AIMS Week

This is the week! It's the time when McGraw Hill attempts to hijack your mind and use it to prove that students cannot learn.  Don't let a ridiculous transnational corporation win! Remember a few things.  First, the writing prompt is almost always easier than what I have you do for bell work every day.  So, you're good.  Try to use the writing process I taught you before.  In terms of reading, Ms. Farley has done a great job preparing you.  I believe you all will do great!

I'll post each part of this week in one post, as if it were one day.  I know I have each class in a strange block of time, so this will work best:

Part One

Individual: Is peace possible between the Palestinians and Israelis? What sacrficies would be needed to make it happen?

Part Two

Group Brainstorm: What are the roots of the problem

Part Three

View pictures of the conflict as a class - analyze them

*How does the cycle of violence work?
*Why does the media use the images to manipulate people? What types of loaded language do they use?

*Should cluster bombs be banned?

Part Four

Individual: Write a poem about the effects of war on children.  

Part Five 

Individual Paragraph: Is it America's job to ensure peace in Israel?  

Class Discussion

-Is America doing this out of humble or selfish motives?

-Does it make a difference if the nations ask for our help?

Part Six

After demonstrating the peace process with the personified Quill the Stapler, think through this peace process as a group:

• Part 1: Describe the conflict 
• Part 2: Relate your metaphor to the conflict
• Part 3: Summarize the effects of the conflict
• Part 4: Create a solution.  It must include: political, social and economic answers, what to do with Jerusalem, the sacrifices both sides must make, how to divide it geographically (one state, two state, three states), how it will be enforced 
• Part 5: Analyze the reasons why this solution should work
• Part 6: Analyze the reasons why this soulution might fail

Part Seven

Share Your Solutions

March 26, 2009

Part One

Create a metaphor of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Include any use of violence, any of the sides that participate and what role America has played in it.

Part Two

Group Concept Exploration Project

• Part 1: Describe, in a paragraph, the causes of the conflict
• Part 2: Describe, in a paragraph, a metaphor of the conflict

March 25, 2009

Part One
Individual: Choose two of the following option:

• Is world peace possible?
• Whose fault is it that so many people in the Middle East hate us?
• Could communication fix the conflict in the Middle East?
• How do people use culture, religion, politics and money to justify violence?
  

Part Two

Group Brainstorm: What happens when people have a conflict?
Whole Class Discussion: Analyze the pros and cons of each method of handling conflict

Part Three
Group Reading / Concept Map
Causes of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict - political, culture, economic, religious, social reasons

March 24, 2009

Part One:
From yesterday: What are at least three positive and three negative things that the U.S. has done in the Middle East?

Part Two:
Listen to Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" and answer the following questions:

1. What is the stated and implied theme of the song?
2. What loaded language does he use to present his points?
3. Which types of figurative language does he use? Is it effective? Or does he use so much that it makes the song inaccessible to people?
4. Do you agree or disagree with his main points?
   

Part Three:
After viewing the slide show "A Middle Eastern Perspective on America" create a persuasive paragraph about what the U.S. could do to change our image in that region of the world. If you'd like, you could also list ways that the Middle East could help change our image of them.

March 23, 2009

Part One
Individually: Choose two of the following options and write at least a paragraph about each:

1. What role should America have in determining peace in other countries?
2. Why does the U.S. get involved in other nations conflicts?
3. Should America fight wars to help guarantee cheaper oil?
4. What are the reasons people use for starting war? What is one idea that is justified? What is one idea that is not justified?
5. At what point does a group of people become a nation?
   

Part Two
Discussion Questions: As a group, please discuss the five questions as a group

Part Three:

Go through the timeline together as a class

Part Four:
Debrief as a Group:
What should we have done differently? What did we do right?

March 6, 2009

Part One:
After reading 56-71 of The World Is Flat and viewing the general Timeline of the Digital Age,
describe, as a group, how the internet and the personal computer helped lead to globalization

Part Two:
Read this section of a poem and discuss the questions below

The Erasure of Certainty

by Hugh Cook

The erasure of certainty
Was never quite announced
But has arrived.
We start the day in rainbows,
Frogmarching the fractured colors
Into raw cement.
By noon,
We're into transformative commerce,
Renting the Andes,
Mortgaging Japan,
Selling Brazilian sunlight to central Alaska.
Evening.
It's getting hectic.
The temps are dancing upside down.
The boss starts speaking Tibetan.
A disenfranchised stapler turns carnivorous.

Discuss the following as a group
1. What is the theme of this poem?
2. What type of poem is this?
3. What figurative language does the author use to get the point across?
4. What is the author's bias? Do you agree or disagree with him?