Thursday, September 25, 2014

Junior and Senior Assignments for September 29-October 2



BOOKS MUST BE READ NEXT WEEK!

Seniors



Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class. All students will take their Benchmark Exam using IPADS.



Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Utilizing information from last week’s analysis, students will write a five-paragraph essay explaining in 1787, which political party, the Federalists or Anti-federalists, they would belong to citing at least three reasons.



Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class.  Students will watch brief biographies on Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Students will then read some of Emerson’s work annotating the effective use of rhetoric.



Thursday- Journals Due! Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will read a selection from Thoreau and also annotate for effective rhetoric.  Students will then create Venn Diagrams comparing Thoreau and Emerson.

Juniors



Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class. All students will take their Benchmark Exam using IPADS.



Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  The teacher will conduct a mini-lesson on figurative language; namely metaphors, extended metaphors, personification, hyperboles).  Teacher will then show students how to create a graphic organizer intended on clarifying meaning in older poetry. As a class, students will read, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and answer guided questions analyzing specific poetic elements. 



Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class. As a class, students will read, “Huswifery,” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” and answer guided questions analyzing specific poetic elements.  Independently, students will answer analysis questions on the After Reading handout.



Thursday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will write five paragraph essays discussing what the poems by Bradstreet and Taylor have in common?  What distinguishes one poet’s work from the other’s? Students must use specific evidence from the poems for each supporting paragraph.




Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Junior and Senior Assignments for the week 9-22/9-25




 Seniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class. The teacher will lead a discussion regarding The Federalist Papers. Students will then annotate text in order to answer the following:
Why do historians and other people today think The Federalist Papers is so important?

What are two key ideas about our Constitution and government that The Federalist Papers explain?

The class will then hold a discussion regarding their findings.

Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  There will be a school-wide STEM ASSEMBLY for a vast majority of the morning.  Classes that I get the privilege to see will either read or use time to makeup work. 


Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class.  The class will hold a mini discussion to focus class.  Students will then answer questions 1-7 in The Federalist Papers packet citing evidence for each answer.

Thursday- Journals Due! Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will participate in a group project in which they are assigned a federalist or anti-federalist to represent in a class debate.

Juniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class.  Students will be given a copy of The Declaration of Independence and a set of SOAPSTONE questions which coincide, citing textual evidence whenever possible.  

Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  There will be a school-wide STEM ASSEMBLY for a vast majority of the morning.  Classes that I get the privilege to see will either read or use time to makeup work. 

Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class. Students will be given a copy of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and a set of SOAPSTONE questions which coincide that they must answer, citing textual evidence whenever possible.

Thursday- Journals Due! Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will take a Formative Assessment regarding US Seminal text and complete a Poem Analysis of The Second Coming” written by W.B.Yeats
 
Junior Handouts
Name:
Teacher’s name:
Class title:
Date:

“Declaration of Independence” Guided SOAPSTone

Directions: Remember that you need to answer each question in it’s entirety and with complete
sentences. You will need to refer back to the text and to the notes in order to answer these questions.
For several of the answers, you will need to answer with more than one sentence.
Before you begin, a little background:
1. When was the Declaration of Independence written?
2. How many colonies did the Declaration of Independence affect?
S→ Speaker: This is different than the other texts we’ve read because while there is one person who
physically wrote it, it reflects the ideas of a committee of people.
● Who are the speakers of the text (their roles, not individual names)? Who do these
speakers represent?
● Overall, what class do these individuals come from?
● What is the sex of the group members? Why might this be significant?
O→ Occassion:
● What events prompted the authors to create this text? There are many, identify and
discuss the major ones.
● What were the effects of this document?
A→ Audience:
● Who is the audience? How do we know?
● What kind of language do the speakers use? What are some examples?
● What ideas do the speakers evoke from the audience?
● What references do the speakers make to make a point with the audience?
P→ Purpose:
● What is general goal of the text?
● What reaction is the author wants?
● What evidence of Pathos did you see in the piece? Prove a quote and explain how it
helps prove his point.
● What evidence of Ethos did you see? Provide a quote and explain how it helps prove
his point.
● What evidence of Logos did you see? Provide a quote and explain how it helps prove
his point.
S→ Subject:
● There are three different sections of this text, what is the subject of each? Why are the
broken down into these three sections?
Tone:
● Go back through the text and list any words that you see repeated multiple times:
● How would you describe the tone of these words?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:
Teacher’s name:
Class title:
Date:

“Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” Guided SOAPSTone
Directions: Remember that you need to answer each question in it’s entirety and with complete
sentences. You will need to refer back to the text and to the notes in order to answer these questions.
For several of the answers, you will need to answer with more than one sentence.
Before you begin, a little background:
1. Where was it written?
2. When was the Declaration of of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen written?
3. What type of government was it meant to abolish?
S→ Speaker: This is different than the other texts we’ve read because while there is one person who
physically wrote it, it reflects the ideas of a committee of people.
● Who are the speakers of the text (their roles, not individual names)? Who do these
speakers represent?
● Overall, what class do these individuals come from?
● What is the sex of the group members? Why might this be significant?
O→ Occassion:
● What events prompted the authors to create this text? There are many, identify and
discuss the major ones.
● What were the effects of this document?
A→ Audience:
● Who is the audience? How do we know?
● What kind of language do the speakers use? What are some examples?
● What ideas do the speakers evoke from the audience?
● What references do the speakers make to make a point with the audience?
P→ Purpose:
● What is general goal of the text?
● What reaction is the author wants?
● What text is this based off of and what similarities to do you note?
● What evidence of Pathos did you see in the piece? Prove a quote and explain how it
helps prove his point.
● What evidence of Ethos did you see? Provide a quote and explain how it helps prove
his point.
● What evidence of Logos did you see? Provide a quote and explain how it helps prove
his point.
S→ Subject:
● What is the subject of the text?
● What text is this based off of and what similarities to do you note? Please use specific
examples.
Tone:
● Go back through the text and list any words that you see repeated multiple times:
● How would you describe the tone of these words?
Post Questions:
1. Where in the Declaration of Rights of Man do you find evidence of Thomas Jefferson's
influence? Cite specific sections or phrases.
2. What parts sound especially like the Declaration of Independence? Quote them here.
3. What parts seem to address specific problems France had in the 1780s?
4. Do you think the values presented in these documents ring true today? Give examples of how
they do/do not.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Second Coming
by W. B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

1. Why do you think Yeats put so many confusing symbols in the poem? Many poets, when they
use symbolism, try to make everything relate to each other. But what does falconing have to do
with a sphinx or a "blood-dimmed tide," and what does either of them have to do with a sphinx
and the "indignant desert birds"? Most people who read this poem want to make these things
correspond to something real in the world. But we have to consider that Yeats did not want his
poem to be interpreted in this way.

2. How would you explain the poem’s relationship to the Bible? Most of the symbols are very
general and timeless, like something out of the Book of Revelation. But it’s also easy to tell that
this is notthe Bible. For one thing, Christ doesn’t show up at the end, but a "rough beast." Does
the poet sound like a religious man, and, if so, what kind?
3. Why does Yeats think of history as this swirling vortex, the gyre? Because the gyre moves further
and further from its center, does it mean that things are always getting worse? It should be
mentioned that Yeats’s idea was highly original and not shared by everyone. There are still plenty
of people, even today, who think that history is linear (except for a few blips like wars), and that
society is constantly improving itself.

4. Is it possible that the appearance of the "rough beast" could be good for the world, in the end?
After all, if the world is already so violent that "innocence is drowned," things can’t get much direr.
Maybe Yeats thinks it’s like tearing down an old building in order to put up a new one. But, then
again, there’s nothing in the poem about society rebuilding itself.

5. Do you think the poem could apply to the entire world, or is it only intended for Christian Europe?
People in other civilizations, for example the Middle East, have found this to be a very compelling
poem, and they have made it fit into their own views of history. Maybe it speaks most directly to
people with an "apocalyptic" outlook, who think that big, sweeping changes are on the horizon.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Junior and Senior Assignments for the Week of September 15-19, 2014



Do not forget to check out our Gila County Fair Project this weekend!!!

Seniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class. Students will write a five-paragraph essay discussing how Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X employed literary elements of tone, word choice, and rhetoric in order to deliver effective themes.

Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Utilizing the US Amendments, students will analyze historical court cases and answer accompanying questions citing legal and constitutional text to support their answers/reasoning for each question. (See Below) Link to Constitution


Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class.  Utilizing the US Amendments, students will analyze historical court cases and answer accompanying questions citing legal and constitutional text to support their answers/reasoning for each question. (See Below)

Thursday- Journals Due! Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will participate in ASU’s MLK poetry/essay contest. Entries DUE MONDAY!!!!

Juniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class.  Students will write a five-paragraph essay discussing the use of word choice, diction, and the influential power of public speaking in the US seminal text analyzed this week.


Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will read Madison’s Federalist #10 Papers and annotate to determine the meaning of the word “faction.”

Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class. In cooperative groups, students will create informational posters defining the word “faction” by collaborating annotations, and explaining the meaning by providing at least three blended and elaborated pieces of evidentiary support from Madison’s Federalist #10 Papers.

Thursday- Journals Due! Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will participate in ASU’s MLK poetry/essay contest. Entries DUE MONDAY!!!!




Senior Handouts

1.  Roe v. Wade – Case Brief Summary

Summary of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973).

Facts

Roe (P), a pregnant single woman, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of the Texas abortion laws. These laws made it a crime to obtain or attempt an abortion except on medical advice to save the life of the mother.
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Hallford, a doctor who faced criminal prosecution for violating the state abortion laws; and the Does, a married couple with no children, who sought an injunction against enforcement of the laws on the grounds that they were unconstitutional. The defendant was county District Attorney Wade (D).
A three-judge District Court panel tried the cases together and held that Roe and Hallford had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies, and that declaratory relief was warranted. The court also ruled however that injunctive relief was not warranted and that the Does’ complaint was not justiciable.
Roe and Hallford won their lawsuits at trial. The district court held that the Texas abortion statutes were void as vague and for overbroadly infringing the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs. The Does lost, however, because the district court ruled that injunctive relief against enforcement of the laws was not warranted.
The Does appealed directly to the Supreme Court of the United States and Wade cross-appealed the district court’s judgment in favor of Roe and Hallford.

Questions:  Answer each question, supporting your answer/reasoning with Constitutional Amendments/legal reasoning.

  1. Do abortion laws that criminalize all abortions, except those required on medical advice to save the life of the mother, violate the Constitution of the United States?
  2. Does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution protect the right to privacy, including the right to obtain an abortion?
  3. Are there any circumstances where a state may enact laws prohibiting abortion?
  4. Did the fact that Roe’s pregnancy had already terminated naturally before this case was decided by the Supreme Court render her lawsuit moot?
  5. Was the district court correct in denying injunctive relief?

2.  Marbury v. Madison – Case Brief Summary

Summary of Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 1 Cranch 137, 2 L. Ed. 60 (1803).

Facts

On his last day in office, President John Adams named forty-two justices of the peace and sixteen new circuit court justices for the District of Columbia under the Organic Act. The Organic Act was an attempt by the Federalists to take control of the federal judiciary before Thomas Jefferson took office.
The commissions were signed by President Adams and sealed by acting Secretary of State John Marshall (who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and author of this opinion), but they were not delivered before the expiration of Adams’s term as president. Thomas Jefferson refused to honor the commissions, claiming that they were invalid because they had not been delivered by the end of Adams’s term.
William Marbury (P) was an intended recipient of an appointment as justice of the peace. Marbury applied directly to the Supreme Court of the United States for a writ of mandamus to compel Jefferson’s Secretary of State, James Madison (D), to deliver the commissions. The Judiciary Act of 1789 had granted the Supreme Court original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus “…to any courts appointed, or persons holding office, under the authority of the United States.”

Questions:  Answer each question, supporting your answer/reasoning with Constitutional Amendments/legal reasoning.

  1. Does Marbury have a right to the commission?
  2. Does the law grant Marbury a remedy?
  3. Does the Supreme Court have the authority to review acts of Congress and determine whether they are unconstitutional and therefore void?
  4. Can Congress expand the scope of the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction beyond what is specified in Article III of the Constitution?
  5. Does the Supreme Court have original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus?

Junior Handout

The Federalist No. 10

The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued)

Daily Advertiser
Thursday, November 22, 1787
[James Madison]

To the People of the State of New York:

AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side, as was wished and expected. Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true. It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations.
By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.
There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.
It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.
The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets.
It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.
The inference to which we are brought is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.
If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed. Let me add that it is the great desideratum by which this form of government can be rescued from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind.
By what means is this object attainable? Evidently by one of two only. Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression. If the impulse and the opportunity be suffered to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an adequate control. They are not found to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful.
From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.
A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union.
The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended.
The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose. On the other hand, the effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people. The question resulting is, whether small or extensive republics are more favorable to the election of proper guardians of the public weal; and it is clearly decided in favor of the latter by two obvious considerations:
In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude. Hence, the number of representatives in the two cases not being in proportion to that of the two constituents, and being proportionally greater in the small republic, it follows that, if the proportion of fit characters be not less in the large than in the small republic, the former will present a greater option, and consequently a greater probability of a fit choice.
In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters.
It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representatives too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures.
The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of republican than of democratic government; and it is this circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to be dreaded in the former than in the latter. The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.
Hence, it clearly appears, that the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic, -- is enjoyed by the Union over the States composing it. Does the advantage consist in the substitution of representatives whose enlightened views and virtuous sentiments render them superior to local prejudices and schemes of injustice? It will not be denied that the representation of the Union will be most likely to possess these requisite endowments. Does it consist in the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties, against the event of any one party being able to outnumber and oppress the rest? In an equal degree does the increased variety of parties comprised within the Union, increase this security. Does it, in fine, consist in the greater obstacles opposed to the concert and accomplishment of the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority? Here, again, the extent of the Union gives it the most palpable advantage.
The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.
In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists.
PUBLIUS

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Junior and Senior Assignments for the Week of September 8-11,2014




Important Note: All speeches analyzed can be found online.  Just search for them in Google.

Seniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class. Students will read and annotate the first 2 pages (front and back) Martin Luther King’s, “I’ve been to the Mountain Top” and annotate for tone, word choice, and rhetoric in cooperative groups.

Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will read and annotate the last 2 pages (front and back) Martin Luther King’s, “I’ve been to the Mountain Top” and annotate for tone, word choice, and rhetoric in cooperative groups.

Wednesday- Students will complete their journal the first ten minutes of class.  Students will read and annotate the entire selection from Malcolm X’s “After the Bombing,” and annotate for tone, word choice, and rhetoric in cooperative groups.

Thursday- Picture Day :) Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will write a five-paragraph essay discussing how Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X employed literary elements of tone, word choice, and rhetoric in order to deliver effective themes.

Juniors

Monday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class.  Students will watch a YouTube video of Danny Glover read Frederick Douglas’s speech, “4th of July.”  Students will then analyze and annotate the text version of the speech noting how diction and word choice can be affected by reading a text aloud. 
Video Link:

Tuesday- Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will watch a YouTube video of FDR’s Inaugural speech.  Students will then analyze and annotate the text version of the speech noting how diction and word choice can be affected by reading a text aloud. 

Wednesday- Students will complete their journal and ACT prep the first ten minutes of class.  Students will watch a YouTube video of Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech.   Students will then analyze and annotate the text version of the speech noting how diction and word choice can be affected by reading a text aloud. 

Thursday- Picture Day :)Students will read the first ten minutes of class.  Students will write a five-paragraph essay discussing  the use of word choice, diction, and the influential power of public speaking in the US seminal text analyzed this week.