School Choice Do the Arguments for It Add Up

The concept of school choice as we know it today has been around since the 1950s when economist Milton Friedman began making arguments for school vouchers. Friedman argued, from an economics standpoint, that education should, in fact, be funded by the government, but that parents should have the freedom to choose whether their child would attend private or public school. Today, school choice encompasses several options in addition to vouchers, including  neighborhood public schools, magnet schools, charter public schools, tuition tax credits, homeschooling, and supplemental educational services. More than half a century after Friedman articulated the still popular economists argument for school choice, 31 U.S. states offer some form of school choice program, according to EdChoice, a non-profit organization that supports school choice initiatives and was founded by Friedman and his wife, Rose. Data show that these changes have come swiftly. According to The Washington Post, just three decades ago there were no state voucher programs. But now, per EdChoice, 29 states offer them and have diverted 400,000 students to private schools. Similarly and even more striking, the first charter school opened in 1992, and just a little more than two decades later, there were 6,400 charter schools serving 2.5 million students across the U.S. in  2014, according to sociologist Mark Berends. Common Arguments For and Against School Choice The argument in support of school choice uses economic logic to suggest that giving parents a choice in which schools their children attend creates healthy competition among schools. Economists believe that improvements in products and services follow competition, so, they reason that competition among schools raises the quality of education for all. Advocates point to historical and contemporary unequal access to education as another reason to support school choice programs that free children from poor or struggling zip codes and allow them to attend better schools in other areas. Many make racial justice claims about this aspect of school choice  since it is primarily racial minority students who are clustered in struggling and underfunded schools. These arguments seem to hold sway. According to a 2016 survey conducted by EdChoice, there is overwhelming support among state legislators for school choice programs, especially educational savings accounts and charter schools. In fact, school choice programs are so widely popular among legislators that it is a rare bipartisan issue in todays political landscape. President Obamas education policy championed and provided massive amounts of funding for charter schools, and President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are vocal supporters of these and other school choice initiatives. But critics, notably teachers unions, claim that school choice programs divert much-needed funding away from public schools, thus undermining the public education system. In particular, they point out that  school voucher programs allow taxpayer dollars to go to private and religious schools. They argue that, instead, in order for high-quality education to be available to all, regardless of race or class, the public system must be protected, supported, and improved. Still, others point out that there is no empirical evidence to support the economics argument that school choice fosters productive competition among schools. Passionate and logical arguments are made on both sides, but in order to understand which should hold sway over policymakers, its necessary to look at the social science research on school choice programs to determine which arguments are more sound. Increased State Funding, Not Competition, Improves Public Schools The argument that competition among schools improves the quality of the education they provide is a long-standing one that is used to support arguments for school choice initiatives, but is there any evidence that it is true? Sociologist Richard Arum set out to examine the validity of this theory way back in 1996  when school choice meant choosing between  public and private schools. Specifically, he wanted to know whether competition from private schools impacts the organizational structure of public schools, and if, in doing so, competition has an impact on student outcomes.  Arum used statistical analysis to study the relationships between the size of the private school sector in a given state and the scope of public school resources measured as student/teacher ratio, and the relationship between student/teacher ratio in a given state and student outcomes as measured by performance on standardized tests. The results of Arums study, published in  American Sociological Review, the top-ranking journal in the field, show that the presence of private schools does not make public schools better through market pressure. Rather, states in which there are high numbers of private schools invest more finances in public education than do others, and so, their students do better on standardized tests. Notably, his study found that spending per student in a given state increased significantly along with the size of the private school sector, and it is this increased spending that leads to lower student/teacher ratios. Ultimately, Arum concluded that it was increased funding at the school level that led to better student outcomes, rather than a direct effect of competition from the private school sector. So while it is true that competition among private and public schools can lead to improved outcomes, competition itself is not enough to foster those improvements. Improvements only occur when st ates invest heightened resources in their public schools. What We Think We Know about Failing Schools is Wrong A key part of the logic of arguments for school choice is that parents should have the right to pull their children out of low-performing or failing schools and send them instead to schools that perform better. Within the U.S., how school performance is measured is with standardized test scores meant to indicate student achievement, so whether or not a school is considered to be successful or failing at educating students is based on how students at that school score. By this measure, schools whose students score in the bottom twenty percent of all students are considered to be failing. Based on this measure of achievement, some failing schools are shut down, and, in some cases, replaced by charter schools. However, many educators and social scientists who study education believe that standardized tests are not necessarily an accurate measure of how much students learn in a given school year. Critics point out that such tests measure students on just one  day of the year and do not account for external factors or differences in learning that might influence student performance. In 2008, sociologists  Douglas B. Downey, Paul T. von Hippel, Melanie Hughes decided to study just how different student test scores might be from learning outcomes as measured by other means, and how different measures might impact whether or not a school is classified as failing. To examine student outcomes differently, the researchers measured learning by evaluating how much students learned in a given year. They did this by relying on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, which tracked a cohort of children from kindergarten in the fall of 1998 through the end of their fifth-grade year in 2004. Using a sample of 4,217 children from 287 schools across the country, Downey and his team zoomed in on the change in performance on tests for the children from the beginning of kindergarten through the fall of first grade. In addition, they measured the  impact of the school by looking at the difference between the learning rates of students in first grade versus their learning rate during the previous summer. What they found was shocking. Using these measures, Downey and colleagues revealed that less than half of all schools that are classified as failing according to test scores are considered as failing when measured by student learning or educational impact. Whats more, they found that about 20 percent of schools with satisfactory achievement scores turn up among the poorest performers with respect to learning or impact. In the report, the researchers point out that most of the schools that are failing in terms of achievement are public schools that serve poor and racial minority students in urban areas. Because of this, some people believe that the public school system is simply unable to adequately serve these communities, or that children from this sector of society are unteachable. But the results of Downeys study show that when measured for learning, the socioeconomic differences between failing and successful schools either shrink or disappear entirely. In terms of kindergarten and first-grade learning, the research shows that schools that rank in the bottom 20 percent are not significantly more likely to be urban or public than the rest. In terms of learning impact, the study found that the bottom 20 percent of schools are still more likely to have poor and minority students, but the differences between these schools and those that rank higher are considerably smaller than the difference betwe en those that rank low and high for achievement. The researchers conclude â€Å"when schools are evaluated with respect to achievement, schools that serve disadvantaged students are disproportionately likely to be labeled as failing. When schools are evaluated in terms of learning or impact, however, school failure appears to be less concentrated among disadvantaged groups.† Charter Schools Have Mixed Results on Student Achievement Over the last two decades, charter schools have become a staple of education reform and school choice initiatives. Their proponents champion them as incubators of innovative approaches to education and teaching, for having high academic standards that encourage students to reach their full potential, and as an important source of educational choice for Black, Latino, and Hispanic families, whose children are disproportionately served by charters. But do they actually live up to the hype and do a better job than public schools? To answer this question, sociologist Mark Berends conducted a systematic review of all published, peer-reviewed studies of charter schools conducted over twenty years. He found that the studies show that while there are some examples of success, particularly in large urban school districts that primarily serve students of color like those in New York City and Boston, they also show that across the nation, there is little evidence that charters do better than traditional public schools when it comes to student test scores. The study conducted by Berends, and published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 2015, explains that in both New York and Boston, researchers found that students attending charter schools closed or significantly narrowed what is known as the racial achievement gap in both mathematics and English/language arts, as measured by standardized test scores. Another study Berends reviewed found that students who attended charter schools in Florida were more likely to graduate high school, enroll in college and study for at least two years, and earn more money than their peers who did not attend charters. However, he cautions that findings like these appear to be particular to urban areas where school reforms have been difficult to pass. Other studies of charter schools from across the country, however, find either no gains or mixed outcomes in terms of student performance on standardized tests. Perhaps this is because Berends also found that charter schools, in how they actually operate, are not so different from successful public schools. While charter schools might be innovative in terms of organizational structure, studies from around the country show that the characteristics that make charter schools effective are the same ones that make public schools effective. Further, the research shows that when looking at practices within the classroom, there is little difference between charters and public schools. Taking all of this research into consideration, it seems that school choice reforms should be approached with a healthy amount of skepticism as to their stated goals and intended outcomes.

Impact Of Globalization On The Automobile Industry

Eli Vaye BADM 360 S02 Globalization is a key factor driving change and innovation in multiple industries. The expansion of borders, products, ideologies, and companies has created a new global market and force companies to expand their horizon beyond domestic consumers. An industry Globalization has had a dramatic impact on is the automobile industry. The dynamics of the automobile industry has expanded largely from a domestic industry to a completely global industry in which multiple companies have multiple manufacturing plants in different countries. The automobile industry has been so globalized that now companies export automobiles that are not domestically created. To understand the impact of globalization on the automobile industry we must first examine all aspects of the industry and globalization. First an examination of the factors that contributed to Globalization within the market place. According to an article by economichelps.org a key â€Å"From 1970, there was a rapid adoption of the stee l transport container. This reduced the costs of inter-modal transport making trade cheaper and more efficient.† Due to the cheaper and more efficient trade, markets in other countries became more appealing. The second contributor to globalization in the market place was the growth of multinational companies with a global presence in many different economies. These multinational companies started a trend and created a blueprint for many other companies to follow. Adding to theShow MoreRelatedExploring Multi Project Management And Its Impact On Either Market Or Organizational Performance Essay1277 Words   |  6 Pageslittle research that undertaken and explores multi-project management and its impact on either market or organizational performance. In recent years Auto manufacturers became more cared about the efficiency. 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The Shiv group was one of the largest industrialRead MoreGlobalization of the Automotive Industry Essays2205 Words   |  9 PagesJust like the other industries such as apparel, electronics, and consumer goods, the automobile industry has accelerated its foreign direct investment, cross border trade and global production. The automobile industry has increased outsourcing and bundled value chain activities in major supplier chains. As a result, more developed countries that serve as suppliers have increased their involvement in trade and FDI. 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Henry Ford innovated mass-production techniques that became standard, with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler emerges as the â€Å"Big Three† auto companies by the 1920s. Manufacturers funneled their resources to the military during World War II, and afterward automobile production in Europe and Japan soared to meet demand. Once vitalRead MoreChina and the Automobile Industry895 Words   |  4 Pages#### This is incomplete ### China has emerged as the center of focus in the automobile industry. From its mere production of trucks in the earlier years of development and the further production of saloon cars for specific members of the political class, the country has evolved to be leading producer and consumer of cars. This has been through various pitfalls in the process of growth with success and failure of certain policies. One of the significant events that were followe d by a spur in the

Black House Chapter Twelve Free Essays

12 A FEW MINUTES LATER, the pickup lurches to a halt between the last of the trees, where the macadam disappears into the weeds and tall grass. The Thunder Five’s motorcycles stand tilted in a neat row a few yards ahead and off to his left. Wendell, who has replaced Freddy Saknessum on the seat, gets out and moves a few paces forward, hoping that none of the ripe aroma of dried sweat, unwashed flesh, and stale beer emerging from his fellow passengers has clung to his clothing. We will write a custom essay sample on Black House Chapter Twelve or any similar topic only for you Order Now Behind him, he hears Freddy jumping down from the back of the truck as the others climb out and shut the doors without making any more than twice as much noise as necessary. All Wendell can see from his position is the colorless, rotting rear wall of Ed’s Eats rising from a thick tangle of Queen Anne’s lace and tiger lilies. Low voices, one of them Beezer St. Pierre’s, come to him. Wendell gives the Nikon a quick once-over, removes the lens cap, and cranks a new roll of film into place before moving with slow, quiet steps past the bikes and along the side of the ruined structure. Soon he is able to see the overgrown access road and the patrol car astride it like a barrier. Down close to the highway, Danny Tcheda and Pam Stevens wrangle with half a dozen men and women who have left their cars strewn like toys behind them. That’s not going to work much longer: if Tcheda and Stevens are supposed to be a dam, the dam is about to spring some serious leaks. Good news for Wendell: a maximum amount of confusion would give him a lot more leeway and make for a more colorful story. He wishes he could murmur into his recorder right now. The inexperience of Chief Gilbertson’s force was evident in the futile efforts of Officers Tcheda and Stevens to turn back the numbers of those citizens eager to witness for themselves the latest evidence of the Fisherman’s insanity . . . Ah, something, something, then: but this journalist was able to place himself at the heart of the scene, where he felt proud and humbled to serve as the eyes and ears of his readers . . . Wendell hates to lose such splendid stuff, but he cannot be sure he will remember it, and he does not dare to take the risk of being overheard. He moves closer to the front of Ed’s Eats. The humble ears of the public take in the sound of Beezer St. Pierre and Dale Gilbertson having a surprisingly amiable conversation directly in front of the building; the humble eyes of the public observe Jack Sawyer walking into view, an empty plastic bag and a baseball cap swinging from the fingers of his right hand. The humble nose of the public reports a truly awful stench that guarantees the presence of a decomposing body in the shabby little structure to the right. Jack is moving a little more quickly than usual, and although it is clear that he is just going to his pickup, he keeps glancing from side to side. What’s going on here? Golden Boy looks more than a little furtive. He’s acting like a shoplifter just stuffing the goodies under his coat, and golden boys shouldn’t behave that way. Wendell raises his camera and focuses in on his target. There you are, Jack old boy, old fellow, old sport, crisp as a new bill and twice as sharp. Look pretty for the camera, now, and let us see what you’ve got in your hand, okay? Wendell snaps a picture and watches through his viewfinder as Jack approaches his truck. Golden Boy is going to stash those things in the glove compartment, Wendell thinks, and he doesn’t want anyone to see him do it. Too bad, kid, you’re on Candid Camera. And too bad for the proud yet humble eyes and ears of French County, because when Jack Sawyer reaches his truck he does not climb in but leans over the side and fiddles around with something, giving our noble journalist a fine view of his back and nothing else. The noble journalist ta kes a picture anyhow, to establish a sequence with the next photo, in which Jack Sawyer turns away from his truck empty-handed and no longer furtive. He stashed his grubby treasures back there and got them out of sight, but what made them treasures? Then a lightning bolt strikes Wendell Green. His scalp shivers, and his crinkly hair threatens to straighten out. A great story just became unbelievably great. Fiendish Murderer, Mutilated Dead Child, and . . . the Downfall of a Hero! Jack Sawyer walks out of the ruin carrying a plastic bag and a Brewers cap, tries to make sure he is unobserved, and hides the stuff in his truck. He found those things in Ed’s Eats, and he squirreled them away right under the nose of his friend and admirer Dale Gilbertson. Golden Boy removed evidence from the scene of a crime! And Wendell has the proof on film, Wendell has the goods on the high-and-mighty Jack Sawyer, Wendell is going to bring him down with one god-almighty huge crash. Man oh man, Wendell feels like dancing, he does, and is unable to restrain himself from executing a clumsy jig with the wonderful camera in his hands and a sloppy grin on his face. He feels so good, so triumphant, that he almost decides to forget about the four idiots waiting for his signal and just pack it in. But hey, let’s not get all warm and fuzzy here. The supermarket tabloids are panting for a nice, gruesome photograph of Irma Freneau’s dead body, and Wendell Green is the man to give it to them. Wendell takes another cautious step toward the front of the ruined building and sees something that stops him cold. Four of the bikers have gone down to the end of the overgrown lane, where they seem to be helping Tcheda and Stevens turn away the people who want to get a good look at all the bodies. Teddy Runkleman heard that the Fisherman stowed at least six, maybe eight half-eaten kids in that shack: the news grew more and more sensational as it filtered through the community. So the cops can use the extra help, but Wendell wishes that Beezer and crew were blowing the lid off things instead of helping to keep it on. He comes to the end of the building and peers around it to see everything that is going on. If he is to get what he wants, he will have to wait for the perfect moment. A second FLPD car noses in through the vehicles hovering out on 35 and moves up past Tcheda’s car to swing onto the weeds and rubble in front of the old store. Two youngish part-time cops named Holtz and Nestler get out and stroll toward Dale Gilbertson, trying hard not to react to the stench that gets more sickening with each step they take. Wendell can see that these lads have even more difficulty concealing their dismay and astonishment at seeing their chief engaged in apparently amiable conversation with Beezer St. Pierre, whom they probably suspect of myriad nameless crimes. They are farm boys, UW?CRiver Falls dropouts, who split a single salary and are trying so hard to make the grade as police officers that they tend to see things in rigid black-and-white. Dale calms them down, and Beezer, who could pick each of them up with one hand and smash their skulls like soft-boiled eggs, smiles benignly. In response to what must have been Dale’s orders, the new boys trot back down to the highway, on the way casting worshipful glances at Jack Sawyer, the poor saps. Jack wanders up to Dale for a little confab. Too bad Dale doesn’t know that his buddy is concealing evidence, hah! Or, Wendell considers, does he know is he in on it, too? One thing’s for sure: it will all come out in the wash, once the Herald runs the telltale pictures. In the meantime, the dude in the straw hat and the sunglasses just stands there with his arms folded across his chest, looking serene and confident, like he has everything so under control that even the smell can’t reach him. This guy is obviously a key player, Wendell thinks. He calls the shots. Golden Boy and Dale want to keep him happy; you can see it in their body language. A touch of respect, of deference. If they are covering something up, they’re doing it for him. But why? And what the devil is he? The guy is middle-aged, somewhere in his fifties, a generation older than Jack and Dale; he is too stylish to live in the country, so he’s from Madison, maybe, or Milwaukee. He is obviously not a cop, and he doesn’t look like a businessman, either. This is one self-reliant mother; that comes through loud and clear. Then another police car breaches the defenses down on 35 and rolls up beside the part-timers’. Golden Boy and Gilbertson walk up to it and greet Bobby Dulac and that other one, the fat boy, Dit Jesperson, but the dude in the hat doesn’t even look their way. Now, that’s cool. He stands there, all by himself, like a general surveying his troops. Wendell watches the mystery man produce a cigarette, light up, and exhale a plume of white smoke. Jack and Dale walk the new arrivals into the old store, and this bird keeps on smoking his cigarette, sublimely detached from everything around him. Through the rotting wall, Wendell can hear Dulac and Jesperson complaining about the smell; then one of them grunts Uh! when he sees the body. â€Å"Hello boys?† Dulac says. â€Å"Is this shit for real? Hello boys?† The voices give Wendell a good fix on the location of the corpse, way back against the far wall. Before the three cops and Sawyer begin to shuffle toward the front end of the store, Wendell leans out, aims his camera, and snaps a photograph of the mystery man. To his horror, the Cat in the Hat instantly looks in his direction and says, â€Å"Who took my picture?† Wendell jerks himself back into the protection of the wall, but he knows the guy must have seen him. Those sunglasses were pointed right at him! The guy has ears like a bat he picked up the noise of the shutter. â€Å"Come on out,† Wendell hears him say. â€Å"There’s no point in hiding; I know you’re there.† From his reduced vantage point, Wendell can just see a State Police car, followed by French Landing’s DARE Pontiac, barreling up from the congestion at the end of the lane. Things seem to have reached the boiling point down there. Unless Wendell is wrong, he thinks he glimpses one of the bikers pulling a man out through the window of a nice-looking green Olds. Time to call in the cavalry, for sure. Wendell steps back from the front of the building and waves to the troops. Teddy Runkleman yells, â€Å"Hoo boy!† Doodles screeches like a cat in heat, and Wendell’s four assistants charge past him, making all the noise he could wish for. How to cite Black House Chapter Twelve, Essay examples

Liberal Arts and Students Essay Example For Students

Liberal Arts and Students Essay Graduate students also need to construct their arguments in response to what others are saying, and my work benefited from using the they say / I say approach. At the University of Cincinnati, I continued to use the book in my teaching, and was honored when Russell Durst asked me to serve as a research assistant for the second edition and o author this instructors manual. I believe wholeheartedly that academic writing at any level requires a knowledge Of What they say and how it impacts What I say, and that when students understand this, they will find writing arguments more manageable. This manual includes brief summaries Of the rhetoric chapters (1-13), as well as additional activities to supplement the exercises included in the book itself. These activities include both written and spoken exercises, based on my belief that preprinting can include speaking. In all of the activities, students get to practice the skills taught in the book. In addition, this manual has short summaries of each of the essays in Chapters 14?18, as well as teaching notes, lists of related essays, and answers to the Joining the 5 Conversation questions. Also included are two sample syllabi so that instructors can see various ways of putting the books approach into practice. Finally, you will find three drafts of one of the student papers thats included in the book itself, Sara Markets Move Over Boys, Make Room in the Crease (up. 537-544), along with brief commentary on the drafts to help you discuss revision with your dents and see how the principles of the book help students as they write am grateful to Gerald Graff, Cathy Bernstein, and Russell Durst for the opportunity to work on this manual. Great thanks also go to Marilyn Miller and Betsey Manually at Norton. Thank you to Mark Gallagher for composing answers to the Joining the Conversation questions for the first edition of this book, and many thanks to Brandon King, Mary Misfield, and Sara Marietta for their hard work on their essays in the book. Thanks especially to Sara Marietta for being Willing to share her drafts in this instructors manual. Thanks also to all the great teachers eave had as colleagues at George Mason University, Fontanne University, and the university of Cincinnati. Your own teaching practices continually inspire me. Thanks to friends and family, and to my wonderful husband, who was a great source of support while worked on this project in the final days of our engagement and the first days of our marriage. And, finally, thanks to the late Rose Shapiro, for introducing me to this book and for being a passionate teacher. We miss you. Chapter 1 THEY SAY: Starting with What Others Are Saying Chapter 1 begins with an implied they say: that a claim can stand on its own, The authors counter hat good academic writing responds to what others are saying. This chapter provides methods for addressing what they say, including templates for introducing standard views, something the writer him / herself once believed, things implied or assumed, and ongoing debates While Chapter 2 the second chapter focuses on longer summaries, this chapter establishes what writers need to do early in a paper, such as present the they say and I say as a single, concise unit. Additional Activities Identifying What They SAA/ Have students read one (or more) of the following: the first four paragraphs of Liz Additions Two Years are Better than Foul ; the first three paragraphs Of Raddled Balbos What You Eat Is Your Business ; the first two paragraphs objection Hoofers In Defense Of Cheering ; or the first paragraph Of Brandon Kings The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold? [p. 5721. Ask them to annotate the paragraphs, noting where the they say argument is included. Talk as a class about the tone of the essays as they safe statements are addressed. As well as about the placement of the statements within the paragraphs. Sustaining What ahoy Say Have students pick a template in the chapter (or assign a specific one), and ask them to complete it as a sentence about a topic of their choice. Then have students use the sentence to start a quick five-minute ferrite about their topic, trying to include both a they say and an l say. Once theyre finished, ask a few students to share what they wrote. Ask them how much time they spent detailing the they say part of the argument before moving on to the l say. Ask them what they find most challenging when writing about what they say, (This assignment works best as an end to Chapter 1 and transition to Chapter 2. ) Chapter 2 YEAR POINT IS: The Art of Summarizing Chapter 2 teaches students how to write an extended version of what they say. The authors explain what a summary is, and some students may need help understanding the difference between summary and paraphrase. The chapter gives students strategies for writing summaries?playing the believing game, keeping your own argument in mind as you choose What points to focus on, writing a satiric summary? as well as warnings about common tendencies Of those inexperienced at writing summaries, such as the closest lice © syndrome and the list summary. For students struggling with the closest click © syndrome, you might suggest taking a look at Chapter 12 (on Reading for the Conversation). At the end of the chapter the authors include a helpful list of signal verbs that students can turn to fifthly find themselves using the same verbs over and over again, Additional Activities List Summary Writing and Revision Have students read the description of list summaries on pages AS- 36, Then have them write a list summary of David Cozinesss Dont Blame the Eater ; Dennis Barons Reforming Egypt in 140 329]; or another essay youve discussed as a class. Have one or two students read their summaries out loud, and discuss as a class the flaws this surly. Then have students cut up the summaries into separate sentence and reorganize them, or ask them to edit the transitions between sentences to show more explicitly than and or then how the ideas relate. Study the revised summaries to see how they avoid being list-y. (May take at least two class periods. ) Summary Writing and Review Either during class or on their own, have students write a short summary (no more than a paragraph or one double-spaced, typed page) of Dennis Barons Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters? or another essay youve discussed as a class. Let them know if you vent them to write a summary that could function as a they safe to an argument they themselves might make. Then have students read and respond to one another summaries in small groups. If youd like, you too can read them and give feedback after class. Another alternative would be to have students revise the summaries after the peer review. Chapter 3 AS HE HIMSELF PUTS IT: The Art of Quoting This chapter introduces the strategy of quoting what others say. The authors ran students that quoting too little or too much can hurt an argument, and that its important to frame any quotations. The chapter offers a few tips for finding relevant quotes and gives a helpful example off dangling or hit- and-run quotation from a paper about Susan Borders ideas. It also explains a strategy the authors call a quotation sandwich tort introducing and explaining quotations, and an example of how the Bored quote might be better framed. It might help your students to read both bathos examples out loud in class and to discuss the differences, Some students may think that talking too much bout a quotation is overbalances, and the final section in the chapter will help to respond to their concerns. Cigars vs Cigarettes (an observation of recent tob EssayHave students read the text, and ask them how the author represents points Of view and how the authors tone affects their experience eating the text. Chapter 7 SO WHAT? WHO CARES? : saying Why It Matters This chapter explains the importance of addressing the so what? and who cares? questions when making an argument and offers specific strategies and templates for doing so. Students papers will become stronger once they begin to address these questions, as doing 50 shows that their arguments are part of a larger conversation and that what they are saying matters. The authors urge students to consider who has a stake in an argument cares? ), as well as what the larger consequences of the argument are (so what? 3. Although who cares? or 50 what? statements work in many different parts of a paper, students who struggle with introductions or conclusions might find it helpful to address these questions there, Options for Exercise I These essays may serve as good examples for evaluating how texts address the so what? and Who cares? questions in their arguments: Liz Additions Two Years Are Better Than Four (p. 1 1]; Will Hayseeds Kentucky Town of Manchester Illustrates National Obesity Crisis ; Jason Sinners The Good, the Bad, and The Daily Show ; and Paul Germans Confronting Inequality . Additional Activities Asking and Answering so What? and Who Cares? When students have a draft of a paper written, ask them to write either their major claim or a sub-claim on a piece Of paper. Then ask them to brainstorm for five minutes about all the groups who have a stake in their argument (who cares? ). Next have them ferrite for another five minutes or more about why those groups care or why the topic matters (so what? ). Have a few students share what theyve written, and add to their vhf cares? and so what? lists as a class. Alternately, you could have students expand their lists in small groups. Finally, you might have them draft a paragraph (perhaps an introduction or conclusion to the draft) incorporating the 50 what? and Who cares? factors. Role-playing the One Who Cares Students should work in small groups (2-4 people). Each student should state a claim, perhaps one for a draft he or she is writing, Each of the other group members should think of a group that has a stake in that argument and why the argument matters to them, stating both in the first person, For example, in reaction to a paper arguing that 14 school lunches should be healthier, one group member might say, Im a detent, and this topic matters to me because I want to eat French fries for lunch, and I dont care if I get tired later in the day. Another might say, Im a nutritionist, and this topic matters to me because I want children in my community to be healthy as they grow up. You can even give students the template, Im and this topic matters to me because Have students continue to give suggestions until no one else can think Of another group With a stake in the issue. Chapter 8 AS A RESULT: connecting the Parts This chapter discusses the connective tissues of writing. The authors emphasize hat creating connections between sentences and ideas both increases sentence variety and helps construct a more convincing argument. They consider transitions both within a paragraph and between paragraphs, and they discuss four ways to connect the parts: using transition terms, adding pointing words, developing key terms, and repeating yourself, with a difference. Additional Activities Between Paragraphs / Within Paragraphs Part 1:Thai activity works best when students have a draft to work with. After discussing ways tot connecting the parts, have them look at their drafts and annotate them, noting what ACH paragraph is saying. Then have them write a sentence that shows the relationship between the ideas in each paragraph. Art 2: Have students choose a key paragraph of the paper they want to improve and note what transitions, pointing words, and key terms theyve used. Then ask them to do a sort of dissection, looking at sets of sentences to note what purpose they serve in the paragraph After they do so, they should revise sentences to include transitions, pointing words, or key terms. Taking the paragraph apart c an help them see the chunks Of meaning in the paragraph and how connecting words can help hose chunks fit together. Connective Tissue The following is a paragraph from Tom Vessels Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter With all the transitions and other connective tissue removed. Ask students to read it once and evaluate What they think about how its working. Then ask them to add transitions (either individually or in groups) and perhaps share a few examples once theft finished. End by having them read the paragraph as it appears in the book (p. 356, 12) to see how the writer himself uses connective tissue. Had problems with Fallout 3. These problems seem to me emblematic of the intersection at which games in general currently find themselves stalled. Take Fallout gs tutorial. One feels for game designers: It would be hard to imagine a formal convention more inherently bizarre than the video-game tutorial. Every time you open a novel, you are forced to suffer through a chapter in which the characters do nothing but talk to one another about the physical mechanics of how one goes about reading a book. Game designers do not really have a choice. Controller schemas change, sometimes drastically, from game to game. Designers cannot simply banish a garn?s relevant instructions to a directional booklet. That would be a violation of the interactive pact between game and gamer. Many games have to come up with a narrative plausible way in which ones controlled character engages in activity comprehensive enough to be instructive but not so intense as to involve a lot of failure. Games with a strong element of combat open with some sort of indifferently conceived boot-camp exercise or training round. Chapter 9 ANTI SO / IS NOVO. Academic writing Doesnt Always Mean setting Aside Your Own Voice This chapter argues that students can blend formal, academic language with more everyday, colloquial language. The authors caution, however, that students shouldnt fall back on colloquial usage as an excuse for not learning more rigorous forms of expression, but they point out that a mixture of academic and casual language can enliven an essay and help writers underscore points they want to call attention to. They teach one interesting technique: to state something formally and then translate it into everyday language, providing examples from Geneva Smithereens and Gloria Anza(AU. Youll want to remind students to consider genre and audience when thinking about language choices, and as the chapter notes, to remember that lending formal and informal language is appropriate in some fields more than others. Additional Activities Two Student Essays Ask students to read Sara Marinas Move Over Boys, Make Room in the Crease and Liz Additions awe Years Are Better Than Four . As a class, discuss how these two students incorporate their own colloquial voices into their writing. Ask students to find representative samples of language that exemplify the students own styles. This activity might be a good jumping-off-point for Exercise I in the book. Dressing Down the Draft This activity works best later in the writing process. Have students bring in a draft Of a paper, and do the activities in Exercis e I (p. 128) with a chosen paragraph: Dress it down, rewriting it in informal colloquial language.