Achieve 3000-Assignments

Many of you still need to finish the Achieve 3000 articles before Sunday. The titles I have assigned are as follows:

On A Wave of Hope, assigned May 1
The UN Takes a Stand, assigned May 1
Schools Take Steps to Stop Bullies, assigned May 1
Making A Better Life, assigned April 12
Foods with a Hispanic Flavor, assigned April 12
Hola, USA, assigned April 12

Reminder on Fallacy Portfolio

Be sure to read the instructions about the Fallacy Portfolio due on May 4th/5th. Each INDIVIDUAL is turning in a portfolio that is worth 100 Points. The Portfolio needs to be in a three-ring folder/binder and include examples from magazines, internet/newspaper advertising, advertising mail from home, etc. of 10 different fallacies. On each page, the following information is required:

Name of Fallacy
Definition of Fallacy
Example of the Fallacy Found in the Media
Explanation of why your example fits the definition of the fallacy.

The breakdown for grading the portfolio is as follows:

Submission of 10 pages with fallacy listed--10%

Definitions of Each Fallacy Included--5%

Examples from media included & correct--25%

Explanation of examples included and correct--40%

Bound using 3 ring folder/binder with
typed explanations, professional layout of pages
and use of colors for presenation--20%

For those who did not do flashcards and have not bothered to show bookmarks of your parliamentary debate articles, YOU REALLY NEED TO DO WELL ON THIS.

Fallacy Team Test

People keep asking how they can work in a team to make sure they do well on the fallacy test next Friday. Since you are in a group of 3-4 students, the preparation of each person in your team will largely determine your team's score on the test. Some things your team should be doing include:

-Making Sure Everyone has definitions and examples of the fallacies listed for the unit
-Ensuring everyone has the terms, definitions, and examples on flashcards
-Quizzing each other on the terms, definitions, and examples
-Doing practice tests using true/false and/or fill-in-the-blank questions

Basically you and your team needs to do whatever you can to make sure everyone does well on the test next Friday.

Groups for Fallacy Team Tests

First Period
1. Emi, Taylor, Christian
2. Shakoyia, Daphne, Savannah, Yajairo
3. Amoni, Javon, Tiasha
4. Amir, China, Quinten
5. Jessica R., Landan, Keith
6. Isabel, Shelby, Jacquelyn
7. Karla, Adriona, Stephanie, Simone

Third Period
1. Lakeshiana, Diocelyna, Curtis, Montayha
2. Chris W., Raven, Stephanie
3. Kanashia, Vivian, Isiah
4. Angel, Connie, Chenie, Shawn
5. Devonzae, Heydy, Isabella
6. James, Jantell, Mariah
7. Alexis, Pearlina, Kristin

Fourth Period
1. Berje, Alexus, Mariah
2. Chris B., Jace, Delauren, Jade
3. Mike, Dayonia, Nate
4. Deshawn, John-Paul, Keshon, Elijah
5. Trinity, Mohammed, Kyla, Lakedra

Fifth Period
1. Brian, Shayana, Adan
2. Deshaun, Tashe, Karla
3. Jessica, Melissa, Shatiana
4. Jai, Adrionna, Sabra, Mark

Eighth Period
1. Dahsia, Israel, Shanajee
2. Zuri, JaJuan, Miah
3. Skyla, Jasmine K., Malika
4. Joey, Tyrone, Briana
5. James, Shyla, Antoinette
6. Jenee, Michael G., Leonna
7. Leslie, Ana, Jesse, Liam

Fallacy Unit

Before we start Parliamentary Debates, we will spend the next 1 1/2 weeks going over fallacy arguments. A fallacy is a statement or argument based on incorrect or poor reasoning. There are many types of fallacies. For this unit, we are looking at the following fallacies:

1. argumentum verbosium
2. non sequitur
3. hasty generalization
4. post hoc
5. slippery slope
6. ad populum
7. straw man
8. red herring
9. appeal to authority
10. bandwagon
11. loaded question
12. fallacy of novelty
13. appeal to tradition

While I will review these fallacies in class, the assignments related to this unit include the following:

A. Flashcards--50 points. Create a a set of flash cards with the term on one side of the card, and on the other side have the definition and an example of the fallacy. The flashcards are due on Monday, April 26th. You will show me your set in class.

B. Team Test--50 points. You will be divided into teams of 3-4 students by me. Each team will be given study time together. Each individual will take a fill-in-the-blank, true/false test. The team will receive the LOWEST score earned by an individual on their team. We will take the test on Thursday, April 29 or Friday, April 30.

C. Portfolio--100 points. Each INDIVIDUAL will look in magazines, newspapers, internet advertising, political pamphlets or mailings for at least one example of 10 DIFFERENT FALLACIES. For each fallacy, make a heading with the name of the fallacy and have the definition of the fallacy underneath the heading. Then you glue or clip and paste the example you found. Underneath the example you found, you need to write an explanation of how your example fits the definition of the fallacy. You will receive extra credit for additional examples if you turn in at least one example of 10 different fallacies. The portfolio needs to be in a 3 ring binder with a cover and the use of color, neatness, and creative mounting will be taken into account. The Portfolio is due on Tues, May 4 or Wed. May 5.

Parliamentary Debate Topics

The last series of debates this semester uses the format of Parliamentary Debate. If you do a search on Wikipedia you will find a great deal of background information on this form of debate. For our parliamentary debates, we will have three possible topics. Just prior to the debate, we will draw one of the topics. After we have the topic, the teams will flip for sides. The three topics we will use include:

1. Minors accused of school bullying resulting in a death should be charged as an adult with a felony crime.

2. The United States should ban capital punishment.

3. The state of Israel is morally justified in its policies toward the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

These debates will be a team debate activity. More information and the timeline will be posted this week on this site.

Achieve 3000--Assignments

The school is launching the Achieve 3000 effort this week and I am assigning articles from the system for our class. You need to go to www.achieve3000.com and enter into the system using the username and password for your IPS computer. Then check your e-mail for a message from me. I assigned three articles from the unit, "Why we spend?" relating to economics and the Latino population. You will need to read the article, answer the multiple-choice questions under the icon, Activity, then respond in writing to the Thought Question related to the article.

You are assign 3 articles and they are open from 4/12 until 4/25. You can work on the articles in class or at home. In class, you may be able to work on the articles during downtime or when you have completed classroom assignments.

Self-Evaluation Essay--50 Points and Due April 12.

After you finished your Public Forum debate on the same-sex marriage resolution, you will need to write a self-evaluation essay related to debate class. Your essay relates to the following:

Describe how your skills have changed since starting debate class.

Your essay needs to address the following areas:
-Ability to find information through research
-Ability to read and locate information in articles
-Ability to organize your information into arguments
-Ability to speak in front of others

Grading of the essay will take into account correct use of multiple paragraphs, introductions, conclusions, explanation of details, as well as spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. These essays are due the first block class the week of April 12th.