15.2. Review: About Reviews/"Lincoln" RI9.

A review is a form of essay - meaning that its primary job is to communicate and prove a thesis. The reviewer may give information about the movie, that's one of the roles that a review serves, because it presumes that the reader hasn't seen the movie yet. However, the reviewer has an opinion about the movie and seeks to persuade the reader to share it and then do what the reviewer thinks that they should (see it or avoid it, depending on the opinion).

Because movies are usually a mix of good and bad, the thesis of the review can be very difficult to figure out. However, the writer communicates a thesis in a good movie review, just as surely as in a standard persuasive essay. We read the review to listen to the argument about the movie, consider the supporting facts, and then decide if the author has convinced us to see (or avoid) the film.

So, if you read many movie reviews (I like reading movie reviews even if I have no intention of seeing the movie), you will want to take note of who is reviewing the movie. If you like their taste, then you know that you can take their recommendations more readily.

This is a movie review for Steven Spielberg's upcoming "Lincoln," written by A.O. Scott, a movie reviewer with whom I know I often agree. The other reviewer for this newspaper, Manohla Dargis, is someone whose taste I don't match up with as well, although I like that she's really opinionated and writes well, so I read the reviews anyway (here's her review of the new Bond movie, Skyfall).

15.1. Reviewing the Reviewers - Metacritic.com RI9.

A great way to find a movie reviewer that you like is to check out a review that they have written for a movie that you've already seen. I do this a great deal, too, read reviews of movie's I have already seen. I like comparing what I thought with the reviewer, and having a fight in my mind about the movie.

One of the million great things about the internet has been that it lets you choose a reviewer that you like from hundreds. When I was a kid, the Newark Star-Ledger had two film reviewers, one I really liked and one I thought was a total idiot and a bad writer, but I had no other options - it was the only paper that came to our house. New sites called "review aggregators" have sprung to gather many, many reviews and average them into a consensus. While the website "Rotten Tomatoes" is the most famous one, because of its funny name, I use another well-known one, Metacritic, to check out what many critics think of the same movie. These sites have gained power in the movie industry itself, as this article  (I found the link on Wikipedia) explains pretty well.

Directions
During class today:

1. Visit Metacritic and choose a movie that you've already seen.
2. Read three of the reviews - the most positive, the most negative, and any one in the middle.
3. Write a logical (SEE) paragraph - which of the three reviews best matched your own assessment of the movie?

For tonight (if you don't have internet access right now, make sure to print a hard copy before you go):

1. Read a different review by the same reviewer with whom you most agreed. You can read another review for a movie that you've already seen or choose something that you are trying to decide whether to invest time and money in.
2. Answer the following in complete sentences in a Google Drive file:

• What was the author's central thesis about this movie?
• What was their best explanation for why they loved/liked/disliked/hated the movie?
• What was their best example from the movie that they used to try and prove that it was great/good/bad/terrible?
• Did the review persuade you to see/avoid the film? Why (or why not)?

15.1. Social Media Obsession - Groups and Technology

Here's a reading about how technology and groups of people interact.

1. Open the file.
2. Collect 3 words for your online vocabulary spreadsheet.
3. Write an author purpose statement for this article.
4. Write a Central Idea statement (a WHO+WHAT+WHY sentence).

14.5. Judging Evidence Relevant and Sufficient/Red Sox Signing RI8.

One of the things that we have been focusing on this year is trying to make arguments where the evidence presented is both relevant (meaning it is logically related to the matter, that it helps prove what it claims to be trying to prove) and sufficient (that there is enough evidence to convince a smart, reader that the author is correct).

Example of How Relevance Can Be Used to Construct and Evaluate Arguments:

Two young children are arguing on the playground over whose turn it is to go down the slide. One says, "Well, my dad can beat up your dad." This evidence is irrelevant to the matter at hand - what does the physical strength of their respective fathers have to do with anything? C'mon, kids, craft better arguments.

Then the other kid says, "Well, you're a doo-doo head!" This is another common logical fallacy. Rather than address why their opponent's argument is incorrect, this child has chosen to attack the character of the opponent. Whether the boy is or is not a "doo-doo head" is not relevant to whose turn it is.

After some more of this counterproductive wrangling, the kids realize that they will never negotiate a settlement this way, and turn towards the matter at hand. The first kid, the one with the really strong dad, states, "I was here first." This is a good argument, since, generally speaking, one's place in an informal line is determined by one's arrival at the end of that line. Furthermore, it is a good argument because it is a relevant argument - it is logically connected to the matter at hand, and, without any other information, would convince a dispassionate observer that the first boy (we'll call him Firstie) does deserve to precede the other boy in line.

However, the second boy also has relevant evidence to present. "I called it first! You heard me!" he protests. This is relevant, too. In certain cases, a right to a certain position or possession can be secured by "calling it," stating publicly and clearly that one wishes that position or use of a shared community object. The second boy (we'll call him Call-y) has an argument. Whose evidence is more persuasive?

Firstie wishes to question this argument. "You can't call the slide. It's always who gets there first. You only can call it if we're talking about the swings, or the front seat, or playing with a toy." Firstie's right, here, children use "calling it" only in cases where "a turn" would take so long that it would occupy the entire available time. Kids cannot "take turns" in the front seat on a single trip, so one kid must "call it," announcing his or her attention to occupy a given physical location. Remembering to "call it" is taken as an indication that that person wants the prize more. It's a pretty good system, but it's not applicable here. Going down a slide takes only a few seconds, so it's silly to "call it"; everybody can have multiple turns in a given recess period. Lining up to wait in the order you arrived is customary in this case.

Call-y does not want to admit that his evidence was not sufficient to overcome his opponent's line of reasoning, so he simply takes his place behind Firstie, his face openly displaying rancor over the matter. Another argument solved by presenting and evaluating arguments.

So, here's an optional reading on this subject. It's a baseball article about how good a signing Ryan Dempster was for the Red Sox. Notice how the author uses relevant evidence to try and prove his position about Dempster.

14.5. Essay Prompt (With Increased Attention to Commas

Today, we're going to compose an essay - hopefully, our recent work on commas will help you with your sentence structure and punctuation.

Here's the writing prompt:

Your science teacher has become frustrated. He (or she) keeps finding these great web-videos on YouTube and other sites to teach science concepts. However, whenever the teacher tries to show them in class, the school's web filter blocks him (or her). The teacher has asked the school principal to unblock YouTube in your school so that the science videos can be used in class, to help teach concepts on the Promethean Board and for students to use in school to do research for their assignments and papers.

Do you think that the principal should allow YouTube to be unblocked so that teachers and students can use the educational videos on it? Write a letter to the principal advocating a position. Make sure to use reasons, facts, and examples.

File title is "YOUR NAME YouTube"

After you are done -

Read your essay and try to find the following sentences:

1. An IC, FANBOYS IC sentence.
2. A DC, IC sentence.
3. An IC DC sentence.
4. An ADJ, ADJ NOUN Construction.

14.4. Commas Rules - Application L2.c.

Today we're practicing the first three comma rules that we learned this week. 


They are

IC, FANBOYS IC 
DC IC but IC, DC.
and
ADJ, ADJ NOUN if ADJ=ADJ.

These mean,

IC, FANBOYS IC means  When you join two independent clause together with a coordinating conjunction, you have to separate them with a comma.

DC IC but IC, DC means When you have a dependent clause and an independent clause in a sentence together, you only need to use a comma if the dependent clause comes first.

ADJ, ADJ NOUN if ADJ=ADJ means If you have more than one adjective in front of a noun, you have to separate the adjectives from each other with a comma, if those adjectives are of equal weight. If they're not, then you don't need a comma and the more important, "heavier" one goes closer to the noun.

There are a number of quizlet sets available to practice them.

NOTE: DON'T USE THE "STUDY" OR "SCATTER" OPTIONS TO PRACTICE, IT WON'T TEACH YOU ANYTHING WORTH KNOWING. ONLY THE "LEARN," "TEST," OR "SPACE RACE" THINGS SHOULD BE USED AT ALL.

14.3. Phrases and Clauses Practice Exercise L2.c.

Here's an exercise designed to practice the material that we discussed in class on Monday and Tuesday.

14.1. Using a Comma to Indicate a Pause or Break L2.a.

We talked about commas already, but it's good to know the theory, but essential to practice it.
This is a tough skill to learn to do -- you have to read a lot (to see how writers use commas), be able to read carefully out loud with practiced skill, and think a great deal about their own writing.

So, people who read, write, and think a lot already tend to get better and better, while people that don't tend to get poorer and poorer. (This happens a lot, it's called the "Matthew Effect.")

Like most of things in English, people who are good at commas seem to be so "naturally." But there's no such thing as a "natural reader" -- reading is a human invention, a learned skill.

So, we should practice:

Click here to take the Comma Pretest

14.1. Comma Rules: Compound Sentences L2.c.

We're practicing comma rules for a little while.

People have a lot of different ways to explain how commas work. It's tough; they do many different things.

We'll talk about what a comma is in a "big-picture" way, but, mainly, we're going to learn the basic rules one by one.

Today's rule is useful - you need to use a comma to separate two independent clauses joined together by a coordinating conjunction.

It's easy, once I explain what an independent clause and a coordinating conjunction are. That's kind of tricky.

There's a quizlet set that helps you practice this rule.

14.0. The Comma Loves the Word L2.a.

Today's comma punctuation tip is that the comma and the period both love the word, cannot be separated from the word.

So, if you try to write the sentence

Until I watched "Thor", I had no idea how boring a superhero movie could be.

The comma will twitch and writhe and moan - it's separated from the word that it so loves by the wall of the quotation mark. The comma will vault over the wall in order to be with the word that it loves so much . . .

Until I watched "Thor," I had no idea how boring a superhero movie could be.

The comma always goes inside the quotation marks, even when it seems like logic would put it outside. Putting it outside is sometimes a smart mistake, but it's always a mistake.

13.3 "Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears" RI4./RI6.

For Classwork:

We're starting our third thematic unit this week, entitled "Groups, Technology, Power." We'll be reading articles, essays, short stories, and nonfiction narratives about power - which we are going to define as the ability to make other people do what we choose for them to do. We'll be asking questions like:

• Are groups inherently bad or good? Neither?
• Is our ever-growing use of technology good for us or bad for us?
• When is it okay to control somebody else? When is it not?
• Is it okay to manipulate others if you think that it's for their own good?
• If we don't agree with a group that we're part of, when is it best to go along? When is it best to resist?
• Does technology make us more or less free of the power of other people?

So, to start off, let's read an article about technology and power that I hope illustrates how these themes might impact a teen's life.

While you are reading:

1. Input three words into your spreadsheet and conduct the analysis. Make sure to practice the "Three Boxes" technique to analyze the context of the words.

2. Write an Author Purpose Statement in a new document called [YOUR NAME] Ring Tone AP.

Here's a model:

In the article, "Men Without Women," the author's primary purpose is to inform the reader that, in many areas of Asia, more boys are being born than girls because of social values, and this has consequences.

3. Choose one of the words and type up how you did the Three Boxes. Here's a frame to use, use this as a model:

First, I looked at the sentence and realized that because it came after the subject and there wasn't another verb, that it must be a verb, an action word. So, denigrate means "to _____________."

Then, I read over the paragraph. The main idea is that the man doesn't want to be made to feel like he's worthless. So, I am inferring that "denigrate" must mean to do something that makes somebody feel bad about themselves. The Central Idea of the article is about how people saying cruel things to others makes their physical health worse, which corroborates my guess. I am going to guess that "denigrate" means to say something to make somebody feel bad.

4. Respond to this question with a SEE paragraph:

What is ironic about the situation that the author presents in the article?

13.2. Determining Word Meaning in Context RI4.

Read this for homework, choose five words, and input them into your spreadsheet. Then, send me an email telling me that you are done.

Note: You don't have to do the Author Purpose or the Central Idea Statements tonight. I want to grade the classwork first. I'll tell you if you have your expert check or not tomorrow, and I may ask you for these statements tomorrow in class.

Remember, though, now that we've gone over the Three Boxes technique, that you HAVE TO understand the article to make a good context guess. Start reading the article and let the Tier Two words emerge naturally.

13.3. Applying the Author Purpose Technique RI6./L6.

1. Open a new document in your Google Drive - call it "[YOUR NAME] Hobbit AP."
2. Read this.
3. Find five words and perform the structure and context analysis practice, and then verify the word's meaning with an online dictionary.
4. Write an Author Purpose Statement and a WHO+WHAT+WHY Central Idea Statement.

13.2. Author Purpose and Vocabulary Practice

1. Read this passage from Newsweek. 

2. What is the author's intent in writing this? (Remember, "intent" is a synonym for "purpose," I am asking for an Author Purpose statement.

3. What is the Central Idea of this? (These two sentences share information, but AREN'T identical.)


4. Next, conduct a vocabulary analysis of the following Tier 2 vocabulary words (remember to use the "Apple+F" Command to help you locate the words quickly):

complied
chicanery
antics
coincided
incompatibility
fanfare
denounces
inadequate
affiliated
demonstrate

13.1 Determining Author Purpose RI6.

Review of the Basics

This week's skill reading skill concerns nonfiction readings - informational articles, essays, and nonfiction narratives.

Author purpose is an easy concept to learn, since it is fairly close to determining the central idea of a text. You simply put an "author purpose" verb at the beginning and don't fuss about the "why" part.

This is a single sentence assignment, and often can be completed after reading only half of the article (sometimes less). Here's a mastery list for it.

13.1. Keeping a Personal Dictionary L6.

We want to begin keeping track of the vocabulary that we encounter in our reading.

For this week, you need to locate five words in each reading and fill them into your dictionary, to get the ball rolling.

Here are directions to help you begin filling out the Personal Dictionary.

Here's a link to a file that you can copy (Click "File," then "Make a Copy," then rename it).