unit+three+BLOG+topics

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 * Blog Postings - Due by Monday, November 14 at 8:00 am - Choose at least one of the options below to explore in your blog this week.**
 * Option 1 : What does it mean to you to be an American? Explore your views by using specific examples from your experience and your knowledge of the American Ideal. Make sure to reveal strong critical thinking by exploring not only what you believe but how and why you arrived at your beliefs.
 * Option 2 : As we have learned from the Adams miniseries and from our discussion of the Declaration, the colonists had many complaints, as most people do in our society today. In 1776, they took those grievances and turned them into action. Choose one complaint or grievance that you have and something you would like to see changed. In your blog, write your own declaration that includes to whom you are addressing your complaint, the reasons for your grievance, what steps you have taken to create change, and what you would like to see happen. This grievance can be on any scale you wish - personal, school, city, nation, world.


 * Blog Post 2 - Due by Friday, November 18 at 5:00 pm - Choose at least one of the options below to explore in your blog this week.**

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 * Option 1 : Discuss the American Dream that is laid out in the two colonial documents we have read for this unit so far - "The Declaration of Independence" and Crevecoeur's 'What is an American?" Carefully consider in your post the tone and diction used in each. How do these two documents envision the new America and persuasively and vividly paint that picture for the reader of these pieces?
 * Option 2 : Click on this link to read and listen to Walt Whitman's short poem [|"America".]. In your blog post, discuss this poem and what vision of America it offers. How does this compare and/or contrast to Crevecoeur's piece "What is an American?" that we have explored this week? Make sure to include specific evidence from each piece in your exploration here.


 * Blog Post 3 - CHANGED DUE DATE - Due by Monday, December 5 by 8:00 am . Choose at least one of the options below to explore in your blog this week.**


 * Now that everyone's blog has been graded at least once, here are some reminders for you to achieve the highest possible score! **
 * Use paragraph structure (not the dreaded "blob")
 * Work on creating clear and concise sentences. Proof your work!
 * Add a creative title (not "Option 1" or "Blog Post 3")
 * Add interesting graphics and images throughout your post.
 * Add relevant links or videos and explain their connection to your argument.
 * Make your post AT LEAST 400 words. (Use the word count feature in MS Word if you need a tool to help you do this)

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 * **Option 1** : In studying our Declaration of Independence and Crevecoeur's "What is an American?", we have been largely exploring the collective ideal of what it means to be American. This ideal was largely founded on the notions of equality and freedom to pursue personal fulfillment. The Transcendentalist thinkers of the following century built on this foundation at the same time they broke away from it by defining and exploring the individual American experience. Based on your reading of Emerson's "American Scholar" and Thoreau's chapter from //Walden//, how do transcendentalists define this essential American experience? What are key elements of transcendentalism that are revealed in these documents? What appealed to you or did not appeal to you about their ideas?
 * **Option 2** : There are many elements of Thoreau's //Walden//that continue to speak to people even a century and a half after he wrote the piece. Choose 3 to 5 quotations from the excerpt we read and define what those quotes mean to you. Then - find a song for each quote that reveals similar transcendental ideas in our modern world today. Make sure to provide an explanation of how each song reflects Thoreau's quote and his transcendental ideas. To further enhance your post, embed the song in your blog or provide a link to it online.
 * → Add audio files (music or podcasts) to your blog : []
 * → Add video files from You Tube to your blog : []


 * BLOG POST 4 - due by Monday, December 12 by 8:00 am**
 * For your final blog post in this unit, you will explore with more detail the source that you presented to the class this week. You are essentially exploring the question : Are Jefferson/ Crevecoeur/ Emerson/ Thoreau's ideals still viable or possible in modern America? Consider our current social, economic, and political climate as well as the role of technology in our lives. What perspective on this question does your source offer? Which document that we have studied compares to your piece and how?