What kinds of issues/topics/ideas are you interested in reading about/studying? I have a few units in mind, and I'd like your feedback on them, but I'd also like for you to share your own ideas. My goals for each of these units is to explore the concept/theme from varying perspectives and through a variety of texts (novels, essays, news articles, op-ed articles, film, visual texts) in order for you to analyze their rhetorical strategies and to make your own arguments about these ideas.
Your feedback is important to me and will drive the content off this class, so please take this conversation seriously (in essence, you are conversing with me via this blog response since I am not in class to have this conversation in person today (home sick, but will be back tonight for Open House)).
My ideas:
- How humans of different races and ethnicities relate--exploration of racism today in the U.S., in South Africa (apartheid), ethnic genocides around the world, etc. I'm interested in exploring why it happens, if we ever truly successfully co-exist, what people have done to overcome, etc.
- How humans survive--exploration of a modern day Bubonic Plague scenario, what people do to save others, stories of the actual Bubonic Plague, to what ends will people go to save themselves.
- How are we, in this culture, "spun" with all of the media messages sent our way--exploration of how we make decisions about products, schools, our lives, based on the bombardment of information we are presented with every day, a sort of critical look at our mass consumption society.
- Are we a healthy nation--exploration of food and our relation to it, Fast Food Nation, The Jungle, Super Size Me, Animal Vegetable Miracle, is food just food.
I like the idea of how humans survive. It sounds the most interesting to me out of the four choices given. A suggestion, if allowed, would be how popular fictional stories influence us. We could do a lot with Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, etc. But not Twilight. Never Twilight...
ReplyDeleteI would like to talk about the first topic because it is a subject not usually talked about in schools.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of how media influences it. I have always wondered how often our decisions are effected by media, even when we try to avoid it. I also think learning about how different races get along would be interesting, just because we never truly stop to think about. I feel like we tend to keep to ourselves to a certain extent. We owrry first about oursleves, then reach out to others. I do agree with Brian, that it owuld be interesting to find out how fictional stories influence us.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I feel like the topic of how we are in this culture with all the media, and the way that we make decisions is interesting and I think I would have a good time learning about this topic. I also think that learning and figureing out if we ar a healthy nation or not would be an intresting topic to discuss.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of learning how we are "spun" in our culture. I feel like i would be able to find out how certain media is affecting me without even knowing it. I think that i would be able to learn a lot through us researching and going deeper in to those matters.
ReplyDeleteI have two ideas that I thought would be interesting to learn about. I think that the idea about "How humans survive" would be interesting because there would be a lot of knowledge coming from that topic, that I most likely have never learned before. I would also like to learn about "Are we a healthy nation" because I love food and I think learning about food would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think the two ideas about how humans survive-exploration of Bubonic plague and the culture idea- how we are "spun" with the media are interesting. I think it would be more interesting if we could learn about the world today and how everything is affected. It isn;t so boring as reading old books and doing long reports on them. If we are learning about today and the media, we will be able to relate to it a lot easier since we are seeing and we are also a part of it everyday.
ReplyDeleteI think the human ethnicities topic would be ok. The topic does not really interest me that much, but I would not be opposed to doing it. I feel the same was about how humans survive, it is not super interesting to me, but I would have no problem learning about it. I would not; however, want to learn about the media and how it effects us. I feel like we have covered this topic so many times before in the past and learning about it again would be very repetitive for me. The last one I would really enjoy learing about though. I think what we eat and consume is very interesting and I also think it is very important to know about all the things we put into our body. I think the healthy nation topic would definitely interest me the most and I think I would actually enjoy learning about it.
ReplyDeleteOf the four topics above, I would be the most interested in learning about how we humans survive. Topics having to do with illnesses and striving to survive are things that interest me greatly and keep me wanting to stay involved with the learning process. I might also be interested in learning about how to co-exist and learning about why people think people are different when it comes to skin color. I am not very interested in learning about the third topic though. I might be interested in learning about the last topic, however, because I enjoy learning more about how to keep myself healthy and why others eat all the things that they do.
ReplyDeleteI thought the second point sounded the most interesting. It interests me to think that the human race could/should be wiped out at any moment in time. I think it would be beneficial to have a lesson on the structure of sentences, or NWEA topics. I think that most students in this class don't have the education on paralellism and such topics like that. It would probably help most of us to know the more advanced grammar.
ReplyDeleteI personally would enjoy learning and discussing the exploration of food and our relation to it. I think it would be very interesting to learn about how unhealthy all the food is that we eat (fast food, ball games, etc.). This could possibly strive us to eat healthier...or at least realize what exactly we are putting into our bodies. Another topic that I think would be interesting to learn about is the advancements of modern day technologies. I think the world we live in today revolves around these technological advancements and learning about new and improved products as well as looking at how they influence our lives could be a very interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI love all your ideas. Each one sounds interesting. I like the idea about media messages because I don't think we all realize just how much of an impact it has on our everyday lives. I also think the Bubonic Plague idea is intriguing. I find it fascination what people do without any thought of how their actions affect others, so this idea would go even deeper into that. My least favorite idea is probably the healthy nation one. I believe it is an interesting topic, but I don't know how much I would actually enjoy covering it in class. I also thought your Dr. Suess idea was cool. I like units that involve creativity.
ReplyDeleteI would enjoy learning about all of these subjects. I was most interested about the first topic about different ethnic groups and how they are simillar and how their life has been altered due to their differences. To me, the second and fourth topics weren't as interesting. The third topic intersted me as well. I like that it involves the media and how they alter life.
ReplyDeleteI like the influence of the media topic the most. I'd be interested into going a little bit deeper and really looking into marketing/advertising strategies, as well as the information we're being presented in other forms of the media. Because now, more than ever, media (specifically in beauty and as far as women is concerned) is so contradictory.
ReplyDeleteYour ideas about racism and the Bubonic plague actually sound really interesting. The idea about fast food seems a little out of place for an English class. I understand how it ties in, but it seems to me like a stretch. The idea about how the media influences us is a good one, but I think I know what kind of reading material that would entail, which I would rather not read. My favorite of the four ideas is the one about the Bubonic plague. It sounds kind of like a study of how people act and what we value most. I've always been interested in how people think so I like this one a lot. The idea about racism is really good, but I've taken lots of classes that have had similar units, so it seems like it would turn into a big review. If there's any way to incorporate historical fiction into one of these units I would be really happy. I really like historical fictions, so if they were an assigned reading I wouldn't mind.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to pick I would like to learn about the first topic about how differnt races and ethnicities relate to each other. I find cultures truly facinating to learn about because each place has different motives by which they live their lives. I feel like the United States as a whole is very close minded, and they do not see the true brokeness that we have. When we look at countries in Africa it is easy to see where they need help and how we can go over and change lives. By studying this, hopefully our eyes can be opened to the true things that make us run as a country and potentily how broken we are.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like the third topic because I find it extremely interesting how we are affected by the media. Although we have started to cover this topic, it might be nice to go a little more in depth.
I think the first two ideas would be interesting. I like the first one just to maybe explore other ways races coexist besides what is commonly from the past. I like the second idea just to see the response of how far people will go to save themselves. I would like to see sports to be invovled in some way. It would grab my attention strongly. For example, even it is how sports affects race or race affects sports, I would go with that in either direction. I would find more interests in the class along these lines.
ReplyDeleteI would love to discuss the topic regarding the United States as a healthy nation. I love food, and I believe that I would be really intrigued by the topic. I do not think that our nation is very healthy. There are so many fast food restaurants and unhealthy food options to choose from. I also think that the class would be able to share differing opinions about the topic because everyone can relate to food. Also, the videos, articles, and book that are examples of what the class could use during this lesson sound very interesting, and I believe a good class discussion would come from learning about them.
ReplyDeleteOne topic that interests me is how humans of different races and backgrounds relate and communicate with eachother and what reasons are possible for such horrible events as genocide and apartheid. I love learning about serious topics so learning more about why racism and discrimination happens, and how it was brought up to be such a big problem in our world today. The fourth topic you listed, also interested me greatly since i feel as if we have always been a very unhealthy nation. As Americans, we were born and raised in a greedy and selfish society unlike in other countries such as Africa. I believe our nation didn't really shed light on our unhealthy habits until recently, which has listed the average American citizen as "unhealthy". I would love to learn more about this topic and how our eating habits affect different aspects of our culture, nation, background, and country altogether.
ReplyDeleteHow humans survive sounds like an interesting topic to discuss. We don't learn about what would happen if something like the Bubonic Plague were to happen again and how it would effect everyone.
ReplyDeleteOut of the four topics suggested, I think that the first two would be the most interesting to discuss. It would be interesting to explore why people do the things they do, and the lengths that people go to to ensure their survival. Also, I think we should do a unit over Satire. I think it would be cool to look at how sarcasm and mocking are used in the modern world to influence people's beliefs. A perfect example of Satire is Monty Python and The Quest for the Holy Grail, which is something that we could watch as a class.
ReplyDeleteI would most like to learn the most about the last one, mostly because it is the most relateable to everyone in the class. I love food, everyone loves food and I think this topic would be fun to learn about. Also,because Evansville in the most obease city in the country it would be very interesting to learn about why we are as fat as we are. All kids love food, and I think it would be a good thinking to learn about in the class room. Learning is so much more fun when you are learning about something that you are interested in. Food is not only a love, but is the one thing you need to survive. It is the one basic need that humans and animals need to survive. I am also interested in psychology, so i think it would be cool to learn about how food effects the brain psychologically. Does food effect your thought process, or your perspective of the world? I would love to further my education about something that is so vital to my survival.
ReplyDeleteI personaly think that talking about news stories would be the most relevant. However it would be pretty interesting to discuss the plaque and how a modern day one would look like. A lesson on satire would be very interesting and this could be done by watching Steven Cobert and John Stewert.
ReplyDeleteI think the second and third units seem like the most fun. I think finding out what people do when they are trying to do anything to survive would be interesting. I also think analizing what goes on in our culture would be interesting. I find comedy interesting too. It would be fun to analize some comedic rightings and videos.
ReplyDeleteI was enthused when I read the ideas that you had for the class. One of the reasons why AP English is one of my favorite classes is because it is an unconventional English class. I would not enjoy a monotonous class where we do the very same thing each day. I find it interesting that this class is discussion-based. I know that I retain information best when shared in a relaxed format. The topic that interests me most would have to be the "unspun" topic. Most of us are "spun" into media and I think it would be interesting to looks at things from different viewpoints and perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI think that how humans survive topic would be interesting. I think that there would be a lot that we could learn from it.
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