Category Archives: Uncategorized

Links to Recent Nonfiction

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Here are some places you can go for lists of recent nonfiction: New York Times Bestselling NF (Hardcover) New York Times Bestselling NF (Paperback) Kirkus Reviews’ Best NF of 2011 List Salon.com’s Best NF of 2011 List Wall Street Journal’s … Continue reading →

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More Good Reviews

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

These are all from the famed New York Review of Books: Freeman Dyson’s review of Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Diane Ravitch’s review of Pasi Sahlberg’s Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? … Continue reading →

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A Few Book Review Essays

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

We’ll be getting to these soon, but if you want to beat me to the punch, or you just have the time now and you’re not sure you will later, feel free to read them. I’ll be trying to guide you … Continue reading →

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William Hazlitt, “On the Want of Money”

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Here is the full text of the essay we were discussing today. The excerpt used on the AP Language exam is the ninth paragraph, by my count (not including those one-line quotations). Here’s a quote from the first paragraph that … Continue reading →

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Like AP Lang. Please.

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

No, not the class. It’s probably too late to convince you of that if you’re not already there. I mean on Facebook. Why? What do you mean why? I’ll figure out what to do with it later. Now go.

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Rational Argument Flowchart

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

I saw this a while back, and thought it was brilliant. I want a poster of it for my classroom. But in the meantime, look at it here. If you’re wondering, Am I really taking part in a rational argument … Continue reading →

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James Sturm on The Avengers

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Today’s piece of argumentation comes from Slate, where James Sturm is making the case that moviegoers who care about comics should eschew The Avengers this summer. His reasoning: because Marvel Comics has treated Jack Kirby, a longtime creator for Marvel who helped … Continue reading →

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Battling Bad Science

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

In 2nd hour on Friday, we watched this TED talk about how evidence from scientific studies can be distorted. Interesting, given our current focus on argument. Warning: dude talks fast.  

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Argument and the Dangers of Certainty

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

As some of you know, I’ve been reading a bit about the New England witchcraft crisis of the late 17th Century, and recently recommended Mary Beth Norton’s work in general. So it was serendipidous that Andrew Sullivan linked to this … Continue reading →

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More Argument by Analogy

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Dr. Ayers

Nate Silver uses the prevent defense to explain Mitt Romney’s slide in the South Carolina polls. Reasonable?

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