Article+Connection+Assignment


 * Contemporary Literature: //Mountains// //Beyond Mountains// Article Assignment (20 pts.)**

1.) Find an article related to any of the issues we’ve been discussing with the book: medicine, infectious diseases (TB, AIDS, malaria), poverty, land or resource exploitation, philanthropy, etc. **It may NOT be directly about Haiti, though.** Use a reputable news website – see the Online Literacy Center for suggestions and links. (Link at left.) Be sure your article is RECENT – from the last 2 years.

2.) Print out the article; read and carefully annotate. (Find the article's main topic, any arguments or counter arguments, clear examples and S-D-T details, and also note your personal reactions.

3.) Post a link to your article on the Google doc I've set up for these articles. You have been shared on the document; it is titled "MBM Articles."

4.) Next, use the Summary/Text Connections article template I will give you in class to do the following:

a.) Write a good summary for the article. This should be 6-8 sentences long, not just a 1-sentence topic statement. Cover all the most important points.

b.) Fill in each connections box with 2 good examples, explaining __how__ they connect to the article. For SELF, this can be a connection to anything or anyone in your life and what they have experienced. For TEXTS, this can be to any other article, book, film, TV show, or song. One of course may be //Mountains//. For WORLD, find 2 connections to the rest of the world, past or present. NOTE: Be sure your connections are SPECIFIC. Instead of "Lots of people around the world have AIDS" in the Text-To-World box, you need to specify: "Bono from the band U2 has started an organization that raises money to eradicate AIDS from 3rd-world countries." For the Text-To-Self box, it's not enough to say, "I was sick once too." Specify by delineating: "I had a very bad case of strep throat when I was 12 that took 3 rounds of anti-biotics to cure."

c.) Finally, state 2 good rhetorical questions that this article brings to mind. Begin with phrases like, “Could it be that....?” or “Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves....?” or “Why do we insist upon....?” Let the question suggest a larger point about the topic – perhaps an irony, a sinister or wonderful truth, or an underlying issue about humans and their behavior that goes deeper than this incident.

5.) Staple the article to the template to hand in. DUE DATE: ________

6.) Be prepared to share your template and article with the class. We will hear 3-4 a day over the next several days. Be sure that you know the information well so that you’re not awkwardly just reading word for word from your template. Be conversational, and be prepared to answer questions when you are finished – from your classmates and from me. (I will pass around a sign-up sheet for presentations in class.)


 * NOTE: If you are absent on the assigned day, plan to present the day you return. If you are in class but not prepared to present, your grade will be reduced by 5 points and you will get one more chance the following day to present; then your grade will drop to half credit. If you cut class on the day you are scheduled, you may not receive more than half credit.

Sample Article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4650024.stm


 * GRADING:** Article annotations - 4; Summary - 4; Connections - 4; Questions - 2; Presentation - 6