literarian, n. One engaged in literary pursuits.: May 2011

Homework Due Tuesday, 5/31

1) Read True Grit, pages 11-147.
2) Complete "Getting to Know You" worksheet (below).
3) Begin writing your short story (below).

As our book club comes to an end (next Thursday/Saturday is our last day!), I’d like you to reflect on the books we’ve read and the characters we’ve met by choosing one of those characters and inserting him or her into a story of your very own. And, since we’ll be reading True Grit next week, I’d like you to write that story from within the True Grit universe. Here is how you should write your story:

1) Choose a character and complete a “Getting to Know You” worksheet (below) for him or her. You may also choose the author of one of the non-fiction books we read.

2) After completing the worksheet, choose one of the following scenarios to frame your story:

· Your character joins the Lucky Ned Pepper gang and holds up a train! How does he or she interact with the gang? Is he or she helpful in the robbery, or does he or she get in the way? Imagine how your character would fit (or not fit) into this scenario.

· Your character spends a night camping out in the woods with Rooster Cogburn and the two must decide who gets to eat the last hard-tack biscuit. How would your character persuade Rooster to let him or her have the food? Would your character use trickery, debate, brute force, or some other mode of persuasion? How would Rooster respond?

· Your character attempts to negotiate a sale with Mattie Ross. What is he or she attempting to buy or sell? How does he or she contend with Mattie’s quick wit and logic? Is he or she able to finagle a good deal, or does Mattie come out on top?

· Create a scenario of your own. My only stipulations are that your story take place in the True Grit universe and involve at least one True Grit character.

3) Write your story. The story should be 1-2 pages typed, single-spaced, and should reflect your creative thought and careful proofreading. Each student (including you) will share excerpts of his or her story with the group on our last day of class.

Getting to Know You... Character Memory Worksheet

Use this worksheet to re-acquaint yourself with your favorite character from your Elite past. Choose one character from any of the books (both fiction and non-fiction) that we have read since September and answer each question about him or her as thoroughly as you can. While completing this assignment, you may want to borrow a copy of the book you have selected from the Elite library.

Answer the questions below on a separate sheet of paper. You must write at least 2 sentences each for questions 5-11.

What is your character’s name?

How old is your character?

Where and when does your character live?

List 3 adjectives that describe your character physically.

List 3 adjectives that describe your character’s personality. Briefly explain how each adjective “fits” your character.

Who are the 3 most influential individuals (people or animals) in your character’s life? What has he or she learned from these individuals?

What are the 3 most influential ideas in your character’s life? How have these ideas shaped your character’s actions and emotions?

How do others in his or her environment (i.e., other characters in the book) perceive your character? Do they like him or her? Why or why not?

List 5 items that your character has in his or her pocket right now. (Be creative!)

What makes your character unique or special?

Add anything else that you feel is important to know about your character.

Homework Due Tuesday, 5/24

Prepare a rough draft of the lesson that you plan to give on Thursday, 5/26. Your rough draft should include:

Your thorough responses to questions 1-3 of part two of the assignment (see post below). The purpose of this part of the assignment is to give you a solid understanding of your concept so that you'll be able to teach it well to the rest of the group. To achieve this level of understanding, you should write at least one paragraph for each question.
An explanation of the external (i.e. outside of Animals in Translation) information you have gathered in your research. This, too, should be at least one paragraph.
A brief, written outline of what you intend to do in your lesson. This should be specific enough that I can get a good idea of what you'll do. Keep in mind that you'll only have 5-7 minutes to deliver your lesson. Also, please do not plan to read us the four paragraphs you wrote in preparation for this assignment; do something more interesting!

Animals in Translation Final Project Guidelines

Animals in Translation

End-of-Unit Project

As we wrap-up our reading and discussion of Animals in Translation, I’d like you to begin thinking about some of the concepts that Temple Grandin has introduced us to on a deeper level. To achieve this, I’m asking you to take on the role of the teacher. You’ll select one topic (see list below) and figure out a way to teach that topic to the rest of the group. Here’s the catch: your lesson needs to be INTERESTING and ENGAGING – in other words, you need to teach us something in a way that we (and you!) will find enjoyable. Make up a game-show, create a graphic-novel, put on a play: figure out a way to teach your concept so that everyone in the room will learn and have fun.

Here are your parameters:

1) Choose a concept from the following list:

Visual v. Verbal Perception

Inattentional Blindness

Triune Brain Theory (Three Brain Theory)

Single-Trait Breeding (and its potential pitfalls)

Selection Pressure

Neoteny

Core Emotions (focus on one or many)

Animal Violence

Pain (and its relation to the brain)

Fear (and its relation to the brain)

Phobias

Hyper-specificity

Animal and Human Cognition

...if you have another topic in mind that you’d like to pursue, please see me.

2) Use Animals in Translation to answer the following questions about your concept:

What is the concept? Write a brief definition and explanation.
Whom does your concept apply to or affect? Consider especially animals, autistic people and non-autistic people.
Why is your concept important?

3) Conduct research outside of the book to get another perspective on your concept. Your lesson MUST include at least one connection to something outside of Animals in Translation. This may include: supporting/contrasting research from another scientific source; a literary or artistic piece that you interpret according to the concept; a real-world example of the concept in action; etc.

4) Create your lesson. This part of the assignment is deliberately broad – I want to see what you come up with! You are, of course, welcome to come to me for ideas and/or feedback, and we will spend SOME time working on the project in class.

Homework Due Tuesday, 5/17 or Saturday, 5/21

Choose one open-ended* question from chapter five (or six, if you are in the Saturday group) and write a 2-3 paragraph response. Be prepared to share your response during discussion on Tuesday or Saturday.

*An open-ended question is a question that you CANNOT answer definitively by reading the chapter.

Helpful Radiolab Episodes

As we read and discuss chapters three and four of Animals in Translation, you might find these episodes of Radiolab both helpful and stimulating. Radiolab is a very good podcast that explores a wide range of scientific, philosophical and cultural questions. The three episodes that I have posted here deal with some issues that are relevant to Temple Grandin's discussion of animal behavior and how the brain functions.

"New Nice" tells the story of how a Russian geneticist domesticated a breed of fox. This episode nicely demonstrates Grandin's point that selective breeding for physical traits often leads to changes in animal behavior and emotion.

"Animal Minds" explores the question of animal-human understanding and communication. Grandin asserts that animals experience emotion, and claims (in chapter four) that -- through 100,000 years of co-existence and co-evolution -- humans and animals have developed an innate ability to understand one another. This episode may help you think about these issues from another angle.

"Overcome By Emotion" demonstrates the importance of emotion ("gut feeling") in human decision making. Grandin touches on this issue specifically on page 137 of Animals in Translation, and much of her argument throughout the book is based in the concept of emotion. The take-away lesson from both this episode and Animals in Translation is that emotions are much more powerful and important than we may previously have thought.

Homework Due Tuesday, 5/10 or Saturday, 5/14

In chapter three, Grandin discusses several "primary emotions" and explains how they are linked to animal perception and behavior. Specifically, she discusses curiosity/interest/anticipation and the social emotions (beginning on page 93). After reading Grandin's explanations, I'd like you to do two things.

Watch this video on YouTube.*
Explain the behavior of the animal in the video using AT LEAST ONE of the primary emotions that Grandin describes.

Your explanation should be thorough and should demonstrate a solid understanding of the primary emotion(s) you discuss. It may be typed or handwritten, and it should be 2-5 paragraphs long.

*If you are unable to access YouTube to see the video, you may do this instead: Observe an animal or group of animals for 10-30 minutes (as long as it takes to see them doing something distinct), write a paragraph describing what the animal or animals did, then move on to step 2.

Chapter Outlines

These chapter outlines are intended to help you orient yourself as you read Animals in Translation. As Grandin’s argument can, at times, seem to “get lost” in the anecdotal details of her digressions, you might find it helpful to refer to these outlines while you read in order to get a sense of where a particular anecdote or explanation is going. With this “roadmap” of sorts, it is my hope that you will be able to relax a bit as you read, and begin to enjoy Grandin’s anecdotes and understand the argument they support.

NOTE: These outlines are IN NO WAY a substitute for your actual reading of the text. You will not be able to pass the reading quizzes, complete the homework assignments, or successfully participate in the group if you do not do the reading.

Chapter 1: “My Story”

pg. 1 – 6 Grandin introduces herself by way of her experiences with animals, demonstrating the strong bond she has come to share with them through her autism.

pg. 6 – 8 Grandin introduces her claim that “autistic people can think the way animals think.”

pg. 9 – 16 Grandin explains behaviorism and ethology. She notes the strengths of each, but asserts that both fail to fully understand animals because both look at animals from outside, whereas Grandin has learned to view them from inside.

pg. 16 – 23 Grandin describes visual thinking, which is how animals and autistic people think. She shows how her visual thinking has helped her understand animals and solve problems in slaughterhouses.

pg. 24 – 26 Grandin claims that non-autistic people, unlike animals and autistic people, don’t think visually, and don’t “see” everything that is in front of them. This is because non-autistic people have “inattentional blindness” – they can only see the things that they are looking for.

pg. 26 Grandin states the thesis of her book: to give her readers a new perspective on animals and autism.

Chapter 2: “How Animals Perceive the World”

pg. 27 – 29 Grandin argues that non-autistic people are too abstract and too caught up in ideology to really help or understand animals.

pg. 30 – 31 Grandin introduces an important claim. Whereas “normal human beings are abstractified in their sensory perceptions (and) thoughts,” animals and autistic people are concrete – they see the details, not the “general concept” that those details comprise.

pg. 31 – 39 Grandin explains that animals, like autistic people, are highly sensitive to details. She lists several details (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) that can distract animals in slaughterhouses.

pg. 39 – 44 Grandin explains three major differences between normal human vision and animal vision. The differences are in visual acuity, panoramic vision, and color vision.

pg. 44 – 48 Grandin points out that both humans and animals have a natural curiosity toward and aversion to novel (new) things and experiences.

pg. 49 – 50 Grandin describes sound distractors.

pg. 50 – 52 Grandin revisits the concept of inattentional blindness, and explains that animals and autistic people see more detail than non-autistic people either because their frontal lobes are smaller (animals) or because their frontal lobes are damaged (autistic people).

pg. 52 – 54 Grandin explains “three-brain theory.”

pg. 55 – 57 Grandin argues that, because autism results from a problem of “output” to the frontal lobe (the “human brain”), autistic people rely more on their “dog brains” and thus share more perceptual ability in common with animals than non-autistic people do.

pg. 62 – 67 Grandin discusses humans’ and animals’ perception of detail. Both humans and animals are able to perceive the same things, but humans “see” (or process) only the “general schema” – the big picture that the details comprise – while animals (and autistic people) see the details.

Chapter Three: “Animal Feelings”

pg. 69 – 72 Grandin discusses the dangers of selective trait breeding, using “rapist roosters” as an example of breeding-gone-wrong. This example also sets up one of the major themes of this chapter: human selection pressure on animals.

pg. 72 – 81 Grandin explains selection pressure and describes intentional and accidental selection pressures and their consequences. The reason selection pressure (both accidental and intentional) is so dangerous is that “when you’re trying to change a physical trait you very, very often end up changing an emotional and behavioral trait, too” (76). “Psycho hens” and other albino animals exemplify the behavioral and emotional consequences of people applying selection pressure to animals. “Incidental” (accidental) selection pressure can, however, also produce benign or even good results in some animals, as in the case of the pigs Grandin discusses on pages 80 – 81.

pg. 81 – 88 Grandin uses the example of purebred dogs—animals rife with problems resulting from selective breeding—to demonstrate the powerful and often negative effects of humans asserting selection pressure on animals.

pg. 88 – 93 Grandin introduces the concept that the “primary” or “core” emotions are distinct in the brain and remain distinct as long as the neocortex doesn’t get involved. Because the neocortex is in charge of making abstract connections, it is the place where emotions (which begin in the limbic system or “animal brain”) get “mixed.” That explains why non-autistic people, who have well-functioning neocortexes, can experience mixed emotions, while animals and autistic people generally can’t.

pg. 93 – 94 Grandin introduces the four “core emotions”: rage, prey chase drive, fear, and curiosity/interest/anticipation. She also introduces the four “social emotions”: sexual attraction and lust, separation and distress (mother and baby), social attachment, and play and roughhousing.

pg. 94 – 98 Grandin discusses the SEEKING drive and its relatedness to novelty.

pg. 98 – 100 Grandin explains the brain’s impulse to find correlations (connections) among the things it encounters. This impulse can sometimes lead both people and animals to form superstitions, but it is also the basis of learning.

pg. 100 – 109 Grandin discusses mate selection and sex, which depend on a complex interplay of “hard-wiring” in the brain and cultural learning.

pg. 109 – 124 Grandin discusses animal sociality, asserting that companionship and social interaction is vital in all mammals.

pg. 124 – 126 Grandin discusses the only “mixed emotion” that animals feel: curiosity and fear.

pg. 126 – 130 Grandin reiterates her claim that the primary emotions are distinct and reasserts the importance of friendship in all mammals.

Chapter Four: “Animal Aggression”

pg. 131 – 133 Grandin introduces this chapter with a framing question: given that dogs are essentially “predators wired to kill” (131), how is it possible that we have made them our docile, loyal pets? This chapter will be about answering this question.

pg. 134 Grandin introduces the two types of “core” aggression: predatory aggression and emotional or affective aggression.

pg. 134 – 143 Grandin discusses predatory aggression.

pg. 143 – 148 Grandin discusses affective aggression, which she also refers to as rage.

pg. 148 – 150 Grandin explains that some animals are genetically predisposed to aggression. Male animals also tend to be more aggressive than females.

pg. 150 – 152 Grandin discusses animal violence, a surprising and – for some – disconcerting concept: we typically don’t expect the same kind of cruel behavior from animals that we see in people.

pg. 152 – 155 Grandin describes how animals learn to control their own aggression. Animals learn this through socialization with others of their own species.

pg. 155 – 164 Grandin discusses the importance of socialization in developing happy, emotionally healthy and well-behaved animals. According to Grandin, all mammals must be socialized 1) with others of their own species, 2) with other animals, and 3) with people at an early age.

pg. 164 – 176 Grandin discusses how to prevent and manage aggression in animals, mainly dogs. Throughout this discussion, Grandin explains why certain types of aggression occur and how people can and should respond.

pg. 176 – 177 Grandin wraps up the chapter by suggesting a potential answer to her initial question.

Autism Research at UC San Diego

Researchers at UCSD have recently developed a new test to detect Autism in babies as young as one year. Since many of you were curious about how Autism is diagnosed and treated, I thought I'd share this link to an article that details this recent (and local!) development.