Contemporary responses to war

The Dixie Chicks are a band who have made headlines in the recent past for their public responses to war, through both the things they have said in public and the music that they have recorded. During today's lesson, we will be reading an article from Blackboard that explores the public response that the band has had to endure as a result of their thoughts and we will also explore one of their songs.

As we read the article, you need to answer the following questions:

1. How effective is the headline?
2. The journalist has chosen not to include an extensive byline. Do you think this is a good decision? Explain your answer.
3. How does the introductory paragraph help your understanding of what the article will be about?
4. What kind of tone do you think the journalist is trying to achieve? Provide examples to explain your answer.
5. What do you think the journalist's purpose was in writing this article? Provide examples to help prove your answer.
6. The journalist makes considerable use of direct quotations throughout the article. How does this affect your understanding of the article and influence your opinion of the band members? Use evidence to support your claims.
7. How effective do you think this article is in achieving the journalist's purpose? Explain your answer in full please.

Once we have looked at the article we are going to look at the song, "Not ready to make nice" which was written in response to the backlash that the band faced after Natalie's comments. After annotating it together, we will complete a SPECS and SLIMS analysis of the song, to be completed on your blogs.

Remember SPECS and SLIMS concentrates on the following:

Subject Matter
Purpose
Emotion
Craftsmanship (see SLIMS)
Summary

Structure
Language
Imagery
Movement
Sound

Your SPECS and SLIMS notes need to be posted to your blogs by no later than Tuesday morning.