Alternate Summer Reading Assignment

Due Date: Sept. 19 (A day) and 20 (B day)

You will follow this process for your reading journal.

  1. Use the links to Room for Debate. Read the entire cluster to better understand the issue. Then, select THREE debater articles to use for this assignment, one from each issue cluster.

Americans and Their Flag http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/09/01/americans-and-their-flag

How to Crack Down on Social Media Threats

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/08/03/how-to-crack-down-on-social-media-threats

What Ethics Should Guide the Use of Robots in Policing?

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/07/14/what-ethics-should-guide-the-use-of-robots-in-policing

  1. As you are reading, connect to one of the issues below.
  2. You will write a response for each article. Use the format described below.

Your response should contain the following items:

  1. Copy/xerox the article AND include bibliographical information.
  2. Copy down the issue from the list below that you will discuss.
  3. Write a MINIMUM 150 word explanation of the issue. Explain CLEARLY how the passage illustrates the issue. Connect each side of the issue CLEARLY to particulars in the passage. Your discussion will include clarification of the context of the passage (what is happening and who is involved). Remember that the nature of an issue is that there are always two sides. Be as objective as possible in your exploration of the two sides presented in your passage.
  4. Now, write a MINIMUM 100 word personal response to the issue as it emerges in your passage. Here, you are demonstrating your genuine thinking, your personal engagement with the passage.

Issues:

The following issues emerge in literature, in history and in our society today. If you will focus on these issues, you will be able to connect your study of literature and history to your own experience and knowledge of the world.

·  What obligations does a just individual have toward society?

·  What obligations does a just society owe to an individual?

·  What are the limits on individual freedom?

·  How does an individual judge right from wrong?

·  What is the role of the individual in confronting injustice?

·  What kind of government is effective?

·  How does a society contend with the dichotomies (divisions into two) presented by freedom and equality?

·  How does an individual experience redemption?

·  What is the role of love in the redemption of an individual and/or of society?

·  Does the accumulation of money and power inevitably lead to a loss of spirituality?