Wednesday, May 28, 2008

 

Finals are over!

Whew! I'm tired. This afternoon the second round of finals for English 201 went well. We didn't get to the skits. Some students did not turn in their portfolios. Others did not fill out a checklist or fill it out completely. I still need this. I will be in the Writing Center tomorrow, Thursday, May 29, 10-12. You can turn your work in then.

If you were one of the students I told to turn in work on Friday, I will be in my office at 12 noon. I will be leaving at 1 p.m. If you miss me, you have missed an opportunity to complete the course.

We had outstanding presentations. Among them were, Chesi, Yun Yee, Jessica, Javier, Mike and Danzell, Robert, Lewis, Deanna, Raymond, and Ashley.

 

Finals Friday, May 23






Wednesday, May 21, 2008

 

Portfolio Checklist Spring 2008

Name__________________________________________________________
Mailing Address_______________________________________________
Phone Number__________________________________________________
E-mail address________________________________________________
Course number and code________________________________________

The only paper copies are the freewrites. Do not give me your originals. I can make copies, if you can’t.

The portfolio narratives (These are essays)

1. The narrative will look at the 18 weeks, the themes we looked at this semester, social justice and the movement for civil rights in this country past and present. We read and watched films that illustrated the dangerous time many volunteers faced during Freedom Summer. Perhaps many of you were shocked at the bigotry and racist attitudes, the terrorism and brave men and women and children, named and unnamed who worked to make democracy available to all. In your research papers you chose a person to highlight who has made it their life’s work to continue in the same spirit of those leaders 40-50 years ago who sacrificed their lives, many of them, so racist policies like Jim Crow was outlawed. Talk about what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing and yourself, college and life, which have transformed or changed you.

What have you learned about yourself this semester? What have you learned about the discipline you are studying here: reading and writing that you plan to carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning.

Please also comment on the texts and whether or not they were helpful in this process. You can also talk about the instruction, culture of the class and the teacher. You can also offer suggestions.
2. The second part of the narrative looks at the writing process and what you have been learning about yourself as a writer. Take two essays and talk about the planning, research and revision strategies you used. It helps to choose an early paper and compare to a later paper. Often you can more easily see the differences in your writing and a better example of mastery of certain concepts. Also discuss skills you need to improve and how you plan to address that.

Besides the two essays, I also want you to include the midterm essay and research essay, cyber-essays, and all the writing from Letter’s from Mississippi, including your scene. Please have a separate section for Children of the Movement.

Additional narrative considerations for the portfolio essay:

The second essay has students look at the writing process and discuss their own writing process: the topics chosen, the information used, revision strategies, writing as a process. This should include a definition of the difference between editing and revising and a value statement on the place for both in composition.

I am really interested in discourse about audience and how that shapes or determines how the writer approaches her topic.

I am also interested in discussion of the revision process, and whether or not seeing writing as a work in progress or a draft, liberates or stagnates the creative process. (Students are to use examples from their writing to illustrate these points.)

I'd also like students to think about and give at three specific ways how they have grown as writers and thinkers this semester. Each essay should be minimally 1-2 pages (250-500 words).

Writing Workshop Tuesday, May 27, 9-1 in the Writing Center, L-235
We will work on the narratives together next week, Tuesday, May 27, 9-12 noon, maybe 1 p.m., in the Writing Lab. We will meet in the smaller lab, L-235.

Our final for the 10-12 class is Friday, May 23, at 10-12 in the Writing Center, L-235. If you need technology, let me know today. I have a laptop, a TV with VCR, DVD player and CD capabilities. Your portfolio is due Wednesday, May 28, at 12 noon. If you need more time let me know Tuesday, May 27 when you come to the writing workshop. Bring all your work with you, drafts, etc.

The English 201, 1-3 class have a final, Wednesday, May 28, 12-2 in the Writing Center, L-235.

Grade Justification
What grade do you think you earned in the course? If you have a strong argument with proof: graded work. I will consider it. ____________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Your essay and the attached copy of a completed grading sheet are the evidence.__________

Do you have any questions about writing or anything else?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Teacher Research

Can I use you writing in teacher research projects? I will give you full credit and inform you of its use. Indicate Yes or No. Please circle one.

Evaluation

In a third response evaluate the semester: teacher, textbooks, assignments, methodology, etc. Please be frank and feel free to offer suggestions.


Assignments:
I didn’t include assignments like the cyber-assignment for the Darryl Hunt film, because no one responded 

Just put a check next to the assignments you have completed. I will put a grade next to the sections and assignments you do not have grades on. I will be emailing you grades for the midterm, research essay, and the final essay on Malcolm X’s daughter.

The narrative essays are the introduction to your portfolio which is a collection of all your writing this semester. Please give me a copy of your in-class notes if applicable. Do not give me a hardcopy. I’d like the portfolio on a CD or disk, with a completed checklist filled out.

Letter to professor in response to her letter to you 1/28 ____
Choice 1/28 _____
Coretta Scott King 1/30 _____
MLK III 2/4 ______
My Dungeon Shook (from The Fire Next Time)2/6 ______
Ouida Barnett Adkins 2/13 _____

Midterm
Penny L. H. from Children of the Movement 3/17 _____

Research Section

Library orientation worksheet ______ (paper copy)
Evaluation of a website_____ (paper copy)
Frontline World 4/9 _____
James Foreman Jr. 4/14 _____
Planning Sheet post 4/21_____
S.E. essay draft posted 4/14 & 4/16 ________
Timi Gerson 4/23 _______
Research essay post 5/13 _______
Research essay grade___________ (written essay) _________________ (presentation)
Abstract_____________


Letters from Mississippi/Children of the Movement

Reflection: Letters from MS 2/13 _____
Letters from MS 2/27 ______
The Road to MS 3/3 _____
At Home in a Black World 3/10 ____
Maisha Moses 3/12 ______
Questions from the Long Walk 4/28____
Mr. Charlie and Miss Anne 5/14 _____


Other essays

How to Mark a Book ____
Propaganda Techniques _____

Films

Eyes on the Prize 2/19 ______
Banished (film) 3/3 _____
Freedom on My Mind 4/7 _____
The Trial of Darryl Hunt ____
Argumentation 4/2 ______

Field Trips
Michael Eric Dyson____

Freewrites_____ (copies)

Anything else? _______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Monday, May 19, 2008

 
We watched a documentary on Malcolm X in the afternoon class, before reading the essay on Ilyasha Shabazz from Children of the Movement.

I will be around Tuesday, May 27, 9-12 in L-235 to help students with their portfolios. Our last meeting is this Wednesday, May 21. We will meet in the Writing Center on Wednesday, both classes.

I will be in the Writing Center tomorrow, May 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I will not be here after class Thursday, my friend, poet Reginald Lockett died last week and his funeral is 5/22 at 11 a.m. He was a great friend and a fine poet and man.

Check your email for my response to your reasearch essays. Wednesday I will have the checklist, if not sooner :-)

 

Ilyasah Shabazz, Daughter of Malcolm X Cyber-essay

Today is Malcolm X's birthday. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. and also was assasinated at 39 years old. Though shown as advesaries, the two men shared a lot and had a lot in common. Malcolm X appreciated Martin King's work and went to Atlanta to support him, yet King was away, so Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King instead. If you don't know anything about Malcolm X, you might want to read a short bio on him first, before responding to this essay. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio.htm

The topic of this paper takes as a theme, nature vs. nurture, fate vs. destiny. Think about this interview with another child of an icon, Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Her life shares some of the same challenges that Martin Luther King III spoke about: the expectations of greatness neither could live up to as children and young adults. King wanted to shoot hoops and Shabazz wanted to be a fashion model. Now both are carrying on their parents' legacy of civil leadership and civic involvement.

Was Ilyasah given a choice or did she take it? Was she a victim of circumstances or did she have certain privileges because of her parents?

How much of who she is based on her will rather than the family she inherited? If you like, you can talk about yourself and whether or not you choose your life, or if it was given to you, or perhaps it is a little of both.

The question is in here somewhere :-) Respond in 250-500 words today and post it here. This is your final essay. Make it good.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

 

Next week, final papers, the portfolio essays

Monday, May 19, is Malcolm X's birthday. We're going to write about Malcolm on Monday. I have an essay from Children of the Movement to share. It will be a cyber-essay. I will send you the grade for your research essays. So email them to me. After I send you the grade, you can post it, at the link labeled final drafts. Make certain you include a narrative of what major changes you made to the revised final draft as a note to me at the top of the paper. Don't include the outline or the planning sheet, if already posted last month.

We will work on this next week. The portfolio is due the day of the final. We will also write our scenes from The Color Purple and students will perform their skits the day of. If you write your skit alone, bring in multiple copies and other students can participate as cast. The grade is on the writing and the group will share the grade.

I really appreciate your flexibility this semester. Again, I'd like to purchase a copy of Letters from Mississippi with the poetry section included from anyone who doesn't plan to keep their book.


The portfolio narratives
1. The narrative will look at the 18 weeks, the themes we looked at this semester, nature vs. nurture, and how what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing and yourself, college and life, have transformed or changed you. Do you have a choice over what happens in your life or are you a victim of circumstances?

What have you learned about yourself this semester? What have you learned about the discipline you are studying here: reading and writing that you plan to carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning.

Please also comment on the texts and whether or not they were helpful in this process. You can also talk about the instruction, culture of the class and the teacher.

2. The second part of the narrative looks at the writing process and what you have learning about yourself as a writer. Take two essays and talk about the planning, research and revision strategies you used. It helps to choose an early paper and compare to a later paper. Often you can more easily see the differences in your writing and a better example of mastery of certain concepts. Also discuss skills you need to improve and how you plan to address that.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

Mr. Charlie and Miss Anne Cyber Post

Post your summaries and arguments here. I will have copies of the final chapters tomorrow, Thursday, May 15.

 

Julie Guyot Cyber Response (The Other Country post also)

Students read from Letters from Mississippi, the chapter, "The Other Country." We discussed it and talked about the increasing violence in all counties in MS at the time of the writing. The section begins with a proclamation from the KKK and then in the first letter one of the organizers, the fifth district director, Lawrence Guyot, gives a speech where he addresses the apathy of the African Americans in the area to their voter registration efforts.

Students were given the essay on his daughter, Julie Guyot, from Children of the Movement to read and respond to in class. Post your response in 250 words here. You can also post your arguments and summaries based on The Other Country here also. Remember, read three letters, pull out three arguments, and then summarize the chapter. (Note this is different from previous assignments where you summarized a letter, not the chapter.)

Don't forget to send me your final draft of your essay today via email and once I have given you a grade post it.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

 

Research Essays Cyber post

Post your final drafts of the research essay here with the outline and inital planning sheet. Write a short narrative explaining how the final draft differs from the earlier draft(s).

Monday, May 12, 2008

 

Reflective Writing

Today students were invited to reflect on their writing process. Students are to use 1-2 essays to illustrate their points. Students can use an essay from another course as evidence, one essay needs to be an essay written in our class. I suggest students use the research paper and the midterm.

We looked at Hacker, pages 26-27 and also read a couple essays using process analysis. The two essays read were, "How to Clean a House in a Hurry" and "12 Steps to Quit Smoking." Homework was to read the third essay and respond to the questions at the end. For students who have gotten a grade on their research essays, they were to continue working on their reflective paper. For the 201 A students the paper should be minimally 250 words, English 201 B, between 250-500 words.

What is the philosophical thinking behind the idea "draft" or "revision"? How does this free the writer's creative process?

After I give you a grade, you can post your final essay. Everyone should have an earlier draft that includes the planning sheets, document search and outline, introduction and conclusion.

Lewis read his paper on Joe Marshall today in the afternoon class. In the earlier class I read David's essay. Other students hadn't revised their essays. Everyone has to bring in an essay Wednesday to turn in and if we haven't heard it, to read. Remember to continue reading Letters from Mississippi and post your responses. I'll add a link for the next chapter by tomorrow.

Come see me tomorrow. I'm in the Writing Center from 10-12.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

 

Workshop

Yesterday we had a great workshop of students essays both in the morning and afternoon classes. I am really pleased with the high quality of writing and the seriousness of students who have out in the work to produce such work. I think I will be giving a record number of grades in the A-B range, especially to those students who have completed all or most of the writing tasks this semester. We are streamlining the tasks ahead so that everyone has an opportunity to pass. I have extended the deadline for the research essay as far as I can. Classes are over in two weeks and the early class final is Friday, May 23. Your portfolio is due the following week, May 27 or May 28.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

 

Portfolios

We'll be talking about portfolios next week and will start working on the portfolio essays so that students will get them in on time. If your research essays are in continue reading Letters from Mississippi. There will be a chapter response for the remaining chapters. I will post a link for each one. Continue pulling out the salient arguments and keys points. If anything strikes you as important, include it in your response.

You will pull all these responses together from the blog in your portfolio. Over the next class meetings we will look at different rhetorical styles. We will also look at the topic of knowing, how we know what we know and how we can apply these acquisition skills to other topics and areas of study.

Monday, May 05, 2008

 

Cinco de Mayo

Today in the early class we read student essays and gave critique. Raymond, Kay, Ewa, Theresa shared before we ran out of time. We'll continue Wednesday with the final drafts.

In the afternoon class only two students had completed drafts, Yun Yi and Sophia, Chesi had an introduction written, so after sharing and crituque, I gave students time to continue their research and planning phase of the essay.

Everyone is to bring in a complete draft of an essay, the outline and a planning sheet for Wednesday to share--no exceptions. Also, students are responsible for the next chapter in Letters from Mississippi. If you don't have the book, I will leave copies of the chapter outside my office tomorrow late morning.

We will spend class time responding in an essay to the chapter. The next chapters will be assigned for the following week. We will be finished with the book, by 5/14. Bring Their Eyes Were Watching God to class on 5/12. Does anyone have the movie?

For students interested in following the "60 Minutes"' story on innocent men behind bars, watch yesterday's show at this link http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

129 men were exonerated in Texas.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

 

Getting work in

Don't give up and drop out as we enter the final stretch. Hang in there. Come talk to me, you might be able to complete the course, especially if you were turning in assignments at the beginning of the semester. To pass the course, students will have to have received a C or better on the following assignments: midterm, research essay, 7 cyber-essays, final essay (written in class) and portfolio essays (2).The research essay is due by Wednesday, May 7. I will accept it up to Wednesday, May 14. You will lose an entire grade point each day after Monday, May 12, so if the essay grade is a C, on 5/14 it will be a F. If we have made prior arrangements your grade will not lose points, so talk to me.

Field trip responses are due below. If you did not go on the field trip, be sure to respond to the "Trial of Darry Hunt" post (4/23).

This is for both classes. You need not be familiar with the Hunt case. Watch the 60 Minutes video. Think about Sean Bell case settled this week in New York, where the NY police were found not guilty of excessive force in the shooting death of Bell. He was shot 50 times. The question is, after 40 years of civil rights activism, justice is still based on race.

1. Watch: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/18/national/main4028780.shtml?source=search_story

2. Read the follow-up news story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/06/60minutes/main3914719.shtml

3. Read the comments the CBS blog (second entry). Comment on the comments. Who are they from? What is the tone of the comments overall? What would you add?

4. Darryl Hunt links at HBO http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/darrylhunt/index.html

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