Your impromptu task is to briefly summarize one of the short essays or essay fragments from the back of the text and then explain how having some understanding of the essay's content adds to your understanding of the novel (in whole or part). Be sure to illustrate each point of your response with examples from the text. You may bring an annotated summary to class, but along with the novel, nothing more--except pen and paper.

This is the stuff we came up with in class today.

• Sexual Harrassment—Ona’s being raped by her
• infant Mortality/health care—Ona and child die during childbirth
• police brutality/corruption—wrong move gets a beating, unfair treatment in court
• fair treatment of seasonal workers—turn horses out in winter?
• Homelessness/evictions
• Alcoholism/addiction—runs off to get drunk after Ona’s death
• Prison and food—dope ‘n joe, hospital food
• Adulterated food going to the poor
• Panhandling—Jurgis begging and meeting Duane

Despite the continuing fight over health care reform, Americans need to keep in mind that they have it pretty good in relation to earlier generations. In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the protagonist Jurgis is injured on the job and finds himself hospitalized. “Jurgis was ready to leave the hospital at the end of two weeks. . . his place was needed for someone worse off than he” (215). Many today find themselves in similar straights when it comes to health care. They cannot afford to get the care they need. One website that addresses the problems that remain with our health care system, and the need for further reform, can be found at HealthCare.Gov. This site relies on a mythology of the government efforts being a friend to the people most in need of the benefits of health care reform.

Attached you'll find covers sheets for the first two essays.

We'll be finishing up the conferences I was unable to get to on Friday due to my heart misbehaving, again (and still). I'm still trying to arrange some computer time, but if I can get it for Monday, I won't be available to help due to conferences. I'm still working on a computer lab for Tuesday.If you see this and you have had your conference, come to class on Monday to pick up directions to help prepare for the portfolio readings on Wednesday.

My being sick the last two days has messed up our schedule a good bit. I don't think it fair to have the second essay due when I haven't been in class for the two days before it is due, with crucial work to be done those two days. So here's what I propose:

1. If you have it ready, bring your revision of essay one on Thursday so I can respond to it. Remember to highlight all revisions and to also bring the draft I graded.
2. Bring your draft of the second essay. We'll go over those in class and those will be due for grading on Monday.

I'm still home sick, so we won't have class again until Thursday. In the meantime, continue with yesterday's directions, to post your draft in the blog (I see only a few have done so already) and respond using the response guidelines (a link is in the message below this and as part of the assignment). Bring a draft on Thursday, in the best shape possible, for further evaluation.

I'm sick today, and you would much rather not have what I have, so I'm staying home. What I'd like you to do is to post your essay drafts online and also respond to each other online in timely enough manner that you all can make some revisions and bring that revised draft to class on Tuesday. Whatever happens between now and tomorrow, bring your essay to class in the best possible shape you can get it into.

Here are the questions to respond to: http://bleckblog.org/comp/videorubric. As with the previous assignment, read two essays and respond using the linked questions. Give each element what you consider the appropriate score and explain why you gave that score. Do it for each of the elements contained in the guide.

I want each essay to receive two responses. If you see an essay that already has two responses when you go to respond, please find one that doesn't. This is how we can insure that every gets their two responses. Feel free to email me with questions. I'll be checking in every now and then.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it to class today to collect the first batch of essays and get you started on essay two. I'll be picking those essays up and reading them over the weekend, planning to return them to you on Tuesday, the 19th.

I have a little bit of work to do to get the second essay totally whipped into shape, but the first step is to read the next seven chapters of The Jungle. I will plan on us talking about those chapters on Tuesday, so please come with a major detail outline similar to what you had for the first seven chapters. Also read the assignment over. The gist of the task is that you will take an idea from the reading and use it as a spring board to examine a particular issue (be it food, immigration, work or what have you). The way that issue will be examined is through the analysis of a video dealing with that issue. I'll provide a number of videos to look at, and I have a few that we'll use as examples. I'll explain more when we meet again on Tuesday. In the meantime, read chapters 8-14, annotate the text as you did with the previous chapters, and read the assignment materials. Otherwise, enjoy your extended weekend.

Please bring a draft of the first assignment to class with you on Monday, Jan 11. We'll spend most of the class time reading and responding to the drafts and answering questions. If you have any questions about what you are doing over the weekend as you put the draft together, please email me or post a question here. Email is more surefire as I'm always checking it. Sometimes I forget to check the blog for questions.

Be sure to read, if you haven't done so already, the material linked to the syllabus and the material that is included as part of the assignment. I like to think that stuff will help you be more successful. In particular you should look at the sample essay, which creates a good sense of how the assignment can work, and the rubric that I used to evaluate the final product. I've attached that rubric here in the form that we'll be using in class on Monday.

Finally, the more work you put into the draft, the more others can help you and the more you can help others in the review process.

For class on Friday, January 8, please have finished reading and annotating chapters 1-7 of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. having done that, bring an outline for all seven chapters that covers what you see to be the major details. We'll be discussing these details while also looking for points within the story that will work for the response portion of the assignment.