THE POSSIBILITIES OF A UNIT TITLED AMERICAN VIOLENCE IN THE - - PDF document

Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

THE POSSIBILITIES OF A UNIT TITLED “AMERICAN VIOLENCE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”

Projected Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

• Read and interpret college-level expository and argumentative texts.
• Practice rigorous classroom discussion.
• Evaluate the persuasiveness of arguments and evidence.
• Critique assumptions using critical thinking.
• Write unified and coherent paragraphs, utilizing “claim, evidence, and analysis” as an
• rganizational tool.

Introducing the Composition Topic:

Before engaging directly with “Bullying is on the Rise” by Peg Tyre, I would aim to unify the class across skill-level and background by providing context. Here are a series of questions we would address as a class before beginning the unit:

• What are several modern definitions of “American violence?”
• What are some assumptions we have about the perpetrators of violence and those violence is

perpetrated against? Think: race, class, gender…

• Is violence in America any more or less prevalent than anywhere else?

Introductory Activities:

• 1. I would ask students to spend a few minutes writing their own definition for “American Violence”

… what does the term mean to them?

• 2. We would then go around the room and discuss our definitions, making a “word cloud” on the

board.

• 3. We would look at a definition of American violence written by Howard Smead, a history professor

at the University of Maryland:

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Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

(Excerpt)

Are we a violent people? The slaughter at Virginia Tech on April 16 forced Americans to think about themselves again…here we were once again trying to puzzle

• ut this latest act of wanton

violence that left thirty-three dead and many more lives scarred. And for about a week or so we seemed genuinely concerned about the level of violence this country is capable of generating at any given moment. A profound sense of right and wrong is critical to any society. How it is reinforced, though, can undermine the very goals and values that moral sense seeks to establish and maintain. What makes America a violent nation, in short, is the degree of violence its citizens have inflicted upon one another over its several hundred year history as a British colony and an independent nation. What do we mean by ‘violence’? One most common definition of “Acts of violence,” from American Violence, (1970) “are those which kill or injure persons or animals or do significant damage to property.” This broad definition includes storms and other natural events not perpetrated by humans. We’re not especially concerned with those [in this article, rather] it’s violence or the threat of it which prevents “normal free action or movement of other persons” that poses the problem. Threats of violence or outright violence when perpetrated by humans can take on many forms and do not have to be physical. Force or violence may take place in many contexts. When it comes to understanding the true nature and impact of violence, context is everything. There are three basic types of violence: war, criminal and social. Sometimes a fourth is thrown in, political violence. It’s true that we [in the United States] have inordinately high rates of violent crime. We rank fifth or sixth worldwide behind South Africa, Russia, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for example, of significance to us is social violence. It has several names: civil, social, collective, group, anomic, domestic and extra-legal violence.

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From “Why We Americans Are so Violent” by Dr. Howard Smead.

Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

General George S. Patton probably had the best description… “Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle…” Why is our history filled with social violence? If you were to boil all the myriad factors, conditions, distinctions, foibles, tics and idiosyncrasies that account for the violence that is part of our national character, one trait stands out among all others:

• localism. The tradition of allowing individuals, families and local jurisdictions to settle their own

affairs is a hallmark of American history. It is one of our most traditional values. It’s even written into the Constitution in the little cited but important Tenth Amendment. Two major problems explode from this: the violent actors are almost always private citizens. And they take it upon themselves to defend their own version of law, order and decency. In other words, the local populace or elements of it have often decided the nature of local order and morality and have imposed this version with impunity. This perhaps is the central feature of our violent culture. The American Paradox: the co-existence of constitutional stability and social violence. Or, put another way, social order enforced illegally but with public consensus. But the mere fact that Americans have a history of settling things themselves doesn’t explain why anything needed to be settled in the first place or why it took violence to do so. What is established is that local populations often resorted to violence to end disputes, to enforce law and maintain moral order. This is because of local social controls are either absent or, more likely,

• ther social values arrive or develop that conflict with those already established.

Conflicting views of tradition, morality, equality of rights, of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, challenges, in other words, to the status quo, pushed community after community into corrective and in their minds justifiable action.

• 4. I would ask students what they think of Smead’s definition, are there any unquestioned

assumptions in this article?

• 5. We would then address several themes that Smead raised, which we will discuss through out the

unit:

• 1. Morality: “Right and wrong”
• 2. “Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.”
• 3. The American history of “settling things for themselves.”
• 6. I would ask students to agree or disagree in writing with the last three statements, then we would

discuss as a class.

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Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

• 7. I will introduce our first article in the series by talking about the morality as outlined in Smead’s

article, teaching “right and wrong” from a cultural standpoint. We will talk about bullying as an example of this idea of “right versus wrong,” and introduce “Bullying is on the Rise” by Peg Tyre. As part of this introduction, we will watch a short video about the current state of bullying: The trailer for “Bully” the film and a video from a California Middle School that participated in an anti-bullying project.

• 8. Homework is assigned and reading techniques are discussed.
• Students will be encouraged to write questions and comments in the margins of the article. For

example: if you feel the urge to highlight a passage as preparation for class discussion, write a note to yourself instead. Ask yourself, why is this aspect of the article interesting to me? What questions do I have?

• Take note of claim, evidence, analysis (we will review claim, evidence, analysis) as it appears

throughout the paper, come prepared to discuss in class.

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Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

Homework Assignment Sample Handout:

Students will be asked to read the article and respond to this prompt for homework. For this week’s homework, please read “Bullying is on the Rise” by Peg Tyre, (1) take notes in the margins, and (2) answer the following prompt in your own words (should be at least one paragraph in length), please print out your paragraph for class next week: In Tyre’s article, she cites a 2009 federal survey of school crime and safety which states, 32 percent

• f middle and high school students said they’d been victimized during the academic year,

compared to 14 percent in 2001. Among that group, 21 percent hand been made fun of; 11 percent were pushed, tripped or spit on; and 6 percent were threatened. Tyre asks: But is any of that really worse that the verbal jabs, social slights and hard shoves today’s parents endured while they were growing up? Is bullying a “normal part of childhood” or something that needs to be addressed and eradicated? Answer this question using claim/evidence/analysis. Feel free to use a piece of evidence from your

• wn life or a piece of evidence from the article.

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Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

In Class Activities:

1.I will begin class with a grammar unit (I’m envisioning this unit as occurring mid-semester, in which case, we’d use this content as a spring-board for a lesson on sentence structure). I would pull sentences from this article and ask students to identify whether the sentences are simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex, we would spend a half-hour to forty-five minutes on the grammar aspect.

• 2. I will then ask students to get into small groups, students will (1) discuss their marginalia,

explaining to their fellow classmates their questions and notes and (2) the content of their homework, what was their opinion on the article and the question posed in the homework? Is bullying now any worse than it was for them growing up? How so?

• 3. I will then ask students to return to their own opinion and decide whether or not it has remained

the same, do you still feel the same way about your perspective after discussing it with someone?

• 4. After students reread their responses, we will do a class activity involving argumentation and

discussion: I will divide the room into segments, the farthest wall on the right of the classroom will serve as our “bullying has increased and it is a big problem, worse now than before,” section. The farthest wall to the left will be our “bullying is not any more of a problem than it has always been, it’s a necessary part of growing up,” section. And the center of the room will designated for varying states of agreement or disagreement, we’ll call this the “gray zone.” Students will leave their desks and stand along the spectrum, I will then call on students on all parts of the spectrum and ask their opinion, we will generate a spirited class discussion this way. Students will be able to see very clearly the varying perspectives present in their class.

• 5. When students return to their desks, I will ask them to write a practice “thesis,” or the beginning
• f a “main argument,” based on their opinion of this issue. We’ll discuss the importance of evidence

and stress that no one perspective was more “right or wrong” than another, rather, in this class, the importance is on making claims that are supported by evidence and analysis.

• 6. We will then talk about their homework and their use of claim/evidence/analysis. We will discuss

claim/evidence/analysis and its effectiveness of as an organizational tool for building body paragraphs.

• 7. At the end of the class, they will do a free-write in their journals about what they’ve gotten most
• ut of class.

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Emerson Whitney May 21, 2015

Subsequent Reading Materials and Activities:

• 1. Using the themes that were raised in Dr. Smead’s article we will investigate the idea that

“Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle…” through an inquiry into violent sports and video games and the impact on the America Psyche. Will investigate this prompt: Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. Both are star NFL players. One beat his wife and one allegedly beat his son. The public’s reaction has been swift, dramatic, and highly

• publicized. Even more recently, Arizona Cardinals backup running back, Jonathan Dwyer, was

arrested for allegedly head-butting his wife and breaking her nose. These recent incidents pose a rather pointed question: do violent sports (such as football and boxing) create violent people? We will read: “Do Violent Sports Create Violent People” by Eric C. Stevens and “Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive” by Alice Park in Time Magazine.

• 2. We will also investigate the theme of vigilantism and America’s history of “settling things

themselves” through an in-depth look into race-related violence, particularly regarding the “Stand Your Ground Law” in the case of George Zimmerman, and his acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin. We will read: “Trayvon Martin and America's Long, Horrific History of Vigilante Justice” by Michael Gould-Wartofsky

• 3. Throughout the unit, we will make sure to consider aspects of race, class, and gender as

they relate to the topic. I will consciously choose materials that are written by a diverse range

• f writers and thinkers so as to reflect the diversity of our classes at LACC.
• 4. Our unit will culminate in a 5-paragraph argumentative essay. Students will be given a

prompt and will be encouraged to use their reading responses, practice thesis attempts, and journal entries as a spring-board for writing on the topic. An example prompt might look like: Joseph S. Himes argued in “Conflict & Conflict Management" that “American life has always been characterized by violent conflict, involving virtually every sector and group at some time.” Choose

• ne of the articles that we’ve discussed in class and use it as evidence either for or against this

perspective: is violence a predominant characteristic of American life? Why or why not?

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