Is it worth it? Sacrifice assignment summary and reflection

To prepare you to read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, I've asked you to spend a week amending your lifestyle, giving up some "progressive" facet of our society to consider how that technology or adaptation affects your life for better and for worse.

Summarize and respond to that experience.  What did you do?  Please be specific.

What reflections did it lead you to?  Particularly consider the questions at the bottom of your sacrifice handout.  If you have misplaced that handout, you can also see it here.

I will post an example response shortly before the due date so I can be authentic in my reflections.  Please do the same so your thinking reflects the entirety of your experience.

Keep in mind the intent of posting your work on this public forum: so your classmates can read about your experiences and be challenged by your thinking.

With that goal in mind, be sure you're cognizant of your audience, addressing the assignment's purpose & employing effective writing skills, but keeping your ideas to a length that your classmates will read your work.  Please use my example to guide you.

Over the last week, I chose to focus on kindness, which led me to reflect that perhaps people don't practice kindness as often because of the time and selflessness it requires.  Specifically, I would wait for co-workers in the parking lot to greet them in the morning; would hold doors for others; was a generous thought, compliment, and gift-giver, and greeted people I didn't know.  Though I must say these actions didn't feel like much of a sacrifice on my behalf as I felt I personally benefited from giving, I realize why, potentially, deliberate kindness isn't a habit for may: I sacrificed much of my time and, in some cases, money in giving to others.   I realized, too, that sometimes kindness is a risk of vulnerability:  in opening ourselves to others, we risk rejection and awkward interactions.  Overall, however, the benefits far outweigh the cost.  I believe in the kindness of others, but think we would need to be a braver, less time-focused society that acts with more deliberation than instinct if the world were to be a kinder place.

2nd hour fishbowl #4 over chapters 14-18 of A Long Way Gone: December 6, 2016

Good morning, all!

 Looking forward to a great last discussion of A Long Way Gone.

 If you are choosing the blog as the receptacle for your thinking, to earn full credit for your work, please be sure to...

• Employ effective writing strategies, such as carefully proofreading your work
• Contextualize your questions & defend your claims with quotes, not just page numbers, from the text.  Remember what we talked about last time about how those really specific questions & comments inspire better discussion.
• Participate thoughtfully throughout the discussion, contributing at least a few well-developed comments.

Here is a great example post from last discussion.  I love how Ashley not only used a quote, but also led into the quote, giving some context for the evidence she includes.  She then goes on to discuss its relevance to her claim and to cite that quotation.  Her post is also carefully written.

Ashley commented, " I think the justification, is that he's been brainwashed by the Corporal. 'Over and over in our training he would say the same sentence: visualize the enemy...those who are responsible [for] everything that has happened to you.' (112) During the training everyday the Corporal has engrained it in the brains of the boys that the rebels deserve to die, and that it is their duty to kill them."

Let's make it a great last discussion!

1st hour fishbowl #4 over chapters 15-18 of A Long Way Gone: December 6, 2016

Morning ladies!

Great having so many participate in the discussion online.  I hope you continue to see the benefit in the dialogue with your peers & how you can use it to explore unanswered questions & unexamined ideas.

As a reminder, please...

• Carefully proofread your work
• Use the "@" symbol to make it clear to whom you are addressing your comments or questions
• Contextualize each post, question or comment, with a cited quote from the text.  Many aren't earning full credit on days they're in the outer circle because they're not rooting their thinking in text.  
• Also, please avoid leading questions that ask as they answer.  

Here is a great example post from last discussion.  I love how the question is thoroughly contextualized and rooted in text, making the origin of Ashley's thinking evident.  I love the layers to the questions to that provide many response opportunities.

Ashley said, "Ishmael felt a way that once he got in his tent after the day, he couldn't even sleep because he had time to think and when that happened, he got angry or almost 'taken away' by everything that has happened to him (Page 113). Later on in the book in Chapter 13, after they had their fight and [killed] that man, once the "white capsules" wore off and the lieutenant pulled him out and gave him more of them, do you think that Ishmael realized to not have nightmares anymore or remember anything from his family, that he liked having the drugs help him? Or if he wanted to do more drugs just to fit in with the other guys in the camp?"

Happy posting!

Live Blog 1st hour fishbowl #4 over chapters 14-18 of A Long Way Gone, December 6, 2016

 

2nd hour fishbowl #3 over chapters 11-14 of A Long Way Gone, December 2, 2016

Good morning, all! To honor wishes of dissenting parties, today we'll use Coveritlive to capture our thinking and questions about our last few reading sections of A Long Way Gone.

As a reminder, to earn full credit for your work on the blog, be sure to...

• Employ effective writing strategies, such as carefully proofreading your work
• Contextualize your questions & defend your claims with quotes, not just page numbers, from the text.  Remember what we talked about last time about how those really specific questions & comments inspire better discussion.
• As we are using Coveritlive, which doesn't thread discussion, be sure to use the "@" symbol to make it clear to whom you are writing.

Also, I noticed there was some redundancy in posts.  Please be sure to read the comments that came before yours before your publish; I appreciate that can be tricky with Blogger.

Here are a couple of great posts from last time that exemplify the kind of work I'm looking for:

Kenny responded, "Along with him saying on page 78 'I should have killed the dog' there also was on page 81 where they talk about if they should eat the bird or not and there is also on page 84 where they say that they stole food that night. As Dom says this shows that there are many problems in the country with food and how hard it is to get some. It also shows that Beah and his friends will do whatever it takes just to get some food because of how hungry him and all his friends are. Maybe next time they run across an alive animal like a dog they will kill it just to get some source of food.

And Casey wrote, "On page 74, Ishmael talks about the story of the 'Bra Spider.' What is the importance of this story?"

And Natalie commented, "I do not think he will see his family again because on page 43 it states 'It was the last time I saw Junior, my older brother.'"

Also, Mac asked, "On page 85 '"This will do it.'"The man sprinkled some of the cold water from his bucket on Saidu. But Saidu didn't move... His palms were turned upside down and they were pale.' This is the only quote that does not describe the rebels killing people. Why did the author describe death in the book? Why did the author describe a boy that is 15 that died on his own in his sleep instead of one of the rebels killing him?"

Happy posting!

Live Blog 2nd hour fishbowl #3 over chapters 11-14 of A Long Way Gone, December 2, 2016

Live Blog 2nd hour fishbowl #3 over chapters 11-14 of A Long Way Gone, December 2, 2016

 

1st hour fishbowl #3 over chapters 11-14 of A Long Way Gone: December 2, 2016

Morning, ladies.  If you aren't signed up or elected for the inner circle today, please use this back channel to capture your questions and comments about our last few reading sections of Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone.

In addition to contributing your thinking throughout the course of discussion, to earn full credit for your work, please be sure to...

• Carefully proofread your responses before you publish them
• Employ your understanding of professional writing practices, including making sure the tone of your word choices is appropriate for its audience & purpose
• Contextualize your questions & defend your claims with quotes from the text. In other words, for each post you make, you should be using quotes from the text to provide the genesis of your thinking or to support your ideas.

Happy posting!

Live Blog 1st hour fishbowl #3: chapters 11-14 of LWG, Friday, December 2

 

2nd hour fishbowl #2 over pgs. 55-end of chapter 10 of A Long Way Gone: Tuesday, November 29

Good morning! I'm looking forward to a great discussion of A Long Way Gone today.

It sounded like we had conflicting feelings about Coveritlive versus using Blogger to capture our thinking.  

To honor both parties, today we'll use Blogger.  We'll move back to Coveritlive for fishbowl #3.

To earn full credit for your posts today, be sure to...

• Carefully proofread your work.

• Contextualize your questions with cited quotes and defend your claims with passages from the text as well.  

Here are a couple of great example of posts: 

Ben wrote, "Both the Kite Runner and A Long Way Gone start the book off with the protagonist doing mundane and normal things, The Kite Runner having Hassan and Amir hanging out in the tree and A Long Way Gone having Ishmael walking to his grandmother's house (Pg 7-8). Then they both begin to escalate, Long Way Gone a bit faster than the Kite runner which took a few chapters. Why do you think Ishmael Beah jumped so quickly to action?"

And Daniel said, "On page 20 the author says that his memories 'are an important part of what my life is; who I am now,' even though he also says that he regrets his past and actions and wishes it could go away. I made a connection between TKR and this part of the book because obviously both Amir and Ismael's childhood pasts affect their adult life. It seemed that in TKR that all of Amir's memories and regrets were negative and he wanted them gone, whereas in A Long Way Gone it seems that the author in a way embraces his past and accepts that it is a large part of what his life is like now. What are your thoughts on this?

Daniel and Ben both have grammatically sound, well-developed questions that are thoughtfully contextualized with passages from text.  

Happy posting!

1st hour fishbowl #2: pgs 55-the end of chapter 10 of A Long Way Gone

Morning, ladies.  Looking forward to a great second discussion of A Long Way Gone.

If you're using the blog to show me your thinking, to earn full credit, please be sure you...

• Use the "@" symbol to make it clear to whom your comment or question is addressed, for example, "@Susie..."
• Carefully proofread your work.
• Include a quote to contextualize your questions or support your claims.  In other words, please include a quote with each post you make.  
• Are active throughout the discussion's duration.

Live Blog 1st hour fishbowl #2 over A Long Way Gone: pgs. 55-end of chapter 10