HW 50 - First Third of Care-of-the-Dead Book Post

Please read the first third of your book, taking notes as you go along.

Write up a succinct precis of the first third of the book in a paragraph. Please remember that to write a precis you miniaturize the text, proportionally, in the author's voice, without quotes.

Then please list a handful of short quotes that you particularly enjoyed.

Finally, please write an analytical paragraph that BOTH says something interesting about the text and demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.

Must be posted by Saturday, April 30, at noon.

HW 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Please solicit feedback from the other members of your thinking/writing group, your mentor, and your protege regarding the break HW assignment you think you did best. Copy and paste the comments you make for your t/w groups and then a dashed line and the comments you received as HW 49. Bold the title of the post from break that you want others to comment on.

Please send mentors and proteges a link to the direct post you want them to comment on. Please also send them a specific request for feedback ("the idea in paragraph 2, the metaphor in paragraph 3", etc).

Due Monday May 2 at 8:30am.

MAY 2011 NiW Thinking/Writing (T/W) Groups

• 1 - Mortician Diaries - Allwyn Brendan Ariel Jessica Ruben
• 2 - Mortician Diaries- Alex -Stephen Lora Jin Beatrice
• 3 - Mortician Diaries -Amon -Dima -Ean -Leticia -Besmir
• 4 - Mortician Diaries -Cecil Willie Chris Richard Mathew S
• 5 - Grave Matters -Jessica R. Abe Yuuki David Luz
• 6 - Grave Matters -Bryanna Kristen Brandon Ally
• 7 - Grave Matters -Anthony Felipe Rigel Sarah
• 8 - Grave Matters -Jayson Amber Jared Lina
• 9 Grave Matters -Johnny Abdullah Sarah Christian
• 10 - Grave Matters -Rossi Max Larche Jay
• 11 - Grave Matters -Tamiko Omar Dean Harry
• 12 - Curtains - Michelle Evan Stephanie
• 13 - Curtains -Arden Sharif Mathew B
• 14 - Curtains -Leah Bianca Abdul
• 15 - Curtains -Jasper Amanda Javon
• 16 - Stiff - John Lucas Elizabeth
• 17 - Stiff - Chris Sophia Amhara
• 18 - Stiff -Raven Ben Megumi
• 19 - Stiff - Eloise Naima Devin Nina
• 20 - American Way of Death Revisited - Sam Amber Kevin Martyna K
• 21 - American Way of Death Revisited - Natalie Sarah L. Casey

HW 48 - Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

Please interview two or more older members of your family regarding their beliefs and practices around the care of the dead. Write up a succinct summary including a few particularly interesting quotes from the interviews and then add one to three paragraphs of analysis.

For interview questions you could recycle some of the ones you used in interviewing your peers. You could also make it more personal by asking specific questions about family members who have died. (In that decision, as in all related decisions in these assignments, I encourage you to carefully consider politeness, privacy, the importance of sharing insights, your respondents´ feelings, etc.) You could ask them to articulate how their beliefs connect to their practices (and vice-versa). For instance, if they tend to have church funerals, how does that connect to their religious beliefs? What do they see as strengths and problems with the dominant models?

For analysis you could compare and contrast what the family members say with dominant social practices in the U.S., with each other, with what you and your peers say, etc. You could attempt to figure out underlying beliefs and practices that influence how your family orients itself in the midst of death. You could attempt to think through the contradictions and congruities in how your family deals with these issues. For instance, what functions should care of the dead serve, and in what ways do the practices of your family serve those functions well and not-so-well?

Due Wednesday, April 27 at 8:30am.

HW 47 - Peer Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

Due Friday, April 22 at noon.

HW 47 - Interview peers regarding the care of the dead

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

Please write 2-3 paragraphs of your current thinking about the care of the dead followed by a list of the questions (in order of importance) you'd like to explore in this unit.

You should attempt to work through some of your ideas and questions rather than just typing up the first bubbles that float into your mind. The goal - your best, most interesting, most powerful insights, experiences, and questions you can come up with.

Aim for exploration. You shouldn't be writing an argumentative paper (probably), instead try to get your own thoughts and insights and perceptions flowing.

Some prompts you could use to get yourself started:

1. Your experience with the topic.

2. The way you've been taught to think of and act towards dead people.

3. Social norms around the treatment of dead people in your/our culture(s).

4. Your family's perspective regarding people who have died.

Due Monday, April 18 at 10am.

HW 45 - Reply to Other Peoples' Comments

For HW 45 please write one or more replies to the comments YOU receive - addressing major points of the comments. If the comments all focus on the same basic point, respond to that point. If the comments address multiple points, respond to multiple points.

I'll try to write an example if someone comments on my assignment.

Must be posted by Wednesday, April 13 at 9pm.

HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Please read 5 other peoples' projects.

Select 3-5 that you'd like to leave comments on. I recommend that you select a mix of people whose elevator speeches you particularly enjoyed and people from your Thinking/Writing teams. Also send a polite email with a direct link to HW 42 asking your mentor and protege to comment by Tuesday 8pm (do that now).

Your comments on other peoples' blogs should include;

• a 1-2 sentence summary of their post
• at least one aspect of the post that you particularly valued
• a reason or two why their project matters to you
• (optional) a politely-phrased constructive suggestion

Example 1
Example 2

Example 3

After you leave the comment on their blog please copy and paste it as part of HW 44 on your own blog.

I suggest that you do this assignment this weekend, while most of you still have the elevator speeches fresh in your minds. The assignment must be posted by Tuesday, April 12th at 8pm.