Week 8

                                    

                               Flowers for the Parkland Seventeen ( Palm Beach Post)

Good morning. 

Today we will review work recently completed,  the essay 5,  building upon a story or theme and using textual sources (primary or secondary).  We continue verb exercises,  covering the subjunctive mood and modal and irregular verbs. After break we will begin work on the film review.

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Practice Prompts:  If we were given the chance to rewrite some chapter  in life, or to relive some moment resigned to the past, what revisions would we make, or what insight could we bring to the moment now?       If we could be for an hour, a day, a week, month, or year someone other than  who we are, step out of our own skin for a bit, what might we learn?  What benefit is there in taking the perspective of another? Empathy comes to mind,  a word that denotes our capacity to understand how others must feel despite not  having direct access to another's internal life. Why do we wonder, what if . . . ?

The subjunctive mood expresses what is hypothetical, contrary to fact, a wish or desire:  I wish I were a child again.  I wish I had never grown up!  Or, had I known such and such a thing, I might never have done what I did.  We often use the past perfect to express the subjunctive mood. 

The modal verbs–should could would ought may might must–and others indicate necessity, obligation, possibility, probability.  If you could do anything, what would you do now? 

Sometimes we rewrite the past with our inner voice, as a means of understanding what has worked and not worked for us, reshaping our thoughts and behavior as we move forward in life.  Sometimes we seem stuck in negative ways of thinking and acting.  Transformation begins with our thoughts, and with the language we use to express ourselves. We can imagine other possibilities, and with persuasive words, make others too! Let's hope the #neveragain movement started by students at Parkland High, convinces politicians they must better regulate firearms. (see story https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/us/politics/gun-control-congress-governors.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news).

If I were a tree, what kind of tree would I want to be, and what kinds of things ca trees teach?

See the following:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZCP6OqRlE&t=4s

and  https://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=13eb080d8a315477042e0d5b1&id=913fb5adc7

Practice: In 250 words you explore a hypothetical scenario, something contrary to fact or actual experience or not strictly possible (as a mere human) but imaginatively rewarding or revealing in some way.  

If I were given wings . . . or if I had a drone, I could do great things with a camera!

This  work provides good practice with verbs –the subjunctive mood and conditional (modal) tense forms as well as simple and perfect tenses.  It also allows for development in contrast or comparison mode, allowing for description of the actual as against the imagined alternative.

You might imagine that you had been born under or into circumstances other than those you actually were born into; say, a different place and/or historical era, a different family, a different gender (or species). The practice will be a straightforward exploration of the chosen circumstance.  Describe what your childhood was actually like, and what it might have been like (under changed circumstances); what your present life might be like (as opposed to what it is actually like); imagine your future, actually or hypothetically. Or look at any important decision you made or did not make and trace the consequences of having taken an opposite track. 

If we had superpowers, were godlike, what could we not accomplish? Of course we must make do with what we have–but there are insights that reflection brings when we think of what might have been, or what might be, if only . . .   

Examples:

Had I been born an only child, instead of being born the fifth child of six, I might have (or would have) got more attention from my parents.

If I could do one thing differently, and so rewrite the past, I would go back to the time when . . .

 If we were to walk, fly, or swim the proverbial mile in the life of (fill in whatever human, animal or insect subject interests you) we would discover . . .

If I were rich, the world would be my oyster.

Checklist:

*Proofread to make sure you have a clear central idea and adequate support.

*Remember your audience and write on a matter of intrinsic or practical importance.


*Edit for grammatical correctness

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After break we will talk about the film review and fundamentals of constructing an argument (chapter 13 in Mosaics) and watch, time permitting, the start of the film Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins. You will for homework write a description of some aspect of the film's beginning, including a scene, a character, and a point of your own based on your "reading" of the work.

Also, for homework, answer the following question and supply some textual evidence in support.  A paragraph length response is sufficient.  In "The Flight from Conversation," by Sherry Turkle (Mosaics, ch.13, page 316) she makes an argument about recent technologies.  What does she argue and what evidence does she supply?