Superman was an undocumented immigrant

Teaching Writing

My semester is in full swing and is exhausting so far.  During the day I student teach with an 10th grade ELD teacher at Mission High School, and in the evenings I go to class at UC Berkeley.  My weekends are mostly spent doing homework and preparing lesson plans.  Luckily, I love it, or I'd have crapped out already.

Today, I'm planning for next week.  My intermediate students will be learning about thesis statements, and before I planned the details of the lesson, I wanted to make sure I was clear on where the process of developing a thesis statement and its supporting evidence fits into the larger concept of writing and learning to write. 

This is what I've come up with so far.  I drew from the canons of rhetoric described at Silva Rhetoricae (which is a fantastic site, by the way) and added my own thoughts about what fits in where.

RHETORIC

EFFECTIVE WRITING

Invention: What do I want to say?

            Topic

            Thesis statements

            Supporting Points

Arrangement:  In what order will I say it?

            Logical ordering of evidence

            Transposition

            Placement of rhetorical devices

Style:  How will I express my ideas?

            Audience

            Tone

            Figures of speech

            Appeals

            Grammar

            Diction

Memory:  How well do I know my topic?  Can I discuss its intricacies?  Can I extrapolate on various points?  Do I know what others think about it?  Can I present my argument in other media? Can I present my argument in other contexts?

Delivery:  How do I present my finished work?

 

These canons of rhetoric cannot be considered merely linearly. They inform one another and require repeated circling back.

For example, I cannot narrow down what I am going to say (invention) until I understand the topic.  Understanding the topic is an aspect of memory work.  Similarly, in determining what I am going to say, I must consider my audience, as certain arguments are more relevant to certain audiences.

I give a fuck about the Oxford Comma!

"Tort Tales" and Access to Courts

The popular narrative that grew around the Liebeck suit is what political scientists William Halton and Michael McCann  refer to in their definitive book Distorting the Law as a “tort tale.” Tort tales are narratives about lawsuits developed for the purposes of politics and popular culture, and as McCann explains are usually “either completely fictional accounts or highly fictionalized, reconstructed accounts of actual events.” Substituting half-truths and outright falsehoods for actual facts made a joke of a sad story about a 79-year old woman who suffered severe injuries because of an unnecessarily dangerous product from a very wealthy corporation.

If tort tales were merely fodder for sitcoms and comedians, the distortions might be harmless. But these tales are often used (and sometimes created) for political purposes. A major strength of Saladoff’s documentary is that she links the false narrative about the McDonald’s coffee case to a larger - and pernicious - political cause. Tort reform groups funded by corporations have used the fictionalized portrayal of the Liebeck suit and other tort tales to compel legislatures to limit access to the courts and place arbitrary caps on damages.

 From a review of a new HBO documentary Hot Coffee by Scott Lemieux (of Lawyers, Guns, and Money)

Newspapers Good and Bad

David Carr of the NYT finds a nugget of hope in the News of the World scandal:

Still, how did we find out that a British tabloid was hacking thousands of voice mails of private citizens? Not from the British government, with its wan, inconclusive investigations, but from other newspapers... 

Newspapers, it turns out, are still powerful things, and not just in the way that Mr. Murdoch has historically deployed them. The Guardian stayed on the phone-hacking story like a dog on a meat bone, acting very much in the British tradition of a crusading press, and goosing the story back to life after years of dormancy...

Mr. Murdoch, ever the populist, prefers his crusades to be built on chronic ridicule and bombast. But as The Guardian has shown, the steady accretion of fact -- an exercise Mr. Murdoch has historically regarded as bland and elitist -- can have a profound effect. 

His corporation may be able to pick governments, but holding them accountable is also in the realm of newspaper journalism, an earnest concept of public service that has rarely been of much interest to him.

A newspaperman insisting newspapers are still relevant, perhaps.  I am hopeful and uplifted nonetheless.

Thanks, TNC

I support the Takeis

From Use Your Words

Losing

My grandmother had her first child at 16; she became a grandmother at 42.  42!  I have friends that age, who, like me, chose graduate degrees, careers (2nd careers!), travel, sometimes mortgages over marriage and babies.  Those could wait.  At 20, the flesh was willing, but the mind...not so much.

And now, now that we've decided we are ready, now that we yearn for those children we put off having, our bodies are unsure.  We work at pregnancy the same way we worked at school, with the same dedication we put into demanding jobs.  So much less predictable, though.  So much more fragile.

I wrote these lines a year ago, more, with one specific friend in mind who had just lost a child.  Sadly, she's no longer alone.  We've made choices, good choices no doubt.  But choices nonetheless, leaving other paths untrodden.

We continue to yearn.

Lines for ___

A moment I did hold my breath and her.

Then the name passed as a whisper through my lips,

Nearly lost and barely heard. The sips

I took of ecstasy that day did sear

My throat and burned their way into my womb.

The susurrations pierced and tore, and she

Ate all of me. I murmured, agonied,

That name—my heart, my head, my soul consumed.

She does not grow, but still I have been wrecked,

Depleted, paled. A near-forgotten word

Leaps to my tongue unbidden and unchecked.

My breath takes form. My prayer ignites in flame,

And she burns up; deaf heaven has not heard.

I'm left among the ashes of her name.

Summer Time

Well, May and June passed in a whirlwind of getting married, honeymooning, and starting school.  I'll write about the two big things once I have some time to correlate all the lovely pictures and all the lovely memories.  Here we are in July, though, and I've been thinking about you and about how lovely the summer is.

After getting back from Italy, I had about two weeks before school started.  I spent it reconnecting, lazing, swimming, and falling back into the pace of normal life.

The weekend after Phil returned to work, we met up with D&N and Skylan to check out the underground market and then, kimchi in hand,  headed to Four Barrel for some much needed American Coffee.  Espresso is delicious, Americanos are not.  Nowhere in Italy can you get brewed coffee, especially not delicious Four Barrel!












I did quite a bit of gardening the rest of the week - which meant I got to hang out with Nori quite a bit for nursery trips and things!!  I planted tomatoes, eggplant, anaheim peppers, taragon, basil (sadly, only one of the three basil plants survived), strawberries, pansies, lobelia, oregano, thyme, society garlic, and a sweet pea.  I also spruced up the rest of my little potted paradise, and everyone seemed to be happy with the tune up and the warm weather!

Buddy got his own kitty grass.  He goes out every morning and evening for a little salad, sometimes--bastard--with a side dish of pansy.

I also got some serious girl time in: Summer and Sarah and I spent a couple of nights in Discovery Bay (see dance party, left), and Nori and Khai and I hung out with their beautiful boys.  Auntie Nessa got some goooood baby time in--and some good lady time (at awesome Skates' on the Bay happy hour - I hadn't been there since Junior Prom night!).












There have been lots of other catchings-up since then, as well.  A wedding takes a lot out of you.  It's nice to get back into the normal rhythm and flow of life and family and friends.

Feeling covetous

From Food and Wine, "J. Morgan Puett: A Curator of Food Curiosities"

Heroes

I've been thinking lately about all the people I think are amazing in the I-look-up-to-and-admire sort of way.  I guess I've been feeling so happy that there is such a glut of inspiration out there that I wanted to share.  So do not despair, ever, remembering that the following women are out in the world doing great things:

1. Elizabeth Warren, Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Because she is committed to common sense and believes that we are in a hopeful place. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-26-2011/exclusive---elizabeth-warren-extended-interview-pt--3

2. Tina Fey.  Because she is smart and funny, and smart... and funny!, and doesn't take herself too seriously, and is awesome, and I really want to read her book.

3. Amy Poehler. Because she is also smart and funny, and because she knows that girls have a lot of important things to say and need to be encouraged and listened to.  http://www.hulu.com/smart-girls-at-the-party

4. Patti Smith, because she rocks and writes poetry and I also really want to read her book.

5. M.F.K. Fisher, because she writes so beautifully of love and food and hunger and desire.  I can't stop reading her books.

6. Also Neil Gaiman.  Not a woman, obviously, but inspirational none the less, because he is an amazing writer, and an encourager of girls, and a dreamer and storyteller and a creator of worlds.