make your argument about whether the United States should change the legal age of alcohol consumption to 18 instead of 21. Make sure your argument is informed by evidence that discusses this issue in at least one other country besides the US.

Include in your initial post:

• An argument for why your side is correct.
• An argument for why the other side is incorrect.
• Make sure to back up your post with evidence from at least 1 credible, relevant source that addresses this issue in another country besides the US

 Read page 1-20

Character Analysis

For this discussion post, I would like us to focus on the first twenty pages of the play and what we know of Amber and Tom in these first twenty pages (there’s a lot, I know!). By now, you all have likely realized that the braided narrative and rapid shifts in storyline, voice, and tone are really challenging to follow in the play. At some points it can seem disorienting. When approaching previous works of literature, we examined themes and linked themes together throughout the works of literature. Themes are helpful for a play like Actually, but also helpful are character analyses where we provide a brief description of who a character is in order to better understand the action taking place. If we were studying acting, we would call this method acting where we learn everything possible about the character to inhabit the role as fully as possible.

Initial Post

For your initial post, choose either Amber or Tom and describe her or his character traits in as much detail as you can. To support your descriptions, make sure to present evidence (meaning quotes) from the text to support your analysis. Consider identifying two or three character traits for which you can find multiple pieces of evidence. In a final paragraph, tell us what you have learned about Amber or Tom in process of writing your analysis.

Initial posts should be 250-300 words.

  

1. List of narrowed ideas from the freewrite activity: 

· Warmer ocean temperatures

· Melting ice caps

· Greenhouse gases

· Fossil fuels

· Disagreement about whether climate change is real 

· How politicians talk about climate change

· Electric cars

· Policies to reduce cost of electric vehicles

· Wind farms

· Solar power

· The cost of alternative energy 

· How the international community is addressing climate change

· Global leaders in addressing climate change

· How the US compares to other nations in addressing climate change

2.  Description with underlined key terms and phrases:

Electric cars are an important step toward addressing climate change by reducing our reliance on gasoline. However, electric cars are still too expensive for the average American to buy, so the government should provide financial incentives to car companies to reduce the price for consumers and increase the availability of charging stations. 

3. Synonyms and alternate terms:

· Electric cars: electric vehicles, plug-in, EV

· Climate change: global warming, temperature change, environmental change

· Gasoline: petroleum, fuel

· Expensive: pricey, costly

· Financial incentives: inducement, tax credit, government subsidy

· Car companies: car manufacturers, automobile manufacturers (also: Tesla, Chevrolet, Ford, etc.)

· Consumers: shopper, buyer

· Charging stations: recharging hub, electric recharging point

4. Sources: 5 Sources APA format 

 

Identity

One of the major themes that we will deal with in the first portion of this class is identity, how it’s constructed, by whom, and for what purpose. Often it seems that society dictates or constructs our identities for us instead of allowing us to speak our truth about our identities. As a pansexual man, I generally use the term “gay” to describe my identity when in the company of straight folks because it’s easier, better understood, and because I’m married to a man. But when hanging out with people of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ll identify as pansexual because they “get it” more so than straight folks. In this way, society dictates my public identity. Even certain types of official documents that I fill out ask for the name and gender of my spouse. Anyone reading the document would probably assume my I’m gay because the document doesn’t allow for a full explanation of my identity. Such erasure/invisiblizing of one’s identity can be frustrating and even emotionally harmful.

Another important consideration is that identity is intersectional. We hold a bunch of identities, and some might even be conflicting identities. For example, we can add cisgender male, and white to my pansexual identity. But we can also add, teacher, uncle, brother, brother-in-law, and son to my list of intersecting identities. Each one of these identities carries different meanings and different relationships at different times.

The point I’m getting at is that identity is complex and intersectional instead of singular and monolithic. 

For This Assignment

This assignment has two parts.

First, Construct a short poem about two or more of your intersecting identities. The poem, Tonight, In Oakland Links to an external site.by Danez Smith is a good example of intersecting identities in poetry, i.e. race, sexuality, gender identity. Here’s a list of Heritage and Identity Poems Links to an external site.that you could read through for a couple more examples before you jump into creating your own poem. The point here is to speak your truth about several of your intersecting identities, whatever they may be.

“Why do WE have to write a poem?” you might be asking . . . Well, trying to write poetry will give us a better understanding of the hard work that goes into creating a piece of literature. It’s not easy, and when we read literature, it’s important to keep in mind the hard work that goes into creating it.

In addition to your poem, please produce a one to two page explanation of the poem in which you discuss:

• your goals for the poem
• how you want to affect the reader
• any unusual/creative word choice, rhyme, or form used in your poem

Please submit your poem and explanation in one document. For your explanation use MLA format: Times New Roman 12pt font; 1″ margins all around; a header with your name, my name, the class, and the date; a creative and interesting title for the poem and for the explanation; if needed, a works cited page (not required).

The following content is