2-4 B: Christmas Viewing

'Tis the time to wrap presents, sing carols, visit family, and . . . watch movies! Your task is to recommend a movie to your classmates. Of course, you should not give away the ending or other essential information that would ruin someone's viewing pleasure, but you DO need to "sell" the movie to your peers by making it sound enticing and irresistible to your classmates. Make sure that you include specific ideas from the movie and that you let us know what interests will be sparked by this movie (in other words, into what categories would you put the movie? Why?). DO NOT write about ANY movie discussed in Blog 2-3!!!

This response might require 1 long paragraph instead of 2 paragraphs, but your response must still be detailed and developed!

No more than THREE people may recommend the same movie; if you DO recommend the same movie as one or two other people, DO NOT include any of the same ideas as those other people (I would prefer that each person recommends a different movie).

Please note (if you have not done so already) that the directions DO NOT say that the movie needs to be a Christmas movie; it just needs to be a movie that you recommend people watch over the break.


All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 4th.

2-4 A: Christmas Reading

'Tis the time to wrap presents, sing carols, visit family, and . . . read! Your task is to recommend a book to your classmates. Of course, you should not give away the ending or other essential information that would ruin someone's reading pleasure, but you DO need to "sell" the book to your peers by making it sound enticing and irresistible to your classmates. Make sure that you include specific ideas from the book and that you let us know what interests will be sparked by this book (in other words, into what categories would you put the book? Why?).

This response might require 1 long paragraph instead of 2 paragraphs, but your response must still be detailed and developed!

No more than THREE people may recommend the same book; if you DO recommend the same book as one or two other people, DO NOT include any of the same ideas as those other people (I would prefer that each person recommends a different book).

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 4th.

2-3 B: The War of the Christmas Carols

Everyone loves Christmas songs, right? Whether chestnuts are roasting on an open fire, you're riding in a one-horse open sleigh, or shepherds are watching their flocks by night, Christmas music is guaranteed to put a smile on your face . . . except when it doesn't.

Choose the “best” or the “worst” Christmas carol or Christmas song and defend your opinion/ position with specific arguments and details from the song. Consider elements such as lyrics, melody, rhythm, singer(s), message, etc. Of course, one person’s favorite Christmas song might be another person’s least favorite Christmas song, so I imagine we’ll see some debates develop in the responses.

As always, DO NOT repeat your classmates' ideas. If you need to, please discuss your second or third favorite (or least favorite) Christmas song (assuming other people "steal" your ideas).

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m on Tuesday, December 21st.

2-3 A: The War of the Christmas Movies

What is the best Christmas movie/ show ever? What is the worst? Is there one Christmas movie that you just HAVE to watch each year . . . or one show that you avoid at all costs? For better or for worse, what makes the show stand out? The story? The characters? The style? Something else?

Choose ONE movie (best OR worst, not both), and craft persuasive arguments (supported, of course, by evidence) that convince us to agree with your perspective. DO NOT repeat your classmates' ideas; if you choose the same show as someone else, make sure you present different arguments and evidence; if you have nothing new to say about that show, choose a different one!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m on Tuesday, December 21st.

2-2 B: Danger and Fighting

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, history, society, literature, movies, TV, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.” - Abigail Van Buren
2. “If there be no enemy there's no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.” - Sir Thomas Carlyle
3.”Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.” - Machiavelli
4. “Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed” - Margaret Mitchell

Reminder 1: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

Reminder 2: Your response must include at least 2 full paragraphs of developed and well-supported analysis!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15^th.

2-2 A: Actions

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, history, society, literature, movies, TV, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”- G.K. Chesterton
2. “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away a few stones.” - William Faulkner
3. “I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere  you want to go, if you really want to go.” - Langston Hughes
4. “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Reminder 1: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

Reminder 2: Your response must include at least 2 full paragraphs of developed and well-supported analysis!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15^th.

2-1 B: Quotes about Peace

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, history, society, literature, movies, TV, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.” - William Hazlitt

2. “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

3. “If you want peace, work for justice.” - Pope Paul VI

4. “Only a peace between equals can last.  Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit.” - Woodrow Wilson

Reminder 1: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

Reminder 2: Your response must include at least 2 full paragraphs of developed and well-supported analysis!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7^th.

2-1 A: Quotes about War

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, history, society, literature, movies, TV, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose a war.” - Agatha Christie

2. “Laws are silent in time of war.” – Cicero

3. “The Civil War is not ended; I question whether any serious civil war ever does end.” - T.S. Eliot (Note: Eliot lived from 1888 to 1965, well after the Civil War)

4. “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things . . . The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless he is made and kept so by the exertions of better men than he.” - John Stuart Mill

Reminder 1: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

Reminder 2: Your response must include at least 2 full paragraphs of developed and well-supported analysis!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7^th.

1-5 B: Putting your best self forward

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, society, literature, movies, TV, history, science, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford

2. “When people talk, listen completely.  Most people never listen.” Ernest Hemingway

3. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’  Then get busy and find out how to do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

4. “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” – W.B. Yeats

Reminder: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 11^th.

1-5 A: Hope and Laughter

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, society, literature, movies, TV, history, science, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

1. “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

2. “Laughter is by definition healthy.” – Doris Lessing

3. “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” – Mark Twain

4. “It is impossible to go through life without trust; That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.” – Graham Greene

Reminder: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting your own!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 11^th.

1-4B: Taking a Position, Part Two

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, society, literature, movies, TV, history, science, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

“Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self-respect springs.” – Joan Didion

“The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.” – Matthew Arnold

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.” – Winston Churchill

Reminder: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting yoru own!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2^nd.

1-4 A: Taking a Position, Part One

Choose ONE of the following quotes.  Agree or disagree with the quote, clearly explaining the reason for your position.  Support your reasoning by explaining 1-2 specific examples that support your views.  These examples may come from your life, society, literature, movies, TV, history, science, etc.  Include the quote as the first sentence in your post so that everyone knows which quote you chose.

“Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” – Nelson Mandela

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” – Aldous Huxley

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Reminder: DO NOT repeat your classmates’ ideas or examples, but DO discuss your ideas in relation to theirs.  Make sure you read your classmates’ responses carefully before posting yoru own!

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2^nd.

1-3: Blogs as biography?

Choose a personal blog (we'll go over specific guidelines and search suggestions in class on 10/19 or 10/20) that reveals the author's personality through its posts.  This blog could focus on family and life OR it could incorporate those elements into posts that seem to be about another topic (like sports or books or movies).

Read through the blog you chose (read back through older posts) to learn about the author.  Look for information about interests, family, personality, school or job, etc.  When you write your analysis, focus on two or three different posts (different dates) on the blog; make sure you incorporate the date for each post into your discussion.  Include the blog's title and url in your first sentence. Your analysis will describe the author, will explain how you discovered this information about the author, and will explain what you learned from analyzing the blog.

Multiple people may analyze the same blog; however, you must focus on different posts on that blog.  Do NOT go over the same information someone else explained.

All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 25th.

1-2B: Reading the old-fashioned way

People constantly are claiming that print material (books, newspapers, magazines) is losing popularity because many people only read if they can read the material online (or with an electronic device).

Why do you believe that this statement is false, or that it should be false?  In other words, why does society still need printed books?  Provide examples from society and/ or from books to support your reasoning.  Remember, you must develop your arguments into approximately 2 paragraphs of insightful analysis.

DO post your response in conversation with your classmates; DO NOT repeat ideas presented by your classmates.

All responses are due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 15th.

1-2A: Reading with Technology

Why is reading important in our daily lives?  What are some types of reading material that you can find online?  Is reading of online material less important than reading of print material?

Choose one specific piece of online writing (1 article, 1 site, 1 blog, etc.) and use it to guide your response; make sure you include a link to the piece of writing!  You do not need to respond to all of the preceding questions; you do, however, need to explain the reasoning behind your ideas and to organize your response into approximately 2 cohesive (smooth) paragraphs of insightful ideas.

DO post your response in conversation with your classmates; DO NOT repeat ideas presented by your classmates.

All responses are due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 15th.

1-1B "First Confession" and other stories

In "First Confession," the narrator adopts a humorous tone when he relates his first experience going to confession.  Despite this humor, the narrator does learn and grow from the experience, changes that the adult narrator reveals through his comments.  Why does humor help people when they're telling stories about serious subjects?  Are there times when humor would NOT be appropriate?

Choose another story (short story, novel, play, movie, or TV show) that relates a milestone in the main character's life (a few examples: first penance, first communion, first day of school, the day a younger sibling was born) that connects in some way with O'Connor's experience.  Explain why you think the experiences connect (people, events, emotions, etc.), making sure you incorporate specific evidence from both stories.  Then discuss whether or not humor would help or hinder the telling of the story you chose.  Make sure you explain the reasons behind your position!

If you choose the same story (or a similar story) as one of your peers, make sure you do NOT include similar ideas or evidence.  Focus on different arguments and evidence (or different interpretations of the arguments and evidence); remember, you will be graded on your unique ideas, not on your regurgitation of other people's ideas.

All responses are due by 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 7th

1-1A "First Confession" and your memories

In "First Confession," the narrator adopts a humorous tone when he relates his first experience going to confession.  Despite this humor, the narrator does learn and grow from the experience, changes that the adult narrator reveals through his comments.  Why does humor help people when they're telling stories about serious subjects?  Are there times when humor would NOT be appropriate?

Choose a milestone in your life (a few examples: first penance, first communion, first day of school, the day a younger sibling was born) that connects in some way with O'Connor's experience.  Explain why you think the experiences connect (people, events, emotions, etc.), making sure you incorporate specific evidence from the story and specific details from your life.  Then discuss whether or not humor would help or hinder the telling of your experience.  Make sure you explain the reasons behind your position!

Unlike many of your blog assignments, this assignment might not connect with your peers' comments; however, if your memory is similar to a classmates' example, make sure you discuss different aspects and incorporate different arguments and different evidence from the story.  DO NOT write a post that sounds like someone else's!  You might, however, mention a post with similar events to demonstrate how your thinking differs from that other post.

All responses are due by 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 7th.

Introductory Post

Welcome to our 6th period Language and Literature for the 21st Century Citizen blog!  Throughout the year, you will use this site to enter discussions with your classmates.  For this initial post, just include a comment that tells us something about you.  View this mandatory posting as an easy grade . . . and a way of making sure you can post without difficulty.

Remember, make sure your display name is either your first name and your last initial OR your first name and your last name.

All responses due by 8:15 a.m. on Thursday, September 29th.