Class Update for Week Nov 2-Nov 6

Monday, November 2

For Monday to be written in LJ:  Write a reflection on the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"

• Describe your reactions/impressions of seeing the film
  
• Explain what it taught you about race relations in the 1950s/1960s
  
• Connect the film to the novel Another Country - anything relate?
  
• Write questions you may have about the film

Test on the film and miscegenation laws - short answers, no essay.  You may use your LJ notes from last week's homework (scroll down to see assignments)

Tuesday, November 3

Election Day - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Wednesday, November 4

Class discussion on Another Country

Guiding Question for discussion:

How are the central characters' lives changing and what is the impact of these changes?  Central characters:  Vivaldo Moore, Ida Scott, Cass Silenski, Eric

Important update for reading the novel Another Country:  Have all of Book One and Book Two read by Wednesday, November 4.

Thursday, November 5

Meet in Room B49 for writing workshop

You will get back papers for revision

Goals:

Make additional changes to Personal Statement 1

Make additional changes to Personal Statement 2

Type Reader's Choice text selections and print out

Friday, November 6

Peer Editing workshop on Personal Statements

You ABSOLUTELY must have AT LEAST one draft of Personal Statement 1 or 2 ready for this activity

College Applications Demand "Context," Not Just Grades & Scores

This post is only for serious college-bound students:

Today's New York Times has a story about what colleges are looking for in applicants from high school:

Across the country, selective public colleges and universities are taking a page from their private counterparts and implementing what is commonly called a holistic or comprehensive admissions process.

The trend is partly a function of rising application numbers at sought-after publics, which is a result, in turn, of the climbing cost of private higher education and a peaking population of high school seniors. Many applicants, it seems, easily meet academic requirements. Merely pushing average grades and test scores ever higher won’t necessarily yield the most vibrant student body.

Here for link to the full story  

Class Update & Week Ahead Oct 26-Oct 30

Monday, October 26
Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" on theme of inter-racial relationships and marriage (miscegenation).  When the film came out - 1967 - 14 or so states in the nation still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books making it illegal for mixed-race couples to get married.


While we are spending class time watching the film and Book Two is due on November 4, take advantage of the time and read the novel!  Putting it off will only make you fall behind!  College-bound seniors take their responsibilities seriously.

HOMEWORK DUE WEDNESDAY:  Use the link below and other resources to create notes in your LJ about miscegenation laws and the 1950s/1960s. 

In your notes, identify and explain the following:

• Origins of the word "miscegenation"
• Describe a super brief history of anti-miscegenation laws in the United States
• Explain the connection between miscegenation / anti-miscegenation and racism / discrimination

Here for Wikipedia link

Link to a read-able site for historians on miscegnation in the United States

HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY:  Write a draft of Personal Statement 2 on the topic "Who are you meant to be?"  Scroll down to an earlier post to see more details.  You must either have a hand-written draft or a typed draft that you will email to yourself and be abel to access it in room B49.

Tuesday, October 27
Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"

Wednesday, October 28
If more time is needed - Watch film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Reflection in LJ on the film, discussion, make connections to the novel

Thursday, October 29
Meet in Room B49 for writing workshop - You will get back papers for revision
Goals:
Create new document for draft of Personal Statement 2
Make additional changes to Personal Statement 1
Make additional changes to Another Country Paper 1

Friday, October 30
Period 5 does not meet today - we will not have class.  Special scheduel for Parent-Teacher conferences:  Only periods 2, 6, 7, 8, 9

Reminder:  No school next Tuesday, November 3 for Election Day.

Important update for reading the novel Another Country:  Have all of Book One and Book Two read by Wednesday, November 4.


2nd Marking Period:  Three drafts of Personal Statements 1 and 2, Test on Book One/Chapter 1, Written Exam on Book One/Chapters 2 and 3, Paper on Book Two, Reader's Choice Assignment (coming later this week).

Completing ALL of these assignments is required to pass the second marking period.

Anything that's missing will have to be made up to pass the third marking period.

Class Schedule Week of Oct 19-23

Monday, October 19
Meet in room B49 for writing workshop on Paper on Another Country

Tuesday, October 20
Meet in room B49 for writing workshop on Paper on Another Country

Wednesday, October 21

Meet in Room 115 for activity on Another Country

Thursday, October 22

Meet in Room B49 for additional drafting of Paper on Another Country AND typing the Personal Statement

Friday, October 23

Meet in Room 115 for Written Exam on assigned pages of Another Country (see calendar)

Some of you have expressed frustration that we have not returned to the first Personal Statement on overcoming a family-related obstacle.  Do not wait for us!  Write it, edit it, ask a friend or family member to proof read it...type a draft!  Then, move on to Personal Statement 2 on "Who are you meant to be?"  - you'll need to scroll down to an earlier post for more details.

How different from today was 42nd Street back in the 1950s? Like another planet!

As we read the novel, we want to try to imagine how New York City looked to Rufus and Vivaldo and Ida in the 1950s.


The first chapter - when Rufus walks 42nd Street in desperation - describes all kinds of elements of "forty-deuce" that no longer exist today:  bars, arcades, movie theaters showing Italian films, pornography shops (although these are sprinkled along 8th Avenue), prostitutes (male and female), heroin addicts and drug dealers.


The novel is set in the years just after World War II and a 42nd street changed to have all these kinds of things with a rough and dangerous atmosphere.  Before WW II, 42nd Street and the whole Times Square area was mostly theaters with plays, musicals and bands performing nightly.  These kinds of places never left the area but the block of 42nd Street between 7th & 8th Avenue (now it has the McDonalds, the two 25-screen movie theaters and "Mary Poppins") became run-down and taken over by the newer businesses.


Why?  Well, American soldiers returning from Europe and Asia returned to the states and were exposed to pornography, different sexual habits and heroin (derived from battlefield morphine).  Another reason is that outside this area in the city, there was no other place to buy drugs, meet a prostitute or meet other gay people.  It is well known that the Mafia also controlled pornography and prostitution businesses with the help of crooked police officers.


So, during the 1930s, after the regular theaters shut their doors Mayor LaGuardia (he was a mayor before he was an airport) worked hard to keep the area safe with police patrols and vice squads.  A vice enforcement unit or vice squad is a department in many police forces that investigates public order crimes. This generally includes narcotics, alcohol (including sales to minors), prostitution, pornography and gambling.  During LaGuardia's time, especially, police conducted raids on places suspected of being involved in any of these things.  Sometimes crooked cops would threaten real businesses with a raid on their place - which would scare off customers - unless they paid them off with a bribe.


Here is a story from the NY Post about how Vice Squads operate today with the internet 


LaGuardia was followed by two more mayors who pretty much kept on doing the same thing.  However by the mid-1950s, Mayor Wagner was too scared and just not aggressive enough to tighten it up and take control of the area.  His hands-off attitude meant that all the bad business was "contained" (in theory anyway) to this one area to keep it from spreading to the rest of the city.


Here for a list of New York City mayors 


By 1960, Times Square had become the prime area for all the things described in the novel.  What we see in Times Square today is from the efforts of Mayor Giuliani to transform the area almost back to what it was before WW II:  family entertainment.


A bit of New York City trivia for you:  Times Square used to be called Longacre Square until The New York Times moved into 43rd Street (now they are on 8th Avenue & 41st Street) and convinced city leaders to re-name the area in the early 1900s.

Mixed-Race Couple Murdered Last Year by Racist Marines

A Brooklyn Marine named Jan Pietrzk and his wife Quiana were murdered last year in California.  A mixed-race couple murdered in 1948!  No, wait, that was 2008!

More here...

Mixed-Race Couples Against the Law in Many States!

In the novel we are reading, Rufus and Leona receive hateful stares on the streets of New York City.  The time is the 1950s and in many states in America it is illegal for mixed-race couples to get married.  The taboo against miscegenation (mixing) extends to public attitudes to unmarried couples as well.

Last year, Mildred Loving died and she is remembered as one who stood up for what she believed in:  racist laws should not dictate who adults may marry.

Read more about Mildred's story here...


In Louisiana, a judge has refused to grant a marriage license to an inter-racial couple.  Last week!


More here... 

OFFENSIVE PLAY: How different are football and dogfighting?

This week's issue of The New Yorker magazine features a fascinating piece by Malcom Gladwell on the dangers and questions raised by this question:   How different are football and dogfighting?

We would like you to try and read it by next Friday, October 23 - no need to print it out if you can read it online.

Malcom also participated in a Chat Forum on the article and the transcript is also on the New Yorker website.  In addition there is an audio slide show.  In this audio slide show, Gladwell discusses the traumatic brain injuries suffered by football linemen and other ex-athletes, and the inherent dangers of contact sports.

Here for Malcom's article on football / dogfighting

Here for the Q & A between Malcom and some readers of the magazine


Here for the audio slideshow

Class Update & Plan for Wednesday

Tuesday, October 13
DUE:  Draft of Personal Statement in your LJ or typed and printed.  Craft Exercise:  Find three places in the draft where you could add dialogue.  Write ten lines of dialogue for each of these places.  Determine which best strengthens the essay with imagery, expresses understanding or insight and generally lifts the tone of the writing.  One-on-one college admission consultations.

Wednesday, October 14
Special School Schedule
10th & 11th grade:  Arrive by 8:10 for PSAT until 11:15
9th & 12th grade:  Arrive by 9:30 and report to deisgnated locations
11:15 - school day begins with these 30-minute periods ONLY:

Period 2  11:19-11:49
Period 4  11:53-12:23
Period 5  12:27-12:57
Period 6  1:01-1:31
Period 8  1:35-2:05
Period 9  2:09-2:39

MR. GAGNON WILL BE ABSENT ON WEDNESDAY

In class on Wednesday go ahead and read the novel.

Another Country chapters and Written Exam will be on Thursday

Thursday, October 15
Written Exam on Another Country (Book 1, Chapter 1)

Friday, October 16
Personal Statement drafting continues
Another Country Discussion continues

College Applications & YOU the Brand

While researching something else, we came across the website Helium (click here ) and found an article titled "Personal brand management concepts" (click here ).

This article had a few ideas applicable to the college application process.  How will you sell yourself to a college?  By thinking of yourself as a "brand" to be marketed to colleges, you may also have advantages over other candidates.  So...if this sounds interesting to you, read the article and then think about ways you can manage the college application as if you were managing a brand.

(We have our own ideas about how to go about managing YOU as a brand for the college application but think that YOU should think about it before we give any of them away.)

Have you checked out DOG STAR lately?

If you missed DOG STAR NYC this weekend, check out posts on these great things to do:

• Free program for teens interested in a design career
  
• Free admission all next week at Cooper Hewitt
  
• New video with Q Tip and Norah Jones from Hypebeast
  
• Free party at El Museo del Barrio coming up on Saturday
  

Click here for link to DOG STAR NYC:  Find the fun! 

Personal Statement - Update on Assignments

The weekend has been bright and beautiful.  I hope you are getting out there and enjoying it - maybe even finding the fun on Dog Star NYC?

On-going homework:  In your LJ, continue to make a list of colleges and a strategy for admission.  The goal is to find a match:  a college you can get in and one that meets your needs.

Past Due:  The "another country" encounter description will need to be finished by the end of the week.  It goes into the LJ and as you think of details and description to add, complete additional writing.  Please stop asking if it is an essay to hand in.  Please start listening to what is explained in class.  As you now know the assignment relates to the novel you have been assigned to read.  When we have more conversation about the text we will have more conversation about the writing we're doing on the text.

Personal Statement Number One:  You are considering ONE specific encounter with a family member in which you had to overcome some obstacle.  Consider all the causes, the persons involved, the time / place / setting and dialogue!  Please have a draft on loose leaf paper or typed for Tuesday.

Personal Statement Number Two:  Start thinking about this topic and any first thoughts and ideas you have for it are to be recorded in your LJ under "Personal Statement 2":  Who are you meant to be?  Are you that person now?  Are you moving toward the person you are meant to be?  While there may be many responses, there are only two essential elements to this question:  the exterior person (the YOU on the outside, the one in a certain job or career, the one who people see every day) and there is the interior person (the YOU who may want to change some aspect of yourself, the one who can really shine if only..., the one nobody really knows).  rather than choosing one of these in these first steps, write about both - the exterior and the interior - keeping in mind:  Who are you meant to be?  Is this challenging?  YES!  Push yourself!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Class Schedule Week of October 5-9

Monday, October 5

FINAL DUE:  "Into the Light" papers on ONE short story
Warm/Cool Feedback Protocol
Debriefing

Tuesday, October 6

Collaborate with another student in class on an activity

Wednesday, October 7

Meet outside College Office - Room 239 for consultation with Dr. Powell and visit by rep from Skidmore College in Saratoga Spring's NY

Thursday, October 8
College office consultation follow up
Making a Match

Friday, October 9

Making the Plan

College Student in G's Pace Class Shares Segregated Prom Link

ALL students are welcome to forward links and resources they think most relevant to our course work.

Whitney has passed along this link and I want to share her note about it, too:

After our discussion in class last night, I thought it would be appropriate to send you a link about a story that you may or may not have read. It was a story that came out in the NY Times earlier this year about segregated proms in Montgomery County, GA. I did not live in Montgomery County, and the segregated prom in my area stopped almost 10 years ago, but this story, from May of this year, shows that it is still going on in some parts with the only explanation being "tradition". I wanted to pass this along because I heard alot of people in class respond with shock and disbelief that segregation still exists, so I thought this would be something to supplement our discussion about the way that the issues from the past we have read about are still relevant today.

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24prom-t.html?_r=1