Friday, March 20 CLASS ACTIVITIES

It's the end of week one of distance learning for English!

I've really enjoyed reading your thoughtful posts, thank you so much. A few of them need to hit the "one full paragraph" description, so if yours was a little skimpy, feel free to go back in and post again.

I'll post grades from this week after Sunday, as I mentioned previously.

FRIDAY, MARCH 20 CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Interactive Journal
          a. Please log in to Turnitin.com and go to the Discussion tab. (See Monday's post for directions
          if you can't find it. E-mail me if you still can't find it.) Go to "Journal - Friday, March 20, 2020."

          b. You will need to watch Governor Newsom's March 19 news conference about California's response to the Coronavirus threat (his speech/remarks are 20 minutes long followed by 20 minutes of reporter's questions) to answer the first question. 

          c. Please respond with a minimum of one full paragraph (5-7 sentences) to each of the questions.

2. Upload Brainstorm
           a.  Go to the Discussion tab again, and see the post "Brainstorm - Friday, March 20"

           b. Consider the argument prompt you researched from Wednesday's post:


The United States Government should immediately enforce a strict, nationwide quarantine as China and Italy have in response to the Covid-19 threat. Please respond to this statement by defending, challenging or qualifying supported by credible evidence and examples to support your position. 

Take out the evidence and examples you found that defend (agree), challenge (disagree), and/or qualify (agree with conditions, disagree with exceptions). You should have at least 3-4 examples.

Your examples could be from personal experience, secondhand experience, general facts, scientific facts, literary examples, historical examples, current events, and/or pop culture. They can be facts taken from articles from credible sources.

**Remember, your own experiences, or those of your parents/guardians (especially those working in health care), also count. Opinions of world, national, state, and local leaders and experts can also be utilized for this assignment.

           c. Add an entry with at least 2 original examples. (Your post won't get credit if you don't have at least one new source that no one before you has used on the boards, described in your own words.)

Each one should look like this:

AGREE
Italy has introduced a nationwide lockdown, with fines for leaving the house. 62% of their people, according to polls, support this effort and they are committed to flattening the curve and stopping the growth of Covid-19. The Italians have accepted the lockdown with a sense of unity. They found a new national purpose, and hashtags supporting each other have become very popular. (NPR)

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/817021969/italy-remains-under-lockdown-due-to-spread-of-covid-19

DISAGREE
American people have always valued freedom, and quarantines should be guidelines only. Instead of policing our own people, the National Guard should be deployed to make food deliveries and to disinfect high-traffic areas, like the National Guard did in New Rochelle under the orders of New York Governor Cuomo:

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/03/13/national-guard-arrives-to-help-residents-in-new-rochelle-containment-zone

Please post this before Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. if at all possible, so we can reference them and classmates can share and use each other's examples in their own responses.

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COMING SOON!

Next week, we'll work together on a Zoom meeting to see each other again and take some of your examples and create an outline for this prompt, which will be the next assignment. I'll announce the dates and times right here on the website soon.

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OPTIONAL FOR THE BORED AND CURIOUS: 
If we go longer than Spring Break, our class will be reading and discussing books over Zoom. In the meantime, I recommend checking out some of these free online titles:

800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle, and Other Devices

Any of these are challenging and thought-provoking books that are referenced quite a bit. There is a list of free audio books just to the right on the page on the link above if you're sick of screens and just want to sit back and listen.

A quick shout-out to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the weird science-fiction stories by Philip K. Dick, and anything by Checkov. 

Have a good weekend, and hang in there!