Posts Tagged ‘rcl’

RCL Post TED Talk Reflection

As I re-watched my Ted Talk I noticed many things that I could improve upon and also many things that I did well.  First off, I seemed very uncomfortable in front of the camera and didn’t really look in one specific direction.  I think that this was in part due to the fact that I am short so looking up high at the camera is very difficult and I sort of scanned the room and didn’t look in any one particular direction because I was nervous.  Furthermore, I was very anxious to perform my TED talk since we weren’t allowed to have any notes with us except for a notecard to reference if needed.  I did not use a notecard because I thought that it would hinder my performance more than help since then I would be just trying to stare directly at the notecard the whole time instead of relying on myself.  After my introduction and half way through my first actual “content” part of my speech, I lost my place and forgot where I was and I tried to restart my phrase but I got a little more flustered than I probably should have and ended up apologizing to the audience.  I should have just stopped and then took a breath instead of frantically starting over, however overall I think I handled it fairly well.  Another thing that I did which is typically of me when giving speeches is to talk way too fast.  I definitely did this here and I could have taken it slower, but compared to my last speech it was a great improvement.  This is because I feel that I did a better job of controlling my nerves, but I think that this is because I knew my topic better than my last speech.  Also, I felt that I was more animated this time round as opposed to how monotone I was in my first speech.

RCL #10

For RCL blog, link to a favorite TED Talk from Ted.com and discuss what you like about it. How does it help you consider the set-up for your own topic?

Salman Khan

Lets’ use video to reinvent education

salman_kahn

In this video, Salman Khan discusses why and how he created Khan Academy, and what he sees for the potential future of not only American education, but that of the world.  For those who are not familiar with Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org) it is a not-for-profit organization that runs a website that helps to provide online education.  It is a series of educational videos offering curricula in math, science and other subjects. Their mission is to “provide a free, world‑class education for anyone, anywhere.” During his TED talk, Khan speaks of how he created Khan Academy, but then transitions into talking about where he sees the future of education going.  I like how he talks about the future of education by first sharing his personal story of helping to tutor his cousins.  He incorporates humor by self-deprecation which engages the audience and makes his story more powerful.  He also has a very natural way of speaking that doesn’t seem forced at all which gives a better flow to the talk.  I also like his enthusiasm and genuine excitement about the organization and the potential of education, it makes you like him so much more and his cause.  He also does a nice job of tying in how he sees this helping everyone, since the videos themselves are very individual, but how it can also “humanize” the classroom since it frees up more time to interact.  His message is very strong and clear and is also one that many people would see as good. This video helps me to consider the set-up for my own topic in a variety of ways.  I will probably try to incorporate something personal or relatable in order to create an overarching theme and connect the audience to the topic.  I will also try to be animated. I will also try to learn my topic so well that my talk doesn’t sound forced or memorized because that could be detrimental to the effectiveness of my presentation.

Image: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education

RCL #6

For your RCL blog, post a rough outline of your rhetorical analysis highlighting some key rhetorical critiques of the ad in red.

The famous We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches is the speech delivered by Churchill to the British Parliament on 4 June, 1940. In this speech, Churchill describes the military disaster in Dunkirk, and warns of a possible invasion attempt by Nazi Germany.  During all of this he perpetuates the hope of Britain’s eventual victory, even though the times seem dark.

As a war leader, Churchill needs to bring the people of Britain together and to put forward the message of victory, even when Great Britain was seriously  losing the war.  However for this to be possible, the public needs to trust him and see that he is credible. Churchill already has credibility with the people since he is the prime minister, so people naturally look to him as a leader and for advice.  Even before he became Prime Minister he had much experience in positions of authority relating to war; he served as Secretary of State for War and Air, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and First Lord of the Admiralty (Bigelow).  Since he has held such high ranking positions in the past, he appears more qualified to direct the country on what to do.

Churchill uses the description of the events that occurred at Dunkirk and on the lines and the beaches and order to draw in the audience and make them empathize with the struggle of the soldiers that were there. He creates a vivid scene so that the audience is not only informed but feels connected to the situation. This is a good example of pathos because it pulls on the heartstrings and patriotism of the British people in order to garner the support for later events. Furthermore, his absolute conviction that the British will attain victory through the will power of the nation alone also pulls on the patriotic spirit.  Also, by stating “we” he includes himself in Britain’s strife against Nazi Germany, which makes his message more relatable and the people more willing to follow since there is more of a communal mentality.

 

 

 

 

 

RCL #5

Review Unit One Rhetorical Analysis assignment requirements on ANGEL and offer up a few ads for your rhetorical analysis along with some arguments you might make. Make some observations about commonplaces, ethos, pathos, logos and other rhetorical elements you see in the pieces.

SPCA Commercials

These commercials use pathos because there is sad music playing in the background which makes the audience feel more empathic towards the animals.  Also there are depressing pictures of animals looking hurt and sad which makes the audience feel bad and want to donate to their cause.  They also use logos by putting up statistics about the animals and telling you that by 19 cents a day you can help these animals.  That doesn’t seem like a lot to help these “defenseless” animals so logically you should be able to and want to help them.  It also uses ethos by using Sarah McLachlan as a spokesperson for the animals and also the SPCA also has a good reputation nationally.

Budweiser 2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4

This commercial uses pathos because it shows cute animals and a heartwarming story about friendship and commitment.  The puppy looks like it could be our own so it is devastating if they are taken away from us and because the puppy and the horse exhibit human-qualities of devotion and love it makes the message and intent more relatable. Budweiser also hopes this message of commitment and friendship between the horse and the puppy reflects their relationship with their own customers so hopefully this will encourage people to buy more of their products. Also, there is ethos because Budweiser is a very well established company so people will prefer to buy from somewhere that they are already familiar with.  There isn’t a lot of logos used in the ad because there are no words in the ad besides Budweiser, but logically if your ideals match up with Budweiser’s then you should buy their beer instead of another company’s.

 

Let’s Learn Our A, B, C’s

Blank-Staff-Paper

Staff Paper

You don’t need to know how to read music in order to make music, but learning how to read it can definitely improve you skill and ability as a musician especially if you play in an orchestra or band.  I mean, who wants to memorize minutes to even hours of music when you’ve got the cheat sheet right in front of you?  The very basics to learning how to read music is based upon the staff, or really awkwardly spaced lined paper. The staff (or the stave) is the foundation upon which notes are drawn.  Most commonly you see the staff with five lines and four spaces.  Etreble_clef_bass_clefvery line and space in the staff represents a “note” or if you are familiar with a keyboard, every line and space represents a white key. Now to be able to interpret which note goes with what line or space you need a clef.  A clef assigns individual notes to certain lines or spaces.  The most commonly used clefs are Treble and Bass clef.  Or you can think of them as a line with a spiral in the middle and half of a heart someone was too lazy to finish drawing.

Now in music the alphabet only goes to G, but it typically starts on C but encompasses the notes A to G.  To the right you can see where each of the notes are placed on the treble clef.Treble-Clef-Notes-Chart2 Now because there are only so many lines to put our notes on what happens when we go off of the staff? Well add our own lines, called ledger lines.  Now you may think, ledger lines aren’t so bad, and you’d be right! If you don’t play flute.  But sadly, I play flute and these are just a pain to deal with. Oh we’re going at quarter note=164 (for you nonmusic folks that’s

Normal Versus FLUTE!!

Normal Versus FLUTE!!

about 4 notes a second) and you want me to read this? Yea not happening.

Now to be able to read the music, you need to know how to interpret the length of notes.  The longest note that there is in modern music is the whole note, or semibreve, which if you are in standard 4/4 that is equivalent to 4 beats. Now a half note, or minim, is equal to two beats, a quarter note, or crotchet, is equal to one and so on.  The chart shows you what each of these notes looks like drawn out and their relationships to each other.

Now when you put those notes on a staff you can interpret the music.  So for example, if I were to put a whole note( looks like a circle) on the first line of the staff in treble clef then you would play an E on your respective instrument for four counts. Now you are on your way to being able to read and interpret music!

Citations:

Picture 1:http://staffpaper.net/download/10-stave-staff-paper/10-stave-staff-paper.gif

Picture 2: http://www.selftaughtguitarlessons.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TrebleClef.gif

Picture 3:http://www.musicreadingsavant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Treble-Clef-Notes-Chart1.jpg

Picture 4: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Ledger_lines.png

Picture 5:http://musixcool.com/members/musixcool/english/theory/rhythms.gif

RCL 4

For RCL Blog entry, consider the successful elements of your speech or others’. What delivery style worked well? What visual aids seemed most successful? What were some common pitfalls?

I did not speak this week but other people did.  The delivery style that worked well for people was a very passionate delivery with a lot of conviction.  If the presenter seemed genuinely interested and connected to their topic it made the delivery of the speech so much better.  Also, if the speaker engaged the audience by asking questions, drawing the audience in, and making them think or feel something then that made the speech a lot better.

If the person had visual aids it helped with the description of the civic artifact.  If they made a slide show that had multiple examples of their civic artifact or multiple examples of the objects effect in the world, that really added to the presentation.  It also made the presentation more interesting if they switched slides so then you wouldn’t have to look at the same thing for the entire speech.

There were a few common pitfalls that all the people so far have done.  One is that they pause a lot and for a good period of time during the speech.  By doing this they take away from the effectiveness of their speech because it breaks up the flow. This takes the audience’s focus away from the content of the speech and instead makes them focus on when the speaker is going to start again.  Also, the pauses make it seem like the speaker doesn’t know what they are talking about since they have to pause to gather their thoughts or read off the paper.  Another pitfall was that some people just read off of their notecards or outline and didn’t really look up. This is bad because it makes it harder to connect to the audience because eye contact is limited and volume is lower because they are talking into the podium instead of projecting out to the class.  Also, if the speaker is so attached to their notes it makes them seem unorganized or incompetent. The final pitfall that I noticed that was common among the speakers was that many of them did not address what makes the artifact civic.  They took too much time describing what the object was and if they agreed with its premises rather than analyzing the civic value it brings to society.

Forward March!

hqdefaultMany people wonder why marching bands practice for such long and ridiculous hours. For my high school band, sometimes we would have practice at 6am on the day of competition and even leave after the first round of competition to go practice again. To be able to make the formations and alignments you need a way to get there, and that is marching! Proper marching technique is important and takes time since there is a lot more to marching than just walking to your dot by a certain time, but hopefully it becomes so ingrained that you just naturally march amazing.

If you watch the Blue Devil’s visual warmup, you will get a better idea of the precision and care that even the best groups in the world give to basic marching technique. Also, it is a

Santa Clara Vanguard during Visual Warmup

Santa Clara Vanguard during Visual Warmup

good close up visual of the parts of marching people normally miss. The initiation for both forward and backward movement in marching comes from the center of the body. This means that the performer’s weight will move evenly through space and not be left behind or ahead.

One count before the step-off, the right platform will press into the ground, and the left leg begins its motion forward, allowing the center of the body to move forward.  The left leg should already be straight, having been set there at the standstill attention position(incase you forgot your drill commands). Swing the straight left leg forward fromm the hip, allow the heel to travel as close to the ground as possible without scuffing, and strike the ground on the downbeat with the heel.  As you do this keep pushing off with the right platform.  Your weight will move move forward from the center of the body, causing the right heel to leave the ground.  Having completed the first downbeat of the forward movement, you will notice that the weight will be centered evenly between the edge of heel of the left foot and the platform of the right foot.  Both legs will be straight at this point.  Keep your weight centered both feet as you move.  As always, posuture, alignment, centering, and balance do not change.

Roll the foot towards the ground

Contiuning from the downbeat of the step off, the performer will roll through the center of the left foot, bringing the centered weight forward.  The right leg will swing through with the right heel passing the left heel as close to the ground as possible on the “and” count(1/8 note).  At this point, the left leg should be straight and the right leg should be nearly straight as it swings in transit past the left ankle “and” count.  Begin pressing the left platform into the ground and continue to swing the right leg forward from the hip, allow the heel to travel as close to the ground as possible without scuffing, and strike the ground on the following downbeat with the right heel.  As you do this, keep pushing off with the left platform.  Your weight will move toward the center of the body, causing the left heel to leave the ground.  Having completed the second downbeat of forward movement, you will notice that the weight will be centered evenly between the edge of heel of the right foot and the platform of the left foot. Both legs will be straight at this point.

Citiations:

Photo 1:     http://www.marching.com/photos/2012-dci-minnesota-corps-photos/blue-devils-2012b.jpg

Photo 2:     https://scvanguard.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/dsc03096.jpg?w=450&h=299

Photo 3:    wikihow.com/March-In-Marching-Band

RCL 3

It’s almost universally believed that the pen is mightier than the sword, but even still many people forget that everyday speech and press are forcefully repressed around the world.  Journalists receive death threats by the thousands and countries block and censor their own citizen’s communication.

This past January, this issue was brought to the forefront of the public’s attention, when Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, was attacked by radical Islamists.  The #jesuischarlie spread like wildfire throughout twitter, and quickly became one of the top trending news # in all of twitter’s history.  Je suis Charlie, or I am Charlie, expressed support for those who were killed at the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and by extension, support for freedom of speech and resistance to armed threats. Even though it was one of the most used hashtags, the question remains, is this civic engagement?

To be civically engaging, the artifact must meet several requirements.  To become civic it needs to be involved in everyday life, the public needs to be called to attend to it, there needs to be a joining with others in a common enterprise, and there needs to be civic infrastructure.

“Still the ritual of something like saying the pledge, the activity of it, the collective enterprise, leaves a residue” However should just the act of doing something, without understanding the true meaning behind it, be classified as civically engaged?  Isn’t engagement by definition to be actively involved? This  is the problem with this type of “ hashtag activism.” It gives voice to people as long as they have access to Twitter on their smart phones, tablets and computers, as they do in France.  But do people understand what they are promoting or are they just going along with the next social media fad?

RCL #2

Consider Jon Stewart’s point about the state of argument in America today. Have you encountered any examples recently of argument-that’s-not-really-argument? How can you tell the theatrical sort of argument from the rhetorically engaged?

Today, there’s no escaping the presence of political argument. We see it headlined in the newspapers, it appears on our twitter feed, the channel news stations broadcast it 24/7.  As a society we are addicted to political argument, but is it really political argument that we are addicted to, or a superficial, theatric version of it devoid of actual substance.

Jon Stewart, previous host of “The Daily Show” criticized the state of argument in America, while on a “political debate show.” Stewart feels that we have moved “from ‘real’ to ‘mere’,” in terms of political debate in the United States(Crowley, 19).

Today this facsimile of argument can be seen everywhere in politics.  One has to look no further than the GOP debate, which occurred just a few weeks ago. Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, took center stage (literally too) during the “debate.” During his turns to speak he resorted to name calling, stereotyping, and just pure stupidity to back his opinions. He turned the political process into a show even from minute one, when he started the drama by raising his hand saying that he might run an independent campaign if he didn’t win the Republican nomination. His response to critics, after being booed by the crowd, was even more ridiculous and compromised not only his almost no existent integrity, but also the integrity of the political process.  He said “If [he’s the nominee, [he] will pledge [that he] will not run as an independent,” however as Time points out “this is like vowing to not be alive if he dies” (Scherer).

From being so inundated by the media with argument and debate that isn’t actual “real,” it may be hard to distinguish it in its true and proper form.  Personally, I feel that the theatrical sort of argument has a lot of quick back and forth responses that are more about personally attacking the opponent than about countering the opponent’s position. Also, in this theatrical version there’s a lot more rash and impulsive things said and done.  Rather with argument that is actually rhetorically engaged the person presents their position ad gives facts and logic to validate their position, instead of resorting to name calling.  Also, in rhetorically engaged argument the people listen to their opponent’s position and consider it instead of frequently interrupting them, just to scream over them.  As a society, we need to do better about becoming more aware of our situation and demand better of our politicians and news media, because if we don’t do anything it’s not just argument that loses its substances, it’s our culture as a whole.

 

Citations:

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. “Ancient Rhetorics.” Rhetoric and Civic Life. Second ed. Pearson. 17-41. Print.

Scherer, Michael. “Primetime Republican Debate.” Time, 7 Aug. 2015. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.

 

 

 

RCL POST #1

When many people think civics, the first thing that comes to their mind is “that class they slept through senior year of high school,” however civics goes much deeper and is actually integrated fully into our society.

Being civic means engaging in your community, at local, state, national, and international levels.  The world is interconnected, just because it doesn’t affect you personally doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about it. Being civic means caring about your neighbors, whether they live in the house adjacent to your own or halfway across the world. Being civic means “working to make a difference in … our communities”(The New York Times).

Civic responsibility and engagement can incorporate a variety of categories that stretches from the personal level to the national level.  I feel that civic responsibility is our  duty as humans to be engaged in our communities in order to make them better not only for ourselves but for others.  It requires an act of selflessness that places the needs of the many over the needs of one (Schudson, 5).

As simple as it seems, recycling is a part of civic engagement.  It is run by the national government and takes up resources and time.  Individuals use the recycling function that the national government provides.  This increases our civic engagement because it benefits the community as a whole by helping to conserve the environment by minimizing pollutants(9).  Environmental conservation is important because we need to preserve the ozone layer. The ozone reduces the amount of ultraviolet radiation that is able to reach the earth’s surface. Ultraviolet cause skin cancer and rapid aging, so by being environmentally friendly we can slow its deterioration and therefore preserve our health.

Civic responsibility exists in my life as well as the lives of people around me.  Over the summer I volunteered my time at Habitat at the local restore.  At the restore people donate their slightly used items and then they are resold at cheap, affordable prices.  I learned lessons such as responsibility since many people at Habitat for Humanity are single-time volunteers so even though I was new, I still had to direct people.  I also learned more about the people who live in my community.  I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia and I learned that many people buy expensive homes in the suburbs just so that their children can go to a better school district, even if they can’t buy food or pay the electricity bill. This really resonated with me and made me want to help people even more.

Citations:

Schudson, Michael. ““How People Learn to Be Civic”.” Rhetoric and CivicLife. Crowley. 1-13. Print.
“The Definition of Civic Engagement.” The New York Times. Web. 4 Sept. 2015.