Ideas for Process Analysis

How to survive three AP classes Simultaneously

1.     At the beginning of class, have everything ready, if you go to your locker you for a pencil you will miss an important piece of information that will for sure be on the Final

2.     Never look at the clock, it is your enemy. While in a boring lecture the clock will take forever for simply one minute, but when writing your essay for the AP exam the minute hand will seem like it is applying at NASCAR for a position.

3.     Do not hesitate to ask questions for clarification. If you don’t, the teacher will assume you know the answer and move on. If you do, the teacher will still sometimes move on, but at least you have notified him or her that you are confused and that they can put an extra four sets of questions about that topic on the test.

4.     At the end of class wait until the lecture is over, teachers like to throw in some important information right before you leave

5.     Turn in work on time

6.     Expect very little sleep and no social life

7.     Do not be involved in sports

8.      

Campus Racism 101 Precis

Nikki Giovanni, in her revealing essay titled "Campus Racism 101" informs black students on how to survive college and also remarks on the unnecessary racism that take place in colleges. Giovanni uses lists (got to class, meet your professors...), question and answers (What's it like to grow up in a ghetto?), and visual imagery (It shows a young man ... "Maybe I'll start a band") to lead her black readers into a predominantly white college because the benefits of education outweigh the negative side effects of racism. Nikki Giovanni, with her clear precise lists, makes it very clear that black people should get an education even if they have to endure the hardships of racism. Giovanni is directly addressing a younger population by informing them how to achieve success at college, but indirectly she is writing to a wider whiter audience by bringing forth the issue of racism.

Whoa! Personal Narrative

Narration

Whoa!

I won a goldfish in the fair when I was five and brought it to my castle triumphantly. Mom and dad were skeptical, but I persisted and thus a long line of goldfish pets proceeded in my future years. At some point, however, I grew disinterested in my swimming friends. Soon my parents were forcing me to clean the fish bowl instead of me willingly attacking it with a sponge. Eventually the fishes simply died off, and I never replaced them. This gave my parents little faith in my skills of animal care taking and when five year old me asked for a pony my request was quickly denied. I would not give in. It was my destiny to be a rider.

 The crusade to win a steed was short lived. I achieved my goal through tenacious subtle hints such as paying for my own horse back riding lessons to silently making “clip-clop” noises around the house. In seventh grade my mother consented to the beginnings of a search for a horse. The first horse that I could find for a reasonable price was a bay mare that hadn’t been ridden for a year. Her name was Winter, and I quickly signed the papers to bring her home.

Winter, the living being that I was now monetarily and physically responsible for, was no goldfish. The stable I boarded at allowed me to pay less if I scooped out the manure from her paddock instead of letting a hand do it, and considering the budget of a thirteen year old I went to work with a wheelbarrow everyday. This took much more time than simply emptying out the water from a fish tank once a week and I occasionally resented her for the heavy wheel-barrows I was forced to push.   There was also the matter of exercise. She bucked me off everyday within the first month of riding her. During the first winter that we had the horses in Alaska the wind blew to a chilly negative twenty degrees, and I donned an extra jacket or four to give Winter the exercise she needed through the foot deep snow. My fingers were so cold that I would often ride bareback so that I could burrow my hands in her warm fur as I rode.

One day I finished a considerably long school day and was exhausted. I went home and promptly fell asleep only to be awoken by my mother at around midnight with a basket of towels in one hand and a hair dryer in the other. “Al, you have to go dry off your horse before she gets pneumonia “ I rolled over and buried myself further into my blankets.  My mother pointedly left the light on in my room and I eventually stumbled out bleary eyed and grabbed a flashlight. When I reached the barn I saw Winter, standing under her shelter, calmly munching hay as her sides quivered from the cold. The extension cord nearby looked like a snake ready to bite my hand as I snapped the hair dryer into the plug and overturned a bucket to serve as a stool. Little streams, which were not there in the morning, ran past the shelter that Winter and I were under. As I removed the moisture from Winter’s fur I could envision tiny fishes swimming down the streams, escaping towards the ocean. Once her hair was fluffy, and she seized to shiver, I gave Winter an apple and headed back to bed, only to wake up in four hours to go riding.

My parent’s although doubtful at first, began to take notice of how truly passionate I was about everything to deal with horses. Instead of books, clothes, and shopping cash my Christmas and Birthday presents soon became saddles, bridles, and hay money. I was much happier to muck out a paddock then clean the slime out of a fish bowl, and eventually the rigorous days that it took me to pay for, clean up after, and exercise my horse became routine. That heavy wheel-barrow was as portable as the gold fish I brought home all those years ago.

Poetry Out Loud

Life Cycle of Common Man
by Howard Nemerov

Roughly figured, this man of moderate habits,

This average consumer of the middle class,

Consumed in the course of his average life span

Just under half a million cigarettes,

Four thousand fifths of gin and about

A quarter as much vermouth; he drank

Maybe a hundred thousand cups of coffee,

And counting his parents’ share it cost

Something like half a million dollars

To put him through life. How many beasts

Died to provide him with meat, belt and shoes

Cannot be certainly said.

          But anyhow,

It is in this way that a man travels through time,

Leaving behind him a lengthening trail

Of empty bottles and bones, of broken shoes,

Frayed collars and worn out or outgrown

Diapers and dinnerjackets, silk ties and slickers.

Given the energy and security thus achieved,

He did . . . ? What? The usual things, of course,

The eating, dreaming, drinking and begetting,

And he worked for the money which was to pay

For the eating, et cetera, which were necessary

If he were to go on working for the money, et cetera,

But chiefly he talked. As the bottles and bones

Accumulated behind him, the words proceeded

Steadily from the front of his face as he

Advanced into the silence and made it verbal.

Who can tally the tale of his words? A lifetime

Would barely suffice for their repetition;

If you merely printed all his commas the result

Would be a very large volume, and the number of times

He said “thank you” or “very little sugar, please,”

Would stagger the imagination. There were also

Witticisms, platitudes, and statements beginning

“It seems to me” or “As I always say.”

Consider the courage in all that, and behold the man

Walking into deep silence, with the ectoplastic

Cartoon’s balloon of speech proceeding

Steadily out of the front of his face, the words

Borne along on the breath which is his spirit

Telling the numberless tale of his untold Word

Which makes the world his apple, and forces him to eat.

Ideas for Themes

1. Responsibility
2. Respect
3. Crowded
4. cautionary
5. crazy

Walden Essay

As describe in Walden what is Thoreau's assessment of American Culture (what is wrong with it)?  Using specific evidence from the text discuss and outline his argument.  Then respond to it.  Do you agree or disagree with his insights?  Discuss.

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” quoted from Walden, a philosophical writing on the importance of materials and nature to human society written by Henry David Thoreau. Throughout Walden Thoreau uses his experience at Walden Pond to analyze and justify his assessment of American culture; that men while remaining spiritually asleep labor and fight to get to the top of the social ladder using materials as a source of measurement of their riches. However, they toil uselessly. Through the use of the title and symbolism Thoreau urges his readers to break from conformity and focus on the crucial things. Only if they do this will they truly be living.

The title of Thoreau’s most important work is selfless in name. By naming the book after a pond, Walden, rather than “Thoreau’s experiment” he emphasizes nature rather than humanity. This focuses on Thoreau’s theme of nonconformity and honing in to the simple and important motions of life. Throughout Walden Thoreau argues that Americans spend too much of their time focusing on obtaining materialistic wealth without appreciating to the true beauty of life which can be displayed in nature. This title goes against Americans’ view of life thus challenging the reader to think differently and break from American conformity.

Walden’s title is not the only item that encourages spiritual growth and nonconformity: symbols do as well. In the Chapter Economy Thoreau describes a search for three animals: the hound, the bay horse, and the turtle dove. All three of these animals are used in races in real life. Just like everyone around him these beasts have no time to stop, but are constantly competing against one another to get the top title. This metaphor encourages Thoreau’s readers to stop racing for “the next big thing”, jump off the track, and compete for what they are passionate about. Also, to further drive home his message Thoreau does not directly tell the reader to stop in life, but by making this metaphor difficult to understand one has to stop and analyze the writing thus disrupting the flow of the book. Just like you should disrupt the flow of your life.

In my own opinion I believe that Thoreau was accurate in requesting his readers to search for what they truly believe in rather than what society forces them to want. However I disagree with his radical concept of breaking away from society. For example, Thoreau was arrested for not paying poll taxes because the money went towards the Mexican American war and the expansion of slavery. Although I admire his willingness to stick up for his moral beliefs I believe that breaking the law to show your defiance is not acceptable.