Possible CENTERS OF MEANING in The Sixth Borough

The Sixth Borough is a chapter (pages 79-85 of the Bulk-Pack Materials) in a book by the author, Jonathan Safran Foer. In this chapter, a father tells his son a bedtime story about how there used to be a sixth borough across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Central Park originated, becasue people wanted to save part of the sixth borough. They took ropes and chains and dragged Central Park from its former location, in the sixth borough, across the river to the spot where it is now. At the end of the story, the son exclaims to his father, "That story was really awesome."

DISCUSSION QUESTION EIGHT (PLEASE RESPOND):
Please answer the following two questions by locating and explaining POSSIBLE CENTERS OF MEANING IN THE TEXT:
1. What makes the father's story so awesome?
2. what point (about life or New York City) was the father trying to make to his son? Often, parents tell their children bedtime stories, and the children learn certain messages.

Remember four ways college students locate CENTERS OF MEANING:
1. Notice any changes in the form (size, shape, or appearance) of the text.
2. Notice the use of any purposeful literary elements or techniques.
3. Spot any allusions (references to any other works of literature or ideas from other people).
4. Focus hard on any exciting and pronounced dialogue.

LIES - Where are the CENTERS of MEANING?

Read over the short-story, LIES (pages 75-78 of the Bulk Pack Materials), by Ethan Canin. Two questions college students might initially think about are why is story called LIES and why did the author write it in the first place.

DISCUSSION QUESTION SEVEN (PLEASE RESPOND):
Please try to answer both of these questions by locating CENTERS OF MEANING in the text. Definitely describe any CENTERS OF MEANING that you find, and explain why these "spots in the text" qualify as CENTERS OF MEANING!

Remember four ways to locate CENTERS OF MEANING:
1. Notice any changes in the form (size, shape, or appearance) of the text.
2. Notice the use of any purposeful literary elements or techniques.
3. Spot any allusions (references to any other works of literature or ideas from other people).
4. Focus hard on any exciting and pronounced dialogue.

Drafting College Essays - Pleasure or Pain

Please read the article, "Process Writing and the Secondary School Reality: A Compromise". See pages 67-74 of your Bulk Pack Materials. Barbara Carney, author of the article, describes how she makes her students write five total drafts of their papers. This week, you are writing the first draft of your personal statement (essay for college). Mr. Schuman will make you write five total drafts of your personal statement.

DISCUSSION QUESTION SIX (Please Respond):

1. Should Mr. Schuman make students write five total drafts of their personal statement or is the drafting process utter insanity and a waste of time?

2. Which draft is the most important one: D1, D2, D3, D4, or D5?

Please base your comments and responses off the ideas that Barbara Carney presents in her article.

Does the University Make the Man or does the Man Make the University?

The role-play, Where did he go wrong, located on pages BP-16 and BP-17 of your Bulk-Pack Materials, examines whether or not the college a person attends makes that person respected, successful, and competitive. Some people think people who go to "big-name" universities have an edge when competing against people who go to "lesser-name" schools. For example, imagine graduates of Harvard Universtiy and Pace Universtiy competing for one available spot at a certain law firm. Will the employer making the decision see "Harvard" at the top of the first person's resume and automatically select him? In contrast, some people think the man (or woman) make the university. This other school of thought looks at people who spend their four years of college lying on the college green, cutting class, and going to frat parties. Can people who "waste their four years" at an acclaimed universtiy still find success? You decide: Does the university make the man or does the man make the university?

LISTSERV DISCUSSION QUESTION FIVE (PLEASE RESPOND): Does the university make the man or does the man make the university? For this question, you may also talk about whether or not a high-school student's college essay (personal statement) matters in the overall college selection process.

Would our government do the trade? Practice making a controversial comment in a politically-correct way!

Derek Bell's story, The Space Traders, is a science fiction or political fiction story. Derek Bell believes that racism is permanent (or will always remain and affect every decision in our country). Pretend the trade that he writes about actually is about to happen. Our planet faces a disaster. It has no money to function, no more sources of energy to give people basic services such as a running kitchen sink, and the environment is polluted to the point that people can't walk outside. Aliens arrive, and offer the leaders of our government a trade. The Aliens will restore the planet if the government offers up all of the black people. Based off the reading (B.P. 48-65) and your own beliefs about racism, would our government actually do this trade?

Please write a full listserv comment and practice remaining politically correct! Mr. Schuman will grade your response on the five factors we talked about during the first week of class: formal language (no slang) length (an extended paragraph), references to the text, awareness (of everyone else's comments), and originality (try to present a new theory or make a shockingly unique thesis-statement).

LISTSERV DISCUSSION QUESTION FOUR: Would our government ship all Black people to another planet if aliens offered to restore our economy, resources, and otherwise uncurable diseases?

Practice Making Efficiency (LEVEL THREE) Arguments

Please respond to one of the following two debate questions:

1. Should a teacher ever allow students to determine their own final semester grade? Consider how such an action would influence the lives of the students, the life of the teacher, and the running of the school.

2. Recently, Hofstra student, Danmell Ndonye, falsely accused five men of rape, because she feared being a branded a tramp, according to her boyfriend (Fasick 6). You may research this recent current event if you need more background information. Should a person who falsely accuses another person of rape be given the same consequence/punishment received by someone convicted in a real court of law. Consider how such an action would influence the life of the person making the false accusation, the life of the person falsely accused, and the running of the city.

DISCUSSION QUESTION THREE (PLEASE RESPOND): Make the best argument possible concerning either of the above two debate questions. Continue to consult pages BP-8 through BP-10 of your Bulk-Pack Materials to see the most effective types of arguments used in the twenty-first century. Students who post later and build off earlier arguments should use crescendo-type arguments. See BP-7 for a description of this type of argument!

Waffles or Pancakes, Dogs or Computers, Robert Pattison or Ms. Therapy

This week, you are learning that effective arguments talk about the types of people and activities that society values. The way we all live in the year, 2009, differs radically from past times. Now, we have more technology, people live more efficient lives, and our country wants to remain competitive and keep progressing. Arguments that guarantee or promise such progress and efficiency usually cause people to listen! Consider which one of the following two people is more impactful, may benefit society more, and produces better results (I.e., the type of results society values in the twenty-first century):

1. Robert Pattison
(born may 13, 1986) is an English actor, model, and musician. He is best known for playing Edward Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer, and for the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.


2. Ms. Therapy
Ms. Therapy is married with two kids. She is forty-seven years old. She works as a physical therapist, helping accident survivors to both regain use of their muscles and return to normal lifestyles.

Listserv Discussion Question Two (PLEASE RESPOND):
You have to select one of these two people: Robert Pattison or Ms. Therapy. The person you select to keep remains both in your life and on this planet. In contrast, you or anyone else may never again enjoy/use the person that you do not select. He/she ceases to exist, and nobody knows about him/her. Which person do you select and why?

The most strategic number of colleges to apply to....

A portion of the book, New Rules for College Admissions, states:

There is, however, a ratio that should be taken into consideration when deciding how many schools to apply to:

- 2 Dream schools
- 3 Just right schools
- 2 No problem schools

If you really want to apply to more dream schools, make sure you add another school to each of the other two categories, to maintain a balanced ratio. Based on my experience, seven is the ideal number of schools you can focus and complete the best applications possible. Completing fewer than five applications is too risky, in my opinion. And if students are completing more than ten applications, they are usually spreading themselves too thin. As long as a student has a good range of schools, do not worry about applying to more than seven schools.

Listserv Discussion Question One (PLEASE RESPOND): Agree of disagree with the above statement. What is the most strategic number of colleges to apply to? Explain. What needs to be talked about in this discussion?