Socratic Seminar: Issues in Education

 For our second Socratic seminar, we will be discussing various issues related to public education. In order to prepare for the seminar, please read and take notes on THREE of the articles listed below. Copy the following CHART into your notebook to use for note-taking. I will be collecting your notes on the readings as well as your film notes after the Socratic seminar.

• San Diego Unified Zero Tolerance Policy  (For Your Information Only - Will not be counted as one of your required articles)
• Zero Tolerance Lacks Flexibility
• Newtown Parents Seek More Focus on School Security 
• Scripps Ranch High "Twerking" Scandal 
• In California,Public School Parents Stage a Coup
• Charter School Experiment a Success
• Charter Schools Possess No Magic Formula (Opposing View)
• Study: On Average, Charter Schools Do No Better than Public Schools
• Why I Send My Children to Public School

Some questions to consider for our seminar:

• What are the pros/cons of public education?
• Does public education work? 
• How can our public education system be improved? 
• Is zero tolerance effective?
• What are the pros/cons of charter schools v. traditional public schools?

Final Draft Due Friday

The final draft of your persuasive letter is due Friday (5/24). Here's what you need to bring:

• 2 PRINTED copies of your letter. Once again, you will NOT be able to print in class as I do not have enough paper. 
• 1 PRINTED  copy of your bibliography.
• 1 envelope
• 1 stamp

If you bring an extra stamp or envelope for a friend you will receive a little extra credit.

Formating and Citations

 Formating
 Since you are writing a persuasive LETTER (not just a regular essay), there is a specific format you must use. Please see the following EXAMPLE.  Note: Your letter should look like the letter on page 3 of the example.

•  Re: You should also include a Re: line between the address and your "Dear XYZ," that informs the recipient about the topic of the letter.
• Ex.  Re: School Bullying, Re: Homework, Re: School Hours
• See other the other sample letters that have been previously posted for how this should look.

• Note: In order to properly format your letter, you must insert the address of the person you are sending your letter to (the recipient). You may need to conduct a internet search to find a correct mailing address for your recipient. 

Citing Your Sources / Avoiding Plagarism
It is critically important that you give proper credit for the evidence you rely on in your letter. Read the following GUIDE for tips and information on proper citation and avoiding plagarism. Make sure you look at the example at the bottom, "A Tale of Two Papers," I think it's really helpful. Also, the sentence frames posted below give really good examples on how to properly cite evidence in your letter. Remember to USE YOUR CITATION VERBS!

• Persuasive sentence frames 1
• Persuasive sentence frames 2
• Persuasive sentence frames 3
• Citation Sentence Frames and Citation Verbs

Creating a Bibliography
Creating an MLA formatted bibliography is easy! The internet provides numerous websites that allow you to simply plug in your source information, and it does all the rest of the work for you! While there are many sites to choose from, I recommend www.easybib.com. Using this site, you'll either paste in the URL of the website you used, or manually enter some simple information about the title, author, publication, and date. Once EasyBib has done it's job and created your citation, you'll copy and paste the citation into your own bibliography document. Remember: MLA bibliographies must be alphabetized and each line after the first line is indented (the opposite of what a paragraph looks like). See the example below:

 REMINDER: You need to bring in a printed copy of your letter tomorrow. This will be worth 10 points. You will NOT be able to print your draft in class.

The Final Stretch...

Hi Guys,
Many of you are close to completing a first draft of your letter, others still have a lot of writing left to do. Here's what you should do:

1. Finish writing your letter. You need to have a first draft completed by tomorrow (Tuesday).
2. Once your first draft is complete, start self-editing your work. Use this SELF EDITING CHECKLIST to help you. Also, review the RUBRIC to make sure you have met all of the assignment criteria.
3. Bring in a printed copy of your letter by Wednesday. You may print your letter in the library (it's ten cents a page) OR print it at home. You WILL NOT be able to print it in class as I do not have enough paper. This will be counted as an assignment worth 10 points.

 Keep up the hard work, the end is in sight!!!

REMINDER - Book Review Due Tomorrow!

Hi Guys,
Your 5th book review is due tomorrow, Friday 5/17. Remember, instructions are in the "View Only" folder on Google Drive. You should share your review with me in Google Drive (jdavenportplhs@gmail.com) and name it Period_LastName_BookReview_5 (ex. 1_Davenport_BookReview_5).

Your persuasive letter will be due NEXT Friday, 5/24.

Happy SHORT Thursday!

Writing Your Persuasive Letter

Before your begin to write your persuasive letter, make sure you have a solid outline to guide you. That means you should have a clear claim, at least two subclaims, evidence to support your claim/subclaims and an opposing view/counterargument. 

Once you are ready to begin composing your letter, the resources below will provide some additional guidance. You should compose your letter in Google Drive and name the new document Period_LastName_PersuasiveLetter (ex. 1_Davenport_PersuasiveLetter).

Models:
*Note: The models below offer several different structures and organizations. Not all of them satisfy ALL of the criteria that you are responsible for in your letter. Be sure to refer to the assignment prompt and rubric.

• Trash on campus
• Annotated Teacher Retention
• Letter to Employer
• Letter to City Council
• Support the Troops
• PE/Extra Curricular Sports
• Big brothers big sisters

Sentence Frames:

• Persuasive sentence frames 1
• Persuasive sentence frames 2
• Persuasive sentence frames 3

Outlines:

• Style A
• Style B

Next Steps...

1. Complete your letter proposal by completing this FORM . You MUST complete your proposal by the end of the period!

2. Read (or reread) the articles that are most relevant to your topic and issue. Write down important facts / statistics / expert opinions to use as evidence in your letter. REMEMBER TO READ and CONSIDER ARTICLES WITH OPPOSING VIEWS. Collect evidence to use in making your counterarguments.

3. If necessary, conduct additional research. Only use reputable sources such as well known news publications (MSNBC, CNN, BBC, CBS, UT San Diego). Be very cautious of blogs. KEEP TRACK OF THE ARTICLES THAT YOU FIND AND INTEND TO USE. You will be turning in a bibliography of sources with your letter.

4. Read some examples of persuasive letters by viewing the links below. Notice their structure and format. See if you can identify the main claim and subclaims.

• Annotated Persuasive Letter Sample
• Letter to Employer
• Letter to City Council
• Support the Troops
• PE/Extra Curricular Sports

Letter Proposal

 Have you chosen a topic for your persuasive letter yet? If not, you MUST do so today! Remember, you will need to create a claim that takes a position on a debatable issue regarding public education.

Examples of strong claims:

• Schools need to provide healthy, nutritious lunches to students in order to combat childhood obesity and improve concentration in class.
• Homework should be eliminated so that students have ample time for exercise, socialization, and proper sleep.
• Student athletes should be drug tested in schools in order to both protect their health and prevent cheating and unfair advantages.

Examples of weak claims:

• I think bullying is bad and kids should stop it. (This is not a debatable issue. EVERYONE agrees that bullying is bad. This claim offers no possible solution.)*
• I think we shouldn't have homework because it sucks and no one likes it. (This claim needs to improve its academic language! Also, the reasoning behind the claim is weak and biased.)*
• I believe that schools should have healthier food, but also have some junk food because everyone needs to splurge once in a while. (This claim doesn't take a clear side on the issue. Choose ONE side to argue for.) *

 ** All three of these weak claims begin with an "I" phrase - I think, I believe. This is NOT necessary! Since you are writing the letter, it is obvious to your reader this is something you think or believe.


Once you have created your claim, please complete the following FORM so that I can review your work. All sections of this form must be completed by the end of the day on Friday - sooner, if possible.

After completing the form, revisit the articles relating to your issue and start taking notes on important facts/statistics/expert opinion etc. that you will use as evidence to support your claims.

 

Book Review #5

Hey Guys,
Book Review #5 was supposed to be due at the end of April, however, since we were busy with testing and preparing for our Socratic seminar - I forgot to remind you about the assignment. SO, in an attempt to be fair, Book Review #5 will now be due on Friday, May 17th - that's NEXT FRIDAY. I think that is more than enough time to complete the assignment. Those of you who have already submitted your book review will receive some extra credit.

Happy Wednesday!

Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession

Another interesting article for your consideration. This article ties together issues of race and wealth inequality in America and raises some interesting questions we may want to discuss in our Socratic Seminar on Friday.

Click HERE to read.

**Remember - You can read and take notes on additional articles for extra credit!