10th Grade Language Arts Final 2012

Consider the following list of some of the topics and texts we have studied this year:

1)      The Divine Comedy (Dante)

2)      Italian Renaissance

i)        The Medici family

ii)       The Prince (Machiavelli)

iii)     Humanism

3)      The Protestant Reformation

i)        various translations of the Bible

ii)       Martin Luther

iii)     Erasmus and Luther debate free will

4)      Hamlet (Shakespeare)

5)      Age of Exploration

6)      The Conquista of the Aztecs (Cortez)

7)      The Conquista of the Incas (Pizarro)

8)      The Scientific Revolution

i)        Heliocentric vs. Geocentric world views

ii)       Galileo, Copernicus, Newton

9)      The Enlightenment

i)        The Social Contract (Locke)

ii)       Capitalism (Adam Smith)

iii)     Declaration of Independence (Jefferson)

10)   The French Revolution

i)        Reign of Terror and Robespierre

11)   Les Miserables (Hugo)

12)   Industrial & Agricultural Revolutions

i)        Excerpts from David Copperfield (Dickens)

13)   Pride and Prejudice (Austen)

i)        A Vindication of the Rights of Women (Wollstonecraft)

ii)       Satire

iii)     A Modest Proposal (Swift)

14)   Imperialism

i)        Suez Canal, Congo, China, India, Zanzibar

ii)       Things Fall Apart (Achebe)

iii)     White Man’s Burden (Kipling)

iv)     Ghandi

15)   World War I

i)        All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)

ii)       Treaty of Versailles

iii)     Russian Revolution

16)   Interwar Years

i)        Great Depression

ii)       Rise of Totalitarian States

iii)     Mein Kampf (Hitler)

iv)     Communist Manifesto (Marx)

17)   WWII and the Holocaust

i)        Maus (Spiegelman)

ii)       Nazi Propaganda

iii)     Perspectives on the Nuclear Bomb

18)   Chinese Communist Revolution

i)        Excerpts from Red Scarf Girl (Jiang)

19)   The Cold War

i)        The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)

For your final, you will have one hour to write responses to ALL of the following questions.  You may use any notes you have prepared in advance.

• 1.       How do stories define us?
• 2.
       What choices do we make about the stories we tell others and ourselves? And how does Maus reveal those choices to us (Give some specific examples)?
• 3.       How was the Cold War a war of stories?
• 4.       What do we learn about American society by the stories told in Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles?
• 5.       What has Socratic Seminar this year contributed to your story?

Imperialism videos

As you watch the following videos, prepare to respond to these questions:

1) What motivates the imperial country in each case?
2) How do the "victims" respond? Do they try to resist?
3) How did China's response to Western imperialists differ from Japan's response?

Opium War in China

America Forces Japan's Opening to the West (watch the last 15 minutes, starting at 41:00)

Gender in Pop-Media Writing Assignment

One of the first questions asked about a newborn human is whether "it" is a boy or a girl.  Gender is such a significant part of human identity that it can be difficult to perceive.  Just as a fish cannot see the water, so we often have a hard time understanding the impact gender has on our lives.  Furthermore, it is difficult to unravel truths about gender from the bombardment of cultural messages in popular media that make distorted claims about the meaning of gender.

Your assignment is to uncover and analyze some of the messages about gender embedded in one sample of popular media (e.g., an episode of a tv series, a youtube video, a feature length movie, a commercial). While writing this paper, you should answer three questions:

1) What implicit (implied, but not obvious) messages about gender does the sample communicate?
2) How does sample communicate the messages? (e.g., visual cues, dialogue, lighting, acting/costume, sound, word choice, sequencing)
3) Why is the target audience likely to be persuaded by the message?

Some considerations:

1. The people who produce media may not even realize they are saying anything about gender.
2. This assignment is NOT about attacking pop culture for telling all women they have to be supermodel beautiful to have value as human beings.
3. This assignment is NOT about attacking men for objectifying women.
4. Gender is NOT an issue for women alone. Men, too, are influenced by subtle communications about gender roles.
5. Gender is NOT one-dimensional (simply a genetic trait or a matter of physical appearance), but involves numerous facets:

• from the obvious (i.e, dress; roles in courtship, marriage, and the workplace)
• to the less obvious (i.e., nonverbal language, speech patterns, expression of emotions)
• to the assumed (i.e., beliefs and attitudes about leadership, relationships, spirituality, and social power).

Audience
You are writing for Juniors at Maeser.  They are very familiar with popular culture, but do not usually think about the silent messages about gender embedded in the media they use.  They are accustomed to reading academic essays and expect your paper to use appropriate writing conventions.

Voice

• Formal and objective
• Enthusiastic and informative

Other Specifications
Length: 400-600 words (Include the word count in the MLA heading on the line after the date.)
Use MLA formatting (See OWL at Purdue for MLA guidelines.).
Due:TBA