Labor Day

Students, I hope that you will devote at least part of this day to time with family and friends.  Please note the following weekly activities:

Ninth graders:  Your puzzle is due tomorrow for a homework grade.  If you do not have your puzzle complete at the beginning of class, you will complete it tomorrow during lunch for a late grade.  You also have a test tomorrow on the following 20 words:  shenanigan(s), trapping(s), stampede, adolescent, earnest, inventory, sensible, smolder, persist, stun, legitimate, unconscious, buoyant, trek, grimace, headlong, materialize, tinge, vulnerable, and underscore.  

I cannot underscore the importance of completing your homework and studying for this test.

If you have not submitted your summer reading project, you should do so this week to avoid a late penalty.

Have a great day!

Juniors:

Tomorrow you will do the following:  (i) complete your Millionaire's Club reading form; (ii) pose for your yearbook photo; (iii) finish your essay on Nickel and Dimed; and (iv) submit your Sedaris annotations at the BOC.   For your ease of reference, the essay question is copies below in green.

Essay Question – August 2011 – Nickel and Dimed

In Scratch Beginnings, Adam Shepard, a 24 year old college graduate, conducts an experiment in which his goal is to provide “a rebuttal to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed” (xv).  As Shepard passionately states:

With investigative projects of her own, Ehrenreich attempted to establish that working stiffs are doomed to live in the same disgraceful conditions forever.  I resent that theory, and my story is a search to evaluate if hard work and discipline provide any payoff whatsoever, or if they are, as Ehrenreich suggests, futile pursuits (emphasis added) (xv).

As you peruse the following quotations, please consider the following questions:

Is Shepard’s description of Ehrenreich’s thesis correct?  How would you characterize Ehrenreich’s thesis?

            Which writer has more credibility or ethos, Shepard or Ehrenreich?

Please note the following salient facts regarding Shepard:

·         At his experiment’s inception, Shepard lived in a shelter for 62 days, during which time he received free room, board, $80 monthly in food stamps, and counseling services (127). “I resolved to stay at the shelter as long as I needed to, until I could find a secure place to live” (113);

·         Shepard obtained employment moving furniture for $10[1] an hour the tenth day of his experiment, plus tips. “Bigger moves meant more hours and bigger tips” (155);

·         Shepard lived in Charleston, South Carolina for the duration of his experiment;

·         Shepard relied on public transportation until the time he could afford to buy a used truck. “[T]he one person that was keeping my spirits up was the bus driver in the morning” (134);

·         After Shepard broke his big toe on the job, the “boss lady Jill was very accommodating about [his] injury. … [Jill] put [Shepard] to work around the office for twenty-five to thirty hours per week” until his fracture healed (139);

·         When Shepard finally moved into an apartment, he shared expenses with a roommate and also received an almost unlimited supply of free furniture. “Now that we had a place to put things, BG and I could start accepting the pieces for our own.  Beautiful pieces.  If you’re ever trying to furnish a house or apartment, go work for a mover” (172);

·         Even though he was young and strong, Shepard found working as a mover to be physically taxing.  “One might have imagined that after my nine months in South Carolina, I would have grown used to the difficulties of moving furniture every day, unaffected by the tediousness of the job and the sore muscles and joints that followed in the evening.  But that wasn’t the case at all.  It had been incredibly demanding on my body, increasingly so with each passing day” (206); and

·         At the conclusion of his experiment, Shepard “[w]hile paying monthly expenses and buying food and fuel and funding [his] own social agenda, [his] bank account and cash on hand totaled just under $5,300 from wages and tips” (206).

After you have considered Shepard’s position, please write an essay in which you assess the ethos of Barbara Ehrenreich.  In addition to your thesis, which is your opinion of Ehrenreich’s ethos, please include the following:

·         Five (5) significant quotes from Nickel and Dimed;

·         A clear statement of Ehrenreich’s thesis;

·         At least one comparison of Ehrenreich’s ethos to Shepard’s ethos; in other words, which author do you trust more?

·         At least one of the foregoing quotes from Scratch Beginnings;  and

·         Acknowledgement of what information, if any, you would like to know about Shepard to make a more definitive comparative evaluation of the two authors.  

You may write your essay from a first person perspective.  Please strive for clarity of expression and format your argument so that your reader (me!) will not have to do the heavy lifting, comprehension-wise.

Finally, your citation format should conform to the following: 

• All quotes from Nickel and Dimed: (Ehrenreich pg#); and
• Quote(s) from Scratch Beginnings: (Shepard pg#).

Have fun, and do good work!

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[1] Nickel and Dimed was published in 2001, and Scratch Beginnings was published in 2008. Accordingly, to truly compare Ehrenreich’s earnings to Shepard’s one must compare the relative values of the dollar at the times of their respective employments.

Wednesday, we will discuss Sedaris and review answers to the summer reading quote test.  Vocabulary quiz?  Hmmmmmmm

Thursday, we will finish Sedaris and begin to discuss "A Modest Proposal."  Your "Modest" annotations are dues at the BOC on Thursday.  Is this a good day for a vocabulary quiz?

Friday, we will continue our discussion and analysis of "A Modest Proposal" and maybe, just maybe, have a vocabulary quiz.

Experience this beautiful day, even if you have to study outside to do so.