Found poems

Here are the poems we created in class last week from Alexie's story "Witnesses, secret and Not" about being thirteen and Indian:

I learned how to use a hypodermic needle before I learned how to ride a bike.
Punctuated by more accidents
A tough life,
Thirteen.
One Indian doesn't tell another what to do.
It's all about reaction as opposed to action.
We just watch things happen then make comments.
We ordered diet since my father and I are both diabetic.
Must be kind of like disappearing.

***

Most of all, I had to find out what it meant to be an Indian
and there ain't no self-help manual for that.
360 degrees
At age 13 nobody thinks they're going to die.
I had to figure out what it meant to be a boy, a man too.
Just got swallowed up
Figuring out each year as it came,
then discarding it when the new one came along.
His eyes had stories written across them.

HW reminder for this weekend

Due Wednesday (but do not leave all of this until Tuesday night!)

• Bring in one copy of draft 2 of your short story for peer editing on Wednesday. You should have done significant revision using the draft with your notes from this week. I will also give you my feedback Tuesday.
  
• Read the criticism articles on Alexie and write a 1/2-1 page response - Do you think Alexie is reinforcing stereotypes or criticizing them, or both? Why do you believe this?
  
• Final drafts of your short stories will be due Thursday, when we will also begin presentations. You may want to meet with your group over the weekend, either virturally or in person, to make a plan for your presentation.

Have an excellent 3-day weekend--don't forget to do something fun and enjoy life!

Research Task

Welcome to the computer lab! Today we will work on researching our topics for our community studies. Before we begin, though, we are going to practice evaluating websites.

First, use google to find some websites about your topic. Use the sheet in front of you to evaluate two websites on your topic. When you are done, give your worksheet to Ms. Aaland and begin researching! Below I have included some links to help you get started.

Research Info

How to Evaluate a Web Page

The 5 W's of Website Evaluation

Web Page Evaluation Checklist

Another Checklist

Citation Machine

Research Resources

General Research Links

San Francisco Public Library's Local Links

San Franciso Public Library's SF Statistics

San Francisco Chronicle

Pew Research Center

New York Times

National Public Radio

KQED - Bay Area Public Media

New America Media - Ethnic Media

YO! Youth Outlook Media

Some Websites You Can Use

Stress

NEA (National Education Association) – Stress Management

NEA - Saving Kids from Stress

AIS (American Institute of Stress)

Parent Poll on Bay Area Students' Health (includes statistics)

New York Times article on teen stress

Washington Post Article

San Francisco Chronicle - Stress -- and how kids deal with it

The Lowell - Ms. Seawell

Lowell Wellness Center

About.com Stress management

Adolescent Stress and Depression

Managing stress

Test anxiety

Berkeley Daily Planet - Teens and Stress

Stanford conference: Stressed Out Students

Parental Pressure on AsianAmericans

Report on Asian Americans student stress in the Bay Area

Asian American Youth Needs Assessment Report

Report on 'Model Minority' Stereotype - NY Times

ModelMinority.com

Article responding to model minority myth on IMDiversity.com

Push to achieve tied to suicide in Asian-American women

Learning to Stand Out Among the Standouts

Pew Research - Parental Pressure

UCLA article on pressure to succeed

Push to achieve tied to suicide in Asian-American women

Homelessness

SF Department of Public Health Homeless Services

San Francisco Homeless Services Coalition

San Francisco Homeless Coordinating Board

Bay Area Homeless Alliance

SF Chronicle Homeless Special

Attitude Toward Homeless Shifts in San Francisco

Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco

Project Homeless Connect

San Francisco Homeless Resource

San Francisco Plan to Abolish Homelessness

Sexism Against Asian-American Women

Breaking Down Sexualized Stereotypes of Asian Women

"Dragon Lady" stereotype

Racism and Sexism - A Collective Struggle: A Minority Woman's Point of View

Asian American Women: Why We Are Everywhere

Asian American Women: Issues, Concerns and Responsive Human and Civil Rights Advocacy

Asian Nation: Women and Gender Issues

Asian American Women: Issues and Concerns

Asian American Women and Men – Yen Le Espiritu

Gang Violence

SF Chronicle – Surenos

SF Chronicle - Widow pleads for death penalty

SF Chronicle - Latino homicides on sharp increase

ABC - Excelsior District sees increase in murders

SF Weekly - The War on Gangs

Controversial gang injunction

SF Gov Office - Civil gang injunction

Mission Dispatch

Mara Salvatrucha

What San Francisco Can Do About Gangs

SF Public Defender's Office

SF Excelsior Residents Demand End To Violence

YO! Youth Outlook

Golden Gate Xpress - Murder In The Mission

City Attorney's Office - Gang OSC Hearing

Immigration

Center for Immigration Studies

SF Chronicle - Feds probe S.F.'s migrant-offender shield

SF Chronicle - Immigration debate riles Latinos

San Francisco Sanctuary Ordinance

Beyond Chron - San Francisco Activists Must Build Latino Power

IM Diversity - Hispanic Media Size Up Election Results

The Latino Journal

Mission Local - Immigrant Voters Divided on Immigration, Presidential Picks

PBS film - Beyond the Border

San Francisco Organizing Project

KQED - Immigration in Focus

KQED - Immigration Resources

Today's Activity

Because it is important to have some cultural and historical context in order to understand literature written from an Indian perspective, over the next two days we will be building on our collective knowledge of American Indians. Today, you will conduct research on a topic in Native American history/culture which Sherman Alexie draws on in The Lone Ranger and Tonto. You will use this information to create a handout which is one (1) page. Here is what your handout needs to include:

• Title/topic

• 200-300 word summary of research in your own words
  

• A brief, interesting, and relevant quote from one of your sources

• A 3-5 item bulleted list of important facts or a timeline of 4-5 important dates

• One image

• 3 complete citations

Choose one of the topics below to research (you may need to pair up, sharing topics and computers but creating your own handouts):

• Broken Native American treaties

• Coeur D'Alene War/Spokane Plains War

• Colonel Wright and 1858 Horse Slaughter

• Crazy Horse

• Coeur D'Alene/Schitsu'Umsh tribe

• Chief Til-co-ax

• Commodity food

• Ghost Dance

• General George Armstrong Custer

• Coerced sterilization of Native American women

• HUD houses (US Department of Housing and Urban Development)

• American Indian Movement/Alcatraz Occupation

• Indian Health Service/tribal hospitals

• Stick game

• Spokane Indian Reservation

• Dawes Act/allotment of Native lands

• Owl dance

• Fancydancing

• Smallpox-infected blankets

• Diabetes in Native American populations

• Sacred Black Hills/Mount Rushmore

• Uranium mining on Native American land

• Massacre at Wounded Knee

Here are some websites to get you started in your research:

• Native Web Resource Database

• Native American Resources

• A huge list of links

• Image Galleries

• Smithsonian - Amer. Indian History & Culture

Here is a sample handout I made about Sherman Alexie.

This will be due Thursday, March 5th at the beginning of class.

Tonight's HW

Read "Every Little Hurricane"
Meet at the computer lab tomorrow!

Meet Sherman Alexie...

Sherman Alexie, author of our next book (a collection of short stories, actually), The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who lives in Seattle, Washington. Born in 1966, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA a very impoverished community about 5 hours east of Seattle (very close to Idaho). He loves basketball and much of his writing brings in his love of sports.

When he began high school, he decided to attend a mostly-white school off the reservation, and was "the only Indian except the mascot." Recently he published his first work of young adult fiction, The True Diary of a Part-time Indian, which is about this time in his life. It's a great read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested! Our school library has a copy and I may even consider giving some extra credit to anyone who reads it and writes a short reflection. Let me know!

He received his B.A, from Washington State University. During college, he had a drinking problem (which is another recurring theme we will see in his writing), and so at 23, gave up drinking and has been sober ever since.

Sherman Alexie has two sons, Joseph, who is 12, and David, who is 8 years old. He has won many awards for his writing and has had his work made into at least three films, one of which we will watch in class (Smoke Signals).