Essential Questions

  • I. How Do We Know What We Know?
  • II. What Are The Problems of Knowledge?
  • III. What is the role of Perception in attaining Knowledge?
  • IV. How does Language influence how he gain Knowledge?
  • V. How does our use of Reason help or hinder us as we attempt to gain knowledge?
  • VI. Is Emotion the best way to gain knowledge?

Egyptograms

Please post your notes from the Egyptogram lessons. Also, please refelct on the Egyptogram experience. Did you enjoy the exercize? Why or why not? Be sure to comment on the Kpelle reasoning story in the Egptogram packet. Please publish this post by Friday, April 3.

Wild Child Assessment

Choose from the following possibilities for the Wild Child Assessment. The option chosen must be posted to your blog on March 27th. If not, you will receive a zero for the assignment.
You may work in groups (two people max). All group members will receive the same grade.


In all options, you MUST address the following TWO questions.

1. Why does Dr. Itard want Victor to speak? (you should consider the questions asked on Genie, p. 72) to get the the heart of this question.

2. How does Dr. Itard hope to teach Victor:
a) Perception
b) Language
c) Reason
d) Emotion

Please be specific by citing the film Wild Child, Genie and Abel in your response to these questions.

Option A:
Create a piece of artwork on your blog that addresses the questions.
*BOTH Questions must correspond to the art and be fully answered(40 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (50 pts)

Option B:
Re-write a popular song/poem with lyrics that answer the questions.
*BOTH Questions must correspond to song and be fully answered(30 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (30 pts)
*Song must be at least 20 lines, clean with correct spelling and grammar (30 pts)

Option C:
Create a Movie/Music Video that includes Victor and or Dr. Itard
*BOTH Questions must correspond to video and be fully answered(30 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (30 pts)
*Video must be at least 10 minutes and clean (30 pts)

Please see me if you have any questions or concerns.

Genie #2

Please read the rest of the Genie packet Chapters 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 & 14 and answer the following questions.

1. What was so significant about Chomsky's argument?
2. What do you make of Chomsky's bird argument on p. 36?
3. Do you agree with Chomsky's claim about the island at the end of Chapter 7? Please explain your answer.
4. In Chapter 10, why were Genie's observers pleased to see her hitting other children?
5. Describe how Genie's language was developing.
6. After reading Chapter 11, what are the primary differences between the reading and the film?
7. How did the film, Wild Child impact the symposium members? What is meant by: "all of us saw in the movie what we were prepared to see to confirm to our own biases."?
8. What do you think of Dr. Elkind's quote on p. 59? How do you feel about Dr. Freedman's suggestion on p. 59-61
9. Why was it important for Itard to teach Vistor to "imagine the needs of others (p. 73)"? Does CAS do this? Why or why not?
10. After reading Chapter 14, do you agree that Truffaut's film ending was too optimistic?

For full credit, please post these questions to your blog by March 22nd.

Language Essay Re-Write

This week's optional assignment consists of you re-writing your Language Essay. If you simply re-write the essay on your blog, I will add up to 4 extra credit points. If you wish to get up to 7 extra credit points, please re-write the essay on the blog, adding my comments from the graded rubric. If you do add, please put in red on the blog. For the full 10 extra credit points, rewrite the essay on the blog, add my comments, and then add anything from the Abel Questions that we discussed in class. For example, maybe address Inscrutability of Reference or Chomsky's Linguistic Competence in terms of sign language. For full credit, please post the essay by Wednesday, March 18th.

In Class EE Questions

In Class, get into 4 groups based on subject and please answer the following questions:

1. What components are missing?
2. What are the strengths of this paper?
3. What questions come to mind after reading this paper?
4. How might reading this paper help you plan for the Extended Essay?

This is not a graded assignment. There is no need to post the answers to your blog.