Hello BRILLIANT people!!
Writing Prompt: (L) (10 min)
What would your community or block look like if it was completely violence free?
Share Out: (R) (20 min)
Pair up with a person and share the drawing or poem you wrote for last Friday, regarding a person harmed by street or police violence.
In Your Notebook: (R) (10 min)
Write the Name of the person you shared with.
Write whether they did a poem or a drawing.
Share your reaction, thoughts, with one another.
After both have shared, spend 5 minutes writing down thoughts about their piece.
1) What stood out most about your partner's creation?
2) What did their piece make you feel? Could you relate to their experience? How?
3) What do you feel is the root cause of violence?
4) If some people feel that the police cause violence, what are other ways communities can create safe streets and support one another?
TYPING ASSIGNMENT:
Last Wednesday we wrote our 1st draft of a 5 paragraph essay based upon the following format:
Intro/ Thesis
1st evidence
2nd evidence
3rd evidence
Closure/ Restatement of Thesis
Your Writing Prompt was one of the following.
Voting will/ will not change my community.
Hip Hop is/is not a major contributor to why there is so much violence in my community.
Marriage is a right of two people who love each other, regardless of gender and sexuality.
TODAY, Re-WRITE a second draft TYPED.
DUE BY END OF PERIOD- EMAIL to: Gonzales@a4ra.com
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Remembering the Beauty: Day II
Writing Prompt:
Read and Respond:
Read and Respond:
justified madness 10.23.08
1/5 African American and 1/8 Latino males will end up going to prison by the time they're 18 years of age. I advise you to note that it is not that African American, and Latino's are more likely to commit crimes. In fact, African American and Latinos are more likely to get pulled over than a white male while the white male is most likely to have drugs or weapons in his vehicle. Juvenile delinquency drops 41%, yet media coverage rises by 200%. Some argue that our youth is out of control. $74,000/yr is spent per juvenile at juvenile detention centers, and $6,400/yr on education. The issue is not that Black and Brown youth is born this way, it is that they are born in a system designed exclusively for their failure. Most come from neglected communities that teach them that the sum of their being is equiveleant to zero. Here, failure is not a personal choice. Corporate greed is at it's finest, privatizing LIFE, and the US Constitution contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I've come to realize that there is no such thing as rights. If they were " rights" they wouldn't be taken away. Freedom is not Freedom it has to be given to you. I'm taking the time to write this because this shit keeps me up at night. I remind you that YOUR LIFE HAS VALUE TO ME, and as corny as it sounds I LOVE EVEN THE SIMPLEST COMPOSITION OF YOU, and it is time that you begin to believe the same. It is completely mind boggling to me that we can sit comfortably in our designer couches for hours watching our high definition idiot boxes, concerned about who the fuck Paris Hilton's new best friend is, and easily bypass critical social issues affecting our present, and eventually our future. How far must they push us? Where do you draw the line between enough and enough? Black and Brown youth is constantly being targeted, as we feed from the hand of the oppressors. It is easier to talk about how fucked up things are, and do nothing to challenge them. Lets organize ourselves, lets educate ourselves, lets respect our future, lets raise our voices even if our voices shake as we speak, lets change the things we don't like, lets reform our system into one that benefits you and I, lets turn prisons into rehabilitation centers, lets support our youth, lets remember that nothing is of least existence and importance under the sun, lets love life for the sake of life itself. Let's begin by getting mad as hell…
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
October 22nd: Remembering the Beauty
Writing Prompt:
What is the most powerful memory/experience you've had with the police?
(If you have not had one, write one of your friend's memories).
Today marks the National Day of Protest against Police Violence.
Click Here: Answer the following questions in COMPLETE sentences?
What is October 22nd?
Based upon the following links, please answer the following questions:
1) Who killed Gonzalo Martinez and how (CLICK HERE)
2) Who killed Suzy Pena and how? How old was she? (Click here)
3. In both instances, what was the community reaction?
Based upon the this link (click here), answer the following questions:
What does 022 have to do with immigration?
What do prisons have to do with schools?
What are TWO actions that 022 is doing to bring awareness and attempt to stop police violence?
Based upon this link (Click here), please answer the following questions- be prepared to share out.
What happened to Amadou Diallo?
How is Michael Moore's actions bringing attention to the problem of police violence?
What actions do you feel could be done to bring attention to police violence in Los Angeles?
The following poem was written in response to the many people who have been killed in Los Angeles by police violence. They range in age from 3 to nearly 30. Read the poem and choose one of the following. Be prepared to discuss the poem below as well as your writing on Friday.
1) Write a Poem that honors an individual or group of people you know killed by police violence.
2) Provide a detailed drawing that honors people who have been killed by police violence.
3) Write a poem or a provide a detailed drawing that illustrates the way Violence is committed upon your community as it relates to the police, military,
(Click here or here for illustration examples)
Poem: and I promise you this.. (In Memory Of)
It is a simple wish:
To find safety in eyes of a lover, make eternal commitments to another
And create life that is our evolved reflection.
Birth beauty and watch it grow beyond genetics.
We even give them turquoise names
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie *Robert *Deondre
They roll off tongue tickle larynx like sugar
it is why we smile sweetly at the mere memory or mention of
their candy childhood laughter echoing inside eardrums.
Young ones who beats Drums for future untold
watch bones expand Into dreams of Full soul almond amber charcoal skin.
It is every parent’s nightmare to watch our future’s light within Stamped out
Voided in noise of gunfire echoed by screams cut short as
red white and blue sirens strangles us in violent silence Dressed in evening blue uniforms
Or midnight phone calls from a coroner
*all we asked for were warnings
instead we wake up to empty bedrooms
find our loved ones front page morning stories
“black * brown * man * woman * child
police stand off
dead
Another City dreams deferred
Babies born but aborted mid-life
By so called pro-life
Who leave us with no choice
In matters of our life and our loved ones.
Now cribs lie empty.. street corners turn alters
Wedding plans packed away buried in the grave of fiancés
And birthdays are the most miserable moments in mornings of mourning
They blame bandana republics
I blame the melanin mentality of their bullets
And their fear of our rainbow’s light.
I wish our brothers knew simple mathematics:
Division in the streets
equals united in the grave
Murder was the case
That they gave us.
But moritician is never a mother’s willing choice of occupation
We leave bedrooms untouched because it is too painful to pack it up.
Sit in shadows where stomach churns and cry- fake strength for neighbors
Who shake heads and wonder why it has to be
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie
*Robert *Deondre
turquoise and sugar names cyanide to their diabolical diabetic color wheel complex
preveted promethues trying to steal our fire, convinced they are a greek god.\
But We are an original fire people- (como Xango, Ra, Camaxtli, Agni, Arani, Shiva, Devi
There is a time coming when we willl redefine Police stand off-
It will come when we stand up
They will step back
We will step forward
Momentum shifts
Their boots, bullets, and batons from our neck
Feable Attempts to Damper the light.. extinguish our fire
As if a hose could attempt to stop the flow of an indigenous inferno
For even as flames flicker /Dim
They disperse from spine/ Out of body
Extend and ignite in the streets
lighting the way for new days Of being
We are beautiful people
Beyond beating batons
We birth Beating hearts Breathing
warming formerly cold coffins
we will wear t-shirts with labels: Warning : contents inside extremely flammable.
We are beyond ballots
It is our Beauty or the Bullet.
Our loved ones or the riot
There is a direct correlation
Between the numbers of our deaths
And the increasing lack of respect
That translates into attempts on your life
Please, Do not dismiss this poem as militant
It is carved inside the ribcage of a raven
Who saraficed her life to show even doves cry before pushed too far
The tone may be angry
But it written from love
For ourselves and children
I will have them someday
And We will teach her to shake rattles like perceptions
play with the memory of Suzy
she will learn to write copying the screenplay of a movie
where Chuadry will awake from his dream in the streets
Charlie will continue hide from death but not be forced to seek death in a shed.
My son will Break bars on cribs like those on cages
Because no made obstacle cannot contain our creative visions
mother’s will bang on pans
and on they system
Father’s will play catch and catch up
With Deondre, Robert, Javier,
Or Carlos Training for Football pratice at Santee
He will be free to be anything he imagines
We deserve nothing less
Than the best
For our loved ones
We do not raise racists or hatred
Nor will we tolerate it
Pushed upon our young ones
Whether by police or the streets
My heartbeat will be born again
Inside another spine
And I will be damned if it the tic tocs
Of his heart will be stopped by a cop prematurely.
Surely the sun will honor
Our suns and daughters and aid
The beautiful fire growing within
With sunrays of soul y sol
Y flor y canto
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie
*Robert *Deondre
with your spirits we dance beautifully in the arms of a new day dawning
where our children play in the streets, *Robert * Carlos * Deondre
with no worry of shots * Tyesha *Sean *Gonzalo
for the only echoes in ears onf the young ones will be that of the drum * Javier * Usman
they beat in hopes of foretelling the future * Robert * Charlie * Suzy
where coffins are a natural part of life
but only after 90 years of fire and beauty.
The flame is lit…
We kiss it in honor of you and pray for flames
May the winds fan the fire
As quickly as possible
Before the rain comes
Discussion Questions.
1. What were your feelings as you were reading this poem
2. What was the meaning the author was trying too convey to the reader? Do you agree or disagree with the meaning?
3. What kind of imagery does the author use to describe their community and it's relationship to violence?
What is the most powerful memory/experience you've had with the police?
(If you have not had one, write one of your friend's memories).
Today marks the National Day of Protest against Police Violence.
Click Here: Answer the following questions in COMPLETE sentences?
What is October 22nd?
Based upon the following links, please answer the following questions:
1) Who killed Gonzalo Martinez and how (CLICK HERE)
2) Who killed Suzy Pena and how? How old was she? (Click here)
3. In both instances, what was the community reaction?
Based upon the this link (click here), answer the following questions:
What does 022 have to do with immigration?
What do prisons have to do with schools?
What are TWO actions that 022 is doing to bring awareness and attempt to stop police violence?
Based upon this link (Click here), please answer the following questions- be prepared to share out.
What happened to Amadou Diallo?
How is Michael Moore's actions bringing attention to the problem of police violence?
What actions do you feel could be done to bring attention to police violence in Los Angeles?
The following poem was written in response to the many people who have been killed in Los Angeles by police violence. They range in age from 3 to nearly 30. Read the poem and choose one of the following. Be prepared to discuss the poem below as well as your writing on Friday.
1) Write a Poem that honors an individual or group of people you know killed by police violence.
2) Provide a detailed drawing that honors people who have been killed by police violence.
3) Write a poem or a provide a detailed drawing that illustrates the way Violence is committed upon your community as it relates to the police, military,
(Click here or here for illustration examples)
Poem: and I promise you this.. (In Memory Of)
It is a simple wish:
To find safety in eyes of a lover, make eternal commitments to another
And create life that is our evolved reflection.
Birth beauty and watch it grow beyond genetics.
We even give them turquoise names
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie *Robert *Deondre
They roll off tongue tickle larynx like sugar
it is why we smile sweetly at the mere memory or mention of
their candy childhood laughter echoing inside eardrums.
Young ones who beats Drums for future untold
watch bones expand Into dreams of Full soul almond amber charcoal skin.
It is every parent’s nightmare to watch our future’s light within Stamped out
Voided in noise of gunfire echoed by screams cut short as
red white and blue sirens strangles us in violent silence Dressed in evening blue uniforms
Or midnight phone calls from a coroner
*all we asked for were warnings
instead we wake up to empty bedrooms
find our loved ones front page morning stories
“black * brown * man * woman * child
police stand off
dead
Another City dreams deferred
Babies born but aborted mid-life
By so called pro-life
Who leave us with no choice
In matters of our life and our loved ones.
Now cribs lie empty.. street corners turn alters
Wedding plans packed away buried in the grave of fiancés
And birthdays are the most miserable moments in mornings of mourning
They blame bandana republics
I blame the melanin mentality of their bullets
And their fear of our rainbow’s light.
I wish our brothers knew simple mathematics:
Division in the streets
equals united in the grave
Murder was the case
That they gave us.
But moritician is never a mother’s willing choice of occupation
We leave bedrooms untouched because it is too painful to pack it up.
Sit in shadows where stomach churns and cry- fake strength for neighbors
Who shake heads and wonder why it has to be
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie
*Robert *Deondre
turquoise and sugar names cyanide to their diabolical diabetic color wheel complex
preveted promethues trying to steal our fire, convinced they are a greek god.\
But We are an original fire people- (como Xango, Ra, Camaxtli, Agni, Arani, Shiva, Devi
There is a time coming when we willl redefine Police stand off-
It will come when we stand up
They will step back
We will step forward
Momentum shifts
Their boots, bullets, and batons from our neck
Feable Attempts to Damper the light.. extinguish our fire
As if a hose could attempt to stop the flow of an indigenous inferno
For even as flames flicker /Dim
They disperse from spine/ Out of body
Extend and ignite in the streets
lighting the way for new days Of being
We are beautiful people
Beyond beating batons
We birth Beating hearts Breathing
warming formerly cold coffins
we will wear t-shirts with labels: Warning : contents inside extremely flammable.
We are beyond ballots
It is our Beauty or the Bullet.
Our loved ones or the riot
There is a direct correlation
Between the numbers of our deaths
And the increasing lack of respect
That translates into attempts on your life
Please, Do not dismiss this poem as militant
It is carved inside the ribcage of a raven
Who saraficed her life to show even doves cry before pushed too far
The tone may be angry
But it written from love
For ourselves and children
I will have them someday
And We will teach her to shake rattles like perceptions
play with the memory of Suzy
she will learn to write copying the screenplay of a movie
where Chuadry will awake from his dream in the streets
Charlie will continue hide from death but not be forced to seek death in a shed.
My son will Break bars on cribs like those on cages
Because no made obstacle cannot contain our creative visions
mother’s will bang on pans
and on they system
Father’s will play catch and catch up
With Deondre, Robert, Javier,
Or Carlos Training for Football pratice at Santee
He will be free to be anything he imagines
We deserve nothing less
Than the best
For our loved ones
We do not raise racists or hatred
Nor will we tolerate it
Pushed upon our young ones
Whether by police or the streets
My heartbeat will be born again
Inside another spine
And I will be damned if it the tic tocs
Of his heart will be stopped by a cop prematurely.
Surely the sun will honor
Our suns and daughters and aid
The beautiful fire growing within
With sunrays of soul y sol
Y flor y canto
*Gonzalo *Carlos *Tyesha * Suzy * Sean* Javier *Usman *Charlie
*Robert *Deondre
with your spirits we dance beautifully in the arms of a new day dawning
where our children play in the streets, *Robert * Carlos * Deondre
with no worry of shots * Tyesha *Sean *Gonzalo
for the only echoes in ears onf the young ones will be that of the drum * Javier * Usman
they beat in hopes of foretelling the future * Robert * Charlie * Suzy
where coffins are a natural part of life
but only after 90 years of fire and beauty.
The flame is lit…
We kiss it in honor of you and pray for flames
May the winds fan the fire
As quickly as possible
Before the rain comes
Discussion Questions.
1. What were your feelings as you were reading this poem
2. What was the meaning the author was trying too convey to the reader? Do you agree or disagree with the meaning?
3. What kind of imagery does the author use to describe their community and it's relationship to violence?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Writing Sample!
NO WRITING PROMPT: Copy the following on L side of book.
In a 5 paragraph opinion essay, there are 5 parts.
Intro/ Thesis
1st evidence
2nd evidence
3rd evidence
Closure/ Restatement of Thesis
Essay Prompts: Pick one!
Voting will/ will not change my community.
Hip Hop is/is not a major contributor to why there is so much violence in my community.
Marriage is a right of two people who love each other, regardless of gender and sexuality.
DRAFT DUE BY END OF PERIOD
(Next Stage Typing DRAFT!)
Homework:
Interview 3 people this weekend on the above questions.
Find out their feelings, and ask a follow up question.
In a 5 paragraph opinion essay, there are 5 parts.
Intro/ Thesis
1st evidence
2nd evidence
3rd evidence
Closure/ Restatement of Thesis
Essay Prompts: Pick one!
Voting will/ will not change my community.
Hip Hop is/is not a major contributor to why there is so much violence in my community.
Marriage is a right of two people who love each other, regardless of gender and sexuality.
DRAFT DUE BY END OF PERIOD
(Next Stage Typing DRAFT!)
Homework:
Interview 3 people this weekend on the above questions.
Find out their feelings, and ask a follow up question.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Who Are You!!
Writing Prompt: (1L)
If you could interview anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Objective: (1R)
To develop and establish the tools necessary to prepare for and conduct an in-depth interview.
Write the following questions down in your notebook: (1R)
1) Where were you born? Where were your parent’s born?
2) What do you feel your greatest accomplishment in your life has been so far?
3) What is your biggest fear?
4) What is the funniest or favorite memory you have?
5) Where you do you see your life TEN YEARS from today? (Be descriptive)
6) What is your biggest regret?
7) Have you ever been hospitalized
8) Have you ever been in Love?
9) Have you ever moved or change schools?
10) Have you ever been locked up? (If so when)?
11) Have you ever been to court? Describe.
Add 5 of YOUR OWN Questions!!
Pick a Partner:
Conduct Interview: 30 min
PRESENT Interview to the CLASS!!!
Listeners: Pick one question and answer that stood out to you!
If you could interview anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Objective: (1R)
To develop and establish the tools necessary to prepare for and conduct an in-depth interview.
Write the following questions down in your notebook: (1R)
1) Where were you born? Where were your parent’s born?
2) What do you feel your greatest accomplishment in your life has been so far?
3) What is your biggest fear?
4) What is the funniest or favorite memory you have?
5) Where you do you see your life TEN YEARS from today? (Be descriptive)
6) What is your biggest regret?
7) Have you ever been hospitalized
8) Have you ever been in Love?
9) Have you ever moved or change schools?
10) Have you ever been locked up? (If so when)?
11) Have you ever been to court? Describe.
Add 5 of YOUR OWN Questions!!
Pick a Partner:
Conduct Interview: 30 min
PRESENT Interview to the CLASS!!!
Listeners: Pick one question and answer that stood out to you!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Hip Hop on Trial- Day #3
Writing Prompt: (3L)
Is Corporate America to Blame for the Violence in Hip Hop:
Read the following survey. (3R)
Hip Hop and Violence
Pick three sentences that stood out to you and write them in your notebook. After, right a short response on why they stood out to you.
Partner up:
Share with a person one quote that stood out to you and why?
Write their response in your notebook.
Essay: Whose to Blame (3R)
Who does the article say is to blame for the violence in Hip Hop?
Do you agree or disagree and why?
(pick four quotes that back up your point)
Video on Hip Hop and Violence
Scroll to "Video Essay on Hip Hop and Violence"
Answer in complete sentences per question.
What is your gut response to the video?
How does the maker of the film use hip hop?
How does this film relate to your struggle and life?
HandOut and Homework.
Is Corporate America to Blame for the Violence in Hip Hop:
Read the following survey. (3R)
Hip Hop and Violence
Pick three sentences that stood out to you and write them in your notebook. After, right a short response on why they stood out to you.
Partner up:
Share with a person one quote that stood out to you and why?
Write their response in your notebook.
Essay: Whose to Blame (3R)
Who does the article say is to blame for the violence in Hip Hop?
Do you agree or disagree and why?
(pick four quotes that back up your point)
Video on Hip Hop and Violence
Scroll to "Video Essay on Hip Hop and Violence"
Answer in complete sentences per question.
What is your gut response to the video?
How does the maker of the film use hip hop?
How does this film relate to your struggle and life?
HandOut and Homework.
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