Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Wednesday, June 7 bonus day 3 New Yorker article on chicken production





Bonus: 100 points- no make-ups.

Please read the following article and respond in a quick write of 150 words to the following. Weave in specific evidence.

Now that you understand Factory-Produced Chicken and the conditions under which the people work, how might you change this situation?

Have you eaten at Taco Bell, Popeyes or Kentucky Fried Chicken?

EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE AT THE CHICKEN PLANT
Case Farms built its business by recruiting immigrant workers from Guatemala, who endure conditions few Americans would put up with.
By Michael Grabell

Poultry processing begins in the chicken houses of contracted farmers. At night, when the chickens are sleeping, crews of chicken catchers round them up, grabbing four in each hand and caging them as the birds peck and scratch and defecate. Workers told me that they are paid around $2.25 for every thousand chickens. Two crews of nine catchers can bring in about seventy-five thousand chickens a night.

At the plant, the birds are dumped into a chute that leads to the “live hang” area, a room bathed in black light, which keeps the birds calm. Every two seconds, employees grab a chicken and hang it upside down by its feet. “This piece here is called a breast rub,” Chester Hawk, the plant’s burly maintenance manager, told me, pointing to a plastic pad. “It’s rubbing their breast, and it’s giving them a calming sensation. You can see the bird coming toward the stunner. He’s very calm.” The birds are stunned by an electric pulse before entering the “kill room,” where a razor slits their throats as they pass. The room looks like the set of a horror movie: blood splatters everywhere and pools on the floor. One worker, known as the “backup killer,” stands in the middle, poking chickens with his knife and slicing their necks if they’re still alive.

The headless chickens are sent to the “defeathering room,” a sweltering space with a barnlike smell. Here the dead birds are scalded with hot water before mechanical fingers pluck their feathers. In 2014, an animal-welfare group said that Case Farms had the “worst chicken plants for animal cruelty” after it found that two of the company’s plants had more federal humane-handling violations than any other chicken plant in the country. Inspectors reported that dozens of birds were scalded alive or frozen to their cages.

Next, the chickens enter the “evisceration department,” where they begin to look less like animals and more like meat. One overhead line has nothing but chicken feet. The floors are slick with water and blood, and a fast-moving wastewater canal, which workers call “the river,” runs through the plant. Mechanical claws extract the birds’ insides, and a line of hooks carry away the “gut pack”—the livers, gizzards, and hearts, with the intestines dangling like limp spaghetti.

On the refrigerated side of the plant, there’s a long table called the “deboning line.” After being chilled, then sawed in half by a mechanical blade, the chickens, minus legs and thighs, end up here. At this point, the workers take over. Two workers grab the chickens and place them on steel cones, as if they were winter hats with earflaps. The chickens then move to stations where dozens of cutters, wearing aprons and hairnets and armed with knives, stand shoulder to shoulder, each performing a rapid series of cuts—slicing wings, removing breasts, and pulling out the pink meat for chicken tenders.

Case Farms managers said that the lines in Canton run about thirty-five birds a minute, but workers at other Case Farms plants told me that their lines run as fast as forty-five birds a minute. In 2015, meat, poultry, and fish cutters, repeating similar motions more than fifteen thousand times a day, experienced carpal-tunnel syndrome at nearly twenty times the rate of workers in other industries. The combination of speed, sharp blades, and close quarters is dangerous: since 2010, more than seven hundred and fifty processing workers have suffered amputations. Case Farms says it allows bathroom breaks at reasonable intervals, but workers in North Carolina told me that they must wait so long that some of them wear diapers. One woman told me that the company disciplined her for leaving the line to use the bathroom, even though she was seven months pregnant.

Scrambling to find workers in the late nineteen-eighties and early nineties, Case Farms sent recruiters across the country to hire Latino workers. Many of the new arrivals found the conditions intolerable. In one instance, the recruiters hired dozens of migrant farmworkers from border towns in Texas, offering them bus tickets to Ohio and housing once there. When workers arrived, they encountered a situation that a federal judge later called “wretched and loathsome.” They were packed in small houses with about twenty other people. Although it was the middle of winter, the houses had no heat, furniture, or blankets. One worker said that his house had no water, so he flushed the toilet with melted snow. They slept on the floor, where cockroaches crawled over them. At dawn, they rode to the plant in a dilapidated van whose seating consisted of wooden planks resting on cinder blocks. Exhaust fumes seeped in through holes in the floor. The Texas farmworkers quit, but by then Case Farms had found a new solution to its labor problems.


Recently, Case Farms has found a more captive workforce. One blazing morning last summer in Morganton, an old yellow school bus arrived at Case Farms and passed through the plant’s gates, pulling up to the employee entrance. Dozens of inmates from the local prison filed off, ready to work at the plant. Even their days may be numbered, however. During the tour in Canton, Popowycz and other Case Farms managers showed me something they were excited about, something that would help solve their labor problems and also reduce injuries: in a corner of the plant was a shiny new machine called an “automatic deboner.” It would soon replace seventy per cent of the workers on the line. 

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Tuesday, June 6 bonus: Jacob Lawrence Migration seriers


Jacob Lawrence's "The Migration Series"

Migration Series

Broad in scope and dramatic in exposition, this depiction of 

African-Americans moving North to find jobs, better housing,

 and freedom from oppression was a subject he associated

 with his parents, who had themselves migrated from South 

Carolina to Virginia, and finally, to New York.

Lawrence began to research the subject at the

 135th Street Library.

 After many months of reading and taking

 notes, he made sketches or the 

series. Gwendolyn Knight, a painter who was 

to become his wife, helped him identify 

memorable scenes and assisted in gessoing the

 panels and writing the inscriptions. 

Enthralled by fourteenth- and fifteenth-

century Italian paintings he had seen at the 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lawrence used 

their medium—tempera—with a craftsman's

 mastery. To keep the colors consistent, he 

placed the panels side by side and painted 

each hue onto all the panels before going on

 to the next color. Perhaps it was this 

approach that resulted in a sense of 

collective unity, even though each panel can

 stand on its own.

Searing in their immediacy, the works show

 only essential imagery. Flattened, angular

 forms, strong diagonals, and contrasts of

 light and shadow contribute to the dynamism 

of the images. Although Lawrence used a 

limited palette, he arranged the colors to 

form focal points to direct the viewer's 

attention. Some pictures are self-contained; 

others are more expansive. As the narrative 

unfolds, from image to image, the vantage 

point, compositions, and details change—in a 

manner reminiscent of a film. In some panels,

 figures dominate; in others, the setting 

propels the story. The people are not 

individualized; rather, they represent 

collective characteristics. However, Lawrence

 never lost sight of the human drama. In all

 of his work, the human content is paramount.
Assignment: quickwrite

   On a separate sheet of paper, beginning with an MLA 

heading, respond to the following in a well-written paragraph.

How are the narrative images of Lawrence's "The Migration 


Series" reflective of the African American experience the early 

20th century?

Monday, June 5, 2017

Monday, June 5 catharsis exercise


If you did not complete last week's task 2 argumentative essay, the make up is Tuesday or Thursday after school OR periods 1, 2 and 4.


BONUS DAY 1: catharsis exercise  100 points

You will each receive a piece of lined paper. (more up front if you need one)
Your objective is to write.   ABOUT ANYTHING.  No one will see your writing.  ANYTHING YOUR WRITE IS FINE, but you must write the whole class and cannot talk- even once- to anyone.

FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF CLASS YOU WILL COME UP AND DESTROY YOUR WORK.
Anyone who speaks or interacts with another student looses all 100 points. Anyone who leaves the classroom for any reason looses all 100 points.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Tuesday, May 30 Review of task 3; task 2 argumentative essay of common core ela




Response to the excerpt from Alone by Richard E. Byrd:

Byrd student exemplar

http://www.nysedregents.org/hsela/116/hsela12016-rgwc.pdf


Student responses to excerpt for Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula response



http://www.nysedregents.org/hsela/815/hsela82015-rgwrgc.pdf

Part 2 Argument Directions: Closely read each of the four texts provided on pages 11 through 16 and write a source-based argument on the topic below. 

 You may use the margins to take notes as you read and scrap paper to plan your response. Write your argument beginning on page 1 of your essay booklet.

 Topic: Should American citizens be required to vote in national elections?

OR

Topic: Should food be genetically modified?

 Your Task: Carefully read each of the four texts provided. Then, using evidence from at least three of the texts, write a well-developed argument regarding whether or not American citizens should be required to vote OR should food be genetically modified? 

Clearly establish your claim, distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims, and use specific, relevant, and sufficient evidence from at least three of the texts to develop your argument. 

Do not simply summarize each text.

 Guidelines: Be sure to: • Establish your claim regarding whether or not American citizens should be required to vote  OR should food be genetically modified

• Distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims

 • Use specific, relevant, and sufficient evidence from at least three of the texts to develop your argument 

• Identify each source that you reference by text number and line number(s) or graphic (for example: Text 1, line 4 or Text 2, graphic) 

• Organize your ideas in a cohesive and coherent manner 

• Maintain a formal style of writing

 • Follow the conventions of standard written English 

*************************************************

Write your first paragraph
    • Introduce the topic
    • Inform the reader of your point of view! (avoid I)
    • Entice the reader to continue with the rest of the paper!
    • Focus on three main points to develop
   *Paragraph two 
 Address  the opposing argument to get it out of the way.
    Do NOT forget to cite correctly. Weave text into your sentences.

* Paragraphs 3 and 4
    Use three different texts with copious evidence. CITE each.
Weave into your own sentences.

Paragraph 5: Conclusion
     Summarize, then conclude your argument.
      Does your conclusion RESTATE (not repeat) you conclusion?
      Refer back to the opening statement, as well as your main points.
      Does your conclusion reflect the succession and importance of your argument?

IMPORTANT: 
  • Establish flow from paragraph to paragraph
    • Keep your voice active
    • Quote sourcesto establish authority
    • Stay focusedon your point of view throughout the essay
    • Focus on logical arguments
    • Don't lapse into summary
      in the development--wait for the conclusion
TRANSITIONS between and within paragraphs

LOGICAL RELATIONSHIPTRANSITIONAL EXPRESSION
Similarityalso, in the same way, just as … so too, likewise, similarly
Exception/Contrastbut, however, in spite of, on the one hand … on the other hand, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, in contrast, on the contrary, still, yet
Sequence/Orderfirst, second, third, … next, then, finally
Timeafter, afterward, at last, before, currently, during, earlier, immediately, later, meanwhile, now, recently, simultaneously, subsequently, then
Examplefor example, for instance, namely, specifically, to illustrate
Emphasiseven, indeed, in fact, of course, truly
Place/Positionabove, adjacent, below, beyond, here, in front, in back, nearby, there
Cause and Effectaccordingly, consequently, hence, so, therefore, thus
Additional Support or Evidenceadditionally, again, also, and, as well, besides, equally important, further, furthermore, in addition, moreover, then
Conclusion/Summaryfinally, in a word, in brief, briefly, in conclusion, in the end, in the final analysis, on the whole, thus, to conclude, to summarize, in sum, to sum up, in summary


Thursday, May 25, 2017

Thursday, May 25 In class text analysis response.


If you were absent yesterday, you should make arrangements to take the practice reading comprehension.
Unlike the the previous two, which we practiced in class, this was a graded assignment.  I will review the correct responses next Tuesday.

In class today: text-analysis response. There are two samples being distributed, so be mindful that your neighbor will propably have a different text to read. (note the next time you do this will be in the exam.)

I am collecting these at the end of class; however, I will return them at the start of class tomorrow for you to finish.

Make sure to read your task carefully. Underline exactly what you are being asked to do.

Review your guidelines. Make sure you have woven in enough textual evidence to support your thesis. Do not forget to provide an analysis statment at the end. Always ask yourself how or why something is important in terms of the text. One way of considering this is to question what if the particular literary device, literary technique or rhetorical device had not been used.

Sample intro:  The central idea in (insert author with an apostrophe) (instert title and underline) the central idea is ___________________________________. The author uses the (literary device or literary technique or rhetorical device) of _____________________ to develop this theme.

Or
 In  (insert author and title underlined) the central idea is _____________________. To develop this theme, the author uses the (literary device or literary technique or rhetorical device) of ____________________________________.

Thursday, May 25 scoring guide for personal photo project

Name_________________________________ Personal photo project grading
 Theme______________________________________
  close-up, medium-range shot, establishing shot, accurate use of phi grid / rule of thirds, horizontal and vertical format, understanding of the horizon line placement, conscious use of lighting, varied perspective (tilting up or down to convey meaning), conscious framing
           Possible number of points 62     Points received _________
                                                                                                                                         
1. your picture   / theme stated                                  
2. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal/ cut line                
3. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line                 
4. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
5. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
6. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal/ cut line
7. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
8. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
9. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
10.setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line
11. setting / time / brief description of image / type of shot /technical goal / cut line





Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Tuesday, May 23 ela common core reading comprehension review

In class: vocabulary quiz on rhetorical techniques
              Reading comprehension practice.

Part 1 Directions (1–24): Closely read each of the three passages below. After each passage, there are several multiplechoice questions. Select the best suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided for you. You may use the margins to take notes as you read.

 Reading Comprehension Passage A …

The windows were open and the room was filled with loud, unearthly shrieks. Mrs. Munson lived on the third floor, and across the street was a public school playground. In the late afternoon the noise was almost unbearable. God, if she’d only known about this before she signed the lease! With a little grunt she closed both windows and as far as she was concerned they could stay that way for the next two years. But Mrs. Munson was far too excited to be really annoyed. Vini Rondo was coming to see her, imagine, Vini Rondo.…and this very afternoon! When she thought about it she felt fluttering wings in her stomach. It had been almost five years, and Vini had been in Europe all this time. Whenever Mrs. Munson found herself in a group discussing the war she invariably announced, “Well, you know I have a very dear friend in Paris this very minute, Vini Rondo, she was right there when the Germans marched in! I have positive nightmares when I think what she must be going through!” Mrs. Munson said it as if it were she whose fate lay in the balance. … “Vini, back in America,” she thought, never ceasing to revel in the wonder of it. She puffed up the small green pillows on the couch and sat down. With piercing eyes she examined her room. Funny you never really see your surroundings until a visitor is expected. Well, Mrs. Munson sighed contentedly, that new girl had, for a rarity, restored pre-war standards. The door-bell rang abruptly. It buzzed twice before Mrs. Munson could move, she was that excited. Finally she composed herself and went to answer. At first Mrs. Munson didn’t recognize her. The woman who confronted her had no chic up-swept coiffure … indeed her hair hung rather limply and had an uncombed look. A print dress in January? Mrs. Munson tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice when she said, “Vini, darling, I should have known you anywhere.” The woman still stood in the threshold. Under her arm she carried a large pink box and her grey eyes looked out at Mrs. Munson curiously. “Would you, Bertha?” Her voice was a queer whisper. “That’s nice, very nice. I should have recognized you, too, although you’ve gotten rather fat. [sic] haven’t you?” Then she accepted Mrs. Munson’s extended hand and came in. … Vini smiled and Mrs. Munson noticed how irregular her teeth were and decided they could do with a good brushing. “So,” Vini continued, “when I got back in New York last week I thought of you at once. I had an awful time trying to find you because I couldn’t remember your husband’s first name.…” “Albert,” Mrs. Munson put in unnecessarily. “… but I finally did and here I am. You know, Bertha, I really started thinking about you when I decided to get rid of my mink coat.” Mrs. Munson saw a sudden blush on Vini’s face. “Your mink coat?” “Yes,” Vini said, lifting up the pink box. “You remember my mink coat. You always 10 5 15 20 25 30 35 40 Regents Exam in ELA (Common Core) — Jan. ’17 [2] admired it so. You always said it was the loveliest coat you’d ever seen.” She started to undo the frayed silk ribbon that held the box together. “Of course, yes of course,” Mrs. Munson said, letting the “course” trill down softly. “I said to myself, ‘Vini Rondo, what on earth do you need that coat for? Why not let Bertha have it?’ You see, Bertha, I bought the most gorgeous sable in Paris and you can understand that I really don’t need two fur coats. Besides I have my silver-fox jacket.” Mrs. Munson watched her parting the tissue paper in the box, saw the chipped enamel on her nails, saw that her fingers were jewel-less, and suddenly realized a great many other things. “So I thought of you and unless you want it I’ll just keep it because I couldn’t bear to think of anyone else having it.” She held the coat and stood turning it this way and that. It was a beautiful coat; the fur shone rich and very smooth. Mrs. Munson reached out and ran her fingers across it ruffling the tiny hairs the wrong way. Without thinking she said: “How much?” Mrs. Munson brought back her hand quickly, as though she had touched fire, and then she heard Vini’s voice, small and tired. “I paid almost a thousand for it. Is a thousand too much?” Down in the street Mrs. Munson could hear the deafening roar of the playground and for once she was grateful. It gave her something else to concentrate on, something to lessen the intensity of her own feelings. “I’m afraid that’s too much. I really can’t afford it,” Mrs. Munson said distractedly, still staring at the coat, afraid to lift her eyes and see the other woman’s face. Vini tossed the coat on the couch. “Well, I want you to have it. It’s not so much the money, but I feel I should get something back on my investment.…How much could you afford?” Mrs. Munson closed her eyes. Oh, God, this was awful! Just plain damned awful! “Maybe four hundred,” she answered weakly. … Vini leaned against the wall, her pale face looking hard in the magnified sunlight of the big bedroom windows. “You can make out the check to me,” she said disinterestedly. “Yes, of course,” Mrs. Munson said, suddenly coming back to earth. Imagine Bertha Munson with a mink of her own! They went back into the livingroom and she wrote the check for Vini. Carefully folding it, Vini deposited it in her small beaded purse. Mrs. Munson tried hard to make conversation but she came up against a cold wall at each new channel. Once she asked, “Where is your husband, Vini? You must bring him around for Albert to talk to.” And Vini answered, “Oh, him! I haven’t seen him for aeons. He’s still in Lisbon for all I know.” And so that was that. Finally, after promising to phone the next day, Vini left. When she had gone Mrs. Munson thought, “Why, poor Vini, she’s nothing but a refugee!” Then she took her new coat and went into the bedroom. She couldn’t tell Albert how she got it, that was definite. My, but he would be mad about the money! She decided to hide it in the furthest reaches of her closet and then one day she’d bring it out and say, “Albert look at the divine mink I bought at an auction. I got it for next to nothing.” Groping in the darkness of her closet she caught the coat on a hook. She gave a little yank and was terrified to hear the sound of ripping. Quickly she snapped on the light and saw that the sleeve was torn. She held the tear apart and pulled slightly. It ripped more and then some more. With a sick emptiness she knew the whole thing was rotten. “Oh, my God [sic] she said, clutching at the linen rose in her hair, “Oh, my God, I’ve been taken and taken good, and there's nothing in the world I can do about it, nothing in the world!" For suddenly Mrs. Munson realized Vini wouldn't phone tomorrow or ever again.-



Truman Capote excerpted from “A Mink of One’s Own” Decade of Short Stories, 1944 

1) The opening paragraph introduces Mrs. Munson’s character by establishing her
 (1) compassion   2  deception
(3) intolerance ( (4) resourcefulness

 2) The statement “Mrs. Munson said it as if it were she whose fate lay in the balance” (lines 12 and 13) serves to illustrate Mrs. Munson’s desire to
 (1) impress others          (2) incite conflicts
 (3) justify behavior ( (4) avoid criticism

 3) Lines 21 through 24 signal a transition in Mrs. Munson’s attitude from one of 
(1) loyalty to betrayal             (2) anticipation to confusion
 (3) friendship to hostility (4) sympathy to indifference

 4) The description in line 38 implies that Vini has a 

(1) carefree past           (2) hidden motive
 (3) fiery temper            (4) secret identity

 5) The purpose of Vini’s comments in lines 44 through 46 is to

 (1) expose Vini’s stinginess (2) describe Vini’s coat
 (3) characterize Mrs. Munson (4) entrap Mrs. Munson

 6) Based on the details in lines 47 through 49, Mrs. Munson discovers that Vini

(1) is meticulous about her appearance
 (2) is comfortable in her circumstances
 (3) has an inflated self-image 
(4) has experienced difficult times


7) Lines 71 and 72 refine a central idea by emphasizing Mrs. Munson’s 

(1) indignation regarding Vini
(2) irritation with negotiators
 (3) concern for appearances
 (4) suspicion regarding Vini 

8) In the context of the text as a whole, the purpose of Mrs. Munson’s imagined conversation in lines 83 and 84 is to 

(1) convince her husband to buy her a new mink
 (2) rehearse an excuse for a costly purchase
 (3) protect an acquaintance from persecution
 (4) share her successful negotiations with her husband

 9) What mood is created by the final paragraph? 

(1) desperation
 (3) satisfaction 
(2) aggression
(4) exhilaration 

10) Which statement from the text best foreshadows Vini Rondo’s true intentions for the visit?
 (1) “Funny you never really see your surroundings until a visitor is expected.” (lines 16 and 17)
 (2) “It buzzed twice before Mrs. Munson could move, she was that excited.” (lines 19 and 20)
 (3) “The woman who confronted her had no chic up-swept coiffure … indeed her hair hung rather limply and had an uncombed look.” (lines 21 and 22)
 (4) “Down in the street Mrs. Munson could hear the deafening roar of the playground and for once she was grateful.” (lines 58 and 59)