Transformational Thinking Essay

"Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded?"

                                                               -- Thoreau

Please get your netbook when you arrive to class

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell as you wait for you netbook to power up.  

2.  Final draft of Essay is due no later than tomorrow

3.  Review of Essay Rubric

4.  Writing Response Group for those who are ready -- I will tell you who you are and you will receive credit for participating in this scheduled activity.

Transformational Thinking Essay

"So long as it is your endeavor to control us with justice and love, we will let you do so.  But if you wish to strike at us from behind, we cannot permit it."

                                                     -- Mohandas Gandhi

Please get your netbook when you arrive to class

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin reading at the bell.  Two book reviews are to be posted on Goodreads by March 8th.  One of the book reviews must be from the required list.

2.  Essay -- Transformational Thinking Essay

     You have another day to COMPLETE your essay.  This will be the third day of working in class, and you have been asked to work on this for homework as well.  The plan for tomorrow is for writing response groups for help in improving your essay.  Friday the FINAL DRAFT is due. I will be checking your work off at the end of the period for work completed in class TODAY.

Transformational Thinking Essay

"If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man."

                                                                             -- Henry David Thoreau

Please get your netbooks when you arrive

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell as your netbooks are powering up.  

      NOTE:  The end of the grading period is March 8th -- a week from this Friday.  Two book reviews are to be posted on Goodreads by that date

2.  Transformational Thinking Essay -- Make sure that you share your essay with me at abaltrushes@gmail.com

      

Name your essay Period ___ Transformational Thinking Essay

     

*I will be checking your completed drafts off today at the end of the period.  Tomorrow we will have writing response groups.  Friday a final draft of your essay is due.

Transformational Thinking Essay

". . . the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong is what is against it . . ."

                                                            -- Emerson

Please get your netbook when you arrive to class

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell. Remember, March 8th is right around the corner and you will be posting two book reviews for this six weeks.  One of the books will be from the required list.

2.  Essay -- For homework I asked you to write an introduction to your essay.  Today we will continue working on the essay in class.  This is NOT a collaborative effort, and I expect you to be quietly concentrating on this writing task which does require concentration.  If you have questions, please ask me.  I am providing you with an outline which I believe will be helpful in guiding you in the writing of this essay.

    Below are the links to the published collection of quotes for your reference.

    Published spreadsheet of quotes
 
    Spreadsheet of Gandhi and King Quotes

Gandhi & King Quotes

"No clapping is possible without two hands to do it, and no quarrel without two persons to make it.  Similarly, no State is possible without two entities (the rulers and the ruled).

                                                                                                   -- Mohandas Gandhi

Please get your netbook when you arrive to class.

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin promptly at the bell.  We will read for just a few minutes today because we have a lot to do.

2.  Review Of Essay Prompt 

HOMEWORK: Compose your introductory paragraph and be ready to continue working on your draft on Monday in class.  If possible, work in Google docs so you can easily continue on Monday.  

3.  Review of Emerson and Thoreau Quotes -- Go to the following
        link to access quotes:
       Published spreadsheet of quotes

        Reviewing these quotes should be helpful as you compose your 
      ESSAY. 
  
4.   Click on the following link to collect quotes from Gandhi and King:   Gandhi and Martin Luther King Quotes

 

Quotes from Emerson and Thoreau

"Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience . . . It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of the chopping blocks rather than to submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire."

                                           -- Martin Luther King

Please get your netbooks when you arrive

1. Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell.  Please be mindful that the grading period ends March 8th and of the required two book reviews to be posted on Goodreads.

2.  "Letter from Birmingham Jail" -- quick review of questions.

3.  Writing Assignment -- Transformational Thinking Process Prompt

4.  Collecting Quotes -- Click on the following link to collect quotes from "Self-Reliance" and "Civil Disobedience."   (Baltrushes.blogspot.com)

         Quotes from Emerson & Thoreau

HOMEWORK: Locate two important quotes for both Gandhi and King 

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood"

                                                                                -- Martin Luther King

1.  When you arrive to class please get your netbook.  While your netbook is powering up, please read quietly.  The end of the grading period is March 8th, so please be mindful of the two book reviews that will be due.  

2.  "Letter from Birmingham Jail"  -- assignment is due.  You may refer to your notes to complete the assignment below.  I will collect your work at the end of the period. 

    Please click on the following link and respond to the questions.  When you are finished answering the questions, please click on SUBMIT.  Work quietly.  This is due at the end of the period.

  Questions on "Letter from Birmingham Jail" 


3.  NOTE:  Please have all your handouts on our readings -- Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, and King.  We will be working on the essay assignment tomorrow.

"Let us all hope that the dark cloud of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."

                                                                              -- Martin Luther King 

1.  California Healthy Kids Survey  

2.  "Letter from Birmingham Jail" -- you should have completed the assignment of paraphrasing on Thursday.  The rest of the assignment (three quotes and reflection) was to be completed for homework.  Due today.

"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream."

                                                    -- Martin Luther King

1.  Today, please get your netbooks when you arrive to class.  When you open "Letter from Birmingham Jail," make your own copy.  Go to FILE and make MAKE A COPY.  

      

        The last two days I have been modelling paraphrasing for main ideas.  We did 10 paragraphs.  The rest is up to you.  It is not realistic to expect you to complete the entire handout today which includes quotes and a reflection.  This part you will complete for homework and turn in at the very beginning of class next Tuesday.  You should be able to complete the rest of the reading and paraphrasing in class today if you are focusing on the task.   You may QUIETLY work with a partner to complete this assignment. 

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

                                                                                                 -- Martin Luther King

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell. Please read while your netbooks are powering up.

2.  Note:  There is no article of the week for this week.  

3.  "Letter from Birmingham Jail"  --  Today you will open in your Google Docs ("shared with me") Martin Luther King's letter.  Since I began this assignment with paper, we will complete it on paper.  You will be looking at a "view only" document as we read and as you complete the paraphrasing on paper.  I also have a revision for your second page of the handout.  Please carefully remove the staple and I will give you the revised page.

      We are paraphrasing the text for main ideas.  With some paragraphs we have to formulate the main idea by looking at the details.  In other places we find the main idea expressed in a key sentence.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood"

                                                  -- Martin Luther King

1. Independent Reading --  Please begin at the bell

2.  Excerpt from Stride Toward Freedom -- you have fully completed the assignment on this text, including a response at the end.  I will collect this at the beginning of the period.

 3.  Today I need you to share your email address with me.  GO TO Baltrushes.blogspot.com    Under "Important Links" at the right CLICK on the link "Student Data Form."   Fill out the form and click on SUBMIT.  


4.  Today we are starting "Letter from Birmingham Jail" written by Martin Luther King after he was arrested during the campaign of nonviolent protest in Birmingham, one of the most segregated cities in America.  "Letter fro Birmingham Jail" has become a classic statement in support of civil disobedience.  It was written in response to a letter by eight local clergymen criticizing King's action's as "unwise and untimely."  In the part of the letter that you will read, King defends his actions by drawing upon the ideas of philosophers, religious scholars, biblical figures, and political thinkers with whom his audience, as clergymen, would have been familiar.  CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR THE TEXT OF THE LETTER.  You will receive a handout for paraphrasing the text.

5. Letter from Birmingham Jail

6.  Letter from Birmingham Jail 

     

Stride Toward Freedom

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

                                                                  -- Martin Luther King

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell

 

2.  Stride Toward Freedom  -- Read this excerpt closely.  Complete the notes on the text as indicated to the right of the text.

 

Note:  Take care in completing all assignments and turning them in.  If you are absent, make sure you find out what you missed.  Ask for any handouts before class begins.

Gandhi

Regarding the refusal to obey unjust laws:

"Award us for it what punishment you like, we will put up with it. 

 Send us to prison and we will live there as in a paradise."

                                                                                               -- Mohandas Gandhi

1. Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell.  We will take only a few minutes today so we can get to part of the movie Gandhi

2.  Article of the Week #14 is due -- You have thoroughly annotated and written a one page response on this article.  Please have it out and ready to collect.

3.  From "On Civil Disobedience" -- Please take this text out with the completed assignment.  You have also completed two questions on the back.

 Also on the back of this handout you will respond to the part of the movie that we see today.  What are your feelings about what you have seen?  What caught your attention?

Mohandas Gandhi

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

                                                                                       -- Mohandas Gandhi

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell.

2.  Reminder -- Annotation and one page response on ARTICLE of the WEEK #14 is due tomorrow.

3.  Gandhi -- From "On Civil Disobedience" 

      Yesterday you were assigned to closely read and annotate From "On Civil Disobedience" by Mohandas Gandhi.  You were also assigned to RECORD 5 main ideas (number each and skip some space between each) and then to provide the QUOTES that support the main ideas.   This was to be finished for homework.

             

QUESTIONS:  (Write your responses on the back of the assignment handout)

1. In reviewing the first part of the text, is there anything that Gandhi says that would apply to our country today?

2.  In the second part of the text, what argument does Gandhi use to support the idea that civil disobedience can be effective?   

                         

Gandhi

"No clapping is possible without two hands to do it, 
and no quarrel without two persons to make it."

                                                                                                     -- Mohandas Gandhi

1.  Independent Reading -- Please begin at the bell.  I will be quickly checking at the bell.

2.  Examples of Disobedience -- A review of the blog post from yesterday and the articles assigned.

 3.  From "On Civil Disobedience" by Mohandas Gandhi -- FIRST read the biographical information on the back so you know something about Mohandas Gandhi. THEN carefully read the text and closely annotate for main ideas.  On the assignment form, RECORD and number 5 MAIN IDEAS and locate the quotes that support the main ideas that you recorded.

4.  NOTE:  AoW #14 is due Friday.  Thoroughly annotate the article and write approximately one page reflection giving your position on the issue

 

Civil Disobedience

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

                                                                                    --Mahatma Gandhi

1.  Independent Reading -- Please get your assigned netbook and while it's powering up quietly read.   

2.  Before we use the netbooks, review your notes on "Civil Disobedience"  for a short quiz.  You may work with ONE partner.  I will collect your annotated copies of "Civil Disobedience" before the quiz.

3. Go to Baltrushes.blogspot.com and click on the following links and read the articles.  Explain the act of CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.  Select two of the examples (two articles) that you think are the most effective acts of civil disobedience and explain why you think they are the most effective.

OBJECTIVE:  To demonstrate your understanding of civil disobedience


UC Fee Hikes

Cindy Sheehan

Nun Makes Major Nuclear Breach

Three Nuns and a Test of Civil Disobedience

"Civil Disobedience"

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."

                                                                                             -- Henry David Thoreau

1.  Independent Reading -- You have had the first week of the new semester to select a book.  You were reminded of that each day.  Each and all of you should have your independent reading books today.

2.  "Civil Disobedience" -- Please be attentive as we finish reading Thoreau's essay.  There will be a quiz.  Continue taking notes on your copy as you will receive points for following along with the reading.

3.  Article of the Week #14 -- As usual, your annotation and written response is due Friday. 

"Civil Disobedience"

"Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them . . . . ."

                                                                                          Henry David Thoreau

1.  Independent Reading -- Through this week you have been selecting your independent reading books.  You receive participation credit each day for being prepared to do some reading at the beginning of class.  Each day I record your participation (5pts) and at the end of the grading period I add those points.  I allow a few days for absences.  Consequently, some of you may be receiving extra points if you are here each day and are reading when I check.

2.  "Civil Disobedience" -- Continue taking notes on each page as we read.  When I collect these pages from you, I should see notes for each page.

Essential Question:  How do I trace the development of an author's argument over the course of a text?   Notice how Thoreau constructs his argument.  We will be going back and reviewing that.  

Response Questions:

*What is your general opinion or response to what we have read so far?
*What part has especially caught your attention?
*What part do you really agree with?
*Is there anything you dislike about what Thoreau says?