Independent Viewing 2

Wating For "Superman"

Big "A" Arguement

Claim:

Good teachers are the key to improving a child's education. Good teachers should be rewarded based on their students's test score, and bad teachers should be fired (no more/limited tenure).

Outline:

Intro :

-America falling behind on education.

-Research done - What is the cause?

-Lots has been done (list some examples...) but it ultimately it comes down to something simple: good teachers.

Thesis: While it is true that good teachers are the key to providing a good education, they should not be rewarded or punished based on test scores

Body 1:

Better teachers are the key to improving the quality of the education a school can offer.

- They can cover more curriculum in the time given.

- They get the students involved in more ways than just book work.

- Each student has a better chance at succeeding.

- They increase literacy and test scores, upping the standards of the school and attracting more families to the district.

- They emphasize the importance of education to the students - avoids turning them off from school altogether.

- Teaching is more than book knowledge - teach study habits and instill ideas that will promote further education

- Important because their primary concern is the student.

Body 2 -

However, when teachers are evaluated based on their students' test scores, they can no longer perform/teach to their full capacity.

- They are forced to teach for the test, rather than to judge what topics are most important\

        - good example: ap classes - supposed to be involved college classes, now they are just classes that teach us how to take a test

- We say that teaching is more than test taking and book learning, but putting this system in place will just promote that - teachers care about students' educations, but their salary and carreer will take precedence in order to protect themselves and their schools

- the overall quality of the education will decrease

Body 3 -

Instead of offering incentives which would restric the teachers, it would be better to make all attempts to improve their skills.

- While it makes sense to offer bonuses and incentives for industrial workers, researchers, etc, it is not the same for teachers. It is okay for them to be evaluated, but not by student achievement via a national exam. That is like studying for the sat - you don't learn important math, only the bare minimum needed for the test

- start at the beginning - hire highly qualified teachers at a decent salary (rather than promising future raises)

- Give them tools, training, coaching, and experience so that they may improve

 

Independent Viewing 1

Waiting For "Superman"

Bibliography:

Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2011. DVD. 

Summary:

The documentary analyzes the failing American public school system, and the effect it has on the futures of the kids within it. All through the film, Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”), the director and co-writer, has been followed the educational ambitions of five children in urban areas across the country: Los Angeles, Harlem, the Bronx, Washington, D.C., and Redwood City, California. The film offers insight into the reasons behind the childrens' and schools' poor performances, but also possible solutions. For example, many student's poor test results are directly related to the quality of the teacher. However, as many or most teachers have tenure and cannot be fired, the school is not able to improve, and neither are the students. Guggenheim then goes deeper, explaining that we cannot eliminate tenure due to the political strength of the Teachers Union. He then gives the perspectives of many people that are currently trying to change the system. He similarly analyses "drop-out factories", the affiliation between bad neighborhoods and high school drop-outs, the effect of longer days on student improvement, and the current struggle for better public schooling in charter schools. The film ends with a series of lotteries in which our five main children try to get into a charter school, and on two make it.  

Rhetorical Devices:
Archival Footage - As it is documentary, the film switches between the five storylines of the struggling children to explanations of the overarching problems. During the latter, there are a lot of clips of high school drop-outs, legislators trying to make reforms in Congress, speeches and promises given by presidents, etc. Their purposes vary, but they are mostly used to support a claim.
Logos/support - These mostly came in the when the narrator was trying to explain vocabulary, a conflict, or research study to the audience. They were are no people, only a series of statistics and diagrams on the screen. However, they were always presented as cute, childish animations. This was perhaps done to emphasize the innocence of those represented, or to contrast the sheer impact that the cute little animations had on the future of hundreds of thousands of children.
Pathos: This appeal was made extremely effectivly by focusing in on the overarching topics offered by the film, narrowing the story to five very driven children and their parents. Though struggling financially, all of these families know the value of education, as do their children, and are working extremely hard to offer their children the best, but all they can do is enter them in a lottery. Particularly when the most passionate students don't get chosen, the audience begins to feel the parents' and childrens' desparation at the situation, and it pushes the audience to fight for change.
Expert Testimony: The claims made by the film for fixing the system are extremely politically involved, and would entail changes in a system that has remained static for centuries. To convince the audience of his ideas for limiting distribution of tenure and lengthening school days, he needed very very solid support, and he often used expert testimony to do so.
Satire -  Although not emphasized greatly, satire is discretely present throughout the film. After getting the audience on his side, Guggenheim alienates the refutation with statements like "The great nation that put a man on tehmoon was finally going to fix education."
Parallels - This was another device used to make the refutation seem weak. He stated a claim that many experts have testifed to be true, that children from these bad districts simply can't learn. He then compares it with a previously commonly held belief, that airplanes could not break the sound barrier. By proving that that all of the people that once believed the second claim wholeheartedly were very wrong, he makes all of the experts that stated the other claim seem wrong.



AOW 28

More Attack Ads, Please

Paul Begala

Newsweek Magazine

Author:  Paul Begala is a Newsweek/Daily Beast columnist, a CNN contributor, an affiliated professor of public policy at Georgetown, and a senior adviser to Priorities USA Action, a progressive PAC.

Summary: In the age of mass advertisements, this article is a semi satirical recommendation to the campaign candidates: use more negative ads. He claims researchers believe that negative messaging is more effective due to our natural instincts, because throughout evolution picking up on bad cues had been the key to survival. Feeling like anger, distrust, contempt etc. are simply more common and familiar than positive ones like friendship and loyalty. He jokes that Americans are especially negative, starting with our founding father’s great negative rants, exemplified by the Declaration of Independence, and continuing with our obsessions with scandals. He explains some 2012 campaign examples of slandering, and gives advice to other “fans” of the genre. Greatly simplified, they are the following: be factual, avoid race, be cinematic, avoid emotion, use damning quotes.

Analysis: This article is interesting to analyze it is a long piece about a rhetorical device. Playing devil’s advocate to many people’s claims that negative ads are unfair and untrue, Begala argues the truth we would not like to believe. In a very satirical tone, he congratulates the lowest yet most effective ads not only in the context of this upcoming election but also those of previous elections. His purpose is most likely to prove that negative advertisement is merely a device that is proven to be very effective and therefore completely justified to use. Reaching an educated audience, those that read Newsweek, he assumes that his readers either follow the elections or watch TV in general. His advice is backed up by solid evidence, the previously successful negative campaign ads. At least for me, his purpose was achieved.

Devices: There are not many devices he uses in this piece. Again, the emphasis goes to his satirical tone, which points fun at himself, the ads, and the audience. This prevents the reader from disagreeing with him before getting pulled into his argument. He points out our weak spot by using common knowledge in the form previous ads that most of his audience has seen. His use of logo gives his somewhat unusual argument strength and is possibly his greatest strength. The formatting of his article is also very effective; he breaks his argument into sub points and explains them one by one.



AOW 27

A Farewell to Arms

Final Post

Character: The primary character, of course, is protagonist Fred. With him, for the last part of his journey, are the ambulance driver. Hemingway portrays them as socialists who do not care for the war or their part in it, but eagerly await the end so they may return home to their food and wine. One is shot, the other runs away, and at the end the third is abandoned. The other protagonist is Ms. Barkely, who cares only to please Fred and become thin and beautiful for him so that she may better serve him, but dies giving birth to a stillborn child who neither of the parents wanted.

Setting: Like other famed authors emerging from the ruins of WWI, the setting of this book is neither noble nor beautiful. It does not talk of fantastic travels or great adventures in Italy. Rather, it focuses on bloodshed, cold rivers, dead bodies, abandoned villages and dirt roads. The final leg of Fred’s journey is anything but pleasant as he loses most of his companions, gets lost in mud filled roads, travels along with hundreds of now homeless villagers, and is almost killed. Only Switzerland, the nation not in war, seems peaceful and beautiful.

Plot/Conflict: The war is ending, and the Italian army has begun to shoot officers.Fred and his ambulance driving companions get lost on a muddy side road and can’t seem to free the car, so they continue on foot. One man gets shot, one leaves to become a willing prisoner in the German army, and the third gets left behind when Fred must jump in a river to flee execution by the Italian army, as he was an officer and had a foreign accent (he is American). Injured, he jumps on a train and finally makes it to his beloved nurse. They are together for a short while, and Fred must hide as he is not a deserter from the Italian army and can be killed/arrested at any time. They then flee to Switzerland, where she dies in childbirth.

POV: Third person from Fred’s eyes.

Theme: There is no clear winner in war, as all people ultimately loose what they hold dear. The greatest damage of war occurs off the battlefield.

Literary Elements: The detached tone and prose of the writing, coupled by an objective third person view of the horrors of war (not on, but off the battlefield) puts war in a very bad light. In a time of literature that glorified battle, this writing was meant to shock the reader without playing with their emotions. The writing was sparse, to say the least, lacking metaphors, adjectives, emotions, and details. It was a reflection of what was left after the war.

AOW 26

Congressman Hurt to Discovor Lobbyist Not Really His Friend

The Onion

Source: It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news. The Onion's articles comment on current events, both real and fictional. It parodies such traditional newspaper features as editorials, man-on-the-street interviews. Web traffic on theonion.com amounts to some 7.5 million unique visitors per month.

Summary: A satirical article about the relationships between lobbyists and our congressmen, the piece creates a fictional heartbreak about Rep. Bobby Shilling who recently discovered that his lobbyist friend Stephen Fischer was only using him. It turns politics into something similar to a small high school relationship, showing the naïve faith of the government in the honesty of those lobbying. The article highlights telltale signs that should have warned the representative that the relationship was one sided: Fischer genuinely seemed interested in soybean crop insurance, deep sea fishing, and his friend’s position on House Agricultural Committee. After the relationship is revealed as false, Shilling’s despondent and depressed nature highlights the dependent nature of the congressmen on their lobbyist buddies. At the end, a colleague says, "One day he'll form a good, long-lasting friendship with a health insurance corporation or oil company that truly appreciates him and supports him as much as he supports it. All of us eventually do."

Analysis: Lobbying has always been rigorously debated topic in politics, or a government body untainted by the desires of corporations. The purpose is to bring the nature of this relationship to life and, of course, make fun of it. The audience of the onion is primarily between the ages of 18-45, and the style of the article (geared towards women or anyone who watches chick flicks) reflects this knowledge.

Devices:
Satire: This website, and thus article, has been chosen by readers because of its satirical approach to modern conflict. It reflects a knowledge of the situation without boring the reader, thus keeping its popularity the readers’ interest.
Common Knowledge: What makes the article funny is that it is a political version of a completely overdone cliché. The funny, captivating, an rich older man uses the eager and young optimist to reach his ends, then severs the connection completely leaving the other confused and devastated. We’ve seen everything before, but never in this context. By changing the ratios (Burke’s Pentad) the author turned a boring plot through a hilarious twist.
Pathos: One not only feels sad for the congressman, but for themselves for having elected such a naïve and shallow representative in such an important position.



AOW 25

A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway

The Author: 
Nobel Prize winner, Hemingway is most known for his post-WWI literature which embraced a new type of prose. He worked for a newspaper before going to fight in the Italian army during the war, and drew inspiration from his experiences for several books, including A Farewell to Arms. In fact, the book is semi-autobiographical.

Summary:
The story is of an American ambulance driver in the Italian army. He’s a typical guy in that he enjoys women, alcohol, and the camaraderie he finds with the soldiers he hangs out with. Although considered “one of the guys” he has a soft spot for the British nurse he meets, named Catherine Barkley.  He gets injured at the front, and is transferred to another hospital in Maggiore. There, Catherine joins him and becomes dependent on his love for her as he slowly recovers from his wounds.

Context:
The context of the story is the Italian front in WWI. Hemingway was actually an ambulance driver for the Italian army, and draws much of the story from his own experience (even some of the romantic relationships.) Although it is a love story, the book in no way hides the brutalities of war, a new approach for literature of the time.

Purpose:
Although the purpose was most likely not to discuss war, many of the main characters in the book disclose a strong dislike of the ongoing fight, and those who made it. The book is from the perspective of people who are stuck in a war that never seems to end, and their fear of an everlasting menace colors the book in an anti-war light. Thus, in a subtle way, I believe the Hemingway did convey a message, whether that was his intention or not.

Audience:
Although certainly not restricted, the book was probably intended for anyone in America who reads novels. As it occurs during the war, it would probably catch the interest of many Americans who still have memories if the fighting fresh in their minds.

Rhetorical Devices:
Hemingway’s style can only be describes as sparse. His primary device is simply the lack of devices all together. The dialogue is short, the descriptions lacking, and the plot uninvolved. The characters seem to lack depth of emotion, and therefore no such feelings are reflected to the reader. This was not specific to this book, however, as Hemingway is famous for his style which is used to reflect “primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society”.

AOW 24

Post # 24

Nelson Mandela Inaugural Address

Author:
Famous apartheid protester and later president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela is world renowned for work in building a nation from the bottom up and fighting injustice until the day he died.

Summary:
Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and this is his inaugural address. It talks little of what will happen, and focuses on how the nation has pulled itself from being the “universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and oppression” to a nation liberated from its own path and set on a new one. He thanks the nations who supported them and allowed them to free themselves, and he pledges to the people that the country will never go back to what it was. He refers to it as a “common victory for human justice, for peace, for human dignity”. His basic premise is that it is time to start reconstruction of South Africa.

Analysis: The battle of apartheid was won by international collaboration, when countless other nations decided to end trade with South Africa. In face of this triumph, Mandela bases a lot of his points on the power of unity, both within his international allies and within a nation torn with racism. His purpose is to bring all the people of the country together to rebuild the country, and we know that it will be tough journey but his dream is realized.
Some devices he used to achieve this were –
Ethos: Obvious but powerful. Although he has just been elected president, he maintains a very humble tone with phrases like “all of us”, “to my compatriots”, “we all share” “humbled”. At the beginning of the speech he connects himself with the geography of the nation by talking about the mimosa trees and the summer flowers. The only word he uses to refer to himself is “we”.
Parallelism: There are two places in the speech where he has three parallel phrases used to emphasize a point. For example, the one at the end of the speech is “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work… and salt for all.”
Repetition: He repeats what the country once was multiple times. For example, he lists “bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, and gender” in slight variations several times.
References to foreign allies: He refers particularly to America’s fight for freedom from England so long ago with embedded phrases like “we the people”, “inalienable rights” and “God bless Africa”.
Juxtaposition: It is used in the speech to contrast soft ideas of the future with the harsh reality of the past. In the second paragraph he speaks of blooming flowers and mimosa trees. In the next paragraph, he talks about a nation torn apart, “spurned, outlawed, and isolated”. Later he lists traits of the new nation like “democratic, non-racial” then says they will leave the “valley of darkness”.