I started with a blank page on the Elmo and began drawing picture of places I spend my time -- to see if I can find an argument in any of those places. As I talked my way through my home, school, the volleyball court, and my second school (UIC/DePaul), I talked about things I am wondering about and problems I am having that I really need to come to a decision on. For example, at home, I have to make a decision about my relationship with my dad. At school. we are learning about poetry, and I want students to bring in lyrics to songs, but many of the songs have profanity. Thus, I am wondering about the issue of censoring the lyrics - -the poets are artists after all, and if you need a certain word, you need a certain word for expression, but I could argue that some artist abuse the language or do it for consumeristic reasons. . After doing my brainstorm, I used process of elimination to decide on my topic. I wanted to topic to be 1) something I am truly contemplating, 2) something I can argue or that has two sides, 3) something that is generalizable, and by this I mean that I can say there is a larger issue or conversation about this that readers can relate to, and 4) something that I want to spend time on. I picked the volleyball topic -- if I should start training again -- but the kids really wanted to hear about my dad. We talked about why that was interesting, and they said because it is personal, so I agreed even though I knew it would be tough, and told them that I hoped they, too would choose such a topic.
Below is a picture of my notes:
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