Emily Pipkin

Unit Plan: Additional Materials

Day 1 Tea Party
First 10 stories from La-Kachol Ein Darom. Copyright Alex Epstein.
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/ten-short-pieces#ixzz486Yg5cCJ
Second 5 excerpts from https://anthropologist.wordpress.com/my-short-stories/
1. The Artist's Likeness Is Like an Artist
This tale is rather old: Two painters wanted to see which of them could paint the painting that
best imitated reality . . . One of the painters painted the front of a house, and the illusion was so
perfect, so exact, that at first his competitor believed he had lost, but then understood that he
simply had to enter the painted house and hang the painting that he had painted on a wall inside.
2. The Angel Who Photographed God
Who, these days, hasn't woken from a dream of murdering an angel? A real angel, sporting fancy
wings that sparkle bright as snow, a heart in the shape of a Star of David, et cetera, et cetera. And
with a dagger even, oof, such a pleasant twist! (Why a dagger, by the way, and not a rifle, for
example? Clearly a rifle is the weapon of cowards. An ice pick? Too exotic. A flamethrower is
just an attention-getter. Even a harmonica, of course, can kill. But only in legends.) And all for
what? For some album of boring photographs. And never mind boringalso proving nothing. A
sea, a sea, and another sea! What was he thinking, this winged creature, only photographing the
sea? Here, for example, the last picture in the albumexactly the same as the photographs that
preceded it. Maybe with just one more look, careful, it's possible to identify that in the upper half
of this photo we can see . . . what the hellanother sea. And maybe in the lower halfsky.
Nobody can see in either of these two spaces the legs of some tiny figure, drowning, that entered
the frame by mistake.
3. A Story in Which No Snow Will Fall
Also in this story no snow will fall, the surrounding margins aren't wide enough. And in general,
all I want to say is that sometimes it's worthwhile to go out into the hall without first peeking
through the peephole, so as to run into the old man in the apartment across the way. For fiftythree years he was married; now he doesn't even have someone to turn on the light for.
4. Gloss
Their love story ended many years ago. He still writes her name as a solution to crossword
puzzle clues of suitable length. Two words: four letters and five letters. Once, at a bus stop, he
thinks he recognizes her waiting for a bus across the street. His hand trembles when he takes his
new book of crossword puzzles from his bag. He opens it to the first one and quickly finds a

suitable clue. Even afterward, on the bus, the trembling in his hand does not stop. The tip of the
pencil breaks against the bright paper.

5. The Woman Who Dreamed of Imaginary Chansons

She keeps his documents on the highest shelf of an old armoire in her bedroom, the room closest
to the rain and at the same time farthest from the rain and from the dream in which she enters a
store that sells record albums in a foreign city. The salesclerk tries to help her. She remembers a
sketch of a bridge on the cover. No, he has never heard of the old chanson that she is looking for,
which begins with the words "Love is a new stamp in a dead man's passport."
6. Edgar Allen Poe in Yiddish
Meanwhile, I have found no new evidence on Google as to the truth of this story. Some months
ago, when I was in New York, an old man wearing a beret sat down next to me on the subway.
He took his wallet out of his back pocket, examined something in one of the compartments, and
returned the wallet to his pocket. After peeking at the book I was reading, he asked me in English
if I was from Israel.
"I recognized the letters," he laughed. He told me that in the 50s he had translated some stories of
Edgar Allen Poe into Yiddish (he was particularly proud of his translation of "The Gold Bug"),
but he couldn't find a publisher for his translations. When I told him that these days it would be
easy to publish his translations on the Internet, his face lit up.
"My daughter can help me," he said. "She understands computers." Again he pulled his leather
wallet from his pants pocket; maybe he meant to show me a picture of his daughter, but he again
put it away.
"Her name is Linda," he said. "Actually, I should go over the translations again. I don't remember
where I kept them. It was such a long time ago . . . You know, he's a chilling writer, PoeI
translated him just so that I could feel like I was normal." He paused, wrinkling his forehead as if
trying to remember. "Later I thought that maybe I had made something of value after all."
"My stop," he said when we arrived in Queens. (He stood up and felt for his wallet in his
pocket.) I watched him from the train window: the old man in the beret lingered on the platform.
He seemed to be letting the crowd disperse before he turned toward the escalator; maybe he was
about to board a train going the opposite direction.
7. Gibraltar, a Love Story
Forgive me for all the flaws in this story, about an African elephant who escaped one winter from
a zoo in Gibraltar, and appeared a week later, early in the morning, circling in confusion beside
the exit to the Casa de Campo metro station in Madrid, and then some several hundred meters

from there, leaping with the steps of a giant in love, approaching the entrance to the zoo of the
capital of Spain.

8. Lullaby for an Old Chess Player

The forecast raised the possibility of rain, but in the meantime the sky was clear. Long, ragged
clouds drifted in the skies, nothing more. An old man stretched his arms out on the marble table
in the park, laid his head on his hands and fell asleep. Some children playing in the park snuck
up on him, moved the pieces on the board, laughed and ran off. The old man woke from his short
sleep and contemplated the position of the pieces on the marble table. He moved a pawn forward.
9. On the Time Difference Between Poetry and Prose
The wall clock read one minute after midnight. A poet and a writer met. "My muse," said the
writer, "has deserted me." The poet responded, "So write about it." The writer wept softly. "And
she is with someone else right now." The poet said, "So write about it." The writer said, "But I
suspect that he has blue eyes." "So write about it," the poet advised, "or just beat him up."
"Maybe she didn't love me," said the writer. "Yes, maybe she never loved me." The poet said,
"So write about it. Or beat him up. Is he strong?" "I didn't say that he was strong," objected the
writer, "I said that he had blue eyes." "So write about it." "Tell me, what is it that you want from
me?" shouted the writer, "you write about it." The poet said with surprise, "Why suggest that I
write?" "Because you suggested it to me," answered the writer. "You advised me to write." "I
didn't advise you to do anything," said the poet, shrugging. "What do you meanyou just
suggested it. Five times." "I don't know what you're talking about." "About my muse leaving
me . . ." "So write about it . . ." "You see, again you . . ." The writer jumped up, tore the clock
from the wall and struck the poet with all his might. The time was three minutes after midnight.
10. Blue Has No South
One night, in a surfeit of sleeplessness, the poet leapt suddenly into a dream in which he stood in
a room in a ramshackle house. In his hand was a paintbrush dripping with blue paint. An insistent
voice instructed him to paint a wall of the room in black. Is it even possible, thought the poet, to
paint black with blue? And then he woke. And waking, he remembered that the Italian word for
room is stanza. The poet reflected on this with growing amazement: The room he dreamt of was
the stanza of a poem. He wondered if it wasn't time he turned to writing prose.
11. Dust appeared in The Writing Disorder (Spring 2011)
She wondered if Remedios might have tried getting her old job back, the one at the Bank of
America on Woodside Road. One day, she went there. She stood in back of a long line of tired,
impatient people. It was 4:30 p.m., a Monday. She waited patiently for the line to move. And
finally, finally, when she was at the front of the line, she forced herself to look up, to look
carefully at the bank of tellers. Her gaze went from girl to girl slowly. That one had a face that
was too square; that other one was too short; still another had a large mole by her lower lip.

When there was only the last girl in the row, she stopped and considered. This girl had hair
highlighted with gold and reddish streaks. Shed covered her eyelids with glittery purple
eyeshadow. When her gaze stopped, the girl looked up. For a moment, their eyes locked. Then
Remedios put her hand to her mouth and screamed.
12. Seeing appeared in PANK Magazine (Online Issue 9.5, May 2014)
My name is Gemma. I was born in Makati Medical, during Typhoon Yoling. There were two of
us born that night, but Im the only one people see.
My mother accuses me of making up stories.
She says, hija, I had one of those, too. When I was a little younger than you. My imaginary
friend meant everything to me. Her name was Sharylyn.
13. Jesters appeared in Used Furniture Review, January 6, 2012
There is so much weight here: the house, the barn, the chestnut horses in the field, the Chinese
elms, the white porch, the brick path, the flowering oregano bushes, the Steinway grand, the
porcelain vases, the shelves and shelves of books: Culture & Anarchy, Multilingual Lexicon of
Linguistics and Philology, Cassells Italian Dictionary, The World and the Text. You run your
hands over the dusty spines. You finger the books. You feel yourself melting, slowly.
Make it a game. Can you? A for Articulation. What they are always telling you at meetings.
Something to do with requirements. These are somewhat rigid. Why cant you follow?
B for Because. Because you feel different. No, are. You are different. Because there are builtin redundancies.
C is for crumbling. They all say it means nothing. C for courage, they say.
14. The Hand won first place in the 2007 Juked Fiction Contest, judged by Frederick
Barthelme
In the last couple of years, time seemed to be moving very fast, seemed almost to be
accelerating, and the more she tried to hold on to it, the less of it there was to hold. This was a
frightening feeling, a feeling she tried over and over to analyze. On this particular Monday
evening, a light rain was falling. She could hear the gentle sound of the drops against the trees
outside her window.
This morning the rain made her happy, since it reminded her of her childhood in the Philippines,
when the yellowish glow from the low-watt bulbs made the rooms look unearthly, and
everything in them blurred, as though she were looking at her surroundings from underwater. She
remembered sitting at the round table in the kitchen, which was her favorite room in the house,
where she sat surrounded by the bustling maids, the sound of people entering and leaving.

All day the question had been inside her, waiting.

15. The Lost Language was first published in Isotope, Spring/Summer 2009. It is the
title story of a collection published in the Philippines by Anvil Press, in 2009:
Filipinos once had an ancient written language. If I were to show you what the marks look like
on a piece of paper, they would look like a series of waves, more like Egyptian hieroglyphics,
like the eye of the Pharaoh I saw in my old high school history books.
The language was written on tree bark. Epics were probably written in this language, but I dont
know what they are. My ancestors are shadowy people. Shadows.

Day 2 Advertisement Analysis Rubric

Student Name:

Advertisement Analysis Poster

________________________________________

CATEGORY

Exceeds Expectations

Meets Expectations

Approaching

Does Not Meet

Required

The poster includes all

All required

Expectations
All elements

Expectations
An element may

Elements

required elements

elements are

may be

be missing or

(ethos, pathos, and

included on the

included, but

the poster is too

logos columns with a

poster.

not in great

sloppy to read.

collage of adds and a

detail or with

paragraph) labeled

only a

neatly

picture or
two.

Knowledge

Student shows an clear Student shows a

Student

Student appears

Gained

understanding of

basic understanding

shows a

to have

ethos, pathos, and

of ethos, pathos,

basic

insufficient

logos and how they

and logos in

understandin

knowledge

are used in

advertisements.

g of at least

about rhetorical

advertisements in

one of the

appeals.

paragraphs.

rhetorical
appeals.

Day 3 Interactive Notebook

The 29 students in Mr Strang's classroom gravely considered the two sentences scrawled across
the freshly washed blackboard:
All A's are C's.
All B's are C's.
"The apparent conclusionthat all A's are B'sdoes have a certain allure, a kind of appealing
logic."
Mr Strang blinked myopically, his wrinkled face resembling that of a good-natured troll. Then he
whirled, and his chalk drew a large screeching X through both sentences.
"Of course," he snapped, "it's also dead wrong. Its error can easily be verified by substituting
'teenager' for A, 'ostrich' for B, and 'two-legged' for C in the original premises. Thus, all
teenagers are two-legged, all ostriches are two-legged, and therefore all teenagers are ostriches. I
doubt you'd accept that conclusion."
Source: William Brittain, "Mr Strang Accepts a Challenge", from The Mammoth Book of
Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, pp. 349-50.
Day 3 Mini-Lecture (Taken from ReadWriteThink)
1. Ad hominem (meaning "against the person")attacks the person and not the issue
2. Appeal to emotionsmanipulates people's emotions in order to get their attention away
from an important issue
3. Bandwagoncreates the impression that everybody is doing it and so should you

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

False dilemmalimits the possible choices to avoid consideration of another choice

Appeal to the peopleuses the views of the majority as a persuasive device
Scare tacticcreates fear in people as evidence to support a claim
False causewrongly assumes a cause and effect relationship
Hasty generalization (or jumping to conclusions)draws a conclusion about a population
based on a small sample
9. Red herringpresents an irrelevant topic to divert attention away from the original issue
10. Traditional wisdomuses the logic that the way things used to be is better than they are
now, ignoring any problems of the past

Day 4 Example Editorial and Questions

Note: Adapted from lesson taught in EDUC 450 at Rocky Mountain High School, spring 2016.

Poisoned Water in Newark Schools

Students on their way to the Early Childhood School in Newark on Thursday morning. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Newark Public Schools recently acknowledged that the water at its schools
has contained high levels of lead for years. This is shocking but, sadly, not
surprising given the neglect of public schools, especially those in poor
communities, by Congress and state governments.
Last week Newark officials began offering blood tests for elevated lead levels
in students after tests showed that drinking water at 30 of the districts 67
schools exceeded the safety threshold established by the Environmental
Protection Agency. But even levels below that standard 15 parts per billion
are not acceptable. Public health experts say there is no safe amount of
lead in water and that children exposed to the heavy metal can
suffer irreversible damage to the neurological system.
The Newark district found high lead levels in water samples taken over the
past four years and has promised to release the results from earlier years.

District officials were aware of the hazard as early as 2004, and some steps,
like installing water filters, were taken over the years.
There are striking parallels between Newark schools and the city of Flint,
Mich., which is also struggling with a lead crisis. Both are distressed, both
have a large minority population, and both are subject to state control in
the Newark school districts case, for more than 20 years. Gov. Chris
Christies administration needs to respond immediately, providing bottled
water to the schools and figuring out how many children have been harmed.
The state should also investigate what previous superintendents did in
response to elevated lead levels and why results from earlier tests were not
made public. If the state is unable or unwilling to do that, federal officials
should step in. Last week, federal court filings in New York City revealed that
the United States attorneys office in Manhattan is investigating elevated
blood lead levels in residents of the citys public housing and homeless
shelters.
Lead in the water, which often comes from water lines and plumbing fixtures,
has been a hazard in school districts around the country, including those of
Washington, D.C.; Seattle; and Los Angeles. Baltimores has used bottled
water for drinking and cooking since 2007. Schools in Camden, N.J., have
been on bottled water for 14 years.
Since most school buildings in cities are old, they tend to have plumbing with
significant amounts of lead. It was not until 1986 that Congress set the
maximum level of lead in pipes and fixtures at 8 percent, a standard
unchanged until Congress lowered it to 0.25 percent starting in 2014.
Yet federal law does not require schools to test their water if they get it from
a public water utility, which most schools do. This needs to change. Congress
and state legislatures should pass laws requiring regular testing for lead and
that the results are made public.
When contamination is detected, school districts will need money and
expertise from federal and state agencies to fix the problem. It is absolutely

unacceptable that public schools, very often in the poorest communities,

may be poisoning their children.
A version of this editorial appears in print on March 20, 2016, on page SR10 of the New York
edition with the headline: Poisoned Water in Newark Schools.

Quick Questions on Poisoned Water in Newark Schools

Name:-

_______________
1. What do you see as this persuasive editorials
a. Strengths?
b. Weaknesses?
2. How would you describe the structure of this editorial?
(Think hook, claim, counterargument, call to action, etc.)

3. What is one rhetorical appeal (ethos, pathos, logos) which stands out
to you in this editorial? How is it being used?

Exit Ticket
Name:__________________
1. After looking at an example, what would you say are the
most important aspects of an effective persuasive editorial
or any persuasive piece?

2. Give one specific example of how you will incorporate one of these
aspects in your own writing. (for example: I will appeal to
ethos/pathos/logos by, I will use______ as my hook, etc.)

Day 5 Example Rubric

Note: This is from Gina Difelice, my match-up teacher for EDUC 450.
Persuasive Editorial Rubric
Criteria

Hook

Claim

Support
(Problem/Solution)

Concession/Refutation

Exceeds
Expectations

Meets
Expectations

Approaching
Expectations

Does Not Meet

Expectations

The introductory
paragraph has a
strong hook or
attention grabber
that is appropriate
for the audience.
This could be a
strong statement, a
relevant quotation,
statistic, or
question addressed
to the reader.
The claim names
the topic of the
essay and outlines
the main points to
be discussed.

The introductory
paragraph has a
hook or attention
grabber, but it is
weak, rambling
or inappropriate
for the audience.

The author has an

interesting
introductory
paragraph but the
connection to the
topic is not clear.

The introductory
paragraph is not
interesting AND
is not relevant to
the topic.

The claim names

the topic of the
essay.

The claim does

not name the
topic AND does
not preview what
will be discussed.

Writer clearly
details why the
current situation is
a problem. All of
the evidence and
examples are
specific and
relevant. The
problem is
discussed and
urgent. The
solution is
relevant, well
explained, and
convincing.
Concessions are
outlined and
detailed. However,
the writer presents
even more
convincing
refutations. After
this section, it is
clear that other
arguments have
been addressed,
but have been

Most of the
evidence and
examples are
specific, relevant
and explanations
are given that
show how each
piece of evidence
supports the
author's position.
Both the problem
and solution are
discussed, but not
in great detail.

The claim
outlines some or
all of the main
points to be
discussed but
does not name
the topic.
At least one of
the pieces of
evidence and
examples is
relevant and has
an explanation
that shows how
that piece of
evidence supports
the author's
position. Either
the problem or
solution isnt well
supported
Concessions are
mentioned
briefly, but not
detailed. The
writer either
doesnt present
refutations or
they are only
mentioned in
passing.

Either
concessions,
refutations, or
both are missing.

Concessions are
explained. The
writer presents
refutations. After
this section, both
sides have been
addressed and
one side is
favored.

Evidence and
examples are
NOT relevant
AND/OR are not
explained.
Missing either
problem,
solution, or both.

Score

___/10

___/10

___/20

___/10

proved invalid/not
important.

Call to Action

Grammar & Mechanics

MLA Format &

Research Logs

The conclusion is
strong and leaves
the reader solidly
understanding the
writer's position.
Effective
restatement of the
position statement
begins the closing
paragraph. The
reader is left with
a clear physical
action he/she can
do for the solution.
Author makes no
errors in grammar
or spelling that
distract the reader
from the content.
Author makes no
errors in
capitalization or
punctuation, so the
essay is
exceptionally easy
to read.

The conclusion is
recognizable. The
author's position
is restated within
the first two
sentences of the
closing
paragraph. The
reader is left with
a physical action
he/she can do for
the solution, but
might not know
where to go.
Author makes 1-2
errors in grammar
or spelling that
distract the reader
from the content.
Author makes 1-2
errors in
capitalization or
punctuation, but
the essay is still
easy to read.

All sources used

for quotes,
statistics and facts
are credible and
cited correctly.

All sources used

for quotes,
statistics and
facts are credible
and most are
cited correctly.

The author's
position is
restated within
the closing
paragraph, but
not near the
beginning. The
reader knows the
argument, but
doesnt have a
clear physical
action to
implement the
solution.
Author makes 3-4
errors in grammar
or spelling that
distract the reader
from the content.
Author makes a
few errors in
capitalization
and/or
punctuation that
catch the reader's
attention and
interrupt the flow.
Most sources
used for quotes,
statistics and
facts are credible
and cited
correctly.

There is no
conclusion - the
paper just ends
with no action
for the reader.

Author makes
several errors in
capitalization
and/or
punctuation that
catch the reader's
attention and
interrupt the
flow.

Many sources are

suspect (not
credible)
AND/OR are not
cited correctly.

___/15

____/5

___/10

Day 6 Revising Checklist (Day 7 modified)

Revising Checklist
Use this checklist to double check for errors before turning in a final draft. As we learn about
each of these concepts in class, finding these errors in your final draft will result in lost points, so
read your drafts carefully!
Basic Things to Look For:
Capitalization- Are beginnings of sentences capitalized? Are proper nouns capitalized? Is
anything capitalized that should not be?
Punctuation
o Periods at ends of sentences? (or other end punctuation such as question marks or
exclamation marks?)
o Commas- used properly where needed? no comma splices?
Sentences
o No run-on sentences?
o No sentence fragments?
o Varied sentence lengths?
Spelling
o Be sure to look for correct use of homonyms (ex. there/theyre/their, its/its,
to/too/two, etc.)
Other Things to Look For (will vary based on requirements of assignment. Always double check
rubric!):
Citations- proper in-text parenthetical citations? works cited page?
Dialogue- formatted properly?
Vocabulary- varied?