The Lives of a Cell

Obj: I can analyze the structure of a text by completing a says/does analysis.

1. Rhetorical Terms Review: Quiz next class!

2. "The Lives of a Cell" Says/Does Analysis: Pick out rhetorical strategies (diction, imagery, arrangement, etc.) and note how they work to generate his comparison of earth to a cell.

HW: Synthesis Essay and Study for Quiz on Terms

Synthesis Prompt : Consider the focus of the excerpts from Dillard and Thoreau, Thomas’s essay, and the White letter. Write an essay in which you defend, challenge or qualify Thomas’s claim that “man is embedded in nature.” Refer to at least three of the texts for support.

The Battle of the Ants

Obj: I can read a text closely and discuss analysis questions. I can review rhetorical terms by finding and creating examples to teach the class.

1. Review Synthesis Essay
2.  Discuss Thoreau
3. Read Gilbert White's letter and annotate 1st and 2nd reading questions- discuss
4. Rhetorical Terms Review

HW: Read and annotate "Lives of a Cell" and complete slides for rhetorical terms review

Emerson and Thoreau

Obj: I can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of my partner's essay. I can read a text closely and answer analysis questions.

1. Sharing essays
2. How can we tighten our language?

• Edit paragraph
• Confusing antecedents

3. What is Transcendentalism?
4. Discuss "big ideas" from Emerson's Nature
5. Read Thoreau and divide up 2nd reading Q's

HW: Read Gilbert White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne and complete 1st and 2nd reading questions

Environmental Responsibility

Obj: I can analyze texts by reading closely and answering questions on rhetoric and style.

1. John Francis Ted Talk: Environmental Responsibility

What is your reaction to John Francis and the way he chose to live his life? Explain what you think about the effectiveness of this speech as a whole.

2. Discuss Dillard Excerpt

Describe your initial response to the Dillard excerpt. Be specific. How did it make you feel? What does it make you think about? How would you have felt had you been watching the events from a distance?

Look over your annotations of the text. You’re each going to get a question to specifically focus on and share out about. Then, we will discuss the piece as a whole in the end. 

1. Find images that suggest beauty. Explain the incongruity of finding beauty in a moth.
2. Who was Polyphemus? Explain the allusion to him in the moth’s name? Where else does this come up in the text?
3. What does Dillard’s comparison of the moth to a bear in paragraph 3 (lines 22-30) suggest and how does it suggest that?
4. Find the sequence of causes and effects that lead to the irreconcilable change in the moth. Paraphrase these events.
5. Since Dillard tells about the activities of children and a teacher, what do such subjects suggest about unintended consequences?
6. Explain the significance of the repetition in the last sentence.
7. Dillard relates a childhood event through adult eyes. What does this point of view suggest and how so?
8. Explain the similarities of this seemingly small event in the larger context of human interaction with the natural world.

HW: Choose ONE of the following and write an essay that answers the prompt, and bring a printed copy to class on Monday.

Argument--Write your own description of a similar chain of events focused on another aspect of human interaction with the natural world. Arrange your essay using the Dillard excerpt as a guide. Include specific details, images, and incongruities.

Analysis--Write an essay in which you analyze how Dillard’s rhetorical strategies convey her attitude regarding innocence and interference with natural cycles.

What is our Responsibility to the Natural World?

Obj: I can identify my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I can analyze a visual text and discuss how a photographer can convey a meaning/message through a photograph. I can write an on demand prompt using my personal beliefs and experiences as a guide for writing.

1. Rhetorical Terms Presentations!
2. R.A. Reflection: Review the last two rhetorical analysis essays you wrote. What were their strengths and weaknesses? Which parts of this type of writing comes easily to you, and which parts do you struggle with?
3. Synthesis Self-Assessment

4. We are beginning our Nature Unit today!

• Earth from Apollo 17
• Writing Prompt: What is our responsibility to the natural world?
• Ted Talk: John Francis Walks the Earth

HW: Read and annotate Annie Dillard excerpt. Be ready to discuss the following next time:

• Her attitude toward the subject
• Rhetorical strategies that convey her attitude

Synthesis Essay and New Rhetorical Terms

1. Synthesis Prompt- 45 Minutes
2. New Rhetorical Terms

Divide up rhetorical terms to teach. "Research" definitions and examples. Create a "poster" (could be a keynote) to teach the class!

Rhetorical Terms List:

1. What is the difference between rhetorical function, strategies, devices, questions, and effectiveness?  
2. understatement and litotes
3. extended metaphor and analogy
4. paradox and oxymoron
5. metonymy and synecdoche
6. euphemisms and colloquial language
7. Antecedent
8. didactic  

Tone Words:

1. Sardonic

2. Sanguine

In-class Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Obj: I can write an essay that analyzes how a writer's use of rhetoric achieve a specific purpose.

1. No Red Ink: Growth Quiz!
2. Rhetorical Analysis Essay: 40 Minutes
3. Synthesis Prompt for next time:

Synthesis Question: Is war an inevitable element of human existence? Refer directly to MacArthur’s speech, Eisenhower’s Farewell Address and Margaret Mead’s essay. You may use any other texts you see fit, as well.  After considering these sources, as well as the current state of affairs, develop a position on the question and support your position with multiple sources and your own thinking.

Partner up: One Sentence Summaries

1. Cicero “On Duties”
2. Catiline “To His Army Before Defeat in Battle”
3. Eisenhower “Message to Invasion Troops”
4. Boswell “On War”
5. Eisenhower “Farewell Address”
6. MacArthur “Commencement Address”
7. SIPRI “Patterns of Major Armed Conflicts, 1990-2005”
8. Margaret Mead “Warfare: An Invention--Not a Biological Necessity”
9. Jarecki’s “Why We Fight”
10. Louisa May Alcott’s “Death of a Soldier”

How to prepare? Organize your research, highlight and color code, outline main ideas, find quotes that both support and refute your claims, etc. We will write the essay during class on Friday.