Alexie 42 Referring Eng 103 West Los Angeles Col

This week’s Discussion Board assignment has two parts. Part 1 should be ~500-700 words in length and should be completed no later than 5pm on Thursday of Week 7. Part 2 should be ~100-150 words in length per response post and must be posted by the final deadline of 11:59pm on Saturday of Week 7.

Part 1:

The following passage is from Chapter 5, when Junior is talking with his math teacher, Mr. P, after he throws a book at him and breaks his nose.

“You know that Rowdy’s dad hits him, don’t you?”

“Ya,” I said. Whenever he came to school with a black eye, he made sure to give black eyes to two kids picked at random.

“Rowdy is just going to get meaner and meaner,” Mr. P said. . . . “You have to leave this reservation. . . . The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up. Your friend, Rowdy, he’s given up. That’s why he likes to hurt people. He wants them to feel as bad as he does. . . . All these kids have given up,” he said. “All your friends. All the bullies. And their mothers and fathers have given up, too. And their grandparents gave up and their grandparents before them. And me and every other teacher here. We’re all defeated” (Alexie 42).

Referring to the Andruss triplets (30-year-old bullies) Junior asks, “What kind of men beat up a fourteen-year-old boy?” How does the above exchange between Junior and Mr. P help answer that question? How does Mr. P’s analysis of Rowdy shed insight into the connections between oppression, poverty, and violence? Why does this type of violence so often turn inward (i.e: onto fellow oppressed people) rather than outward (i.e.: onto the source of oppression)? Find examples from the text to support your response, and incorporate supporting quotations where appropriate.

Structure:

Your primary post should include an introduction that introduces the topic and ends with a clearly worded, 1-2 sentence thesis statement. Each supporting paragraph (there should be at least 3) should begin with a strong topic sentence and should incorporate evidence, including direct quotations from the short stories as needed to support your argument. Direct quotations should be incorporated using the quotation sandwich method and proper MLA in-text citations. The post should also contain a strong conclusion.

Please post Part 1 by 5pm on Thursday.

Part 2: This time, instead of stating whether or not you agree or disagree with your peer’s perspective, I want you to evaluate how well he/she makes his argument, focusing on the thesis statement. Does the post contain an arguable thesis statement? Is it clear and easy to understand? Why or why not? What could your classmate have done to strengthen his/her thesis? Your responses should be a minimum of ~100 words each. Please post Part 2 to the Discussion Board by 11:59pm on Saturday.

Tips for Posting to the Discussion Board:

To submit your discussion board post, click “Reply” at the bottom (this tab is located under these instructions). After that, when you’re done composing your initial post, you’ll click “post reply” (I advise that you first compose your post in a Word document, save it to your computer, and then copy and paste the entry–that way, you don’t risk losing your work). Once others have submitted their initial posts, you’ll be able to view those and reply to the summary of your choice. Note that you will not be able to see any other posts until you have posted Part 1.