Episode Reflection Prompts (20-30 min)

Reading the following listed items below, write in response on a separate piece of paper. Choose just one of these items. They are intentionally vague! Freewrite: don’t pick up the pen, keep going…if you can’t think of anything to write, just write nonsense or “I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know” until you think of something related to the prompt to write.

I’ll call on you to share some ideas produced from writing.

Here are the (intentionally vague!) prompts to respond to:

• Appearance vs. Reality
• Harmony of Difference vs. Conflict and Difference
• Feeling Good vs. Material Resources
• Researching and Studying to Delay Rather Than Learn
• Press Coverage Differences by Race (Ammar wrote about this idea, as did others)

Reaction Extension (20-30 min)

Read the discussion post from Alice:

I found it interesting how schools in the 1960’s were seen as more “integrated” than schools in New York City. The timestamp began at 12:42 when a black mother named Mallory described how a Harlem school smelled when she sent her child there. Only two bathrooms amongst sixteen hundred students, with toilets that needed repair. She stated that even toilets in Georgia were better than the ones in a NYC school. The narrative that NYC schools were much better because they were “integrated” was false. 

The narrator also interviewed parents who wrote letters to Max Ruben to integrate schools. Between 33:57 and 46:50, she interviewed many of these parents about why their children never went to the integrated schools they wanted to open. Many parents moved to the suburbs, with one parent admitting he regretted his decision and sent his child to a Quaker private school. Another woman, Elaine, had admitted that she never sent her children to these integrated schools. Elaine even told the narrator that she regretted not sending her children to an integrated school. This makes me wonder why these parents regret their decisions so suddenly. Were they scared of the school being underfunded and understaffed, or were they just afraid of the influence of the students?

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I was struck how the two paragraphs form Alice might relate to each other. What do you think? Do you see any connections?

I also thought about this question: What if White parents organized for improving facilities of poorer Black and Latino schools of the time rather than write letters for integration? What would have been the benefits and drawbacks of that approach?

Sample Rhetorical Analysis Paper (30-45 min)

Read this sample paper from another student who wrote in response to the rhetorical analysis prompt you received.

I will pass out some copies.

Before we start: what is summary? what is analysis?

As you read, do the following:

• Circle all instances of summary.
• Underline all instances of analysis.

Okay, let’s talk about some of these instances of summary and analysis.

What would you say is the main argument of this essay? How do you know?

Next Time (2-5 min)

-No class on Wednesday, February 12 nor on Monday, February 17. Baruch is closed.

-We will next meet in class on Tuesday, February 18 (follows a Monday schedule). For that class, you will listen to Episode 3 of Nice White Parents and write a Reaction on Brightspace. For Wednesday, February 19, you will turn in the first draft of your rhetorical analysis essay and write another journal entry for weekly private writing (see schedule for private writing prompt).