Prompt
How does media threaten the liberty of today's youth? What should youth do to gain/maintain freedom from and through media?
Write a persuasive essay responding to these questions. Your first audience is LDS; your second, secular. Both audiences are intelligent youth (think of college students). Your voice should still be formal/academic.
We discussed how your essays will be different for these two audiences. Please consider the following:
Evidence: What kinds of evidence will each audience find convincing?
- The LDS audience is more likely to be persuaded by the words of prophets and scripture.
- Both will be persuaded by scientific facts and statistics.
- Both will be persuaded by stories/examples/analogies.
- The secular audience may be persuaded by quotations from wise people.
(Could you quote a prophet like President Monson as a wise person for a secular audience? Yes, but you do run the risk of alienating your audience if they feel you are biased. Thus, it would be wise to also quote other wise men and women from a variety of religious or philosophical traditions so that your readers can see that the truths the prophet speaks are universal.)
Personal experiences
Assumptions What assumptions does each audience bring to the topic?
- Although the LDS audience may already be familiar with the potential dangers of media, the secular audience may not readily acknowledge the dangers of media. Thus, for the secular audience, you may need to spend more time showing the potential threats of media.
- The two audiences might have different assumptions about what is meant by liberty or freedom. For example, an LDS audience is likely to think of spiritual liberty, but a secular audience might associate freedom with a list of rights or the ability to do "what I feel like."
- For example, with an LDS audience you might use the word agency, whereas for a secular audience you might need to use terms such as conscience, liberty, choice, and accountability.
- An important part of this assignment is learning to translate gospel truths learned from scriptures and the prophets into language that a secular audience can understand and appreciate.
Prior Experience How might the two audiences have different prior experience with media?
- For example, in considering how media could be used to gain/maintain liberty, the LDS audience may think of how they have used media to build the kingdom of God (missionary work, family history work). The secular audience, on the other hand, may be at a loss, or might be thinking about how they have used media to spread political messages.
Next, we discussed the writing process students will follow to write this paper. We will write for the LDS audience first. Students need to use the following pre-writing processes:
- Break down the prompt. (For example, note that the second question in the prompt actually has two questions.)
- Generate questions you will need to answer about the prompt.
- Research.
- Reflect on your personal experiences with media. What truths do your experiences illustrate?
- Develop your opinion (thesis statement). Be open to letting the research influence your opinion.
- Outline. For this assignment, you are required to produce a typed hierarchical outline.
- Pray (throughout the process).
The full first paper is due Friday, Feb. 6. Before turning it in, students must have a parent/adult review it with them.
HISTORY
Bellwrite #42:
Congratulations to the country teams for their great work in War Games. We're excited to move on to a new adventure in history.
Today students worked in pairs to generate a three column T-chart (differences and similarities) comparing/contrasting the Hitler Youth and Boy Scouting. Students received a packet of primary source documents from early Hitler Youth and Boy Scouting handbooks. The T-chart will be due at the end of history class tomorrow.
ENGLISH
I introduced a helpful website we will be using to develop vocabulary: www.vocabulary.com. Students should, with parent permission, create an account. Then they should search for the Vocabulary List titled, "Screwtape Letters 10-12" (by Mr. Dye). They should use the "Practice" exercises to learn the words. This will help students know the vocabulary before we read the corresponding letters from the book. This website has adaptive teaching technology that assesses individual's vocabulary knowledge and systematically teaches/reteaches/reviews new words. When you miss a question, it will provide feedback on the word. Please be sure to read all of the feedback.
We read together from Screwtape Letter #9. Here, Screwtape continues to discuss the trough periods (low points) in the patient's life. He notes that God uses the trough periods to accomplish most of His work, but also suggests that the devils may make use of these periods as well. He suggests two strategies:
1) Get the patient to seek pleasure in the way least intended by God, thus creating an "ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure" (Lewis 44).
2) Don't let the patient suspect the law of undulation exists, so that he believes something is wrong when he is in a trough period. At this point, he can either be tempted to despair or to grow complacent in his lowness.
We discussed the idea that God is the author of all true pleasures in their healthy and satisfying form. For example, God seems to want us to take pleasure in eating good food...until we are satisfied. Contrast that with the person who eats past satisfaction and actually pays very little attention to how the food takes or how he feels.
Homework:
- Complete vocabulary practice for the "Screwtape Letters 10-12" list in vocabulary.com.
- Complete short stories are due Thursday.
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