Unit 1:  Postman's "The Word Weavers/World Makers"

Introducing Postman

 

Background Material for Postman

• Excerpt from The End of Education also called "The Word Weavers/The World Makers" (pages 81-87). This section of the book extends and supplements arguments made in the later chapter with the same name.
• Review of The End of Education (from which "The Word Weavers" is taken) in The Harvard Educational Review. Bradley Levinson, Winter 1996, http://www.hepg.org/her/abstract/287
• Review of the End of Education by Ellen Rose, Journal of Technology Education, Fall 1996. The review situates Postman's book in the larger context of his writings.
• Another review of the End of Education, http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/postman2.html
• The online Neil Postman Page: http://www.neilpostman.org/
• Postman's Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
• Another collection of essays and speeches by Postman http://www.bigbrother.net/~mugwump/Postman/ 
• "Language Education in a Knowledge Context," a related article by Postman

 

Postman Teaching Materials

 

Sample Schedules and Class Plans for Unit 1

• Alicia's Tu/Th Schedule. Covers lesson plans from first day of class to turning in Project 1.
• Overview and detailed description of possible class plans/activities

 

Prereading 1: thinking about definitions, metaphors and questions 

• Powerpoint on the politics of definition - examples of race, sexuality, medical condition, etc.
• The Daily show: "Tortured Logic" Excerpt explores the way torture has been defined
• The Daily Shows and rhetorical questions. TDS explores news media use of leading questions, the issue of framing, agency, responsibility, etc.

• HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? By Lera Boroditsky, Edge, 6.12.09. This short, accesible article explores some ways language shapes thought.

• "The Americanization of Mental Health," ETHAN WATTERS, New York Times Magazine, January 08, 2010. This fascinating magazine article explores the way different cultures have defined mental illness, and how in recent years the influence of American definitions, drug companies, and a series of other factors have led to the increasing influence of American definitions of mental health.

• Taking Marriage private, Stephanie Coontz - New York Times article exploring different definitions of marriage over the ages. Could be used as part of a discussion of how definitions are constructed, and what marriage currently means, particularly in the current context of debates about definitions of marriage/gay marriage.  Could be paired with "The Evolution of Matrimony." This is a short, simple article by social historian Stephanie Coontz that explores the very different ways in which marriage has been understood in the past. For example, Coontz points out the most commonly approved form of marriage across the ages was polygamy, and that until the 1980s, marital rape was considered a contradiction in terms and was almost impossible to prosecute in most Western countries.

   

   

Prereading 2: Jigsaw Work, Discussion, & Group Work

• Pre-reading questions about definitions, metaphor etc., survey questions, and class plans. Ideas for teaching and introducing issues raised in Postman

• Some background material on the significance of metaphor, ways of approaching metaphor, analysis, etc.

• Discussion Starters and Jigsaw work

• Jigsaw Work (Postman-specific)
• Pre-reading - powerpoint materials
• Pre-reading, Rhetorical Reading, Questions to pose text (see section on this in all purpose teaching materials)
• Discussion & Group Work (see section on this in all purpose teaching materials)
• Some sources on technology education: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8508040.stm

 

The Assignment: introducing, scoring, rubrics and sample papers

• Assignment 1: Guidelines and Scoring
• Sample Grading Rubric
• Sample Assignment Prompt, Revised Assignment Prompt (utilizing some of Katie Hughes' language) as well as my rubric (Alicia)
• Sample assignment prompt and rubric (Rose)
• Sample prompt, rubric, introduction and body paragraphs (mix of Chris, Rose and Alicia)
• Sample student papers (drafts - they use text by Chua), and more sample drafts from Fall '09
• Sample Powerpoint explaining how to do asignment 1
• Project 1 Tips for students (FAQs) (Rose - to be discussed in class; change the tone to be much friendlier if posted for students)

 

Working with Postman - charting, PACES, Analysis and Strategies

• Rhetorical reading of Postman by Glen McClish (from orientation)
• Alicia provided the following resources for working with Pinker:

  1. Pinker Charted

  2. Articulating the Argument: Worksheet for mapping out PACES - project, argument, evidence, claims and strategies (Alicia)

• See all purpose teaching materials on rhetorical reading and analyzing texts

• See all purpose teaching materials on ethos pathos logoc, metadiscourse and rhetorical strategies.

 

Drafting & Peer Review

• Outline of the introduction (Alicia)
• An overhead/handout for Peer Review (Alicia)
• See all purpose teaching materials on drafting and peer review 
• Peer review form for assignment 1 (for the traditional paired peerreview)

 

 

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Unit 2 Gladwell's Outliers: the Story of Success

 

Outliers Background Info: reviews, interviews, and excerpts

• From Gladwell's blog, "What is Outliers about?" http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html
• The Outliers Wiki
• "Gladwell for Dummies." A smart, incisive and rather brutal review of Gladwell's entire writings, including Outliers, by Maureen Tkacik in The Nation.

• Salon review of Outliers, http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/11/17/gladwell/index.html

• Time magazine review of Outliers, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1858880,00.html

• Charlie Rose video interview with Gladwell, http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9855#

• CBC interview http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2008/12/video-malcolm-gladwell-on-outliers/
• Macleans interview with Gladwell, http://www2.macleans.ca/2008/11/21/macleans-interview-malcolm-gladwell/print/
• Guardian interview with Gladwell, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/16/malcolm-gladwell-interview-outliers
• GLADWELL EXCERPT - the first chapter of the book
• Gladwell responds to David Brooks, http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2008/12/brooks-on-outliers.html

• Commentary review of Gladwell: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/outliers--the-story-of-success-by-malcolm-gladwell-14689 

• New Scientist review of the book

 

 

Texts that relate to Gladwell and can be used for assignment 2

 

Related texts that complicate, challenge, illustrate, extend, etc.

• Collective list of source texts to use with Gladwell from ITC - put your links and ideas here
• "What It Takes to Make a Student," by PAUL TOUGH, New York Times Magazine, November 26, 2006. This article examines the success of "No Child Left Behind" bill, and engages in a careful review of research on the factors that lead to educational success. The article pays particular attention to research on programs that target poor and at-risk youth.  The text provides a useful counterpoint to Gladwell, as it draws on some of the same researchers as Gladwell (for example Lareau) and examines the KIPP program that is at the center of chapter 9.  Tough presents a much more complex account of the issues Gladwell examines, and does so by situating these issues in relation to a much broader range of scholarship.
• "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work," JEAN ANYON. (First published in the Journal of Education, Vol. 162, no. 1, Fall 1980.)

• "Schools that Beat the Odds," by Harry Brighouse. Brighouse is an educational researcher who writes on a group blog with many other scholars. The blog post considers recent work on schools that "beat the odds." It includes discussion of the KIPP program that is at the center of chapter 9 of Outliers.  The blog post is fairly accessible, and also contains a number of responses by readers.

• "High Flying Schools, Student Disadvantage and the Logic of NCLB," by Douglas N. Harris. Published in American Journal Education (2007), Vol. 113, n. 3, pp. 367-394. The paper is skeptical of the degree to which school programs that are often celebrated (and which are mentioned by Gladwell) can  in fact have the impact claimed on poor schools. The paper's results "suggest the continued need to address home and community factors in the pursuit of educational equity."

• "What Makes a Great Teacher?" by Amanda Ripley. Article about research studies conducted by Teach for America and others arguing that the characteristics of the teacher are most important in determining student learning. The article is somewhat lacking in statistics and concrete examples, but clearly complicates Gladwell's argument about KIPP (and, for that matter, the 10,000 hour rule).

• "More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City," William Julius Wilson, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, vol 18, no. 3.

• "Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education." John U. Ogbu and Herbert D. Simons. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Volume 29. Issue 2. June 1998.

• "Coming to terms: a discussion of John Ogbu’s cultural-ecological theory of minority academic achievement." Kevin Michael Foster. Intercultural Education. Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2004

• “Ogbu’s theory of academic disengagement: its evolution and its critics.” Douglas Foley Intercultural Education, Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2004.

• Part of an interview of Dave Chappelle by Charlie Rose, where he argues that hard work might help someone who is funny to earn a living, but that the famous comedians are innately great. Complicates Gladwell's argument by adding two levels of success. Could also be used as a research topic (i.e., DC was born in 1973, did that give him advantages others didn't have? His life bio is disclosed in his interview with Lipton in The Actor's Studio).

• CNBC Interview with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (Nov. 12, 2009). Bill Gates and Warren Buffett answer questions about the "role of luck" in their achievements versus the role of hard work and education. A transcript is available here (click "show entire text" and search for "luck"). A video is available here - the relevant clip is in at 35:40-39:13, though the whole interview is dynamic!

• Gladwell interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel

• Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success. 20 minute talk at teh TED conference that discusses success in a way that overlaps and extends Gladwell. A transcript of the talk is available on the page.

• Big list of Gladwell intereviews

 

Reviews that complicate, challenge, illustrate, extend, etc.

• "Gladwell for Dummies." A smart, incisive and rather brutal review of Gladwell's entire writings, including Outliers, by Maureen Tkacik in The Nation. Presents a number of challenges, counterexamples and counterarguments.

• Salon review of Outliers also challenges several of Gladwell's claims.

• Commentary review of Gladwell: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/outliers--the-story-of-success-by-malcolm-gladwell-14689 

• New Scientist review of the book - contains some critical observations

   

 

 

Gladwell's Outliers: Teaching Resources 

• An op-ed that provides a good example of how authors often use one text to complicate another. David Brooks summarizes the common idea that the internet has played an important role in polarizing political views over the last 10 years. He then discusses how recent research complicates this view. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/opinion/20brooks.html?hp

• Class Plan and assignment questions for Outliers from Western New England College

   

• Reading Guide and discussion questions http://www1.wnec.edu/firstyear/index.cfm?selection=doc.6938

• The Outliers Wiki

• Model sources and how to connect them to Gladwell - uses Jared Diamod, but also texts that discuss cultural legacies, fictional texts, case studies, etc.

• More model sources - how to use the Tough article ("What it Takes to Make a Student") which complicates Gladwell's use of KIPP schools and education research, plus Alicia's example of how to build a body paragraph using a text that complicates the rice paddies chapter.

 

 

Sample Schedules and Class Plans for Unit 2

• Overview of possible class activities/plans for unit 2

• Sample schedule for unit 2 (Alicia)

• Introducing the project: Practice with extending, complicating, refining, and qualifying an argument (Rose)

 

The Assignment, Grading and Rubrics

• Assignment checklist

• Assignment grading rubric

• Assignment prompt with drafting advice (Alicia)

• Dealing with Group Work: Here are two old evaluation sheets that students can use to evaluate each other. I've also included my presentation rubric. (Alicia)

• Assignment prompt and rubric and Assignment Breakdown (Rose) 

• Sample charting of draft paper (from previous semester)

• Prospectus assignment (a warm-up assignment to outline sources before they write their draft) 

 

Drafting and Peer Review

• Exercises and groupwork for drafting paper

• Writing a prospectus/structured outline

• Drafting exercises - helping students connect the texts

• Drafting template - provides framework of major moves students should make, plus examples.

• Body paragraph templates and then a body paragraph template with model (using Gladwell and a complicating, outside text)

• Template for introducing authors

• Sample body paragraphs on Rifkin (Rose)

• Sample body paragraphs and template phrases

• Sample peer review form for paper 2

• SAMPLE STUDENT PAPERS - 5 sample papers of varying quality

• Words and exercises to use for making transitions, signaling relationships, establishing connections, etc.

• Guideline for Assignment 2 (Outline) this was used for Chua, but can be useful when thinking of how to structure this assignment.

 

Researching, Finding/Evaluating Sources, Creating an Annotated Bibliography, and Avoiding Plagiarism

• Teaching students about research, finding and evaluating sources, creating an annotated bibliography, and avoiding plagiarism. By Emma Lee Whitworth, with editorial assistance from Michael Underwood and Julie Williams.

 

Possible Links to Rhetorical Analysis Paper 

• Inequality and Social Health: Review of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n20/runc01_.html

 

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UNIT 3

 

The First to Worst Movie - You Can See it on YouTube

Part 1 is here - the other parts are shown on the right of the screen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTtAdJi1AjQ&feature=related

 

Background on First to Worst

• First to Worst, by John Merrow/Learning Matters. First to Worst explores the roots of California’s current education crisis.
• Summary of the film's arguments produced by the Stanford Report   
• A presentation that supports the arguments in First to Worst by The California School Employees Association
• American Youth Policy Forum brief that comments on key aspects of the movie: http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2004/fb010804.htm
• California Schools America’s Future "traces the roots of the current crisisand gives context to how it all happened. This documentary is an update of our 2004 documentary, First to Worst, about the history of California public schools. Four years later, is it possible that the largest school system in the country—educating one of every eight schoolchildren—is worse off than ever?"

   

Teaching Materials 

• Summary of sections of First to Worst, plus claims and strategies
• Introduction to Rhetorical Strategies: 
• Intro to Strategies/Ways of Approaching the Teaching of Strategies (Powerpoint)
• Powerpoint file on visual rhetoric and argument. Contains terms for analyzing visual texts, plus examples and lecture notes. Likely to be far more than you'll need for teaching First to Worst, but may contain some useful materials. Large file (4 mgb). Also this.
• Rhetorical Strategies - big collection of teaching materials, examples, discussion ideas. Needs some editing. 
• More on introducing rhetorical strategies
• Intro to rhetorical strategies in verbal and visual texts
• Visual texts to introduce rhetorical strategies:
• Photos of student election campaign signs - can be used to consider strategies and effectiveness
• Print texts to introduce rhetorical strategies:
• Parry's "The Art of Branding a Condition." Short text written by a medical marketer revealing some of the strategies used in drug advertising and marketing. Can be used to introduce rhetorical strategies
• Discussion ideas, exercises, homework and group work that uses the Parry text.
• More activities and exercises that use Parry, and some class activities or homework
• Mixture of print and visual texts to introduce rhetorical strategies:
• A collection of different kinds of print and visual texts can be useful to emphasize how authors use different kinds of strategies, even when the argument is the same. The following texts all make a similar argument about the Texas Board of Education's decisions to change their textbooks.
• "Texas Should Not Define Education." An editorial from SDSU's student newspaper, The Daily Aztec (March 22, 2010).
• "Don't Mess with Texas....Textbooks," by Chuck Norris. Human Events, March 16, 2010.
• Episode of The Daily Show. (The segment on the Texas Board of Education begins at 9:13 and ends at 14:15.)
• Segment from The Colbert Report, "I's On Edjukashun." (From March 16, 2010 episode). Features historian Eric Foner
• "Twisting History in Texas," by Eric Foner, The Nation, March 18, 2010.  Could be used to compare strategies - Foner on Colbert, Foner in the Nation.
• Cartoon: "Texas Schoolboard Bookburning." By Monte Wolverton, March 14, 2010. http://blog.cagle.com/2010/03/14/texas-schoolboard-bookburning
• Cartoon: On the Texas School Board of Education vote. March 17, 2010 cartoon published in the Atlantis Journal-Constitution by Mike Luckovich.
• Lesson Plans:
• Possible sequence of class plans/activites for unit 3
• Handout and lesson plan for teaching ethos, pathos and logos
• Drafting - template sentences for asignment 3
• Using Swales CARS model to discuss strategies identifiable in academic research writing (see also this article by Sutton, "Swales’s “Moves” and the Research Paper Assignment" that introduces Swales and connects to undergrad writing).
• Past Prompts:
• Teaching Enron: The Rhetoric and Ethics of Whistle-Blowing" RICHARD HOUSE, ANNELIESE WATT, AND JULIA M. WILLIAMS, http://faculty.washington.edu/tfreel/courses/tc401/assignments/Enron.pdf
• Prompt, the draft of which I passed out in our meeting. This approaches P3 in two parts: a short analytical paper and a creative project. I may, and you are more than welcome to, continue to tinker/add to it. Share your ideas! (Alicia)
• Long essay prompt (Rose)

 

Teaching the Crisis - Related Texts to Use for the Strategies Paper

• Segment of Oprah show comparing poor and wealthy schools that covers some of the same ground the First to Worst does, but uses different strategies.
• Short videos that could be used to discuss strategies or model student projects

  - Megan Fox, Brian Austin Green In 'Hot For Teachers.” Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green speak out about the budget cuts affecting teachers and kids in California. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/7d5ec0278e/megan-fox-is-hot-for-teachers (see alsohttp://saynotocuts.com/)

  - Billionaires for Fee Hikes attack UCSD. Video by UCSD students protesting fee increases and arguing that equity and access is being undermined. Heavy use of satire and parody.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrKcgMep1TM

  - University of California: Priceless. Short (1 minute) video by students at UCSD protesting fee increases. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OQtp1UJpOo&feature=related

  - UC Crisis: Education is a right. Not a privilege. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1nZA9KO40&feature=related

  - Hitler Finds Out About the California Budget Crisis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMDUMVCZbcQThe funniest advocacy ad ever

• Newsweek article on education and the need to fire poor teachers. Cover: http://www.newsweek.com/id/234599 Stories:http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590  and  http://www.newsweek.com/id/234592
• NPR debate about the role of teacher's unions in the crisis facing K-12 education in California. Part of the "intelligence squared" debate series.
• NPR debate "Is California the First Failed State?" Part of the "intelligence squared" debate series. PDF Transcript
• Social class and education - video produced by students explaining/satirizing theories about disproportionate school failure by poor and minorities SDSU only able to admit 10% of applicants this year - record low.
• http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/01/05/america_and_california_decline

  http://letters.salon.com/tech/htww/2010/01/05/america_and_california_decline/view/?show=all

• Huge list of texts related to the budget crisis, education in California, and related topics. By Christian Fosen at CSU Chico.
• "California's higher-education debacle: Watching the decline of the California State University system from within its boardroom mirrors the erosion of the California dream." By Jeff Bleich. LA Times. See also a list of LA Times reader comments that respond to the op-ed by Bleich

• Hamid Shirvani, Will a Culture of Entitlement Bankrupt Higher Education?  Chronicle article by Hamid Shirvani, president of CSU-Stanislaus. (CSU-Stanislaus faculty responded to Shirvani's article angrily, with 92% subsequently voting no confidence in him).

• California Faculty Association White paper criticising what it argues is the restructuring of the CSU: http://restructuringcsu.wordpress.com/ 

• Joseph Palermo Fiddling While Rome Burns Jim Miller, English professor at San Diego City College

• "California: Killing the Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs." Huffington Post, December 1, 2009.

• OPRAH segment on differences in the quality of schools in rich and poor neighborhoods. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEczvyM3Boc&feature=related

• California School Finance in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsu2L5jfIFA&feature=related

• Understanding California's School Funding Crisis  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWqTMwZMiw&NR=1 
• Jonathan Kozol on the politics of education youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VS9XHbEaFY&feature=related

•  Scott Jaschik, "The Big Admissions Shift." Inside Higher Ed, December 1, 2009. "Here's the big story in admissions this year: The nation's largest higher education system (and its most diverse) is shifting from being de facto a non-competitive admissions university to a competitive one. Getting into the California State University System's 23 campuses (which educate 450,000 students) has just become iffy for many -- especially for those attracted to certain campuses and certain majors."

• "U.S. schools chief: State longshot for stimulus." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/22/BAR617PKQK.DTL  "Honestly, California has lost its way," Duncan told dozens of the state's mayors and education officials who packed into San Francisco City Hall on Friday morning. He was even more blunt in admonishing a lunch crowd of educators and executives at the Palace Hotel on Market Street: "Your state once had the best education system in the country. From cradle to career, you took care of your children. You made sure they were ready to enter your universities or be productive participants in the workforce. "I ask you, is California going to lead the race to the top, or are you going to lead the retreat?"

• Misc Related Links

  http://calfac.org/allpdf/frontpage/CFA_White_Paper-Restructuring%20Winter_09_10.pdf

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/13/BADC1AJG4C.DTL

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/29/IN2H1ALA7P.DTL

• "Students Face a Class Struggle at State Colleges," a  Jan. 2010 New York Times article about the CSU system, focusing on a student at SFSU: "Welcome to state-run higher education in California. Mr. Macias is just one of more than 26,000 students at San Francisco State, and now educational opportunities cost more and are harder to grasp and even harder to hold onto than ever before."

•  California Budget Woes Hurt University System - 13 minute NPR story describing what has happened to CSU and UC system, and problems facing students