Thursday, September 29, 2011
1:30-3:20 PM class
I gave students a verbal review of the chapters to come: "Point of View" and "Be-Verbs." We also went over ellipsis exercises and identified the errors in the "Pronoun Case" or Essay Exam 1.
Jennifer is up to "Be-Verbs," which is great! She is on schedule. If you finish one section of the book, do not stop because we are behind. Keep moving forward.
Homework
1. Type the templates for "Pronoun Case." Email to yourself. Bring in an introduction and outline--topics sentences for the body paragraphs and a concluding sentence.
I handed out mapping worksheets. Students that took the Dyson interview with Byron Hurt, read it. Many students had not visited the website for the film on PBS.org. We did as a class and I showed students the links to the areas we are discussing in the essay: misogyny, violence, homophobia and the media. Choose one, not multiple topics.
Here is a sample introduction with the topic of Misogyny in Hip Hop Culture
In Byron Hurt's film, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, he critically examines a genre of music he loves. While working as a consultant with young men on violence against women, he realized that the music and culture he loved was one that promotes violence against women. This began a quest to find answers that took him to historically black colleges in Georgia, to advertising firms in New York, to parties for college coeds in Florida and backroom discussions in recording studios with both scholars, artists and fans on both sides of the aisle. This film paints with a broad stroke rap music within the world of hip hop culture; however, more importantly, this film places hip hip's most celebrated art form, rap music, within a context that is larger than its humble beginnings, that is, American culture, which is all the things we don't like about hip hop: its violence, especially that against women, its homophobia, its hypermasculinity, and the media that condones and promotes what's more sexy about this exploitative art form at its worse because it sells.
Ultimately, rap music has evolved to this highly popular art form because it bodes well for its American audiences which is hyped up literally with violence and sex, the more violent the better, the more deviant the better, the more desirable, the more stock value and who after all owns the production of the music? Not the artists but investors who only care about the dollars and cents even if it is nonsense, unethical nonsense at that.
Michael Eric Dyson, noted hip hop scholar, writer and professor, interviewed in the film and also at length by Hurt in an essay Dyson publishes in his book, Know What I Mean, entitled: "Cover Your Eyes as I Describe a Scene so Violent: Violence, Machismo, Sexism and Homophobia" that "violent masculinity is at the heart of American identity" that "[v]iolent masculinity is central to notions of American democracy and cultural self-expression(93). Dyson links this core American value to a "hyperaggressive vision of masculinity" which is problematic when one looks at how it translates into male/female relationships as: dominance, disrespect and violence (97). Sexism and violence against women or the hatred of women (misogyny) is not the creation of rap artists or hip hop culture but the by-product of a society where patriarchy at its worse commodifies women and girls and renders them soulless objects of pleasure and exploitation for men. (My thesis)
Homework 2
Bring in an introduction and topics sentences for the balance of the essay and a concluding sentence. Here is a sample outline for the essay:
Introduction
Major point 1: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Major point 2: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Major point 3: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Concluding sentence
Bring in the Guy book. The topic for the essay connected the the Guy book is "nature/nurture." Students can profile Tupac or his mother, Afeni, or look at both of them and compare the two. We will do short writing assignments to develop these points.
Students in both classes talk about how we switch from one thing to the next. This is called multitasking. We are getting ready to start working on the Social Entrepreneur Essay while at the same time reading the Guy book, while completing Pidd. The work doesn't disappear when we get behind.
If you notice, we were to be finished with Pidd next week. We are not. I hope to be completed with the book by mid-October. Again, don't wait for the class, keep going.
Jennifer is up to "Be-Verbs," which is great! She is on schedule. If you finish one section of the book, do not stop because we are behind. Keep moving forward.
Homework
1. Type the templates for "Pronoun Case." Email to yourself. Bring in an introduction and outline--topics sentences for the body paragraphs and a concluding sentence.
I handed out mapping worksheets. Students that took the Dyson interview with Byron Hurt, read it. Many students had not visited the website for the film on PBS.org. We did as a class and I showed students the links to the areas we are discussing in the essay: misogyny, violence, homophobia and the media. Choose one, not multiple topics.
Here is a sample introduction with the topic of Misogyny in Hip Hop Culture
In Byron Hurt's film, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, he critically examines a genre of music he loves. While working as a consultant with young men on violence against women, he realized that the music and culture he loved was one that promotes violence against women. This began a quest to find answers that took him to historically black colleges in Georgia, to advertising firms in New York, to parties for college coeds in Florida and backroom discussions in recording studios with both scholars, artists and fans on both sides of the aisle. This film paints with a broad stroke rap music within the world of hip hop culture; however, more importantly, this film places hip hip's most celebrated art form, rap music, within a context that is larger than its humble beginnings, that is, American culture, which is all the things we don't like about hip hop: its violence, especially that against women, its homophobia, its hypermasculinity, and the media that condones and promotes what's more sexy about this exploitative art form at its worse because it sells.
Ultimately, rap music has evolved to this highly popular art form because it bodes well for its American audiences which is hyped up literally with violence and sex, the more violent the better, the more deviant the better, the more desirable, the more stock value and who after all owns the production of the music? Not the artists but investors who only care about the dollars and cents even if it is nonsense, unethical nonsense at that.
Michael Eric Dyson, noted hip hop scholar, writer and professor, interviewed in the film and also at length by Hurt in an essay Dyson publishes in his book, Know What I Mean, entitled: "Cover Your Eyes as I Describe a Scene so Violent: Violence, Machismo, Sexism and Homophobia" that "violent masculinity is at the heart of American identity" that "[v]iolent masculinity is central to notions of American democracy and cultural self-expression(93). Dyson links this core American value to a "hyperaggressive vision of masculinity" which is problematic when one looks at how it translates into male/female relationships as: dominance, disrespect and violence (97). Sexism and violence against women or the hatred of women (misogyny) is not the creation of rap artists or hip hop culture but the by-product of a society where patriarchy at its worse commodifies women and girls and renders them soulless objects of pleasure and exploitation for men. (My thesis)
Homework 2
Bring in an introduction and topics sentences for the balance of the essay and a concluding sentence. Here is a sample outline for the essay:
Introduction
Major point 1: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Major point 2: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Major point 3: topic sentence
Evidence
Evidence
Evidence
Concluding sentence
Bring in the Guy book. The topic for the essay connected the the Guy book is "nature/nurture." Students can profile Tupac or his mother, Afeni, or look at both of them and compare the two. We will do short writing assignments to develop these points.
Students in both classes talk about how we switch from one thing to the next. This is called multitasking. We are getting ready to start working on the Social Entrepreneur Essay while at the same time reading the Guy book, while completing Pidd. The work doesn't disappear when we get behind.
If you notice, we were to be finished with Pidd next week. We are not. I hope to be completed with the book by mid-October. Again, don't wait for the class, keep going.
