Who are You?FACES OF AMERICA AND LINGUISTIC REALITIES

Preparation for the AP Exam

Throughout this unit, we will have:

Multiple-Choice Prompts

AP Prompts

Annotating Texts to Deepen Analysis

Review SAT vocab and Rhetorical/Literary Terminology

Goals of the Unit: Initial Thoughts

How does one’s language affect how a person sees the world and how he or she thinks and feels?

Why do groups (ethnic, racial, families, people in the same profession, computer “geeks,” youth groups, sports fans, college writing teachers, etc.) tend to develop their own languages, including slang, shorthand expressions, and acronyms, nicknames, and specialized jargon? What purposes do their particular ways of speaking serve?

Do men and women use language differently? If so, how and why?

How does language figure in political debates about specific issues (e.g. immigration, terrorism, etc.)? How does the language of people on one side of the issue differ from the language of their opponents? What causes these differences?

How do people tailor their languages for different audiences, especially when they are trying to persuade people? How should you decide whether the language that they are using is fair or unethical, accurate or misleading?

Is censorship justified with some words that people find offensive? Why or why not?

Quick Write: What do the following terms mean to you?

Diaspora

Alienation

Assimilation

Isolation

Culture

Clashing Civilizations

Said’s Lecture at Amherst: The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkK4pApcwMc

Post-Cold War Reality-shift from economic ideology to cultural differences (“civilization identity”)

Characterization of the Fanatics

Role of the Media Machine and Labelling: “Islam and the West”

How has labelling become reductionist-where racial, ethnic, and national identities are minimized?

How is Said addressing the impact of the events of September 11, 2001?

“Two Ways to Belong in America”

Google Doc

Similarities and Differences between the Sisters: Qualities, Behaviors and Beliefs

Use of Anecdotal Evidence: Ethos and Pathos

Objectivity—How do you present contrasting views with truth?

Analogy of Permanent Resident: “it sounded like the description of a long-enduring, comfortable yet loveless marriage, without risk or recklessness” (300)

“Mongrelization”: Role of a “definition”

AP Prompt Extensions

Extension #1: Argument

Bharati Mukherjee as she concludes the comparisons between her and her sisters choices about immigration and citizenship, writes: “The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the trauma of self-transformation” (last sentence). Write an essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify this statement. Support your viewpoint from your experience, observation, or reading

Extension #2: Argument Analysis

Said’s essay includes a number of loaded terms and explores how “the West” and “Islam” are included. Why are definition and the use of terminology so important to his point in “Clashing Civilizations”? What other terms does he find objectionable and how does he examine them to serve his purpose?

Extension #3: M/C Prompt “Two Ways to Belong in America”

Mother Tongue

Different Uses of Language

Writer: “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade” (417)

Home: “It has become our language of intimacy” (418).

Example of her mother’s tongue: What do you think it means? (418-9)-Expressive vs. Receptive

Loaded Words: “Fractured,” “Broken,” “Limited,” “Imperfect”

Acting as Translator

Contrast between “achievement test” English and her own ability to write

Close Reading and Claims

Expert Group Question Presentations

AP Argument Analysis Prompt Sketch:

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan utilizes a number of explicit and implicit claims. Discuss how Tan refines her claims about language through the sections, including the order in which her points are made, how they are developed, and the connections drawn between the sections.

Marking the Text: Tan Interview

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tan0int-1.

You will be assigned 1 of the 7 pages of the interview. Create a Google doc for sharing in the Group.

Identify key quotes and the context (question as well as ethos) that you would like to share

How do her responses about writing, achievement, etc. relate to “Mother Tongue”?

Class Presentations.

“Notes of a Native Speaker”

Strategies to Contrast between “white” and “colored” experience

Find examples of Liu’s use of the following: “white, by acclamation”/ ”assimilation”/ ”banana”/”American”/”person of color”-How does he define these and use examples to explore their loaded quality? How does returning to the terms deepen the understanding?

How does he use his childhood experiences to demonstrate his assimilation? Role of his parents? His own role?

Concept of Self—Public World vs. Private View-Example of Hair and “Asian overachiever” and “Social Immigrant”

How does Liu give examples of how he focuses on “anti-Asian” stereotypes and his “atypical” pursuits?

Liu writes, “the irony is that in working so duteously to defy stereotype, I became a slave to it” (263). How does his essay serve this purpose?

Marking the Text: Alcazar

Return to Alcazar’s exploration of Assimilation in Liu’s Text

How does Alcazar examine the evidence?

Logos (Green)

Pathos (Yellow)

Ethos (Pink)

AP Extensions: Peer Sketch of Argument

Extension 2: Argument Analysis

In order to develop his ideas about race and culture, Liu returns to a use of common elements of life and culture (food, etiquette, academic achievement, bi-cultural vs. omni-cultural vs. quasi-kinship groups, attempts to fit in, dating). What is the purpose and effect of such elements? How do they serve his argument?

Extension 3: AP Synthesis Essay

Tan writes, “I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenges of disproving assumptions made about me” (422). Compare Tan’s attitude here with Eric Liu’s in “Notes of A Native Speaker” as he defines “white” (p. 251-2). Are they facing the same challenges or responding in the same way? How do the excerpts from “Becoming American-The Chinese Experience” reflect in their narratives?

M/C Questions

Homework

Read “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa (in 50 Essays and on the website)

Thoughts about Reading a text with untranslated Spanish:

Spanish words will not be interpreted, because they are not intended by the author to be interpreted. If you do not understand them, don't worry. You will still understand the majority of the essay. Please allow yourself to consider how NOT understanding the language makes you, the reader, feel. Think about how that helps you relate to the author's experience of being an isolated by the way she uses language. If you do understand the Spanish, you will be at an advantage during the reading of this text. Consider how being "in the know" as you read helps you identify with the author.

As you read, you will fill in the chart in the Reader Response.

Anzaldua: Quick Write Questions

Start by making a list of the contexts that have helped shaped your sense of self. For example, what role does your family play in your formation of an identity? Your friends? Your town? Your language(s)? Your ethnic backgrounds? Your sexual orientation? Your religion? Your musical tastes? etc.

 After you’ve made your list, try to figure out where aspects of your identity appear to be in conflict. For example, were you raised as an evangelical Christian, but you are pro-choice? Do you identify as “white and middle class” but your favorite music is gangsta rap? Is your ethnic background Korean but your first language is English?

 Finally, answer the following question:

-“How do you think you are able to maintain a coherent sense of self when you are host to so many internal contradictions? What strategies do you use to reconcile these competing backgrounds?”

Etienne Balibar: “Fictive Ethnicity”

In Etienne Balibar’s Race, Nation, Class: Ambigious Identities, he develops the construction for what he calls, “the nation form.”

He notes that the nations develop a “civil religion”/”state religion” which create illusions of a common origins and aspirations of “its people.”

Nations create a collective narrative, emphasizing common name and common traditions to create a “community” and “a sense of belonging”

Balibar calls this a “fictive ethnicity” which is reinforced through “popular” institutions—schools, media,sports—which seeks to unite the populace

Balibar notes that this “fictive ethnicity” can be easily challenged, because often its creation can be a re-writing of origins (when nationhood is connected to the land) or no longer fits the globalization within nations through increasing immigration which challenge outmoded ideas of nationhood defined strictly through language, race or ethnicity.

Loaded Language

The Reader Response for Anzaldúa begins with a number of terms that can be applied to her discussion of self, ethnicity, and navigation between multiple forces.

Considering the “loaded” terms and Balibar’s “fictive identity”—select 5 words which you think develop the complexities of identity as expressed by both authors.

Peer Discussion: Share the words you chose and why you think they are important to the discussion

Guided Reading Attack: Questions for Discussion

http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072469315/student_view0/gloria_anzaldua/_nbsp_.html

You will assigned a letter (a-e) for each section, content and style. Post your response into the google group and present to the class.

Power of Three Peer Discussion:

How and why did Chicano/Chicana Spanish arise? How does the author use it? How does it differ from other kinds of Spanish?

Explain the author's concept of "linguistic terrorism." According to Anzaldúa, what repercussions has this trend had for Chicana feminists?

Engaging the Text: Anzaldúa

Select 1 of the following prompts and brainstorm/bullet your ideas and then share with a peer

Recall a time someone made an assumption about you based solely upon the language you used. How did it make you feel? Explain. How can you relate these feelings to your reading?

Should non-English speaking people intending to live in the U.S. learn English? Why or why not? Is English your first language? What impact does the answer to that last question have on your answer to the first two? How might have these factors in your life affected your reading of this essay?

Staking a Claim: Handout

Creating a complex analysis requires developing complex relationships.

Examine the Staking a Claim handout

What are the claims being made?

What evidence from Anzaldúa’s text would you use to develop these claims?

What evidence from other readings could you use?

Rodriguez’s Aria Part 1

How does Rodriguez create his early experiences of education?

How does he create the sense of “belonging”?

How does he contrast the public vs. private identities?

As we read the text, select 2 quotes for each question in part 1.

Annotations for Reading (Using the Comment Tool make these annotations):

changes the author undergoes;

general conclusions that can be made about the author’s attitude toward English and Spanish; and

the author’s ultimate argument against bilingual education.

the role of language in integration

Rodriguez: Aria Part 1 Peer Discussion

How do language and a change in language affect family dynamics and one’s sense of belonging to a culture?

What are the author’s overall feelings and associations with English and Spanish?

Why is it telling that his family calls “the others” by the term “los americanos”?

Why is it significant that his siblings don’t talk about school when they get home each day?

In what ways is the author’s family integrated? In what ways are they not fully integrated?

Rodriguez: Aria—Quick Write

What role does language seem to play in integration?

Why is Rodriguez upset when his parents speak to him in English?

Why has Rodriguez described his family as “foreigners”, and how has his understanding changed in this second part of the text?

What does the author gain and what does he lose when he begins to achieve proficiency in English?

Peer Share—Select 2 of your responses to share

Aria-A Close Look: Questions and Hinge Moments

What does the author gain and what does he lose when he begins to achieve proficiency in English?

Does he lose his intimacy and belonging when he speaks another language? Does he betray his culture? Does he gain a new identity?

Does one have to lose one’s belonging to a culture when one integrates?

What is the author’s argument against bilingual education? Do you agree with him?

Discuss to what degree members of his family have achieved integration and why you think so.

Why are these Hinge (key) moments?

Dad’s “shyness”

Private loss and public gain

The reactions of his relatives—“pocho”

His gradual realization about intimacy

Argument against bilingual education

Extension Activities: Select 1 and Bullet

Prove or refute the following claim, using support from the text: The author believes he has lost his connection to his family as he has adopted English.

Discuss whether someone can truly belong to a culture if he/she does not comfortably speak the language.

Marking the Text: Iraq Aftermath

Richard Rodriguez often provides editorial pieces for the PBS Newshour.

Highlight Rodriguez’s claims about the impact of the war (Pink).

Highlight Rodriguez’s evidence (Green)

Return to Unit Questions on your agenda—which questions does Rodriguez respond to?

Consider Said’s discussion of “Clashing Civilizations?” and how this essay relates.

Synthesis Essay

Using at least three authors essays and two literary criticism articles, develop a discussion of the one or more of the themes of assimilation, alienation, cultural vs. national identity ,diversity, belonging, etc.

4-5 pages, MLA, double-spaced.

Due May 8th.