EWRT1A-63: Alexis de Tocqueville

In case you didn't get the e-mail, let me give you the link to the Alexis de Tocqueville piece:

"How the Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes"

Pay special attention to how Tocqueville defines equality; he may not be using the term in the way you would use it.

This piece is from the second volume of his famous Democracy In America, which was published in 1840. If you want some more background, you could start with the Wikipedia article on Tocqueville and then look at this site dedicated to Tocqueville.

I sent out an e-mail with links to readings for the next few weeks. If you didn't get it, check your junk mail filter. Otherwise, e-mail me and I can send you the links again.

Also, the readings for May 7 and May 14 are going to change from what is listed on the syllabus. Here are the new readings and their links:

• May 7 - Aaron H. Devor, "How Many Sexes? How Many Genders? When Two Are Not Enough"
  
• May 14 - Steven Rhoads, "The Case Against Androgynous Marriage"
  

EWRT1A-63: gender differences and college

Here are some more articles to give you some other information and perspectives about women in school, especially college.

• "On Payday, It's Still a Man's World." This 2007 article from CNN discusses that even though more women graduate from college than men, they tend to earn less once they hit the job market.
  
• "At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust." This 2006 article from The New York Times talks about how boys score better on the SAT, but then once in college, women tend to perform better as a group. The article explores many possible reasons for this.
  

EWRT1A-63: Reading Response 3 prompts

Again, the reading for Tuesday is different than what is listed on the syllabus. Please read "Gender Bias in Education" by Amanda Chapman. There is also a reading response due (#3). Choose one of the following prompts:

• Compare Chapman’s analysis of schools with Jean Anyon’s. What conclusions can you draw from both essays about the effects of school?
• Does Chapman’s analysis of gender bias in school convince you? If so, why is her argument compelling? If not, why isn’t her argument compelling? Please provide specific evidence from the text in your response.
  
• Choose you own focus for analyzing the text or synthesizing it with other texts from the class.
  

EWRT1A-63: April 28th reading and new MLA rules

A change to the syllabus: for Tuesday, April 28th, I'd like you to read "Gender Bias in Education" by Amanda Chapman. This essay will act as a transition from our section on education to our section on gender. We are entering some highly charged territory. Be prepared.

Also, the Owl at Purdue has a page devoted to the 2009 MLA citation rules. The new rules only affect how you compose your works cited entries. Entries from books and other print sources are done the way the Longman describes, except that you add "Print" to the end of your works cited entry. The biggest changes seem to be for sources from the internet. See the page for the new guidelines and some examples.

Malcolm X video

This is a debate that Malcolm X was involved in at Oxford University in England in 1964. There are many good videos of Malcolm X, but I'm posting this one because in it he clearly lays out his ideals and he's not talking to an audience who necessarily believes what he believes. Also, he's standing in one of the most important colleges in the western world, and one of the oldest. Symbolically, this is very powerful for me. As Malcolm X speaks, keep in mind that he didn't go to school past the eighth grade. All the knowledge that he brings to bear on his argument was knowledge he acquired through his "homemade" education.

EWRT1A-63: Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez readings

Since the preview of Rereading America seventh edition is no longer available through Google Book Search, let me give you links for the next few readings.

• Malcolm X "Learning To Read." You can download a Word doc of the piece here. You can also read it on-line here. On this page, it's been titled "A Homemade Education," but it's the same reading. It's a part from Malcolm X's autobiography so editors give the piece whatever title they want to. Also for the four of you who were in my EWRT 211 class, this is a longer version than the one we read last quarter.
• Richard Rodriguez "The Achievement of Desire." Access to this essay has been removed, due to the request of Richard Rodriguez.
  

Keep track of where you are getting these essays from. This will be important when you compile a works cited list for your papers. We will start to go over MLA works cited on Thursday.

EWRT1A-63: Jean Anyon essay

Is it just me or is the Google Book Search preview of Rereading America not working? Let me know if you have trouble accessing it. You can still read Jean Anyon's essay "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" on-line. There is a link here and one here.

If you have any trouble accessing the reading for this class, please let me know. Keep in mind that there is a copy of Rereading America on reserve in the library also. Yet if all these options don't work for you, please let me know and we can work something out.

If you want to know more about Jean Anyon, here's her website. She teaches in the Urban Education Department at CUNY.

And on a different note, the classic writing text The Elements of Style is 50 years old. It's still a really useful book after all these years. It discusses basic grammar, but the most useful part of the book (to me) is it's advice on style, how to write clear, concise sentences.  There's an article about  The Elements of Style at NPR with examples from the text.

EWRT1A-63: thesis statement handouts

The Longman Handbook covers information about thesis statements (see pages 25-34 and page 128 for a definition of "argument"), but if you want a copy of the things I've been putting on the document projector here they are:

• thesis statements: the basics (pdf)
  
• thesis statements: common problems (pdf)
• thesis statements: digging deeper (pdf)

EWRT1A-63: Mike Rose essay and essay 1 prompt

The old link (here) to the Mike Rose essay on the Rereading America preview at Google Book Search isn't working. A few pages of the essay have been removed. So you have two options. One, click here to download a Word doc of the essay (the original link can be found on this page). Second, if you can't read doc files, then you can view the page as html. What you'll need to do is go to Google and do a search for Mike Rose "I Just Wanna Be Average" (just copy and paste this into the search window). The first link listed should be the one I put above, and you should notice a link that says "view as HTML." If you click that, you'll be able to read the article as if it were on a web page. I hope this is fairly straightforward, but if you have any trouble then e-mail me or put a comment below.

Here's a link to Mike Rose's own website and he even has a blog.

Lastly, here is a .pdf of the essay 1 prompt.

EWRT1A-63: Paulo Freire reading

I still can't access my e-mail. I apologize to anyone who may be trying to contact me.

Chapter 2 of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed can be found here. If possible, please print it out. If not, make notes that you can bring to class. Remember that reading response 1 is due Tuesday also (see syllabus). Some information about Freire that may help you to understand the reading can be found here.

Feel free to post comments on or questions about the reading here.

EWRT1A-63: syllabus and readings links

Here's a link to the syllabus for the class (.pdf format).

Remember that most of the readings are accessible through Google Book Search if you do a search for Rereading America 7th edition. Here's a link to that. Once on the site, just forward to the page number listed in the syllabus. Remember to print out a copy or at least take reading notes that you can bring to class.

Also, many of the essays can be downloaded as .doc files (the standard Word format) from this instructor's website.

EWRT1A-63: the books

Here are the books for EWRT1A-63:

The Longman Handbook, fifth edition (Amazon link).

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (Amazon link).

Most of the readings in the class come from Rereading America, seventh edition. That can be found on-line through the Google reader, here.

Our first reading is chapter 2 of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. You can find that on-line here.