Final Exam Monday Afternoon

As discussed in class Wednesday, please study modules 2,3,4, the US History part of module 5, and module 6 for the final exam Monday afternoon. As usual, I recommend early and frequent short study sessions, flash cards, collecting study materials, quizzing with a partner, and plenty of sleep to prepare for this small "cultural literacy" component to our mostly inquiry-based course.

BTW - many of the surveys from HW 60 evidence important thinking and have been fascinating to read.

HW 60 - Final Survey

Please fill out the final survey. Warning - it isn't anonymous and it requires you to examine some of your past work and use evidence for a few questions!

Due Friday June 10 at 3:10pm.

HW 59 - SOF Prom 2011 & DSPs

We've thought about, discussed, investigated, and read about dominant social practices around prom. In particular there has been some analysis of the aspects of conspicuous consumption, prom as a child's version of an aspirational rite of passage into adulthood (staying up all night!), and the relatively scripted sequence of activities. How do our explorations relate to prom as actually experienced by SOF students May 26, 2011?

If you participate in prom this week, please write up a 2-4 paragraph analysis of how the experience you and others shared relates to what we've learned. Which ideas or observations from the course resonate with what you noticed in real life? Which ideas or observations seemed off-base in light of Thursday night? What insights seem more available to you as a direct-participant rather than just a student of the ritual? What costs and benefits did you notice from having thought about the topic in a scholarly way before experiencing it for yourself? Did prom feel magic & transformative or did those expectations strike you as hype?

If you don't participate in prom this week, please complete the assignment based on your experience of NOT participating, your plans for future (non)participation, and based on interviews and digital artifacts of people who went to the dance and/or after-party.

Good luck to everyone going. You can have carnival and still look out for each other in terms of safety and feelings.

Due Friday, May 27 at 9pm.

HW 58 - Prom Interviews

Please interview the following categories of people regarding their insights and experiences around prom.

1. 1-2 people your age who haven't been to prom about what they expect the experience to include, some reasons they want to participate or not participate, their thoughts on the dominant social practices (DSP) of prom, etc.
2. 1-2 people a little older than you who have been to prom about what they experienced and insights about their experience and the DSP of prom.
3. 1-2 people significantly older than you, ideally parents/relatives/guardians, about what they understand of DSP of prom and their own experiences & insights around this ritual.

Please record the interviews (notebook, audio, or video), type up highlights in a couple paragraphs, and write at least one paragraph of analysis of popular understandings of prom. Pay especial attention to considerations of significance, implications, and powerful interpretations of prom. Try to pull particularly insightful analyses or beautiful and thought-provoking language from your interview experience.

Please post by Tuesday, May 24 at 8pm.

HW 57 - Initial Thoughts on Prom

Please write your initial thoughts on prom in 2-3 paragraphs. Explore your own experience, theories, and thought-provoking descriptions thoughtfully - not just a bunch of bubbles.

Also please provide a list of 3-5 really interesting questions that you hope to explore in the next week.

Due Monday, May 23, at 7pm.

HW 56 - Culminating Project Comments

Please notify your mentor and protege of this assignment now. Ask them each for a specific piece of feedback about an aspect of your culminating project (you decide - idea, execution, description, contradictions, evidence, etc).

Tuesday, May 17 you made your 1-2 minute elevator speech soliciting interest in your culminating project for the Care of the Dead Unit. For this assignment you should post comments on 2-4 other peoples' HW 55. Copy and paste the comments (including a link back to their post) on your own blog as HW 56 by Wednesday, May 18 at 1pm. By Wednesday 9pm please add a dotted line underneath your comments on others blogs and copy and paste other peoples' comments on your culminating project, including those of your mentor and protege.

HW 55 - Culminating Project - Care of the Dead

Transform your understanding from interviews, speakers, class discussion, books, independent research, and film into an active project that meaningfully contributes to our collective social practices.

Choice 1: Organize a personal experience around this topic and write a narrative/make a film of your experience. Post it on your blog - ideally with uploads of photos and/or video. If you make a film it needs to be less than 5 minutes long and well-edited and include at least a paragraph or two of written analysis. Possibilities - attend a funeral, be present for an embalming, write up your family members' death plans, etc.

Choice 2: Create an advocacy campaign, either alone or working with an existing group (or one you form), that creates change in dominant social practices around the care of the dead.

• Identify your desired change
• stakeholders in that issue
• means of communicating persuasive ideas/stories/information
• do the change effort
• and evaluate using at least 2 follow-up surveys or interviews

Post a short summary of your work and its effects on your blog (2-3 paragraphs, ideally with uploads of flyers, photos, letters, etc.).

Choice 3: Write a 2-5 page essay that assembles powerful evidence to analyze a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around the care of the dead. Post it on your blog with an MLA works cited section. Some possibilities - Natural Burial around NYC, Relevant State & Local Regulations around Home Funerals in NYC, Pricing Death Care in NYC, Theological Perspectives on Resurrection versus Spirits in the Sky, Are Dead Bodies Dangerous?, etc.

Due Monday May 16 at 7pm.

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.

HW 54 - Independent Research B

1. Consult key philosophical &/or theological texts in either the tradition you grew up in, or the tradition you feel closest to now (or a third tradition that you find fascinating, if you really want to). For instance, if you grew up in a Christian tradition (or now feel close to that tradition, or just feel particularly fascinated by that discourse) you could compare and contrast what the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John suggest about "heaven" and "eternal life".

2. Interview someone in the theology/philosophy field who has spent significant time thinking about, reading about, and discussing the concepts of death, afterlife, annihilation, Heaven, eternal return, reincarnation, etc. It would be preferable, probably, to interview someone with a belief system similar to your own but more clearly developed.

Ideally, you would do some independent reading, speak to the expert, ask the expert about further reading, do the further reading, and then have a follow-up conversation or email exchange with the expert.

Please post your 3-7 paragraph analysis of theories of death from the tradition you studied, extensively quoting both primary sources and personal communication with an expert. Use proper citations, which "look like this" (Andy 10).

Due Wednesday, 11th of May at 9pm.

HW 53 - Independent Research A

To better inform our work please conduct the following independent research;
1. Find 2-3 articles from the NYT or other dominant discourse purveyors that discuss interesting aspects of the care of the dead. You could look for articles that relate to history, sociology, anthropology, and/or psychology, etc. Read and take notes on the articles and make a succinct precis for each. Also post an analytical paragraph or two that compares the perspectives the texts you worked with.

2. Interview someone in the death care industry - funeral home director, hearse driver, gravedigger, pre-need sales counselor, coffin-maker, etc. You will find some in your own neighborhood if you look around and you could also use the phone book or Google Maps to locate possible interview subjects. The interview should cover topics you find particularly interesting and important and you should record it using either video, audio, or writing. Please post a paragraph of highlights from the interview and a paragraph of analysis and further questions.

Due Monday, 9th of May at 9pm.

HW 52 - Third Third of the COTD Book

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

Write up a succinct precis of the third 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 connects the revelations of the book to another of the NiW major units AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.

Must be posted by Sunday, May 7, at 10am.

HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

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

Write up a succinct precis of the second 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 either funny or sad about the text AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.

Must be posted by Wednesday, May 3, at 8:30am.

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.

HW 43 - Elevator speech

Re: your culminating project (42) - due Thursday &/or Friday April 6 or April 7.

You should script and practice your speech so that you can deliver it with the assistance of a few reminders on an index card and your memory.

Find ways of making it powerful, fascinating, funny, suspenseful, &/or moving.

The speech must be between 1 & 2 minutes long - it will be delivered in class beginning Wednesday. Your goals;

1. Communicate the essence of your project
2. Interest people in further exploring your project by looking on your blog
3. Craft a compelling self-presentation around your own work using humor, pathos, suspense, passion, etc. (Use of a prop encouraged but optional.)

The rubric for your speech will include;
1. Did you effectively engage the limbic systems of your audience?
2. Did you effectively communicate the essence/main-idea of your project?
3. Did you effectively interest people in reading more about your project?

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

Transform your understanding from interviews, speakers, class discussion, books, independent research, and film into an active project that meaningfully contributes to our collective social practices.

Choice 1: Organize a personal experience around this topic and write a narrative/make a film of your experience. Post it on your blog - ideally with uploads of photos and/or video.

Choice 2: Create an advocacy campaign, either alone or working with an existing group (or one you form), that creates change in dominant social practices around pregnancy & birth. Identify your desired change, stakeholders in that issue, means of communicating persuasive ideas/stories/information, do the change effort, and evaluate, using at least 2 follow-up surveys or interviews the success of your effort. Post a short summary of your work and its effects on your blog (1-2 paragraph, ideally with uploads of flyers, letter, etc.).

Choice 3: Write a 2-5 page essay that assembles powerful evidence to analyze a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around pregnancy & birth. Post it on your blog with an MLA works cited section.

Due Wednesday, April 6 at 8pm.

HW 41 - Independent Research

Please conduct significant (several hours) of independent research regarding ONE or TWO specific aspects of the dominant practices around pregnancy & birth in our culture. Choose an aspect that you want to actually work on - whether in an academic, activist, or experiential way. Create the most specific and fascinating topic for research that you can.

I encourage you to start with the internet but don't end there. Make some phone calls, do a visit or two, look something up in a database or at the library.

Possible aspects to focus on;
1. _______
2. _______
3. NY legislation regarding hospital birth statistics
4. ACOG versus midwives arguments & power struggles
5. The birth process - from contractions to labor to birth to 1st hour
6. NYC abortion options
7. Adoptions in NYC
8. Factors influencing the choices around making babies
9. Particular group's rates and perspectives on childbirth
10. Ideal versus typical male roles during pregnancy & childbirth
11. Best practices for doctors to not dominate patients during this process
12. Becoming a doula
13. Becoming an OB/GYN
14. NYC hospitals and birth centers - statistics, contacts, perspectives
15. Organizations of people meeting in NYC around birth issues for advocacy and education
16. Pregnancy & birth as limit experience
17. Making sense of competing discourses around pregnancy & birth - participants, power networks, ideologies, money, practices.
18. The first hour after birth
19. Government support for pregnant women and mothers in poverty - if you're poor and becoming a mother in NYC what programs could help you and how would you apply?
20. Prenatal strengthening and nutrition and exercise and self-care

A. Create a short annotated bibliography of the 5-10 best sources you find. (another guide)
B. In a paragraph or two sketch out a way you could use your research to support a culminating project for this unit - an experiential or activist or academic project that allows you to become a contributing expert in discourses around this important topic.

Parts A & B of HW 41 should be posted by Friday, April 1, at 8:30am.

HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

You find yourself at a cocktail party with the author of the book you just finished reading. To demonstrate that you really read it, you say, "Hey - thanks for writing __________. Your (thesis/core argument/main idea) _________________________________ (moved me/persuaded me/made me rethink pregnancy & birth)."

But the author, surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text s/he spent months giving birth to asks, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" When you answer, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on ____________________________ , which (added another angle to/connected back to/further developed/contradicted) the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific." And then you listed the top 3 ideas/pieces of evidence/insights/questions from that final third of the book (and somehow even listed page number references).

1. _________ (#)

2. _________ (#)

3. _________ (#)

At this point, realizing that s/he's having a unique conversation with a serious reader of her/his book, the author asks - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" You answer, "Well, let's be clear - your text sought to provide (narratives, historical analysis, journalistic analysis, policy analysis) from the perspective of a ( ....) for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would be, _____________________________. But I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about ________________ & _____________ (as specific as possible). In fact, I'm likely to do __________ ____________ differently as a result of your book." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"

Please copy the above dialogue - fill in the blanks and then rework the dialogue so that it represents your experience honestly and creatively. Humor &/or depth of thought would be much appreciated by your readers.

Due Monday, March 28th at 9pm.

HW 39 - Insights from Book - Part 2

After having read the second hundred pages (roughly) of your book please address the following points either in separate paragraphs or as Q & A;
1. After MLA citation list several topics/areas the book has taught you about that the "Business of Being Born" either ignored or treated differently or in less depth.

2. The major insight the book tries to communicate in the second 100 pages (1-3 sentences) and your response to that insight (2-4 sentences).

3. List 5 interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth discussed in the second hundred pages that you agree deserve wider attention (include page number).

4. Independently research one crucial factual claim by the author in the second hundred pages and assess the validity of the author's use of that evidence.

Suggestions for each of the 4 points above;
1 (contrast) Look back through your notes or through the second hundred pages and make a list of topics discussed. Look at your notes for "Business of Being Born". Think about the most important non-overlap between the two.
2 (thesis) - If you can find an actual quote or two from the book to answer this, that would be better than a paraphrase, perhaps connecting several quotes to be more accurate.
3 (key points) - Check your notes, what struck you, what do you find yourself still thinking about?
4 (evidence) - Use "Cochrane Reviews" which is considered among the most reliable guides to evidence-based clinical practice or, if Cochrane doesn't have it, try PubMed using the search bar on top. That's how the scientists and medical professionals do research. If you can't make either of those sources give you good information then do a Google using terms like 'research' and/or 'study' in addition to the topic you want returned.

Please post by Tuesday, March 22, 8pm.

HW 38 - Insights from pregnancy & birth book - part 1

After having read the first hundred pages (roughly) of your book please address the following points;

1. How the book is organized (2-3 sentences)

2. The major question the book tries to answer (1-2 sentences) and some responses you have to that question (2-4 sentences).

3. The major insight the book tries to communicate in the first 100 pages (1-3 sentences) and your response to that insight (2-4 sentences).

4. 5 interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth that you (and the author) agree deserve public attention (1-2 sentences each)

5. The author's use of evidence - what support does the author build for her/his arguments, how reliable do you find the evidence, how deftly does the author use the evidence without stalling the progress of the book?

Suggestions for each of the 5 points above;

1 (organization) - Look at table of contents, read introduction, flip through book, think about how you would lay out a book you were writing about pregnancy and birth. Map the major topics.

2 (essential question) - Re-read introduction and first chapter - skim through 100 pages again to spot this. If you can find an actual quote or two from the book to answer this, that would be better than a paraphrase.

3 (thesis) - If you can find an actual quote or two from the book to answer this, that would be better than a paraphrase, perhaps connecting several quotes to be more accurate.

4 (key points) - Check your notes, what struck you, what do you find yourself still thinking about?

5 (evidence) - Think about the type of evidence (anecdotal, statistical, logical, etc), the source of the evidence (doctors, mothers, eyewitness, scientists, anthropologists?), and the way the evidence got communicated (endnotes in the back of the book, quotes, footnotes?). Does the text convince you, do you find it honest and accurate?

Due Tuesday, March 15 at 8:30am.

What to Do in 101 Hoy Dia

1. Commenting Instructions 2

Please email your mentor and protege commenters and politely ask them to post comments on your HW 36. Politely means friendly and well-edited greetings, explicit appreciation, THE LINK TO THE RELEVANT POST, and copy and paste from the relevant instructions directly below.

The mentor comments should ideally include;
a. your best (most thought-provoking/powerful/beautiful/sharp) idea or line PLUS
b. any constructive suggestions or further questions regarding this post..

The protege comments should ideally include;
a. your best (most thought-provoking/powerful/beautiful/sharp) idea or line PLUS
b. what your post inspires them to think about and question - in terms of their own lives/situation/understanding.

Those comments should be on your blog by Wednesday 9pm. By Thursday 8:30am you should have copy & pasted them together with your copy & pasted comments to & from your (probably new) commenting-comrades as HW 37 Comments on Birth & Pregnancy Stories.

When you receive a comment please reply with an email thanking the commenter. A simple "Thanks for the comment!" would be fine - though a thoughtful and appreciative response would be even better. Also, when writing blog posts, if relevant, please specifically acknowledge inspiration/ideas/questions you got from a commenter. For instance, "The birth stories I solicited or read from other students' blogs seemed full of both joy and suffering. As Ms. D pointed out in a comment on my blog, this raises the question ...."

Here's an example of what you should email now (if your break HW has been posted on time):

Hi Mentor Bob!

A new semester of commenting begins again! Could you please, when you get the chance, check my latest post here and add a comment? The instructor wants us to collect all comments by Wednesday 9pm. Also, he's altered the instructions a bit - here's what he's asking us to request from you;

"The mentor comments should ideally include;
a. your best (most thought-provoking/powerful/beautiful/sharp) idea or line PLUS
b. any constructive suggestions or further questions regarding this post."

Thanks a lot - and by the way I'm still thinking about the comment you made last month about preparing for dying. And don't forget to let me know when there's a chance to reciprocate for your help!

Take care,
Carmelo

2. Do the drama interns survey.

3. Register your Engrade account and check your grades. If you lost the password information get it from me again - the trick is you "register" using the secret code, and then you make your own user name and password, I think.

4. Do some basic googling/wikipedia type research on aspects of pregnancy & birth that you find most interesting/important/weird/normal. Delve into some of the controversies - map some cross-cultural comparisons - explore some more stories from real people involved. This will eventually turn into HW 38 (or so) - Independent Research. Take notes and copy links on a post which you save as a draft.

5. Related to our food unit - the CIW Farmworkers Protest Tour will be coming through NYC around 1pm today - information on their current campaign.

6. Unsolicited life advice - since you're tired from waking up early today, take the opportunity to make a new (earlier) bedtime tonight. It will help you get more sleep, feel happier, do better, and cushion the shock of Daylight Savings time (on March 13).

HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

Please collect 3-5 pregnancy & birth stories.

Please exercise consideration of your informants' privacy by not publishing any details that would reveal their identities without their permission. Potential interviewees could include your mother or other relatives, neighbors, friends, etc - anyone you know that would be willing to answer questions about their experience of pregnancy and birth. You could (maybe should?) include one interview with someone who witnessed pregnancy & birth closely (eg. a dad or partner) but the rest of the interviews should explore the experience of someone who personally experienced these situations (i.e. the birth-mother). Also, make sure that at least some of the interviews happen in person so that you can experience the emotional transformations involved. If you try to interview a pregnant lady or lady with a newborn on the subway (which might be fun) do it carefully and extra-politely!

Please preface your interviews (which could be recorded in notebooks or using audio or video) with a guarantee of privacy regarding identity. Remember to keep your questions respectful, open-ended, and non-pushy. At the end of the interview please offer your blog address and email/phone # so that your informants can see what you've written and follow up with clarifications or requests.

A few questions to spark your interviews - please make up your own, of course, in addition to any of these that you choose to use;

1. How did pregnancy affect you physically, emotionally, or in other ways?

2. What did you do, while pregnant, to prepare for giving birth?

3. What actions and attitudes by specific other people made your pregnancy and birth more joyous? More challenging?

4. What thoughts and feelings influenced your choice to make a baby?

5. What feelings come back to you when you remember labor and giving birth?

ETC.

For each of the 3-5 stories you collect write up;

1. A narrative paragraph or three of particularly interesting, informative, or insightful elements of the pregnancy/birth experience (what happened, how it felt, thoughts & perspectives of the interviewee, etc) along with a;

2. A paragraph more or less of analysis (from your perspective) of how that story fits in with and informs your understanding, questions, exploration of pregnancy & birth in our culture.

3. At the end of your post, please include a single 1-2 sentence description of a topic/question/issue that you feel inspired to explore as a result of learning these stories in bold.

Due Monday, Feb. 28th at 8:30am.

HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

Please consult peers - people around your age (±5 years) - for their beliefs and perspectives around birth (including pregnancy, babies, becoming a parent, etc.). Using questions and prompts we created together in class ask them to articulate not just their immediate opinions, but also sources, implications, and connections of their perspectives.

Record (audio, video, or notes) 3-5 people from this age group and then write a brief analysis of 2-3 paragraphs that captures the patterns you observe. Use quotes to add flavor. What topics/questions/moments/viewpoints/controversies dominate peoples' concept of birth? Did alternative or counter-hegemonic perspectives get offered? What informs your generation's understanding of birth?

Please select the majority of your interviewees from folks who don't participate in "Normal is Weird". Also, some of the interviews can be through virtual means, but have at least a couple real, face-to-face, conversations.

Due Friday, Feb. 18 at 8:30am.

HW 34 - Some Initial Thoughts On Birth

Please write 2 paragraphs of your current thinking about birth 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 the ideas and questions using some of the processes we discussed in class, rather than only typing up whatever bubbles in your mind. The goal - your best, most interesting, most powerful insights, experiences, and questions you can come up with.

Due Tuesday Feb. 15 at 8:30am.

Extra Credit for Semester

If you're hoping for a few points of extra credit to supplement your grade you had two options this semester (and now have one more);
1. Pass the semester exam.

2. Undertake a service learning project in which you volunteer to work with elderly &/or ill people in hospitals, senior centers, or elsewhere. For this option you should visit with the same people, or at least same place, 2x+ and write up your insights and experiences in 3-5 paragraphs - connecting to dominant social practices of illness & dying.

What did you notice? How did you feel? How did they feel? What social practices most supported those folks in dignity? What social practices most undermined their chance to live well? This should be posted to your blog by 8pm, Sunday , January 30th. Send me an email with the link if you've done this by the deadline so I know to check your blog.

3. Watch "Carnival Around the Central Figure" and insightfully connect it to our course in a 4-6 paragraph essay. Review here - tickets here. Again, send me an email with the link to your post before the deadline (8pm, Sunday, January 30th).

Midterm Exam

The midterm exam will be Monday, required for all, and (to restate) be entirely drawn from the list of what a person needs to know from social studies to be somewhat "culturally literate" in the U.S.

Again, I urge you to prepare for the exam - what you learn now will also help in early June when a final will be drawn from the same list.

Passing with a 33/50 or greater will lead to benefits, failing will lead to no additional penalties.

HW 32 - Thoughts following illness & dying unit

Please post a paragraph or two of your thoughts regarding dominant social practices of illness & dying in our culture.

You could, but don't have to, address one or more of the following questions:

• What's most nightmarish about our culture's practices around illness & dying?
• What alternative practices offer the most positive re-orientation in illness & dying?
• What might you do or address differently as a result of what you've learned this unit, individually and with your family?
• How do dominant social practices (DSP) around illness & dying connect to DSP around food in our culture?
  

Quote other students' insights from their speeches and blog posts if useful.

Due Friday, Jan. 21 at 9pm. Comments from T/W teams due Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 9pm as HW 33.

HW 31 - Comments 3

Please post comments from T/W Teams - see instructions in HW 30. Also, please post copies of comments you made on 2+ additional blogs following the elevator speeches.

Due Thursday, Jan. 20 9pm.

MLK, Jr. Resources

A "top five" audio/video list.
A chronological list of sermons and speeches, including some audio.

20 minutes of respectful and thoughtful listening to Dr. King seems to me a moral obligation on the day in his honor - trying to see the person behind the postage-stamp saint seems an important step towards maturity and maybe even a gesture of resistance against trivialization - trying to grasp some of the nuances in the history and message and movement he embodied seems like a broadening intellectual move.

HW 30 - Illness & Dying - Culminating Experiential Project

Plan and carry-out a project that combines a key text, some internet research, and real world interactions to gather insight on a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around illness & dying. I expect each step (thinking, research, acting, writing, preparing presentation) to require 1-3 hours.

Given the possible canceled day Wednesday, we'll make the due date for your post Sunday at noon, January 16.

Your post should address the following elements:

• What aspect of the dominant social practices around illness & dying did you decide to explore?
• What resource(s) or insight(s) from the unit (if any) connect to this aspect?
• What information did you gather from the internet related to this aspect? Please cite sources.
  
• How did you explore? What did you do in the real world? Did you enjoy it, contribute to another, see something new? Give us some flavor, show don't tell.
• What did you learn?
• What does this show about dominant social practices of illness & dying in our culture?
• Why does that matter?

Your presentations on Monday and Tuesday will be 2 minute "elevator speeches" that share the most interesting aspect of what you did and what you learned. The elevator speeches will serve as an additional grade for the project - you should view them as "best of" rather than "narratives (sequences of actions)" - interested folks with look to your blog for more insight. You should have a single prop (photo, quick handout, or souvenir of your experience) and practice the speech several times before hand (timed).

You should email to ask your T/W teams to contribute comments to your post as soon as you've published it Sunday (proofread and revise first!). "HW 31 - Comments 3" should be up by Tuesday, January 18 at 9pm using the same format as before ("best of" for above/below mentors, other aspect from classmates - then a dashed line and your comments for others in your T/W teams).

HW 29 - Reading and noting basic materials

For this assignment, you will put together a 1-2 page map of crucial information about 3-5 aspects of dominant practices of illness & dying in the U.S.

I imagine 3-5 "domains" made of 1-2 paragraphs each of the condensed situation, with footnoted or in-text citations. The domains that came to mind for me include;

• Facing Terminal Illness – Tuesdays, My Brother, Beth
• Isolation – hospitalization, old folks’ homes, Stigma
• Paying for medical care – historically and now – Sicko, Sick, Landmark, Beth,
• The process of dying – Near-Death, Beth, A Time For Dying
• Being sick – Family interviews, own experience.
  
  

A model of what sort of map you could write about one of the domains:

Process of Dying:

The process of dying includes many variables. Where a person dies, his/her beliefs, support network, and the medical interventions attempted can all significantly impact the experience (but not the outcome). Our guest speaker made a home death for her husband which was an intimate, if grueling, final week together. The film Near-Death documented the backs-and-forths in the dying process in the hospital which included confusion over whether to attempt medical interventions or simply to increase patient comfort through the process. In A Time For Dying a medical anthropologist distinguishes between the historical hospital process, with a “death watch” (93), and the current situation with futile but reimbursable interventions being the norm (97), and the growing desire for a less mechanized death (27).

Note: All of the below excerpts have been password-protected to ensure that the only downloading will be for the educational purposes identified as "Fair Use".
historical excerpts from Sick
journalistic explanation of new health care legislation from Landmark
sociological/psychological analysis of Stigma
anthropological analysis of dying in hospitals
NYT op-ed in favor of less medical interventions in dying

Will be due 9pm, Saturday, January 8.

HW 28 - Comments 2

Please create a separate post - HW 28 - to post your comments for other people re: HW 27, copied from the "Comments" section of their blog. It should look like this:

For Alan, Your most beautiful line was, "Your last paragraph in its entirety spoke many truths to me, sometimes in ways I never even thought about myself (how pain represents the courage to feel). " I think this is so beautifully written, and so true. There can be a certain bliss in pain - but only when embraced and accepted, not fought. If we don't feel these losses we can never value having."

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Underneath the comments you copied that you wrote, please do a dashed line and copy the comments that your T/W team wrote for your HW 27 (ask them all to, if you haven't already). If the people didn't label their relationship to you, please do that for them.

Due Tuesday, January 4 at 8:30pm.