It's Spring Break, but...

This week is Spring Break at Reynolds and for much of the rest of the world.  Enjoy your time off. 

Remember, however, there are two upcoming deadlines, and plan your work accordingly:

1. If you already haven't, by Thursday, 25 March, you should have completed a 4-5 page reflective essay in which you argue for the grade you've earned so far this semester, critique your performance in the class with an eye toward a plan for improvement, and--finally and with the bulk of the paper--develop a series of PEA (Point, Evidence, and Analysis) paragraphs describing your learning (in detail) throughout the semester.  Use your learning reflections.  I want you to have this reflective essay done, so you'll have a feel for how to prepare one for your final portfolio and so you'll have a mid-term draft to work with for the final portfolio.

2.  If you want to get ahead on the reading, read the section on the Federalist Papers under Madison, et al. Most of us have lived for so long under the Constitution that we take it as a kind of background noises and subconsciously assume it was always there, but the Constitution was created.  As you've learned by reading Franklin's speech to the Constitutional Convention, getting it out of Convention was difficult, then it had to be explained and ratified by enough states to become the supreme law of the land.  The Federalists--those who argued for centralizing power had an up-hill battle on their hands, and--in the process of making their argument--they did one of the best jobs of explaining the Constitution and how it works of almost any writer since.  It's reading every American should experience.  Remember to slow down, read in small chucks, take the time to think about what you have read, and then to go on to the next chuck. Don't try to absorb it all at once. 

Remember to write with questions about either assignment.

Steve