AF: Rifkin Precis, by AFletcher

In an editorial piece entitled “A Change of Heart About Animals” published in the Los Angeles Times (Sept. 1, 2003), Jeremy Rifkin suggests that recent animal research demonstrates that humans have more in common with animals “than we ever imagined.”  Rifkin offers examples of research that seem to debunk the notions of what makes humans unique among creatures:  our emotional lives, our sense of self and individualism, our awareness of mortality and grief, our brain chemistry, and our ways of teaching and learning between parents and children.  Rifkin suggests that the next step in the evolution of human thought is to recognize all that we share in common with animals, in order to broaden our empathy towards them, and to extend rights to animals under the law.  Rifkin’s argument is targeted at a fairly sophisticated newspaper audience (the reader who makes it to the editorial pages), and assumes that human rights are a shared value, and utilizing a conversational, informal tone, makes his appeal through emotion and logic, and carefully chosen examples.

AF: The Latest -- Three Things

Kids, I just have a few things to say -- first, the blog is open again and waiting for you to write 1 Post and 2 Comments about the "Rhetoric of Op-Ed" articles and ideas.  You can write about any of the articles (Rifkin, Braithwaite, Yong), or you can write about rhetorical appeals and how these appeals function in the texts, situations and conversations that we encounter.

TWO:  I want you to start writing your rhetorical precis for "Hooked by a Myth."  Have a draft on Thursday, and a final on Friday.

THREE:  Also, start looking for your own Op-Ed piece.  Good places to look are the Op-Ed sections of

1. The Los Angeles Times
2. The New York Times
3. The Washington Post
4. The Wall Street Journal

AF: Scholarship Spreadsheet, November 2014

Here is a link to available scholarships that was just forwarded from Mrs. Lane.  Check it out!

Bellflower residents:  don't forget that Bravo scholarship.  The essay is due to Mr. Vinagupta by Friday, December 5, so write it during the break and schedule time  with me for comments or help between Monday - Thursday, December 1-4.

Paperslide Précis

Time

I feel like I'm always thinking about how fast things are moving. I wake up, get ready, go to school, get home, do homework, sleep, then do it all over again. Things are happening and memories are being made and the future is now the past. It's freaking crazy. I just want to be able to look back and know that I lived my life how I wanted to. I don't want to get so caught up in everything that I forget what's actually happening right in front of me, whats really important. All of this must be a part of growing up. I feel like my days are getting shorter and shorter, and it seems like that comes with age. I guess things really do happen in the blink of an eye, but I wish I would have figured that out a little earlier because I would have taken a lot more pictures and laughed a lot more. I would have taken the time to get to know people, and I wouldn't have been so quick to say no to a lot of things. Now that I've realized this, though, I can really start enjoying life. Probably the worst thing you could do to yourself would be to waste time...and by the time that you realize it's wasted, its going to be hell trying to catch up to it. So I'm trying to focus on the good things, now. Getting my homework done and turning it on time, drinking iced coffee as often as possible, reading at the park. Take your time while doing the things you enjoy, even the little things like that.

I heart xkcd

Thoughts & Questions NJ

I know not the full requirements for the blog for I have heard several different things, but I have been led to believe that the more we blog the better. I believe that like myself the night almost automatically makes people think more. (Excuse the typos and bare with me). I have questions and what better place to ask them than along with my 35 (give or take a few) "colleagues". We are all afraid of going to college and moving on from highschool, but I really think that it's the ambiguity of how college really may be that makes us anxious. The lack of knowledge about a subject oftenly results in fear because we're almost instinctively wired to fear what we don't know. You may feel differently but that's beside the point. It kind of reminds me of love and how everybody experiences it differently. I have several questions but with all of the homework that has yet to be done I want to ask one: if you knew you'd be academically successful in college would there be anything else to stress about? 

@ Ms. Fletcher

Actually...not?

So just a couple hours ago I went to the AT&T store to get a replacement phone because my phone was stolen on Halloween (different story) but while my mom and I were waiting to be helped the worker guy kept looking at me wanting to help us. So he did after a 20 mins of waiting. His name was Jose, he asked me if I was in middle school (that made me sad) but I laughed and told him I was senior in high school. Right when I said that he said "how is it? Easy?" I laughed and said "not at all". I don't understand why people just automatically think that senior year is easy...I mean it may be like 2nd semester or something but right now  it's not. My parents & family & even my friends parents have asked me about my plans for college. I tell them that I'm going to community then transferring but I feel and see some disappointment in their face because I'm going to community since my cousins want straight into a four year but I don't see what's so bad about it? I don't want to disappoint them, that's the last thing I want to do but I feel like it's way to late to fix that. Oh and I changed my major about 4 times already and it's only first semester...I need to get my life together. I was just rambling but I needed to put this somewhere...thanks & goodnight! 

What do you read?

About two, three years ago, I found something that pretty much turned my life around. This something is reading. Never in my life would I have imagined myself loving to read, in fact I have found a huge comfort in doing so. I actually remember back when I was younger I actually hated books and reading, and now I just can never have enough. In fact it’s so bad sometimes that I actually get in trouble for reading some much. Reading, it’s my safe haven, my getaway from everything that goes on around me.

I love to read books that fall under the following criteria: young adult, contemporary, romance, fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian. I’d rather read fiction, non-fiction seems  extremely banal to me. I like entering a creative, imaginative, and interesting world and I feel that I can only do that with fiction books.

It was because of Stephenie Meyer’s, Twilight series that got me really interesting in reading. I remember when my cousin had invited me to go watch Twilight, she had mentioned that the movie was based on books and that there were three other books. The very next day I had gone to buy the books and that was how my love for books began. However, it was because of Ms. Swieck that I was even introduced to The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games trilogy is my absolute favorite of all time.

Some other all time favorites are The Mortal Instrument Series and The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman, The Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, The Percy Jackson & The Olympian series by Rick Riordan, and any books by John Green and Rainbow Rowell.

As a reader, I started buying my own books instead of renting or borrowing them. I currently have more than fifty books that are placed neatly on my desk. There my number one prized possession. In addition, one major goal of mine is to actually have a library in my house one day.

--Melissa Rios