1) What is SOPA?  What are the arguments for and against it?

2)What is Pipa?  What are the arguments for and against it?

3) What are supporters and protesters doing in response to these?

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1704734,00.html

http://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/photos

Remember: Poetry pivots on images!  Show us what you see.

Critical thinkers distinguish the evidence or raw data upon which they base their interpretations or conclusions from the inferences and assumptions that connect data to conclusions.

Uncritical thinkers treat their conclusions as something given to them in experience, as something they directly observe in the world. As a result, they find it difficult to see why anyone might disagree with their conclusions. After all, the truth of their views is, they believe, right there for everyone to see! Such people find it difficult or even impossible to describe the evidence or experience without coloring that description with their interpretation.

If you read a poem and say it was cool, you’ve made an inference, but have not provided evidence.  To present evidence, you’ve got to point out specific observations about the poem that made you think that it is cool.  Make sense?

Evidence is the why of what we think, feel, and believe.  Any time you find yourself strongly disagreeing with someone’s opinion, try asking them for evidence!

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

~James Wright

Aleš Debeljak
translated from the Slovenian by Andrew Zawacki and the author

1) What did you do really well during this project?

2)What worked, helped, was fun, or was cool during the project?

3)How could you have done better?

4)What did you learn about being a teacher?

5)What did you learn about being a student?

6)Please write an evaluation for each of your team members.

7)What could you have added to improve your project?

8)please evaluate this way of learning about history.

9)What else can you say about this experience?

But here’s the thing: when we evaluate critically, our job is not just to say if we like it or not–we must use logic to determine the worth or quality.  Here are some questions that help to logically evaluate something:

1) Are we clear about what we are evaluating?  Be specific.  Choose a facet.
2) What is the purpose of the evaluation? Is our purpose legitimate?
3) Given our purpose, what are the relevant criteria or standards for evaluation?
4) Do we have enough information about the thing we are evaluating? Is that information relevant to the purpose?
5) Have we applied our criteria accurately and fairly to the facts as we know them? Uncritical thinkers often treat evaluation as mere preference or treat their evaluative judgments as direct observations not admitting of error.

~Dan Beachy-Quick