Extra Credit Opportunities - COTD

Several people have asked for extra credit opportunities. While I feel a little embarrassed about offering extra credit (it diminishes the "college-ready" reliability of my grading system) I decided that, given the various situations I'm aware of, extra credit can be justified.

Each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm.

xc - COTD1. Spend at least a half hour each walking around two or more cemeteries. Post 3-5 paragraphs of your reactions and thoughts and include a small photo with you in each cemetery.

xc - COTD2. Watch "Harold & Maude" and write up 3-5 paragraphs analyzing the significance of the theme of funerals and death in the lives, practices, and beliefs of the three main characters.

xc - COTD3. Go to the "Bodies Exhibit" and read a little about the controversies over it and record your experience, reactions, and questions in a 3-5 paragraph post and include a photo of you at the exhibit.

xc - COTD4. Post an annotated bibliography with links to 15 poems that address the care of the dead. No more than 5 of your poems may be the same as those listed by people who posted before you. Each annotation should include a MLA-correct citation, a two sentence summary of the poem, and a two sentence evaluation of how useful it might be to people trying to better understand various orientations to the care of the dead. Then write a 2-3 paragraph analysis of how your favorite of these poems consolidate, challenge, and/or conceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
A model citation:
Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for death". Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395. Accessed 5/6/2011.
Dickinson imagines a personified death who politely stops to bring her to her eternal resting place. She imagines centuries speeding by while living in a sort of a cold house dressed in just a shawl (actually a shroud).
Dickinson's poem articulates a bemused acceptance of the inevitability of death. Her comparison of the "daily life" of a corpse with our living condition illustrates an anthropomorphic approach to a future existence as a ghostly cadaver that seems to contradict Christian doctrine and theories of annihilation.

xc-COTD5. Watch 3 episodes of "Six Feet Under". Write up a short annotation for each episode - MLA-citation, 2 sentence plot synopsis, 2 sentence evaluation of interest (see the above example regarding Dickinson's poem). Then write a 2-3 paragraph interpretation of how the episodes consolidate, challenge, and/or reconceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.

Again, each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm, and yes, you can do more than one of the five.