Wednesday, January 31 - PM Advanced/Fluency

We opened with a thought experiment: If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could choose one musical artist/band to listen to for the rest of your time there, what would it be? Most students listed artists from their home countries, although one student chose Linkin Park.

We resumed our unit on MLK. I gave a mini-lecture on the March on Washington, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and the assassination of MLK. 

Preparing for our analysis of MLK’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” I posed the following question to students: What is a reasonable argument for equal rights? If you were creating a country, how would you defend equal rights of your citizens? Students discussed this in small groups. We then had a lively argument, during which I played devil’s advocate, challenging the answers I heard. 

Our conversation–for one reason or another–then steered toward gender roles. We wrestled with the following questions: Are we born with gender roles, or are gender roles learned? This discussion became a bit heated (once the issue of trans rights was raised), but remained civil and charitable.