Assignment Three Discussion: Defining Life

Assignment: CAFOs and Life

The purpose of the third assignment is to give students the opportunity to describe, define, and analyze the methods used by the corporate CAFO system. We are specifically interested in understanding how that system 'organizes life' and how it 'sees life' and how it 'affects life.' Therefore we are interested in finding passages from the reading, especially The CAFO Reader, where the subject of life appears -- this often happens when the subject of death, disease, and the manipulation of bodies appear.

Directions

On their own, students should locate a passage from the text that describes, defines, or analyzes "life." It's important here to think about the different kinds of bodies that can be living: microbes, mammals, fish, homo sapiens, and even ecosystems (inter-related networks of living beings that co-exist in an evolving community). When they find the passage, students should note the page number and begin to imagine keywords that they could use to describe it.

Keywords

At this point, students should make the identification and creation of keywords a 'second nature.' Whenever an assignment (such as this) asks you to argue about something, the identification and creation (and definition!) of keywords should be on your immediate list of critical thinking.

After Keywords: Sharing

Once students have found a passage about life and identified/created/defined a keyword, they will share it in groups of three. In groups, students should practice critical thinking when they take turns sharing their keywords. If students need refreshers on critical thinking, they should ask others for help or turn to their notes.

After Sharing: Blogging

After students share and discuss their keywords, they should write an informal blog that summarizes the keywords in their group and the basic critical thinking conversation around those terms. Students should tweet their keyword, its definition, and their passage when they're done with their blog.

After Blogging: Discussion

When students have finished blogging, they will come together as a class so that we can discuss them. We need to address how the CAFO system understands life and how we can build our ideas into the third essay.