Fresh Takes
Chapter 1 How to Become a Better Reader
How does one read critically?
Learning to Read Better by Annotating
Annie Dillard (Essay)): excerpt from An American ChildhoodBob Swift (Essay): "From Trash to Literary Treasure"
Learning to Read a Poem and Lyrics
Gwendolyn Brooks (Poem): "We Real Cool"
Robert Frost (Poem): "Fire and Ice"
Theodore Roethke (Poem): "Dolor"
Learning to Read Visual Discourse
The Rhetoric of Cinema
Scott McCloud (Comix): "Blood in the Gutter" and "Show and Tell"
Chapter 2 How to Become a Better Writer
How does one write critically?
Learning to Appreciate the Situation and the Art of Rhetoric
Learning about the Process of Writing
Examples of Student Drafts and Essays
Jennifer Sorrell (Essay): "Stop It, Red Light"
Learning to Become Meta-aware of Your Writing Process: A Self-Questionnaire
Michael Sokoff (Student Essay): "If I Could Write an Essay"
Ruth Plants (Student Essay): "My Writing Process"
Learning to Become Better at Peer Review and Conference Sessions
Adam Pratt (Student Essay): "The Most Precious Thing: Cinematic Fate in American History X"
The Grading Process
Learning about Audience through Simulations
How to Be a Beter Writer
Writing about Film as Text: The Cinema of the Writer
Chapter 3 Exploring Self
Who Have I Become?
Selected Readings
Walt Whitman (Poem): "One's-Self I Sing"
Linda Creed recorded by George Benson and Whitney Houston (Lyrics): "The Greatest Love of All"
Tim Commerford et al. recorded by Audioslave (Lyrics): "Like A Stone"
Paul Anka et al. recorded by Frank Sinatra (Lyrics): "My Way"
Harvey Pekar illustrated by Robert Crumb (Comix/Humor): "The Harvey Pekar Name Story" excerpt from American Splendor
Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman (Screenplay): "The Name Game" excerpt from the film American Splendor
Chang-rae Lee (Fiction): "City of Words" excerpt from Native Speaker
Mark Twain (Essay/Humor): "Advice to Youth"
Benjamin Franklin (Essay): "Arriving at Moral Perfection"
Ralph Ellison (Fiction): Prologue Invisible Man
Cheyenne RomanNose (Essay): "I Am One of the People"
Student Writings
Cathryn Bayless (Fiction): "Toddler Tales"
Jeremy Gunkel (Essay): "Skydiving for Graduation"
Writing about Self
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Personal Growth
Chapter 4 Exploring Learning
How does education affect us?
Selected Readings
Remedy (Lyrics): "Education"
Graham Nash recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (Lyrics): "Teach Your Children"
Frederick Douglass (Essay): "Learning to Read and Write"
Sherman Alexie (Fiction): "Indian Education"
Dick Gregory (Essay): "Not Poor, Just Broke"
Ellen Goodman (Essay): "Honor Society Hypocrisy"
William A. Henry (Essay): "In Defense of Elitism"
Langston Hughes (Poem): "Theme for English B"
Denise Graveline (Essay/Humor): "The Blue Book"
Steve Martin (Essay/Humor): "Writing is Easy"
Paul Roberts (Essay): "How to Say Nothing in 400 Words"
Margaret Atwood (Fiction): "There Was Once"
Gloria Anzaldua (Essay): "Tlilli, Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink"
Gail Godwin (Essay): "The Watcher at the Gates: Guessword"
Student Writings
Callie A. Collins (Essay): "An Ordinary Wednesday"
Audrey Woods (Essay): "My Puzzles"
Writing about Learning
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Teaching
Chapter 5 Exploring Society
What is going on in our society?
Selected Readings
Tupac Shakur and Bruce Hornsby (Lyrics): "Changes"
John Lennon (Lyrics): "Imagine"
Robert Frost (Poem): "Mending Wall"
Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and P.H. Peligro recorded by Dead Kennedys (Lyrics): "The Great Wall"
Martin Luther King Jr. (Sermon): "On Being a Good Neighbor"
W. H. Auden (Poem): "The Unknown Citizen"
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Fiction): "Harrison Bergeron"
Phil Ochs (Lyrics): "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends"
John Grisham (Essay): "Somewhere for Everyone"
Jo Goodwin Parker (Essay): "What Is Poverty?"
Chuck Palahniuk (Essay): "Escort"
Salman Rushdie (Essay): "Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the Death of Morality"
Student Writings
Toshia Casey (Essay): "Where is Home?"
Mena Nazari-Robati (Essay): "A Golden Life"
Jamie Fleetwood (Essay): "Blood"
Writing about Society
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Community
Chapter 6 Exploring Gender
What are the voices of gender saying?
Selected Readings
Helen Reddy and Ray Burton (Lyrics): "I Am Woman
Janis Ian (Lyrics): "At Seventeen"
Gretel Ehrlich (Essay): "About Men"
Lynda Barry (Graphic Novel/Humor): "Girlness"
Sandra Cisneros (Poem): "Las Girlfriends"
Paul Theroux (Essay): "Being a Man"
Sojourner Truth (Speech): "Ain’t I a Woman?"
Scott Russell Sanders (Essay): "The Men We Carry in Our Minds"
Jamaica Kincaid (Prose Poem): "Girl"
Cecilia Rodriguez-Milanes (Prose Poem): "Muchacha (After Jamaica)"
Gary Soto (Essay): "To Be a Man"
Noel Perrin (Essay): "Androgynous Man"
Kristin Lems (Lyrics/Humor): "Talkin’ Gender Neutral Blues"
Barbara Lawrence (Essay): "Four Letter Words Can Hurt You"
Henry Rollins (Lyrics): "Wrong Man"
Marge Piercy (Poem): "Barbie Doll"
Todd Haynes (Screenplay): "Eat This, A Story of Anorexia" excerpt from Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Emily Prager (Essay): "Our Barbies, Ourselves"
bell hooks (Essay): "My Childhood Dolls"
Student Writings
Josh Umar (Essay/Humor): "SchopenhauHER"
Writing about Gender
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Gender
Chapter 7 Exploring Culture
What are the voices saying?
Selected Readings:
Johnny Clegg (Lyrics): "Third World Child"
Lewis Allan recorded by Billie Holiday (Lyrics): "Strange Fruit"
Akutagawa Ryunosuke translated by James O’Brien (Fiction): "Within a Grove"
Emma Sepúlveda (Letter): "Coming to America"
Sherman Alexie (Poem): "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Richard Rodriguez (Essay): "The Fear of Losing a Culture"
Li-Young Lee (Poem): "The Cleaving"
Chinua Achebe (Fiction): "Dead Men’s Path"
Sekou Sundiata (Poem): "Blink Your Eyes"
Serman Alexie (Screenplay): "Dances with Fish"
Buffy Sainte-Marie (Lyrics): "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
Marjane Satrapi (Comix): "The Key" excerpt from Persepolis: The Story of Childhood
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Speech): "I Have a Dream"
Janice Mirikitani (Poem): "Suicide Note"
Student Writings
Dean Simmon (Essay): "What Do You See?"
Alisha M. Whetstone (Essay): "What Did You Say?"
Appreciating Traditions
Selected Readings:
Guy Garcia (Poem): "Day of the Dead"
Becky Teirnan (Essay): "Quinceañera Ushers Hispanic Girls into Adulthood"
Pat Linse (Essay): "The History of Halloween"
Dave Barry (Essay/Humor): "Independence Day"
Steve Greenberg (Cartoon Strip/Humor): "Is It the Jewish Christmas?"
Suzan Shown Harjo (Essay): "I Won't Be Celebrating Columbus Day"
Student Writings
Ben Paul (Essay/Humor): "Jolliest Measure of Perfection: Santa Claus as the Perfect Male"
Ai Sato (Essay): "The Celebration of the New Years in Japan"
Writing About Culture and Traditions
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Traditions
Chapter 8 Exploring Politics
What are some political convictions?
Selected Readings
Bob Dylan (Lyrics): "Political World"
John Lennon and Paul McCartney recorded by the Beatles (Lyrics): "Revolution"
Toby Keith (Lyrics): "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)"
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (Manifesto): "Communist Manifesto" (excerpt)
F. T. Marinetti (Manifesto): "The Futurist Manifesto"
Thomas Jefferson (Manifesto): "Declaration of Independence"
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Manifesto): "Declaration of Sentiment"
Rudyard Kipling (Poem): "The White Man's Burden"
The Mentor (Manifesto): "Hacker’s Manifesto"
Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger (Manifesto): "95 Theses" excerpt from The Cluetrain Manifesto
Jonathan Swift (Essay): "A Modest Proposal" (an excerpt)
Student Writing
Mike Sokoff (Essay): "My Declaration of Independence from Aging"
Writing About Politics
Writing about Films as Text: The Cinema of Convictions
Chapter 9 Exploring Technology
How do we survive in a technological world?
Selected Readings Hart Crane (Poem): "To Brooklyn Bridge"
Raymond Douglas Davies of the Kinks (Lyrics/Humor): "20th Century Man"
Larry and Andy Wachowski (Screenplay): "Kung Fu Construct: Mortal Kombat" excerpt from The Matrix
Charles Krauthhammer (Essay): "Of Headless Mice and Men"
Andrew Orlowski (Essay): "How Computers Make Kids Dumb" Katherine Seligman (Essay): "Young and Wired"
Steven Levy (Essay): "A Future with Nowhere to Hide?"
Mark Morford (Essay): "Big Brother Under Your Skin: Microchip Implants"
Raymond Douglas Davis (Lyrics): "Artificial Man"
Mary Shelley (Fiction): "The Creature Created" excerpt from Frankenstein
Larry and Andy Wachowski, Geof Darrow, Steve Skroce (Comix): "My Nname is Frankenstein"
Writing About Technology
Writing About Film as Text: The Cinema of Science Fiction
Appendix A: Style Notes
Levels of Language
Exact Language
Figurative Language
Gender-neutral language
Levels of Language
Parallelism
Sentence Variety
Appendix B: Grading Notes
Qualities of a Good Essay
Evaluating an Essay
Appendix C: Evaluation Forms
Learn to Be More Critical
Self-Review Sheet
Peer Review Evaluation: A Checklist
Post-Evaluation Review Sheet
Appendix D: Simulation Forms
The Power of Performance: Debate, Argue, Learn!
The Voices of Simulation Characters and Evaluators
Simulation Profiles
Refutation Exercise: Know Thy Opposition's Voice
Audience Assessment of a Simulation
Index of Authors and Titles
Index of Subjects and Key Words
