November 3, 2014 Civil Disobedience

Learning Targets: I can use literature as a means to explore my beliefs and values.

Please pick up a copy of the Shared Inquiry Handbook.  We will have Socratic Discussion tomorrow and I want to review some fundamentals.

Please pick up the revised version of the skill building revision assignment (there were some mistakes in the copies I handed out next week – make sure you read your chosen assignment again!) Also, the due date is now pushed to Friday.

Homework: 

• Read and annotate pp 1-9, through the end of the paragraph ending with “not wholly waive the following winter”. Annotate for his ideas, questions, and the rhetorical characteristics/elements of the piece.

• Also, post one inferential discussion question on the turnitin.com discussion board.

November 3, 2014: Today’s Discussion Starter Journal…The Machine of Government  (10 minutes)

“If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” 

·       What some historic examples people breaking the law to combat injustice?

    Are there any current injustices which you feel strongly about? What are they? What do you  think you would be willing to do to change them? What actions do you think would be most effective and moral? Would you be willing to break a law to fight this injustice?

Pair and Share

Whole Group Discussion

 Inferential Question Examples:

Tayo used to carry around a tin frame of his mother when he was a child: "But one evening, when he carried it with him, there were visitors in the kitchen, she grabbed it away with him. He cried for it and Josiah came to comfort him; he asked Tayo why he was crying, but just as he was ashamed to tell Josiah about the understanding between him an Auntie, he also could not tell him about the picture..." (71) Why does Tayo feel the relationaship between himself and his aunt is private?  How might his  relationship with his Aunt  affect Tayo's view of his own mother.

On page 74, Josiah described the cattle saying that "if you separate them from the land for too long, keep them in barns and corrals, they lose something. Their stomachs get to where they can only eat rolled oats and dry alfalfa." Does Josiah's description of the cattle parallel Tayo's PTSD and how he copes with being away from the land for so long?

Evaluative questions ask us to judge whether what an author has written is true in light of our own experience, including other works we may have read. For example, Is the Declaration of Independence still relevant today, or is its interest mainly historical? Evaluative questions are typically broad and often range beyond the selection being considered. Evaluative questions help us make connections between the insights gained through discussing great writings and how we live our lives. They tend to be more rewarding if they are grounded in the work being considered and based on sound interpretations developed by participants in the course of discussion.

Example Evaluative Question: 

Into The Wild evaluative question example

Is it better to live life completely according to your own truth, or should you be willing to compromise your values for the sake of family who might be hurt if something bad happened as a result of your choice to live in full accord with your moral principles?

Great Expectations evaluative question…

In Great Expectations Charles Dickens makes it clear that social class was extremely important in 19^th Century England.  How important is social class in 21^st century America? What are some specific ways in which it affect our lives?

“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays