reader, speaker, and want more learning in this department).

4: Reviewed the fallacies from the Republican debate transcript. While we won't be doing any more fallacies in class together, there might be another transcript coming your way in the near future. Assigned "Harvest Song" for you to close read for sensory imagery and figurative language. Began our discussion of  English class options for next year (yes, I would love for all of you to take AP Lit, but I know that some of you are natural fits for its parameters of some of you have other goals to pursue - whatever the case, choose what is best for you! And remember, you can take more than those 2 English credits if you are a writer, reader, speaker, and want more learning in this department).

7: Copied down Unit 16 vocab to start next class, analyzed "Harvest Song" for its descriptive properties, assigned assigned homework to write 1-2 paragraphs describing the hallway here at school during passing period with your audience a person who has never witnessed this scene and utilizing all those sensory image and figurative language.

Debatable

In all classes, in some phase or another, you have been working with a debate transcript to identify all those fallacies that happen to occur when one politician attempts to sway the audience, discredit an opponent, or refocus attention on the desired platform. First, third, and seventh hours have completed this task by sharing their most, uh, "popular" fallacies. You now have Jean Toomer's Harvest Song to read for homework and to identify all of the sensory imagery and figurative language in the poem. Fourth hour, you have the debate task for homework, in which each person has a specific range of pages to populate with comment boxes regarding fallacies. I hope you're ready for a hodgepodge of activities and assignments to help with your writing, vocabulary, and comprehension!

Fallacies & Allusions

In all hours, at some point therein, you received the allusion poster assignment in which you will create 4 allusion posters for your 4 assigned allusions, one a week on the assigned dates. As you saw from a plethora of samples, there are many ways to teach your fellow classmates about Biblical, mythological, literary, pop cultural, and historical allusions, as long as that includes some visualization and key words/phrases that indicate the significance and meaning of the person, place, thing, or idea. For those absent, I will be sending you the assignment with your assigned allusions so that you are not completely out of the loop, and I highly recommend taking a look at the samples on Monday as these are the best means to understand the assignment and make it something your own!

Fallacy-wise:

1, 3, 7: You have been assigned the Republican debate transcript (shared with you) with groups having specific page numbers to complete. F.Y.I. I sent absentees the document and an e-mail with further directions for you. Groups, you have the weekend to identify all the fallacies that you can find in your assigned portion of the document. Remember, use a comment box for each fallacy, identify the fallacy, and explain why that specific example is one.

4: We will be finishing up the prep for our slippery slope skit and then moving onto the debate portion of fallacy analysis.

For all classes:

Next week will feature the return of vocab, tone paragraphs, allusion posters, modes of discourse, and multiple choice passages. I will be mixing those up so that we will have rotating topics for our agenda.

"Churn It Up" with Flying Unicorns, Boxing Kangaroos, Amish Polar Bears & World War Kanye!

I don't have much to add regarding slippery slopes, other than I wanted to put all of those examples from third hour into a title! Yes, the butter wars churned into a cameo by the Rock with flying unicorns and Spiderman followed by high speed chases and kangaroo-winning boxing match, which then merged into plagiarism of the Brad Pitt skit (ah, he's back) into Weird Al, Baby Yoda, and Amish polar bears time travelling, and eventually ended with a pseudo-Kanye, once of America, once of Sweden, becoming dictator of Tahiti and fighting "World War Kanye"! Um, I think you definitely took my suggestion of creativity to heart and humor! Fourth hour, I hope you like all of these example from both classes since you will be up tomorrow!

Brad Pitt, The French Revolution & Elephants

Ah, the slippery slope, that fallacy that fosters such creative responses from AP Langers every year. As indicative by first hour's slippery slope performances thus far, we have recognized that failing a test equates with riding elephants in a Saudi Arabian circus, not charging your phone somehow sends you to a guillotine during the French Revolution, and deciding to become vegan essentially means marrying Brad Pitt! Starting a morning with Brad Pitt = happy day! I'm typing this blog early today with the hopes that the remaining hours bring just as memorable slippery slopes to Room 404. At this point, all classes have reviewed the packet and the fallacies that you will be identifying in a future activity and NOT incorporating into your future arguments. In theory, all classes have also either started or finished the slippery slope skits. If you happen to be absent today and tomorrow (i.e. you won't be writing or performing in those skits), you will need to create your own slippery slope fallacy of at least 15 steps. While you won't be able to perform those for the class, I look forward to reading them.

Those Fun Fallacies!

With all the seriousness of rhetorical analysis populating our first semester, it is refreshing to look at how arguments fall apart, how purposes lose their panache, and how fallacies can become part of an argument (whether a successful result occurs or not). With that in mind, we started our review of fallacies from scare tactics (a.k.a. fear-mongering), either/or, slippery slope (ah, my personal favorite and probably yours after we do our skits later this week), sentimental appeal (appeal to pity), false authority, ad hominem, hasty generalization, and probably a few other ones too! Fallacies continue tomorrow!

And by the way, thanks to fourth hour for finally having a wonderful discussion in the dark today! It might have been delayed by a few snows days and vacation weeks, but you still had a great deal to contribute about Lucy, Ann, society, and grasshoppers.

The Past, The Present

As with any new year, the first step is to recollect the past and what you have learned and what you need to do to have a better understanding of life, self, and rhetorical analysis. As such, we looked at the final's toolbox and prompt portions, looking over the strategies that have populated our class and that will still be referenced as we move into other elements of the class. In the meanwhile, you do have the 24 hour period (or 2:40 p.m. tomorrow) to write a revision for the Lucy essay if you deem it relevant to your grade or to personal accomplishment. Class-wise, you should have your fallacy packet read and annotated so that we may review these argumentative faux-pas with ease and understanding.