Plans for this week

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving break!

TOMORROW, Tuesday, please bring your final project in progress.  Bring an outline or draft if you have it.  Bring your ideas and notes if you don't.  We'll spend some time workshopping the final project.

Continue to work on giving your classmates feedback on their e-portfolios, and keep working on your own e-portfolio too.

THURSDAY, please meet in E-230, the e-portfolio lab.  We'll work together on our e-portfolios.

Next week (12/10 and 12/12) be ready to present on your final project!

Some thoughts on Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving is a holiday about gratitude.  It's a holiday about loved ones, and food, and sports, and plenty, and harmony, and joining together.

There's nothing wrong, and a lot right, about that.

But there is something wrong with the story my fellow Americans tell of the First Thanksgiving.  

We tell a story of English Pilgrims and unspecified "Indians" coming together, and sharing what they had.  We tell a story of mutual respect, of turkeys and chestnuts and games and gifts.  We tell a story of giving thanks even in the face of grief, and of holding out hope of survival against all odds.

This is not untrue.  Some English Puritans braved the rigors of life (and death) in New England to gain religious and civic freedom--to make, they believed, a better world.  Some Wampanoag Indians shared their superior technology and practices with the newcomers.  And everyone met and spent time together peacefully for three days.

But this was an aberration--an exception to the rule.

The Wampanoag came to the English settlement because the English fired their guns in celebration and the Wampanoag thought that it was the beginning of an armed conflict. They had good reason to think so; English settlers were not respectful of Native property rights: John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote in the same decade as the storied First Thanksgiving, that the "savage people" held their lands "without right or property", because common property was not proper, civil property.  Nor did the English honor Native lives: a decade and a half after the First Thanksgiving, they used a flimsy excuse to make war on the Pequots, who inhabited Connecticut and Rhode Island.  Forty years after the Pequot War, the English broke the peace with the Wampanoag, the very nation that had participated in the First Thanksgiving and made the English gifts of knowledge and goods that sustained them through the winter of 1621.  The new settlers decimated the Americans over the course of the next century, with war, disease, and raids: when the English arrived on Martha's Vineyard in 1642, the Wampanoags there numbered around 3,000.  Even though there were no major wars on that island, by 1764, only 313 Wampanoag were left on Martha's Vineyard.

Because of these and other atrocities, a handful of Americans spend Thanksgiving as a national day of mourning.  Native Americans, white Americans, black Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans--people from many backgrounds participate in this day, meditating on the power of resilience in the face of near-annihilation.

Stories have power.  This Thanksgiving, I encourage you: celebrate gratitude.  Celebrate love and family and plenty and wanting what you have.  These are good things to celebrate.  But don't tell stories of peace and harmony when they are the exception that proves the rule of bloodshed and deception.  Don't tell stories that implicitly justify seizure of property and empire-building.  That is an insult to history, and to countless dead Americans, and to the values of gratitude and harmony that the myth of the First Thanksgiving seeks to celebrate.

Instead, tell true stories--tell your stories.  Tell your stories of triumphing over hard times, of teaching newcomers what you know, of accepting unexpected gifts with a humble heart.  Of playing games that challenge and inspire you, of embracing joy in the face of grief, of coming together with strange friends, of learning to want what you have.

The First Thanksgiving was an aberration.  But Americans have been giving thanks for generations, long before John Winthrop arrived to stake a claim on already-claimed property.  An Iroquois gratitude prayer gives thanks to all the things that make life liveable--from other people to the natural world that sustains us.  It includes a refrain, "Now our minds are one."  This Thanksgiving, tell true stories that allow all our minds to be one.

Collective list for key terms

Please contribute to this list of key terms.  If many students in this class contribute just a few key terms to this list, everyone will have more resources to use to study for the second oral exam!

Hello!

A few reminders:

Today, we'll discuss My So-Called Life, The Achievement of Desire, and the textbook's perspective on the American family.  We'll spend some time reviewing for the upcoming oral exam (next week!).  Bring your lists of 10 key terms to class, and we'll work in groups on preparing for the oral exam.  We'll take a trip to the TLITC e-portfolio lab, too.

Submit your in-progress e-portfolio for peer critique by TONIGHT, 11/21 at 11:59 PM in our course in http://bhcc.digication.com  Please also do a short self-assessment.

Next week, the oral exam will take place!  Sign up for the oral exam here!  Please arrive five minutes before your scheduled exam time and wait at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway outside my office--I will call your name when I am ready for your exam.

By 11/27, next Wednesday at 11:59 PM, please critique two of your classmates' portfolios on http://bhcc.digication.com

Revise your portfolio in response to your classmates' feedback!

By Tuesday, 12/3, submit the second draft of your portfolio for peer critique on http://bhcc.digication.com

Today in class, we will watch an episode of My So-Called Life.  As a television show, it is an artifact of American leisure time, one of our topics this week.  It is also a depiction of American teenage life in the 1990s, and looks at an American family and its members.  This episode, "Father Figures", focuses on the protagonist's (Angela Chase) relationship to her father, and her close friend, Rayanne (who has grown up mostly fatherless) and her role in that relationship.  You can read a fan-created transcript of the episode here.  Think about how Richard Rodriguez' family (as described in The Achievement of Desire) is different from and similar to the Chase family depicted in My So-Called Life.

Please take notes on today's interviews!  

Please use these notes to type up and submit by email by Tuesday at 2:30 PM (also bring a copy to class)

• your notes on ONE interview subject
• your ideas for three additional questions you might ask the subject, based on his answers as reported in your notes
• your ideas for three additional questions or ideas you might investigate using other sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) inspired by the interview, if you were doing a project on education in the U.S.

For next time, please also reread the Richard Rodriguez reading. Focus this time on what he says about his evolving relationship with his family.

Sign up for the second oral exam!

A reminder

Please work on developing your e-portfolio!  The first draft is due Thursday, 11/21--not long now!  Please submit this first draft in Digication, in the relevant assignment in our course in Digication (http://bhcc.digication.com)

Today, you will receive three handouts:
Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to be Colored Me (1928)
Richard Rodriguez, The Achievement of Desire (1982)
Adrienne Rich, Claiming an Education (1977)

Please read these by Tuesday.  In different ways, they all speak to diversity in America and American education, the topics we are thinking about most at this moment in the class.  Please write a two or three paragraph journal response to whichever one YOU find most compelling and email it to me by noon on next Tuesday, November 12.  In your response, identify a compelling and important idea in the essay or speech you have chosen, and discuss how it relates to your personal experience.

In addition, by Tuesday, please think of three questions for the interviews we will conduct on Thursday, November 14.  For information on this please see the "interview questions assignment" linked in the previous post.

Please also work on preparing for the oral exam, coming up the week of November 25.  Here is the guide for the upcoming oral exam.

Interview questions assignment

Another extra credit opportunity!

For extra credit, attend the BHCC Jazz Ensemble's performance on November 14 at 1:00 PM in A-300.  Comment on this post with a remark of three paragraphs.  First, identify what jazz is and talk briefly about the significance of jazz in American culture.  Then, connect those observations to what you observed in the performance.  Then, connect the performance to some major theme of the course (wealth, religion, liberty, immigration, dissent, diversity, etc.)

In order to earn extra credit, please make your comment by Sunday, November 17, at 11:59 PM.

Today and Tuesday, we will have short presentations on your projects-in-progress!  Please arrive prepared to present; I will choose at random who will get to present today and who will get to present Tuesday.  Please arrive prepared to give your classmates feedback, too!

Upcoming extra credit!

Hello!  If you'd like to earn extra credit, attend "An Evening With Martin and Langston" at BHCC on November 12 at 6:00 PM, and comment on this post reflecting on what you learned from the event.  Your comment should be at least two paragraphs long.

To earn extra credit, post your comment by Friday, November 15, at 11:59 PM.

Thank you for your hard work in the oral exams!  The highest score was a 98--congratulations to the participant in our class who earned that score!

For Tuesday, as you know from the syllabus, you should please read:

Chapter 7: Government and politics in the United States

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail


On Thursday, we won't meet in our usual room.  Instead, we will meet in E-230, the TLITC E-portfolio lab.  Please join us there for a session introducing how we will use e-portfolio in our course this semester.

More extra credit!

Do you want extra credit?  Post a comment on this blog post in response to this prompt:

Watch Anna Deavere Smith's TED talk. Post a comment of at least two paragraphs to the blog. Here is your prompt: which of her characters do you believe is most representative of America? Why? Support your "why" argument with specific quotations from the video.

If you want extra credit, please post your comment by Monday night, October 14, at 11:59 PM.

Extra credit!

Do you want extra credit?  If you do, please post a comment on this blog post responding to this prompt:

How does Vicky Starr's description of her working experiences (linked in a previous post, part of this week's assigned readings) compare to what you have experienced or heard about as a worker in America today? Use specific quotations from the source  and relate them to your experiences. This should be at least two paragraphs long.

Please make your post by this coming Monday night, October 14, at 11:59 PM.

Today, we will prepare for the final project proposals that are due TONIGHT by 9:00 PM.

We will also think a little bit about abundance, and will watch this video about wealth inequality.

Before we meet next Tuesday, please read:

Week 6: Working (10/8 and 10/10)

Chapter 6: The World of American Business

Vicky Starr (“Stella Nowicki”) from Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Langston Hughes, Florida Road Workers

There is no journal writing assignment for Tuesday.

However, if you haven't already, please work on developing a list of key terms for the oral exam as part of a study guide for you and your peers. We will use this list on Tuesday and Thursday in order to review for the oral exam. Please contribute your key terms to this Google Doc list by Tuesday at 2:30 PM. Try to contribute at least THREE new key terms--three terms that aren't already on the list when you look at it.

Don't forget: even though we don't discuss a reading or idea in class, if it's in the readings, it is still fair game for the oral exam (and as a result, a possible key term).

Today we worked intensively on our "How the other half lives" papers, practicing self-critique and peer critique.

For next time: REVISE your paper with your classmate's feedback in mind.  By 2:30 on Thursday, email it to me and to the classmate who gave you critique.  

Also, don't forget: the final project proposal is due at 9 PM on Thursday.  Please start thinking about it now, if you haven't already!

Today in class, we broke into groups and researched questions in Native American history. 

For next week, please read:

Chapter 5: The Heritage of Abundance

Rachel Carson, speech on “The Exceeding Beauty of the Earth”

Andrew Carnegie, excerpts from The Gospel of Wealth

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives

By Tuesday at 10am, please email to me and two classmates a short response paper.  Choose one of the photographs from "How the other half lives."  In the first paragraph, describe what you see in the photograph.  In the second paragraph, respond and give your opinion about what you see.  In the third paragraph, connect the photograph to something else--something from the textbook, something from a primary source, or something from your experience or observation of American or global culture.

IMPORTANT!!!  PLEASE PRINT FOUR COPIES OF THIS RESPONSE PAPER AND BRING THEM TO CLASS ON TUESDAY.  I didn't say this in class, but this will be very important for what we will do on Tuesday.

By Thursday at 9:00 PM: Propose your final project!  See the final project guidelines document, linked elsewhere on the blog, for more information.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Get Involved! Volunteer Fair.  It's taking place in the D-lounge from 8:30 to 5:30 tomorrow.  If you're interested in doing one of the final project options that involves volunteering, you might want to go to the Volunteer Fair and meet some of the organizations that want BHCC students to volunteer!

The American frontier heritage is our topic for this week.  In class, either today or tomorrow, we might watch one or both of these videos on Native American life.  You don't need to watch these out of class unless you hear otherwise.

Aaron Huey's TED talk
We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears

These are the guidelines for the final project.  We'll discuss these in class today!

Oral exam coming up, week of 10/15

The oral exam is approaching!  It will take place during the week of 10/15.  Here are guidelines for the exam.  

We will not have class on 10/15 and 10/17.  Instead, please sign up for a timeslot to take your oral exam using this spreadsheet.

You can sign up by simply typing your name next to the timeslot you want.

There are a few rules.  Please follow them.

1. Sign up for one spot and one spot only.  If you change your mind, sign up for a new blank timeslot and remove your name from your old one.

2. Don’t steal someone else’s spot by deleting their name and typing yours in instead. If someone else has gotten to the timeslot you wanted before you did, that’s too bad, there are plenty of other timeslots available.  If you really need a specific timeslot, sign up early!

3. Don’t create new timeslots!  If you’re late to the party and you don’t find a timeslot you like, the solution is NOT to randomly create a new timeslot!

4. Don’t delete the breaks!  It’s to everyone’s benefit to have a happier professor grading your oral exams, and losing my built-in breaks will make me less happy.

Any questions, send me an email.  Happy signing up!

Today, we're going to dig into the idea of American exceptionalism, from John Winthrop to Vladimir Putin.

For next week--that is, before Tuesday, September 24--please read:

Chapter 4: The Frontier Heritage

Chief Joseph’s Speeches

Rayna Green’s “Modest Proposal” for a “Museum of the Plains White Person”

Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

By Tuesday, September 24, please complete the following writing exercise in your journal:

In 3-4 paragraphs, choose TWO of the excerpts in the “Exceptional?” handout and compare their perspectives on American exceptionalism.  Please include this in your journal, email it to me, and email it to two classmates.  Choose well!

9/17/2013

By 2:30 today, please email Prof. Poole your version of "I Hear America Singing."  This is an entry in your journal, so you should bring a physical copy of it to class, too.

Please make sure you have read the readings for this week on American culture and religion.  These are:

Chapter 3: The American Religious Heritage

A Model of Christian Charity, by John Winthrop

Interview with Stephen Prothero: http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/interviews/stephen-prothero3.html

These are the handouts from class today:
On The Constitution
John Winthrop, excerpts from A Model of Christian Charity (shorter than the above link)
On American Exceptionalism

In class, we'll review the final versions of "I Hear America Singing," and think a bit about the idea of American exceptionalism as well as about the Constitution, in honor of Constitution Day (September 17th).

Before Thursday:

• read all of the above things, including the handouts!
• Find the famous phrase, "a city on a hill" in Winthrop's sermon excerpts.  What do you think he means by "a city on a hill"?  Write at least two paragraphs in your journal about it.  

Tuesday, 9/10/2013

Hello!

Today, we're going to talk about your reverse outlines of either Goldman or Kennedy, which you have emailed around to classmates and your professor, as well as printed out and placed in your journal.

We'll consider the six values identified by the textbook's authors to be central to American culture and life, and see how they connect with the primary sources' perspectives (like Patrick Henry and Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, but also Goldman and Kennedy).

Then, we'll look at some selections from Emerson's Self Reliance.

Your journal assignment for today (to be completed no later than 3:54 on Thursday afternoon) is this:

Choose one of the lines or paragraphs from the handout on self-reliance.  Quote it at the top of your essay.  What do you think Emerson means in just that one quotation?  Do you identify with Emerson's value of self reliance, or do you disagree?  Why or why not? 

Before Thursday, please make sure you reread I Hear America Singing as well as your fellow students' versions of the poem, as published in The Nation.  Choose which -ing verb you want to use instead of "singing" in YOUR version of the poem--we'll work on your poems in class on Thursday, and you'll finish them before class on Tuesday, September 17.

Don't forget--you can sign up for SpeechSLAM for extra credit!  You need to sign up by September 13 in order to perform!

Week 2: 9/10 and 9/12

In advance of Tuesday's class, please read/watch:

Chapter 2: Traditional American Values and Beliefs

Give me Liberty or Give me Death

Let America Be America Again

I Hear America Singing

Lincoln, Speech at New Haven

Excerpts from Self Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Please note that this is different from what is listed on the syllabus.  The above readings are correct and up to date.

As noted in an earlier post, by Tuesday at class time, please write a reverse outline of EITHER Goldman or Kennedy (linked in the preceding post and handed out in class on Tuesday) print it out, and place it in your Journal notebook or folder to bring to class, AND email it to at least three classmates and CC your professor.   In order to do this successfully, please get three classmates' email addresses in class on Thursday, 9/5.

Get ready!  By Tuesday, September 16, please write a finished, polished version of "I hear America singing", email it to three classmates and CC your professor, and print it out and put it in your Journal notebook or folder.  Here are some versions of the poem written by your fellow students and published in The Nation for inspiration.  

Week 1 (9/3 and 9/5) (updated!)

Hello!

Here's what we're working with this week.

Week 1: What does it mean to be American?  (9/3 and 9/5)

For Thursday, please read/watch:

Chapter 1: Understanding the Culture of the United States

Emma Goldman, “What is Patriotism”

John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

“God Bless America”

“This Land is Your Land”

An excerpt from a book about God Bless America.
An article about This land is your land.

Along with consuming these media, on Thursday, please be ready to share a little about yourself and your own culture.  Think about these questions: What is your name?  What does your name mean, or what is the story behind your name?  What is your goal at BHCC? Where are you from, and how long have you lived in the Boston area? If you're not from Boston, what are one or two major differences between where you are from and Boston? What do you hope to learn this semester? Finally, share a quote or proverb that matters to you--it could be from your own culture, or something you have adopted from a culture other than the one you grew up with.

Please complete the Questionnaire on the syllabus as well.


By next Tuesday (not Thursday!!!) please write a reverse outline of EITHER Goldman or Kennedy, print it out, and place it in your Journal notebook or folder, AND email it to at least three classmates and CC your professor. You should get three classmates' email addresses in class on Thursday.

Welcome!

Welcome to the course site for American Culture (INT-110) at Bunker Hill Community College, as taught by Prof. Monica Poole.

Here is our syllabus.  The journey begins on September 3rd!