English 1B

Cyber-Assignment "Good Reading"

2012-01-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

Today in class for our freewrite we responded in a short 3-paragraph essay to Writing about Literature Chapter 1: "The Role of Good Reading." Tomorrow we will look at "Writing about Stories" (57). Preview this section.

Students were also supposed to read the section on the Writing Process.

For the freewrite answer the following question:

How is the role of good reading connected to good writing? Define terms like "active reading" and "annotation." Discuss how this assists one in his or her understanding and interpretation of texts.

Use 1 (one) citation per paragraph: 1 free paraphrase. 1 shorter citation. 1 block or long quote. Don't forget the works cited section of the essay. Each paragraph is 5 sentences long except the one with the block quote. 4 of the 5 sentences is original, the 4th etc. is a citation. Do not forget to introduce your quotes with appropriate signal phrases.

We will read Chapter 4 tomorrow.

On Thursdays we will meet in A-232 not in A-211. If you have a laptop bring to class.

Homework is to read the preface and the first story: The Dance Boots. Decide which 3 jobs descriptions you can live with per Literature Circle handout.

We will spend half an hour in Lit Circles. Many students come late. Latecomers will be their own Lit Circle. You are late if you miss my calling roll.

Some students were lost per: homework because they missed the explanation. Emergencies happen, but if a student is always late then this will be a problem.

Students who do not have their books yet, can make up this freewrite.

State of the Union Cyber-Assignment

2012-01-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

For students who watched the Address and wanted to share responses, post here. The speech and comments are also at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The cyber-assignment is listed below. It was homework, although no one posted anything (smile). It still needs to be done. Post it where assigned. This post is for short remarks or comments.

Students can respond to each other here.

Cyber-Assignment We Still Live Here

2012-01-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

Today we watched the film, directed by Anne Makepeace, We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân. Visit www.makepeaceproductions.org Write an initial response to the film here. I am still stalling. Buy the textbooks. I am not giving anyone a permission number who doesn't have books.

Synopsis from the website:

Âs Nutayuneân tells a remarkable story of cultural revival by the Wampanoag of Southeastern Massachusetts. Their ancestors ensured the survival of the Pilgrims in New England, and lived to regret it. Now they are bringing their language home again.

I find the study of language and culture fascinating. Can one participate in one's cultural reality if one lacks linguistic access? How do we speak about what we know, how do we know what we know and what others in our ethnic group knew or found valuable if we have no way to communicate with them via artifacts left or living history in the elders?

Is such a person culturally inept forever? What happens when languages disappear but the people don't, as is the case in so many indigenous communities?

When we read The Dance Boots, Linda LeGarde Grover uses indigenous language in the dialogue characters speak. Note how this language which we are no conversant in adds to the fullness of said characters who like the Wampanaog people who were robbed of their culture.

Think about what the narrator says about converted Wampanaog, "I am pitiful. I loath myself." Why is there so much alcohol or substance abuse in such communities--colonized, assimulated traumatized people?

When I was in JHB, South Africa, I saw so many ads for alcohol and encountered so many inerbriated adults, healers and medicine men, who were drunk on the job. South Africa, like America, was stolen from its people.

Essay Assignment

In a 250-500 word essay, look at a theme such as language and culture and discuss how its presence or absence affects a community either positively or negatively. Introduce the film in the introduction and then state your thesis after a brief summary. The essay should be minimally three paragraphs.

Bring a paper copy to class tomorrow to share. The final draft will be emailed to me tomorrow sometime.

Freewrite due now. Post here.

Now, share initial impressions about the film. If you came in late to the film, read a review of the film and read the website, listen to the interview with the author. How is film a great storytelling medium. How well does the director tell the story. Does her personal involvement in the story affect the product or enhance it?

Presently, Sundance is taking place in Utah. It is the largest film festival in the country. I noted on the board that the film is screening at Stanford University Feb. 7, 2012. If you go and write about it, you can have extra credit. Check the film website for the details. I am interviewing the director on my website Friday, January 27, 2012 (9 AM). The show starts at 8 AM. The link is: www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks

What questions does the film raise which are perhaps unanswered? Are there references you are unaware of? If so, look them up and list them here in your response to the film.

2012-01-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

We are in a holding pattern, can't move forward until students purchase their materials. We read the syllabus today via projector. I also gave students a paper copy, those who wanted one (smile). We reviewed how to email assignments and copy oneself.

Homework is to watch and read the President's State of the Union Address which I thought ended eloquently. It was balanced and well-written. I liked the way he invited all of us to participate in our country's success and progress. It sounded so possible, but the same way he is having trouble getting Congress and the Senate to do the right thing, so it is with the lofty suggestions possible with the stroke of a pen--sounds good, but probably won't happen.

Look at the speech as a piece of writing. Analyze its merits or strengths. Pay special attention to literary devices like repetition, alliteration, examples. Why does the president choose the examples he does to represent patriotism? Why does he open and close with war imagery?

Visit http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ for commentary.

Bring your comments to class in the morning for discussion. Post them here after class. Responses can be 250 words.

Day 1

2012-01-23T16:54:00.000-08:00

Today students read an article from Skyways magazine about thinking outside of the cage--hamster cage, that is. After reading the article, students then introduced themselves to a classmate and shared.

We spoke about the class materials and the email I sent many students but not all. Hopefully, students have rectified this and added email addresses to their Peralta contact information. I wasn't able to drop anyone, so Permission Numbers are how we'll handle those who want to add the class.

There was no homework other than reading the syllabus and the letter I sent out this weekend. There are two assignments connected to the syllabus: one is an email to me, the other a response to the syllabus.

Make sure you use a heading when posting anything to the blog. Sign in as anonymous. The heading is: Your complete name, my name plus title "Professor," the class name spelled out, and on the last line (4) the date: day month and year.

Joe Blow
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1B
23 January 2012

Tomorrow we will review the syllabus in more detail, talk a bit about the class, do a bit of writing, start reading from Writing about Literature with homework in The Dance Boots.

Course Syllabus for Spring 2012

2012-01-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

English 1B, Spring 2012 at COA
Professor Wanda Sabir

In the Night

Women are out in the night.
They are cleaning streets
some are walking streets
coming home from work
othrs are working/
answering a call
rushing to the hospital
to bail someone out of jail
getting the forgotten loaf of bread
running from here to there
going to hang with the girls
enjoying the freedom of the club
relaxing from a hard day
of taking orders
sunny-side up
by tomorrow
in stilettos dressed to kill
with glistening lips
begging for kissers.

And some are just alone again in the dark
actually enjoying the moon.

What are you doing out so late Ma?
Being a woman, Officer,
being a woman.

--Myesha Jenkins from Dreams of Flight: A Collection of Poems, Geko Publishing 2011

Course code 21792 Lec 08:00-08:50 AM MTWTh Sabir C-211
Class Meetings: Jan. 25—May 17, 8-8:50 a.m., MTWTh

Drop dates: February 4, Full-Term Credit Classes and Receive a Refund. Note: Short-term and open-entry classes must be dropped within three days of the first class meeting to receive a refund. Feb. 5 last day to add. Feb. 11 last day to file for Pass/No pass. Feb. 16 last day to drop w/out a W. Drop February 24, Full-Term Credit Classes Without “W” Appearing on Transcript; April 25 (w/W) and no refund.

Holidays: Feb. 6, 17-20; May 18, May 30; Spring Break: April 2-8 M-Su Spring Recess

Final Exam Week: May 19-25. We have no sitting final. Portfolios are due by May 25, 12 noon electronically. Last day of semester May 25, 2012.

Class blog: http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/

Syllabus for English 1B: College Composition

English 1B is a transferable college writing course. It builds on the competencies gained in English 1A with a more careful and studied analysis of expository writing based on readings of selected plays, poems, novels, and short fiction.

Writing is a social activity, especially the type of writing you’ll be doing here. We always consider our audience, have purpose or reason to write, and use research to substantiate our claims, even those we are considered experts in.

We’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. The 8000 words over the semester (not per essay) include drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the library on campus and public libraries too. Students will be researching, and reading documents to increase his or her facility with the ideas or themes he or she is contemplating, before he or she once again sits at his or her desk writing, revising, and writing some more.

Writing is a lonely process. No one can write for you. The social aspect comes into play once you are finished and you have an opportunity to share.

We are practicing skills which you developed in English 1A. The difference is we are looking at literature and analyzing other genres, in our case: poetry, fiction, music, theatre, visual arts, and dance. In order to do justice to the topics you chose to explore, the writer cannot ignore the history of the genre nor its current discourses or new roots.

I will be looking at the writing, but more than this I will be paying attention to the scholarship, which is why each essay has to include a citation from a scholarly article—4-10+ pages.

Your essays can use multiple styles . . . be creative. However, I need to know that you know how to write an essay, so save the creative work for last (smile). And if you plan to deviate from the norm, don’t surprise me, share the idea with me first.
We are going to read a book or play every few weeks. We start with short fiction and then move into a novel, dramatic literature, another novel and conclude with poetry. I am going to show you a film. We finish with students selecting writing outside of the assigned readings and writing a research analysis based on the work. The selection can be two short poems or a longer one, a novel, another play or a short story.

On Thursdays we will have critiques when an essay is due. More on this later. We will practice writing research analyses mid-semester. Students will grade each other based on a rubric.

Office Hours

I am a phone person, so when I give you my telephone number, use it. My office is D-219, (510) 748-2286 (office phone). If you are a poor writer, get a tutor. We will have minimal revisions, like none unless the essay is horrible—students only get 1-2 BAD ESSAY DAYs (and the penalty is writing a correction essay, plus revising the essay). We will do peer reviews. I want to see polished work. Last semester, students did poorly on their first essay. I don’t know, maybe it was the topic, Indian boarding schools, substance abuse, assimilation, who knows . . . find a topic that interests you; however, if you hate the stories and its characters, well then I don’t know what to tell you (smile).

Methodology

We will use Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide, Second Edition by Janet E. Gardner in the class. There is a chapter for each genre of literature we will examine. We will review a chapter every week or two. The first section of the book reviews the writing process.

Keep a reading log/journal/notes containing key ideas outlined for each discussion section, along with vocabulary and key arguments listed, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving. I will collect these typed notes electronically with the completed essays. The essays will be submitted electronically. Type all your notes and in-class writing assignments.

I repeat: each book or play will have a corresponding essay. There will also be a series of short 250 word essay responses posted on the class blog pertaining to each piece of literature. Students have a choice of writing a new paper or expanding the cyber-assignment into a longer work. Each research paper will be between 3-4 pages long. This includes a works cited page.

Again, the final is an oral presentation of one’s paper or a defense of one’s thesis. The student portfolio is the FINAL for the class. We will talk about this more. If any students are creative writers and wants to lead a workshop, let me know (smile).
Each student will have to attend a literary event of his or her choosing: lecture or author event, play or film. We can attend an event together or separately. The writing assignment will be an analysis/critique, like a review . . . but a bit deeper. I suggest students read published reviews beforehand to prepare for the task. This essay will be minimally two (2) pages or 500 words, not including a works cited page with minimally two (2) sources. All essays have to have 1 citation per page, so in the case of a two page essay, that is two citations (period).

Essay research requirements

Each essay needs to use at least 2-3 outside sources which should include at least one (1) scholarly article along with other material (taken from the COA on-line Library Database (if possible). Each essay should also include One (1) direct quote, one (1) free-paraphrase and one (1) block quote—one citation per page—no more, no less. Each essay also needs to include a works cited page and a bibliography. It needs to be perfect. We will practice this in class. We will write many of the shorter essays in class or for homework. The task should be simple once students decide which four (4) elements they’d like to respond to in depth.

I am making an assumption that students know how to correctly document their sources using MLA. Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers or text. At this level, I expect students to know how to write passing essays at the first submission. Submit your best work the first time. Don’t submit drafts, masquerading as polished work. I am serious.

Midterm

One of the essays will be the midterm, possibly fiction maybe dramatic literature (smile).

Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester and action steps to get there. Separate into what you can do alone or have control over and what you might not have control over and why.

List them in order of importance.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Homework Assignment 1: E-mail introduction to me tomorrow, Tuesday, January 24. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com.

Homework Assignment con't:

Besides the usual: where are you from? What languages do you speak besides English? What child are you in the family? What are your hobbies? Why are you taking this class? What books have you read recently that took your breath away?

Include: your contact information: Name, Address, phone number, best e-mail address, best time to call and answers to these questions as well: What strengths do you bring to the class? What do you hope to obtain from the course – any particular exit skills? What do I need to know about you to help you meet your goals?

Homework Assignment 2:

Respond on the blog to the syllabus, so I have a record of your reading it. Make sure you include examples from the syllabus to support your points. The response is due by

Wednesday, January 25.
Write a comment to me regarding the syllabus: your impressions, whether you think it is reasonable, questions, suggestions. This is our contract, I need to know you read it and understand the agreement. Include the understanding that to pass the class you have to have your materials by day 1, no later than the end of the week.

Grading
Essays: 55 percent of grade

Short Story
1. The Dance Boots by Linda Legarde Grover is the text for the short story unit. Each unit includes the definitive essay, plus in-class writing, group writing and blog assignments.

The Novel
2-3. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok and The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the text for the fiction unit (2 essays), plus a film.

Dramatic Literature:
4. Ruined or some other selection (handout).
Poetry Unit

5. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry edited by Neelanjana Bannerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam

6. Final essay –student choice

Portfolio: 25 percent

Participation: 20 percent

What do I mean by participation? This includes preparation and active participation in group assignments, blog responses and posted comments; discussion group preparedness, attitude and leadership. To post comments select “ANONYMOUS” and then type your name in the post. Students do not need to get Gmail accounts.
To encourage participation, and for this, students have to be prepared, I weighed the preparedness and participation strongly which means I will be taking notes when students do not do their homework. If you are in a group where students are pretending to be prepared when they are not, drop me an anonymous note. If a student is absent, he or she cannot make up in-class assignments such as group work, freewrites, presentations, etc.

Portfolio Suggestion

Students can start a personal blog for the class and send me the link for your portfolio at the end of the course. This is not the only type of portfolio. The other is to submit a word document with the semester's writing.

Quizzes

I am not above pop quizzes on readings. Remember, this plan can change in a twinkling of the eye, if we find it isn’t working.

Writing Center

The Writing Center is a great place to get one-on-on assistance on your essays, from brainstorming and planning the essays, to critique in areas like clarity, organization, clearly stated thesis, evidence or support, logical conclusions, and grammatical problems. In the Writing Center there are ancillary materials for student use. These writing programs build strong writing muscles. The Bedford Handbook on-line, Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers on-line, Townsend Press, and other such computer and cyber-based resources are a few of the many databases available. There is also an Open Lab for checking e-mail, a Math Lab. All academic labs are located in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) or library. The Cyber Café is located in the F-bldg.

Again, students need a student ID to use the labs and to check out books. The IDs are free. Ask in Student Services (A-bldg.) where photos are taken.
Have a tutor of teacher sign off on your essays before you turn them in; if you have a “R,” which means revision necessary for a grade or “NC” which means “no credit,” you have to go to the lab and revise the essay with a tutor or teacher before you return both the graded original and the revision (with signature) to me. Revise does not mean “rewrite,” it means to “see again.”

When getting assistance on an essay, the teacher or tutor is not an editor, so have questions prepared for them to make best use of the 15-20 minute session in the Lab. I will give you a handout which looks at 5 areas of the essay you can use as a guide when shaping your questions for your peer review sessions. Please use these guidelines when planning your discussions with me also.

For more specific assistance, sign up for one-on-one tutoring, another free service. For those of you on other campuses, you can get assistance at the Merritt College’s Writing Center, as well as Laney College’s Writing Labs.

Correction Essays & Essay Narratives

All essay assignments you receive comments on have to be revised prior to resubmission; included with the revision is a student narrative to me regarding your understanding of what needed to be done, that is, a detailed list of the error(s) and its correction; a student can prepare this as a part of the Lab visit, especially if said student is unclear over what steps to take. Cite from a scholarly source the rule and recommendations for its correction.

Students can also visit me in office hours for assistance; again, prepare your questions in advance to best make use of the time. Do not leave class without understanding the comments on a paper. I don’t mind reviewing them with you.

Student Learning Outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes include a better facility with written communication which includes critical thinking, analysis and of course comprehension. Such tools help us make better choices and decisions about our lives and the lives of those persons we are responsible for. Hopefully students will gain an appreciation for the literary arts beyond what is due for the course. Education is not limited to the classroom; rather an implicit goal is always to trigger a desire in students to continue the cultural pursuit after transfer, after graduation, after career goals are met. Reading and writing are skills one does have to practice to prevent dullness, so another goal and SLO for this course is for students to know how to keep their tools ready for use which might translate into keeping a journal once the semester ends, reading more for pleasure, going to literary events, and/or hanging onto some of the course reference books like Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers.

English language fluency in writing and reading; a certain comfort and ease with the language; confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing. Familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).

We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.

This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.

Last words on Grades

We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily an honest response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this semester in meeting your goal.

Office Hours: D219

I’d like to wish everyone much success. I am available for consultation on Monday/Wednesdays, 10:30-11:30 AM and 3-4 PM and on MTWTh 3-5 p.m. by appointment. My office is located in the D-216 suite. I have an office phone, but do not leave messages on it. Call me on my cell phone and leave a message. My email again is: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me. I am more of a phone person.

I am a phone person, especially on weekends, so take time to exchange email and phone numbers with classmates (3), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expeditiously. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator.

Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio electronically.
I do not expect students to confuse literal with free paraphrase (a literal paraphrase is plagiarism). Students should also not make confused word errors, sentence fragment errors, comma splice errors, subject verb agreement errors, errors in parallel structure, subject verb agreement errors, MLA citations errors, errors with ellipses, formatting an essays—margins, headings, etc. If you are not clear on what I mean, again I suggest you take my Stewart Pidd Experience workshop Mondays 10:30 to 11:30 AM.

Students are expected to complete work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance to keep full credit. Again certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work (see Hacker: The Writing Process; Document Design.)

In class writing is to be written in ink—blue or black, then typed for inclusion in portfolio or posting on blog: http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/

Cheating

Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course.

Homework

If you do not identify the assignment, I cannot grade it. If you do not return the original assignment you revised, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or lose the original assignment, you get a zero on the assignment to be revised. I will not look at revisions without the original attached – no exceptions. Some student essays will be posted on-line at the website. Students will also have the option of submitting assignments via email: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Textbooks Recap:

Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Second Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.

Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots. Athens, Georgia and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.

Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon Books, 2007. Print. ISBN 0375714839

Bannerjee, Neelanjana and Summi Kaipa, Pireeni Sundaralingam. Ed. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Print.

Recommended

Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Fourth or Fifth edition. Bedford/St. Martins. (If you don’t already have such a book.)
A college dictionary. I recommend American Heritage.

Additional materials

Along with a college dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, floppy disks, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.

Stay abreast of the news. Buy a daily paper. Listen to alternative radio:
KPFA 94.1 FM (Hardknock), KQED 88.5, KALW 91.7. Visit news websites: AllAfrica.com, Al Jazeera, CNN.com, AlterNet.org, Democracy Now.org, FlashPoints.org, CBS 60 Minutes.

This syllabus is subject to change based on instructor assessment of class progress.

Syllabus Letter

2012-01-22T13:49:00.001-08:00

22 January 2012

Dear Students:

I am still on South Africa time waking at two and four in the morning. The time difference is about 10 hours between here and there. It was great when I needed a bit more time to complete something, I could go to bed and wake up in the same day—different time zone. I got up today at 4 a.m. went to sleep yesterday about six or seven in the evening. Today is my granddaughter’s birthday. She is nine. Her mother is a graduate of COA: psychology, with a BS in psychology and women’s studies from Cal State East Bay (2011).

This morning I completed a wonderful book, might I say, a mighty work (smile), entitled, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, A Memoir, by Leyman Gbowee with Carol Mithers.

When I watched the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, directed by Gini Reticker, produced by Abigail E. Disney, I marveled over the courage of the Liberian women to defeat the Charles Taylor war machine with prayer and nonviolent resistance. The women assembled along the road where the president’s caravan passed twice daily. Dressed in plain white garments, these women, from the city, from the countryside, rural women, educated and uneducated women, Christian and Muslim women, women who called on the ancient indigenous spirits and goddesses, sat or stood together in the oppressive heat and in the summer storms getting wet and growing dark and weak as they became the key voice for peace in a country that was violently spinning out of control. The film is on-line at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/pray-the-devil-back-to-hell/ There are also links to other films in the series: Women, War and Peace, as well as to interviews with Ms. Gbowee.

Unlike her memoir, the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell, is a heroines’ story, the story of a nation which is confronted by its most vulnerable population, its women. It is a story, Liberia’s quest for peace is a story, a story which ends as it begins. The film could be a miniseries; the culminating event is not the end, rather the beginning, which we’d never know unless we read 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Gbowee’s tale of triumph and personal sacrifice. I am happy Abigail Disney told me about the memoir when we last spoke in a radio interview—what a wonderful journey is has been this weekend. I am just disappointed I wasn’t able to meet Ms. Gbowee when she was here on tour last year.

I bought the book at the college book store Thursday where I have it listed as required. I assigned it for my English 1A class, along with Half the Sky, the Pulitzer Prize winning book from the married team, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Students either hate the book or love it. I never know what to expect from Spring semester to Spring semester over the past three years. One criticism is the formulaic nature of the book and the fact that men are not key characters and when they are, they are often the villains.

I assigned this book after seeing the authors and a woman profiled in Half the Sky on Oprah. You can imagine my great surprise when a student told me its authors were hosting a global event for International Women’s Day in theatres throughout the country. We attended of course. Locally our event was in Emeryville. Students bought tickets and I got some free ones from a sponsoring organization in San Francisco and we went. Students said they found the film and discussion inspiring.

We will start with Gbowee and then shift into the Kristof WuDunn land where all women are suffering— Yes, it would be depressing without evidence of triumph. Gbowee’s success is not singular, that is why her story is so remarkable. However, Half the Sky is unable to go into such depth, this is why we are reading her story first.

Students in English 1A will look for a woman entrepreneur in Northern California to profile in an essay. Students will also chose a book about the woman entrepreneur or a book by a woman to write an essay exploring the memoir, autobiography or novel’s themes and topics as relates to women’s empowerment or peace. These are the major essays for English 1A. We will write a series of short essays and post on the blog, these cyber-assignments will often start in class. All cyber-assignment are interactive and students have to respond to minimally 1-3 students posts for credit for the assignment. The first cyber assignment is a response to this letter, the second is a response to the syllabus. The second response includes a private response to me. My email addresses are: coasabirenglish201@gmail.com, coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com, coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com, coasabirenglish5@gmail.com

I love memoirs and autobiographies that cover political, social and historic movements, like this one does. The Warmth of Other Suns does a similar job, except Isabel Wilkerson didn’t live it, as Gbowee does. A short book, just under 250 pages, Gbowee’s work addressed in the award winning film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, doesn’t start until the book is nearly two thirds finished. I thought of all the murder mysteries I love where the crime is solved in the last ten pages; was this one of those reads?

Each Spring in honor of Women’s History Month in March, I have used women’s issues as the theme for the semester. So here we are again. In English 5 we are looking more are the criminalization of a population in California and in America, poor people of color, more specifically black people. California incarcerates more youth as adults than any other state and more women. I am concerned about this. I am a member of an organization called, California Coalition for Women Prisoners. We are an advocacy organization. I serve on its board.

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, looks at the criminalization of a population and how this tale is not new when one looks at the historic Jim Crow polices of America’s south, instituted at the end of enslavement of an entire race for four centuries. Cornell West’s forward to the paperback edition is quite provocative as he raises questions and issues you might not be familiar with. As English 5 meets for 1 hour and 15 minutes. We will have to do a lot of preparation at home and come to class ready to talk and discuss what we have read, the theories we have explored in our text book or in other readings I will supply on other argument forms: Toulmin and Aristotelian. Writing Logically, Thinking Critically only uses the Rogerian argumentative form.

We will write four arguments using these forms. The last argument, which takes its theme from Alexander, will be an opportunity for a student to craft an argument using one of the three explored. There might be an opportunity for the “super students” to craft an argument taking on a topic they disagree with arguing its merits. Since this is an election year, it will be fun analyzing campaign speeches, looking for examples of logical fallacies or flawed logic in ads, op eds and other media.

All arguments are both written and oral. Students will present their written arguments for critique. Each of three arguments will take their topic from one of the texts. We will start with Yummy, then move to Mosely, and end with Alexander. Alexander is a hard read, so if you are a slow reader, start it early.

We are leaving Alexander for last, as I’d like to get through much of Writing Logically, along with its exercises, before we start the book. I love Walter Mosely’s work. He is one of my favorite writers since the Easy Rawlins’ series of detective novels, to his science fiction work, and lately his protagonist Socrates Fortlow novels, Fortlow who is just as thoughtful as Ezekiel "Easy" Porterhouse Rawlins, perhaps more.

One of my students in English 1A Fall 2010, shared the title with me and I checked it out from the Oakland Public Library. I read it in a day and a half and immediately decided to use it this Spring Semester. The argument is classic. How many of you ever thought the destination “hell” as negotiable (smile)? Well, Mosely’s character disagrees with his sentence and gets sent back to earth to work it out with his angel. There he meets the devil or Lucifer himself. It is a great story that makes the reader rethink her notion of right and wrong, good and evil.

When I was in Los Angeles last year in November to say good bye to a good friend who was dying, I went to the Holocaust Museum that Sunday, where the author of Yummy was receiving a book award. I hadn’t known the story of the child in Chicago. After reading Yummy, I decided to make it one of our texts this semester as it is an easy read and a story—those of us who live in urban communities can undoubtedly, unfortunately, relate to.

I also like films and in the classes longer than 50 minutes, we watch a few (smile). For English 1A, we will definitely watch, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, even if it takes two classes or I might assign it as homework (we’ll see).

Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street, first, Yummy, second, and last, Always Running. Students will also read a book, a memoir of their own choosing. I suggest the sequel to Always Running, It Calls You Back.

There will be a Social Entrepreneur Essay for English 201 and English 1A students.

In English 201, we will take our freewrites in response to House on Mango Street and make a book. We’ll have a book release party with refreshments (smile). There will be five major essays, three tied to assigned textbooks, one tied to a memoir you choose, the last on the social entrepreneur.

Four of the five essays involve presentations: House on Mango Street, Always Running, SE Essay, Book Report Essay. The response to Yummy can be a graphic essay for the artistically inclined (smile). In English 201 we might read the play, Elephant Man. I see this play and its character as a metaphor for what happened to the protagonist in Yummy and what happened to Luis Rodríguez in Always Running.

I chose Always Running after many years of not teaching it, because of the recent by the author, whom I had the opportunity to interview when he was in town last November on a book tour. I loved teaching his Always Running, a classic tale similar to Down These Mean Streets by the late poet and author, Piri Thomas, Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman, and more recently, The Pact by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt with Lisa Frazier Page, and The Color of Water by James McBride. These coming of age tales about young men, are stories where growing up is not a given for the men who tell these stories, so how they survive proves instructive then and now.

In English 1A we will read the Greek play, Lysistrata. I also have a collection of poetry with the theme, war, which we will look at in English 1A in March as well.

I hope we can attend at least one play or author event as a community of writers. I will let students know what is opening and where. You can let me know of events you are attending as well. Films are also great, especially when the director is present or there is a discussion before or afterward.

Some students are not receiving this communiqués from me, which means, said student has no email address on file with admissions and records. Correct this omission immediately. Add an email address to your application. Make sure the phone numbers listed are the ones you are able to be reached at.

I have be using the book Stewart Pidd Hates English for too many years to recall when I started exactly, but suffice it to say over the years, “The Pidd Experience,” which many students hate as well as Pidd, has become a trademark text I have become well-known for on this campus and perhaps in the District (smile). It is a book that through a series of prescriptive exercises and essays covers many of the more salient errors writing students make which give their college teachers the most grief. The errors reviewed are both grammatical and mechanical, with an overview of summary and paraphrasing most third semester students have forgotten, not to mention a mind expanding section on plagiarism, which some scholars are not serious enough about, a slight which often comes back to haunt many a student as he or she crams at the end of the semester.

Deceptively simple, SPHE grows steadily more complex until the student who has been simply gliding along runs into major difficulty. This is around the third or fourth essays, Pronoun Case or BeVerbs. The fictional character, Stewart Pidd, supplies all the course work and students act as his teachers, grading his essays and offering comments on how he can improve by naming the errors and giving an example(s) of how he can correct the essays. These corrective essays are written as templates, which means there is little space for creativity, rather, the correct essay looks like everyone else’s, with perhaps originality in the title or often in the concluding paragraph. Many students cannot believe how simple the task is, until this simplicity is shattered by failing grades.

The essays are nonsense essays, which enable students to focus on the writing, rather than the content. This to fosters in students a false sense of competence failing grades quickly shatter. It isn’t the difficulty that gets students; it is the attention to detail that gets them over and over again.

Last semester, for the first time, I had students write an essay called, “The Stewart Pidd Experience.” I also had students write an essay where they evaluated their two grammar exams in an essay. This was a part of the class portfolio which is our final assignment. There is no sitting final in this class.

I have decided to not require Pidd for Spring Semester, except as a recommendation for all students who have never used the book before. The only class where this is not true is English 201 where I am making SPHE required. For everyone else, if your essays include errors covered in Pidd, students will have to write a correction essay outlining their errors, how to correct them and a revised essay.

The errors covered in SPHE are: confused words, sentence punctuation, pronoun agreement, pronoun case, be-verbs, possessives, verb tense, parallel structure, MLA, plagiarism, paraphrasing, summarizing, ellipsis use, signal phrases, works cited pages.

I plan to give students the quizzes and the exams, just so you can know if you need to get the book and run the exercises. Beginning Week 2, I will host a six week workshop on MW mornings (10:30-11:30) for students interested in “The Pidd Experience.” I could possibly host a meeting also on M or W afternoons, after 3 p.m., let’s say, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., if more than 5 students are interested. Students do not have to be in English 201 to attend. One has to commit to the entire six weeks though. The workshop is open to all Sabir students. Students in my English 1B class last semester who did not buy a grammar style book and made many errors up to the portfolio in MLA from works cited pages to ellipsis marks, received Bs instead of As in the course. For English 1A, it was crucial that students cited correctly. This is a key goal of Freshman composition. After English 1A, students are expected to know how to cite their sources and understand the importance of scholarly research when proving a point. Students are also expected to know the difference between free and literal paraphrasing, summarizing and plagiarism. It is that serious that students who are scholars know this information, so if you don’t look at the book—SPHE, and think about this short refresher workshop. Here at the College of Alameda students can enroll in Grammar 6 in the ESL department.

I am teaching four classes: English 1B, 21792, 8-8:50 AM, MTWTh in C211; English 1A, 21757, 9-9:50 AM, MTWTh, A-202; English 5, 21763 & English 211, 21777, 11-12:15 AM, TTh, A-202; English 201A 21768 & English 201B 21774, MW, A 202, 1-2:50 PM. (The two classes ENG 201A & ENG 201B, as well as ENG 5 and ENG 211, run concurrently.)

As usual, I am looking to hold one class a week in a lab with computers so students can learn to navigate the blog and how I want essay portfolios sent to me.

If you do not have technology at home, use the computers here on campus in the LRC. There is the Open Lab and the Writing Center for your use. All you need is a Student ID, which is free. Make sure you get on early on. Students also need to sign up for a special LRC course, which is also free. Do this early in the semester as well.

For first year students, I suggest you fit College Success at COA into your schedules: Counseling 21739, MW 12-1:15, 3 Units, in C-113, with Cobb or Counseling 21738, MW 9:30-10:45, in CV-205 (portables) with Nakmo. Similar classes are offered at Laney and Merritt colleges (Peralta Colleges 2012 Schedule of Classes 96). There is a Grammar class at Laney: 20428 6-8:50 PM, Eng. 206A, English Grammar, 3 units (Peralta Colleges 2012 Spring Schedule of Classes 107).

In all except the English 5 or Critical Thinking class, I am using a new book, I hope students like or at least find useful, They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Oh, no, students might cry, another book that uses templates?! What is wrong with Sabir, doesn’t she trust original thought (smile). You won’t believe this, but this book has been sitting on my desk for at least five years, maybe more and it wasn’t until a former student of mine, now professor, Maria Acuna, shared it with me last semester, did I decide to try it.

I have been reading it this weekend as well and I like the premise the authors use to explain why they wrote it. Granted, templates can get tiresome, but for those who are familiar with Stewart Pidd Hates English, these templates are nothing like the ones Pollitt and Baker use. Rest assured there (smile). Instead, this book helps students enter the discourse or conversation, often one which has been raging or simmering or bubbling over for a short or long while, a conversation you have never entered, however, one which affects your life in profound ways. Why haven’t you joined in? Often, the reason certain communities are not called to the table or invited to participate is intentional. The reason is, to do so doesn’t serve the interests of the body politic at the table.

Whether one is invited or not, whether one has a chair or not, whether one has the proper suit or proper language with which to engage those at the table using one’s life as a ping pong, the conversation is open in a democracy and it is yours to join even in an assignment for a class such as ours. I have students who have used their writing here to launch careers in politics. I have had students publish writing completed here in class in newspapers and respected journals. We are working in a laboratory where results can actually change lives beginning with our own. What you learn here is not “academic” if academic means useless. Each of you is a change agent; that is why you took time out of your life to show up.

Showing up is important. We all showed up for different reasons, some not as lofty as others, but you are here and because you are here, I expect great work from you. That is my goal and that is why and I am here and when you start hating me, remember, the promise I made to you here: meritocracy will never get a reward in this class. There is no grading on the curve. Everyone is held to a high standard and while I set the bar, well the State of California sets the bar and some of you will not reach it this time— keep trying and you will eventually.

The class might appear disorganized and I smile a lot and seem easy, this is an illusion. I am not easy. I demand a lot from each of you, but this is college—and you expect huge demands right? Don’t worry, I think you will get your money’s worth and then some. I do not assign writing assignments because I have nothing better to do. I can think or many tasks I love more than reading first drafts of students’ papers—you think they are final drafts, but they are not. I am a professional writer and I know what I am doing, so trust me when I tell you something is wrong. It is not personal, rather it is the writing not you I am critiquing. Some students enter the class with more skill sets than others. Some expect success in high school to tide them over here, and have rude awakenings. My suggestion is to come to class awake and sleep at home the night before.

I hope students surprise me and actually know a bit about the writing process and can read with comprehension and most importantly, are not lazy. You can enroll in this class not knowing everything, but if you do not exert yourself and fill in those spaces where perhaps time or preparation left you under-ready then, I expect you to get the extra help needed, whether that is attending my “Pidd Experience” workshop or a getting a tutor or both.

Be honest with yourself and do what you need to do to be successful here. Do not waste your time or your classmates. I will not let you waste mine or theirs or use my brain as your own. I do not suffer fools at all. Some students say I am rude, perhaps I am; however, when students are not prepared and want to waste the time of those who are, I cut them off. I am not interested in anything an unprepared student has to say. If you ever come to class unprepared, keep silent. Do not open your mouth except to tell us you are not prepared and are just observing that day.

I have to pay out of pocket for an assistant to help me with record keeping. I haven’t had a student aide in years to help students with their essays, so it’s on me and you. If you need help I can help you to a point—there is no magic. I am a great writer because I write and I kept writing when I got failing grades, had to take remedial writing classes at UC Berkeley, and got failing grades on first drafts at Holy Names.

Believe it or not, I didn’t know what a thesis sentence was until graduate school Teaching Writing course. I do not have hours to spend with one student a week, but you can get assistance, so ask when there are questions. I think faster than I write sometimes and I am an awful speller. No one is perfect. Learn what your strengths are. I have an almost photographic memory. Writing things down is a way for me to record them in my mind almost verbatim. I don’t hold hands and after last semester, a deadline is a deadline even if only one student makes it, so keep the due dates in your calendar, just in case I forget to remind you when something is due.

The blog is a place where reminders tend to go, but if you have limited access to the web, take good notes from the white board and get a few students phones numbers just in case. I suggest students hold study sessions to discuss readings and assignments. The library (first floor in the LRC or Learning Resource Center) has classrooms students can use for discussions.

Each class has varying requirements for the writing, which is about 6-8,000 words. I tend to assign more writing. In English 1A, students will have several short research essays, rather than one long essay. Each essay in English 1A will be about 3-4 pages, 250 words a page. In English 5 3-4 pages per essay. This is minimally. Essays can be a bit longer. In English 201 essays will be between 2-5 pages depending on the level. English 1B, 3-4 pages. This excludes the works cited page.

I am giving you all this in advance so you can drop the course and find a better fit.

Recap on textbooks. Find your class:

1. English 5: Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow; Walter Mosley's The Tempest Tales; Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, and Writing Logically, Thinking Critically 6th Edition. Recommended: Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers, American Heritage Dictionary.

2.English 1B:

Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Second Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.

Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots. Athens, Georgia and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.

Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon Books, 2007. Print. ISBN 0375714839

Bannerjee, Neelanjana and Summi Kaipa, Pireeni Sundaralingam. Ed. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Print.

Recommended: Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers, 4-7th editions. American Heritage Dictionary.

3. English 1A: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn; Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War by Leymah Gbowee, Diana Hacker Rules for Writers, American Heritage Dictionary. They Say, I Say, Second Edition, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birenstein.

Recommended for students who have not taken my classes before: Stewart Pidd Hates English.

4. English 201A: Stewart Pidd Hates English*, Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Always Running: Gang Days in LA by Luis Rodriguez. American Heritage Dictionary.

English 201B: for Pidd Alumni: Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers and They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birenstein. If a student has not had me for English 201A then Pidd is recommended.

Sincerely,

Wanda Sabir
English Professor, College of Alameda

Course Materials for Spring 2012

2012-01-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings Students:

Welcome to English 1B!

Course materials for all Sabir courses Spring 2012. Find your class:

1. English 5: Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow; Walter Mosley's The Tempest Tales, Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, and Writing Logically, Thinking Critically 6th Edition. Recommended: Diana Hacker Rules for Writers, American Heritage Dictionary.

2. English 1B: The Dance Boots, Girl in Translation, The Complete Persepolis, Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry, Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Second Edition, Janet E. Gardner. Recommended: Diana Hacker Rules for Writers, American Heritage Dictionary.

3. English 1A: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War by Leymah Gbowee, Diana Hacker Rules for Writers, American Heritage Dictionary. They Say, I Say, SE by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birenstein.

Recommended for students who have not taken my classes before: Stewart Pidd Hates English.

4. English 201A: Stewart Pidd Hates English*, Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Always Running: Gang Days in LA by Luis Rodriguez. American Heritage Dictionary.

English 201B: for Pidd Alumni: Diana Hacker Rules for Writers and They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birenstein. If a student has not had me for English 201A then Pidd is recommended.

Portfolio Checklist with Cyber-Assignments (listed)

2011-12-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

This checklist can serve as the table of contents. Put a check next to the items to show inclusion in the portfolio. Use as the second page to the portfolio, after the cover sheet. Where there are questions for the section, students can post the answers to the narrative there.

Number the pages with a header.

The portfolio is due by Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, 12 noon. Make certain you paste and attach the document. Include the assignment in the subject line: COA Sabir Fall 2011 Portfolio for English 1B w/Course Code (or a variation) and send to: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Name ______________________________
Date ______________________________
Class including class code and semester ____________________
Address _______________________________________
Phone number __________________________________
Email address__________________________________

Portfolio Narratives (250 words each, minimally).

1. The fist narrative will look at the 18 week semester, the themes we discussed: immigration, family, assimilation, alienation, genocide, disenfranchisement, colonization, war, violence against women. . . . Talk about what you've learned and discovered about writing, 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 in this class: composition and reading 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. Use two essays as evidence to discuss your revision process. Don’t forget to include it in the works cited page. Use a scholarly source as well to talk about the revision process. I gave you two handouts at the start of class. Also use your grammar style book (Hacker, etc.) There will be at least two sources, perhaps three used for this essay.

Checklist

The checklist will list all the assignments, but you know what they are. Post the entire portfolio for each section. On the checklist include all the assignment grades. I will get the other grades to you before Friday, so you can update that part of the portfolios. If for some reason there is an outstanding assignment, just include it in the portfolio and note that it needs a grade.

All the essays included in the portfolio should be graded essays: Short Fiction, the Novel (2), The Play, Poetry, Final Essay and Presentation (student choice re: genre).

We will toss the lowest graded essay. Include it.

Presentations:

Group presentations: Poetry and individual on favorite poem and final essay. Please include the abstract for the final essay and for the others your poem and the responses received re: presentation. For group essays: Post the essay and any responses to it.

3. Other Cyber-Assignments. Divide them into freewrites and cyber-essays. Most of the cyber-essays were collaborative.

4. Literary event essay

5. Extra credit. If you have written any essays this semester for extra credit they would go in this section. If you'd like to include a graded essay from another discipline you can. Include the assignment as well.

6. For all the Cyber-Assignments already included with essay portfolios, do not post them twice. This list of assignments is just a list of all that you have completed (or missed). Just a brief description of the assignment is enough.

7. After the Cyber-Assignments, type any in-class writings, such as freewrites or group work and include it here under: Freewrites and Class Assignments

8. Evaluation and Extra Credit

PORTFOLIO

DANCE BOOTS Essay Unit
Planning________
Outline_______
Peer Review_______
Graded Drafts (How many? What were the grades? _________________
Correction essays or narratives (How many?) _______________
Cyber-Assignments (How many?) _________
Group work___________
Peer Comments__________

GIRL IN TRANSLATION Essay Unit
Planning________
Outline_______
Peer Review_______
Graded Drafts (How many? What were the grades? ______________
Correction essays or narratives (How many?) _______________
Cyber-Assignments (How many?) _________
Group work___________
Peer Comments__________

RUINED Essay Unit
Planning________
Outline_______
Peer Review_______
Graded Drafts (How many? What were the grades? ____________
Correction essays or narratives (How many?) _______________
Cyber-Assignments (How many?) _________
Group work___________
Peer Comments__________

Persepolis Essay Unit
Planning________
Outline_______
Peer Review_______
Graded Drafts (How many? What were the grades? ____________
Correction essays or narratives (How many?) _______________
Cyber-Assignments (How many?) _________
Group work___________
Peer Comments__________

Poetry Essay Unit
Planning________
Outline_______
Peer Review_______
Graded Drafts (How many? What were the grades? ____________
Correction essays or narratives (How many?) _______________
Cyber-Assignments (How many?) _________
Group work___________
Peer Comments__________

POETRY Essay Unit:
Group Project
Lesson Plan________
Activity_______
Comments from peers_______
Self-reflection on the process_________

Poetry Related Cyber Assignments________
Peer Comments_________
Visit with Maria Acuna________

Independent Project
Planning________
Outline_______
Abstract________
Grade on Essay_______
Grade on Presentation _________

Correction essays or narratives (How many?) __________
Peer Comments__________
(There were no self-reflections or comments).

Freewrites
(Any in-class freewrites not posted on the blog, type and put in this section. How many? _________

Semester Cyber-assignments. These are any cyber-assignments not already posted with the other units. Don't post an assignment twice. How many? __________

Extra Credit Essay: Students can turn in a graded essay from another course if the other teacher doesn’t mind. It has to use research and MLA style documentation, so certain courses are not applicable.

Anything else?__________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

Teacher research
Can I use your work in presentations and publications? Would you like to be anonymous? If I plan on using your essays or work in a book, I will let you know and share any proceeds.

Yes, I agree.
No, do not use my work.

Final Grade

Portfolio checklist _____________
Portfolio Essay 1_______________
Portfolio Essay 2_______________
Portfolio Grade_________

Course Grade_________

The following is a list of all the cyber-assignments. Locate yours and put in the appropriate section(s) above. Again, do not post an assignment twice. Put headings on each section and start each section with a new page. Essays should look like essays, each page starting at the top of a page. This includes the last page or Works Cited and Bibliography.

Cyber-Assignments, etc.

Monday, August 22, 2011
Response to Syllabus for Fall 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011
The Dance Boots Cyber Assignment
We spent the first meeting introducing ourselves to one another, answering questions about the syllabus. I gave students my cell number, so if you left early make sure you ask me for it. Students also exchanged phone numbers with peers.

I gave students copies of the title story in the collection, The Dance Boots. We spoke for a bit about literature and how it's defined. We all agreed that it was an art form with various genres.

In the Portable Guide in the section on fiction, it speaks to ways to analyze or think about fiction. For homework, students were to write a 250 words analytical response summary looking at themes raised in the story along with characters, plot, scene, themes, etc.

If the story references a period in American history you are not familiar with, do some background research. If you have the book, read the author's preface. I forgot to give you a copy. Students can also skim the section on Writing about Fiction.

I am interested in how well students capture the author's intent in their writing. After you post your response, please respond to at least two student responses. Mention the students by name. These comments can be short (smile).

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Recap
Today we reviewed the short story: The Dance Boots. In groups students developed a character analysis of the protagonist Artense. Post a reflection on the discussion process at the link for the assignment. Also post the group narrative there along with everyone in the group's name.

Other homework is to read: Three Seasons and the first section of The Portable Guide (1-42). Don't forget to annotate the selections. I let you go early by mistake--don't worry, it won't happen again (smile).

Thursday, September 1, 2011
Freewrite Reflection on The Role of Good Reading
Today we met for the first time in A-232. We will meet here on Thursdays for the entire semester.

1. The cyber-assignment has to do with the premise that good reading is necessary to good writing (smile).

Write a 250 word response (3 paragraphs) to Writing about Literature:Introduction The Role of Good Reading (1-15). Please include a citation per paragraph (3).

One citation should be a paraphrase, another a short quote, the third or last a block quote (4 or more lines). See Hacker 424-425).

Don't forget to include a works cited page, that your MLA is perfect for the page set up, that is heading and header, margins, and in-text references (page numbers).

2. Students will email themselves a copy of the post. Make sure you paste and attach it and copy me: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

3. Analyzing fiction (Chapter 4 pages 57-60; 77-81). Literary Criticism and Literay Theory (143-)

4. "3 Seasons" --Discussion.

5 Homework: Write a response to the story (250). Use three citations, one per paragraph.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Assignments and Cyber-Assignment on "Maggie and Louis"
Post the short essay taking its topic from "Maggie and Louis." We will complete the book this week and write an essay next week.

In class today, in small groups students looked at the story "Maggie and Louis" and discussed the elements one looks at when discussing literature from Writing about Literature. We also read a published student essay.

Some students were able to complete the essay from Dance Boots, others were not. For the collaborative essay on "Maggie and Louis," put all the names in the heading.

The essay was to look at one of the elements and write a compelling essay (Gardner 57-60). Each paragraph needs to use a citation: short quote, block quote and free paraphrase (not necessarily in that order.)

Post the essay here. Do not forget the works cited.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Free Write: September 11, Ten Years later
We'll listen to Michael Jackson's song, "Heal the World."

For a while when September 11, rolled around people asked, where were you? I don't think any of us have ever forgotten. Seated among us are many young men and women who have been overseas fighting a war begun by President George W. Bush after 9/11.

President Saddam Hussein is gone--a literal off with his head. President Obama got Osama bin Laden, but without a body who's to say that was really him. The man eluded us for years. One hung the other shot and buried at sea.

With the "bad guys" gone, why is peace seemingly farther away that before? Is the sun rising in the west? Have I been praying in the wrong direction, is that how I missed the rising sun and its brilliant decline all these turbulent days since?

So what are your thoughts? How can we as Jackson sings, "Heal the world? Make is a better place for you and me and the entire human race?"

Post your responses here.

Thursday, September 8, 2011
Homework Recap and Cyber-Assignment (smile)
Today students discussed "Refugees Living and Dying" and "Shonnud's Girl" (59 and 77). In class students are to post a three paragraph response to a story (1).

Today's homework is to write a response to "Ojibwe Boys." Tuesday students will have an opportunity to discuss the entire work and talk about essay ideas.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Cyber-Assignment
Post your reflection on the poem: "A Moment of Silence" here.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Peer Reviews, Girl in Translation
Essays are due Thursday, Sept. 22. Bring them in electronically already set up to email. Students will email them to me from class.

Homework is to read chapters 4-5. The discussion was really sparse, really sparse. Only a few students shared passages from the book. Makes me think students didn't read the book (hum).

Come to class prepared Thursday.

Cyber-Assignments

1. Post a reflection on the peer review process from the point of view of the recipient and the advisor. What did you enjoy about the process? What did you gain? What did you learn about yourself? What will you do differently next time you have such an opportunity?

2. Secondly, students are to find a published review for Girl in Translation and review the author's website. Read the review and post a response. How doe Kwok's life experience inform her material?

Try out the COA Library Database (smile). There is more to research than google.com

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Information Literacy for Changing Audiences
Cyber-Freewrite

Recap, review and reflect on research. Why is research important in this information saturated age? How does research or weighing one's options help scholars develop cogent theories? is research just limited to the academy? What specifically did the librarian share with you today that you didn't know? what was different from other orientations you've attended in the past here or elsewhere? What if anything did he leave out?

Visit the librarian, Steve Gerstle's webpage at the College of Alameda (peralta.cc.ca.edu).

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Homework
Finish the book.

Bring in 6-7 essay questions, one or two per concept, related to literary concepts: Plot, Theme, Characters, Point of View or who's telling the story, Setting, Symbolism.

Bring the questions in electronically and print a set when you arrive and post them (smile).

We'll write a short essay in class, one individually as a freewrite and one as a group.

Lecture: Kimberly as super hero. Writing from a feminist perspective.

Notes: Immigration as a theme. Matt as antithesis or antihero or is he? How does choice effect Kim's life and its overall outcome? Is happiness or even a realistic goal? Is Kim's mother selfish?

Thursday, September 29, 2011
Epilogue. . . Ten Years after That Reflection
Post your reflections on ten years after Kimberly "took a breath, got off the bed and opened the door" (Kwok 303).

Respond to a classmate's post too.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Cyber-Assignment on Ruined
Homework is to think about the characters in Ruined, Mama Nadi and the women in the brothel: Salima, Josephine and Sophie; Fortune, Salima's husband, his friend, Laurent, the military, Christian and Mr. Harari and lesser unnamed characters.

Write a brief recap and analysis of where we are in the story now and the symbolism Nottage captures in her characters and the setting, of the horrors of war. Later we even notice subtle irony in Nottage's choice of names for the characters as well, esp. Fortune, Salima's (which means "peace), husband. Is the brothel a kind of "Eden"?

If so, then who or what is the snake?

Post reflections here. Reference "Elements of Drama" (92) and "Literary Criticism" (143) specifically interpretive analysis looking at Formalism and New Criticism and Feminism and Gender Criticism, Post-colonial Criticism (a little), and Psychological Theories like archetypes (148-149). Marxism works as well, but I think LC and FNC provide a better framework for this analysis.

We will write this essay at the end of the month and start the Poetry unit towards the end of the month as well. We will have a special guest, Maria Acuna who will talk about her work and give us a writing assignment. Students will also team up to make presentations on Elements of Poetry per Writing about Literature.

Thursday, October 13, 2011
Today in class there was a complaint that though the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell was a great film, what was the connection between watching a film and writing an essay about literature or art?

Good question.

Some students are struggling with MLA and citations because they don't have materials in their possession and others are just rusty. In any event, no assignment is a throw away assignment. To make a film one has to be able to write and in a critique we look at themes, thesis or plot, character, etc., many of the same elements we have been looking at for fiction and plays, not to mention the social/political psychological aspect of the tale.

The theme is: Women and War. What makes one's writing compelling and interesting is what one brings, as in experiences, to the topic. The film I showed you is a award winning film that expands the story in Ruined. It is also topical, as in Liberia there is an election now.

If anyone finds the information about Layman Gbowee's book tour, please post it.

We spent a moment developing a potential opening sentence in a short response to Ritcker's film. We stated that it is about a peace movement started by a woman, Gbowee which is remarkable in that it united women cross culturally and cross other ethnic, religious and economic lines.

We started to draw parallels between Laymah and Mama Nadi looking at how sex is used as a tool to stop war and establish peace, even if their motivations are viewed similarly by all.

Safety for the women and their families, safety for the patrons in the brothel--safety for the nation are places where the two stories also overlap.

Not many students saw altruism as a characteristic of Mama Nadi, except Nick who mentioned Mama Nadi's agreement to let Sophie stay. Other student countered this with Mama Nadi's dependence on Christian for girls and goods and how she needed to continue to cultivate his favor.

Ruined
Ruined is also topical as next week is Congo Week.

We read up to Scene 5 and a part of Scene 6. We will finish the play on Tuesday and talk a bit about poetry. Students should also bring in their books they are reading, the point of reading a play aloud was to give students an opportunity to read their book.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Completing "Ruined"
Today we looked at Topical Invention, a questioning strategy to develop: analogies, definition, consequence, testimony.

When using this strategy, students are to reference the topic in each sentence.

The questions are:

Definition: What is it/What was it?
Consequence: What caused it/Did it cause?
Analogy: What is it like or unlike?
Testimony: What does an authority say about it?

We incorporated these questions into a three paragraph essay: Thesis or Pro-Argument, Antithesis or Con-argument, Synthesis or the mediation point between the two polarities.

We didn't complete the essay; however, we did complete it via discussion. Please post your reflections on this process, both topical invention and the 3-part essay.

Homework is to bring in the book or work you plan to use for your final essay. Also, bring in the collection of poetry: Indivisible. Bring in earplugs too.

Lastly, bring in a question you'd like to explore re: Ruined. We spoke about several angles and read the student essay in The Portable Guide.

We will have a freewrite connected to Ruined.

Thursday, October 20, 2011
Freewrite
Ruined Thoughts (smile)

Ruined Topics

POETRY
Why one needs poetry in war times

Poetry as a symbol in Ruined

DEFINITION
What does it mean to be ruined?

RAPE as a metaphor for capitalism and neocolonialism, Western Cultures over consumption.

SOBRIETY
Why does Christian value his sobriety? What does the FANTA REPRESENT?

CHARACTER(S)
Character names: Christian, Fortune, Salima or Peace, Mama Nadi, Sophie (symbol of wisdom. Wisdom comes from suffering. Are Sophie and Mama Nadi two aspects of the same character or persona?

What about Salima and Josephine, are they aspects of the same composite character, a woman who is both victim and survivor in warfare? How does she survive? How does she transform the situation into a life which is while not opportune, somewhat bearable? )

SCENE
Scene: Eden turned in on itself. Congo is rich and deadly like the apple (Colton) can change one’s fortune forever

SYMBOLS
Colton—snake or is the snake or temptation greed

Love—how even in the worse situations there is love, there is a place for love and thus a place for hope

Fortune's iron pot.

BLOOD AS sacrifice, blood as cleansing, blood as renewal, blood as hope.

SOLDIER'S BOOT on Salima's chest, on her baby's skull and her comparison of it to something sweet (Nottage 46).

LANGUAGE
We looked at the language of the play and the dialogue. One can look more closely at how what is said doesn't always mirror what is done.

In Class Writing
Students spent a significant time exploring a topic, theirs or one of mine in an extended freewrite. No one wanted to do any collaborative writing (smile). Post your musings here for feedback. This is optional.

Monday, October 31, 2011
Poetry Group Presentation

Students will make presentations on poetry per: Writing about Literature (82). The sections are: Elements of Poetry: The Speaker & The Listener; Elements of Poetry: Imagery; Elements of Poetry: Sound and Sense; Elements of Poetry: Form, Elements of Poetry: Meter.

Jay, Jacqueline, June and Tia: Imagery
Joseph, Ade, Al: Sound and Sense
Melvin, Angela, Nick: Form
Ajmand, Igor: Meter

We will go over: Elements of Poetry: The Speaker & The Listener together in freewrites.

We had a guest last week, Thursday, October 27, 2011, Maria Acuña. She performs with the Quijeremá, which has a performance at "Strings," November, 2, 8 PM in Berkeley on San Pablo near Alcatraz.

Students were very quiet and didn't engage Maria much. In fact, she didn't even share any of her own work. Today, as a freewrite, write a response to Maria in the form of a letter. Tell her what you took from her presentation and ask her a few questions in retrospect you wish you had asked.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Cyber-Assignment
In three paragraphs respond to a poem(s). Look at the Listener and Speaker, rather implied or stated and what this relationship reveals about how one reads the poem (82-83). Use literary language in the analysis.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Poetry Presentations Thursday, Nov. 3 & Cyber-Self-Reflection on the process
Thursday, Nov. 3 we will make our presentations. There are 3 groups presentations and one individual, Ade. His partners didn't show up today. For absent students we'll have to figure out a make up assignment. I am open to ideas.

Monday, November 14, 2011
Something to think about?
Last Thursday, Nov. 10, we watched most of Persepolis. Tuesday, Nov. 8, we watched a panel discussion with the author, producers, actors and artists re: Persepolis the film. Students were to write their poetry essays in class Tuesday, but elected to email them to me before class Nov. 8, 2011.

Food for thought

When thinking about the graphic novel Persepolis, how does the story of the Iranian revolution parallel that of the protagonist? How is the process of growing up, that is the maturation process; childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, a revolution of sorts? Think about Kimberly in Girl in Translation. How are the two protagonists similar?

Talk about the various allies Marji uses to test her theories on. How are they her conscious? I am thinking of God and her grandmother? However, there are others.

How specifically does the visual language of the work add to the narrative? Does the visual device ever become more or bigger than the thing, in this case, novel, itself?

How does art push the story and perhaps even the genre into another realm? What would you call this realm?

Is is poetry? How so? Why not?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Cyber-Freewrite
Today we watched a film, A Brush with the Tenderloin. Reflect on how muralist Mona Caron uses her art to paint into view a hidden part of San Francisco's landscape. How what she does similar to Marjane Sarapi's art in The Complete Persepolis?

How is one's imagination sometimes inadequate in depicting certain realities? How does the art help one conceptualize unspeakable or unimaginable realities like poverty and war, homelessness and alienation?

In three paragraphs, minimally, reflect on the art and the artist and the way artists tell stories. Is this a different kind of narrative? What do the two genres share?

http://abrushwiththetenderloin.com/

Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Post your abstract for the Independent Study Essay here. We will present our essays on Thursday. The essay is due by then as well. Presentations will be 3-5 minutes long. Post your self-reflections here as well and comments to classmates on their presentations.

2011-12-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

Portfolio Submission Guidelines
Don't forget to include in the subject line in the email: your name and the assignment: COA Sabir English 1B Portfolio Fall 2011

Email by or on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, 12 noon to: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com Paste and attach the one word document.

I have added the rest of the assignments to the portfolio draft to make it easier to check their inclusion.

2011-12-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Today in class we reviewed the portfolio process. Students were given two handouts on the Revision Process, "Chapter 7 1/2 Office Hours: Revision: Help from the Audience" (Skwire 217-218)and Chapter 8 1/2 Office Hours: Revision: The Psychology of It All" (251-252).

Feel free to use this information to write Portfolio Narrative Essay 2.

Skwire, Sarah E. and David Skwire. Writing with a Thesis: A Rhetoric & Reader. 9th Ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. 2005. Print.

Each essay is a real essay, in that it needs to be scholarly and you have to cite your essays and include the references in a bibliography.

2011-12-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Portfolio Checklist (draft)
This checklist can serve as the table of contents. Put a check next to the items to show inclusion in the portfolio. Use as the second page to the portfolio, after the cover sheet. Where there are questions for the section, students can post the answers to the narrative there.
Number the pages with a header.

Name ______________________________
Date ______________________________
Class including class code and semester ____________________
Address _______________________________________
Phone number __________________________________
Email address__________________________________

Portfolio Narratives (250 words each, minimally).

1. The fist narrative will look at the 18 week semester, the themes we discussed: immigration, family, assimilation, alienation, genocide, disenfranchisement, colonization, war, violence against women. . . . Talk about what you've learned and discovered about writing, 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 in this class: composition and reading 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. Use two essays as evidence to discuss your revision process. Don’t forget to include it in the works cited page. Use a scholarly source as well to talk about the revision process. I gave you two handouts at the start of class. Also use your grammar style book (Hacker, etc.) There will be at least two sources, perhaps three used for this essay.

Checklist

The checklist will list all the assignments, but you know what they are. Post the entire portfolio for each section. On the checklist include all the assignment grades. I will get the other grades to you before Friday, so you can update that part of the portfolios.

All the essays included in the portfolio are graded essays: Short Fiction, the Novel (2), The Play, Poetry, Final Essay and Presentation (student choice re: genre).

We will toss the lowest graded essay. Include it.

Presentations:

Group presentations: Poetry and individual on favorite poem and final essay. Please include the abstract for the final essay and for the others your poem and the responses received re: presentation. For group essays: Post the essay and any responses to it.

3. Other Cyber-Assignments. Divide them into freewrites and cyber-essays. Most of the cyber-essays were collaborative.

4. Literary event essay

5. Extra credit. If you have written any essays this semester for extra credit they would go in this section.

6. Evaluation: There is a course evaluation for the class which is optional. I also ask if I can use any of your work for academic research.

This is a preliminary checklist.

2011-11-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

Post your abstract for the Independent Study Essay here. We will present our essays on Thursday. The essay is due by then as well. Presentations will be 3-5 minutes long.

All the revisions are due by Friday, Dec. 2, 2011.

Cyber-Freewrite

2011-11-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

Today we watched a film, A Brush with the Tenderloin. Reflect on how muralist Mona Caron uses her art to paint into view a hidden part of San Francisco's landscape. How what she does similar to Marjane Sarapi's art in The Complete Persepolis?

How is one's imagination sometimes inadequate in depicting certain realities? How does the art help one conceptualize unspeakable or unimaginable realities like poverty and war, homelessness and alienation?

In three paragraphs, minimally, reflect on the art and the artist and the way artists tell stories. Is this a different kind of narrative? What do the two genres share?

http://abrushwiththetenderloin.com/

Something to think about?

2011-11-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, Nov. 10, we watched most of Persepolis. Tuesday, Nov. 8, we watched a panel discussion with the author, producers, actors and artists re: Persepolis the film. Students were to write their poetry essays in class Tuesday, but elected to email them to me before class Nov. 8, 2011.

Food for thought

When thinking about the graphic novel Persepolis, how does the story of the Iranian revolution parallel that of the protagonist? How is the process of growing up, that is the maturation process; childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, a revolution of sorts? Think about Kimberly in Girl in Translation. How are the two protagonists similar?

Talk about the various allies Marji uses to test her theories on. How are they her conscious? I am thinking of God and her grandmother? However, there are others.

How specifically does the visual language of the work add to the narrative? Does the visual device ever become more or bigger than the thing, in this case, novel, itself?

How does art push the story and perhaps even the genre into another realm? What would you call this realm?

Is is poetry? How so? Why not?

Poetry Presentations Thursday, Nov. 3 & Cyber-Self-Reflection on the process

2011-11-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Nov. 3 we will make our presentations. There are 3 groups presentations and one individual, Ade. His partners didn't show up today. For absent students we'll have to figure out a make up assignment. I am open to ideas.

Teachers

Prepare a lesson plan to hand out to me and an assignment as well. The class doesn't have to have anything printed unless the exercise or evaluative tool is printed. If there are copies you can get them made here if you arrive early.

Self-Reflection

The assignment after the presentation will be to reflect on the process of preparing a lesson, teaching it and then seeing through an evaluative tool, how well the class does.

How well did your students do? What would you change, if anything? What did you learn?

Student Audience Reflection

Students, respond to the other presentations specifically, that is, what was the lesson presented and what did you like about how it was structured. Were there any surprises from the teacher or from the class, yourself included?

Do you have any unresolved questions? If so, ask them here. You can be anonymous on the peer-teacher(s) feedback.

Cyber-Assignment

2011-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

In three paragraphs respond to a poem(s). Look at the Listener and Speaker, rather implied or stated and what this relationship reveals about how one reads the poem (82-83). Use literary language in the analysis.

2011-10-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

Poetry Group Presentation

Students will make presentations on poetry per: Writing about Literature (82). The sections are: Elements of Poetry: The Speaker & The Listener; Elements of Poetry: Imagery; Elements of Poetry: Sound and Sense; Elements of Poetry: Form, Elements of Poetry: Meter.

Jay, Jacqueline, June and Tia: Imagery
Joseph, Ade, Al: Sound and Sense
Melvin, Angela, Nick: Form
Ajmand, Igor: Meter

We will go over: Elements of Poetry: The Speaker & The Listener together in freewrites.

We had a guest last week, Thursday, October 27, 2011, Maria Acuña. She performs with the Quijeremá, which has a performance at "Strings," November, 2, 8 PM in Berkeley on San Pablo near Alcatraz.

Students were very quiet and didn't engage Maria much. In fact, she didn't even share any of her own work. Today, as a freewrite, write a response to Maria in the form of a letter. Tell her what you took from her presentation and ask her a few questions in retrospect you wish you had asked.

Visit her website first and read more about the ensemble, if you have not already done so: http://www.quijerema.com/home.cfm

Born and raised in Venezuela, Maria Fernanda Acuña specializes in a variety of drums and Latin American percussion instruments such as the Peruvian Cajon, Afro-Venezuelan hand drums and Maracas. For her work with Quijeremá she has developed a unique drum-set incorporating folk instruments from around the world combined with traditional cymbals, snare and kick drum. She also is an accomplished Cuatro player. Her unique approach and wide range of instrumentation plays a major role in defining the sound of Quijeremá.

Acuña began her musical training on piano as a child, and as a teenager, trained on trapset with noted Venezuelan percussionist Jose Matos. She studied composition and arranging in Caracas with Maria Eugenia Vera, and percussion with Itabora Ferreira (Brazil), Alexander Livinali (Venezuela), and Alex Acuña (Peru), as well as studying at the Jazz School in Berkeley, California.

Acuña has worked with a variety of artists including Alex de Grassi, Rafael Manriquez, Jackeline Rago, The Venezuelan Music Project, and Eduardo Mendelievich with Creative Voices.

Acuña has a degree in Latin American literature at Mills College, with an emphasis on the historic and cultural development of Venezuelan music as it relates to the African diaspora, and is presently in a Master’s program in English Literature at Mills College. She also teaches Spanish through music to children at “Viva el Español” and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Recap Continued
Besides deciding which students would present which poetry lesson, we also read a few poems, from Indivisible. Again, not much response from the audience (you). Verbal participation is a part of the class.

Students are worrying about grades. One student mentioned she needs an A in the class. It's too bad that knowledge is not an end in itself; it is the grade which is as I mention in the syllabus, not a true measure of one's skill, conceptual success, progress, or understanding, let alone one's ability to demonstrate this mastery once the incubation or class has ended.

Getting the A is the easy part. Identification and application of these skills in the real world is where the difficulty lies.

Take your vitamins before you show up tomorrow.

Assignments, Homework and Cyber-Assignments

2011-10-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today in class we discussed the essay on Ruined which is due, Thursday, October 27, 2011 before 12 midnight (smile). Melvin shared his essay this morning on Girl in Translation. He got an A on the essay. Each meeting we will hear from a student writer. I think this will help students measure where they are regarding what a passing sounds like.

Have an essay in mind so when you are invited to share, it is handy (smile).

Homework

Watch this video on Indivisible and respond here. It is an hour long, so give yourself time. It needs to be watched before class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8faRwFvqLHU&noredirect=1

Bring your book to class, we will take one of the poems as a freewrite and talk about the language of poetry.

We will have a guest for the remainder of the class, unless she is chosen to serve on the jury.

Poetry Group Presentation

Students will make presentations on poetry per: Writing about Literature (82). The sections are: Elements of Poetry: The Speaker & The Listener; Elements of Poetry: Imagery; Elements of Poetry: Sound and Sense; Elements of Poetry: Form, Elements of Poetry: Meter.

Jay, Jacqueline, June and Tia: Imagery
Joseph, Ade, Al: Sound and Sense
Melvin, angela, Nick: Form
Ajmand, Igor: Meter

We will look at The Speaker & The Listener together

I will give out the assignments Thursday, October 27, 2011. Students will have an opportunity to get together and plan the presentation on Tuesday, November 1 and Thursday, Nov. 3. Students will develop a lesson plan with goals and objectives and teach a lesson as well.

It should be fun. All participants will share the grade. Students will give me copies of the lesson plan and have copies of the exercise(s) for students where applicable.

Poetry In-class Essay

We will write the poetry essay in class on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, the entire essay. You will have an hour. Figure out what poem(s) from Indivisible you would like to analyze in an essay beforehand. Bring in an essay plan, with an outline and a thesis.

Persepolis In-class Essay

Consider it a midterm. We will write the essay on Persepolis in class as well. Consider it a final essay (smile).

Bring Persepolis to class Tuesday, Nov. 8-10, 2011. We will do a little background research on the film. I will show students some of the film, especially the interview with the writer. Students will have an opportunity to discuss the novel in class. It is not an essay read. We will write this essay in class on Nov. 17.

Final Essay

Your final, final essay is on your book and will be due Nov. 22, for a peer review. Bring it to class electronically. The presentations begin, Nov. 29 and continue Dec. 1. We will work on portfolios on Dec. 6. Students should bring all their assignments to class electronically that day so we can assemble them.

More later re: specifics, that is, the portfolio checklist.

This is the semester. Put these dates in your calendar. We have no sitting final. Thursday, Dec. 8 is an optional class. The portfolio isn't due until December 16, 2011. Grades aren't due until January 2012. I can let you know your grade if you need it to transfer or meet a requirement.

Literary Events

2011-10-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Quijerema performs at: Cafe Leila, Thursday, October 20 7 p.m., 1724 San Pablo Ave Berkeley CA Visit http://www.quijerema.com/

Maria, one of the members of this ensemble, is going to visit the class at some point this semester (smile). If you attend this evening, say hi to her and mention our class.

Desdemona (Wed.-Sat., Oct. 26-29)

Also think about attending one of the workshops for Desdemona next week: October 27, 5 PM and Friday, October 28, 12-2 PM. Visit http://www.calperformances.org/performances/2011-12/theater/desdemona.php

Cal Performances brings you the U.S. premiere of an extraordinary theatrical collaboration!

In response to Peter Sellars's 2009 Othello, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré, and Peter Sellars join forces to create an intimate and profound conversation from beyond the grave between Shakespeare's Desdemona and Barbary, the woman Shakespeare identifies as the African nurse who raised her. After centuries of colonialism and racism, the two women share stories, songs, determination, and hope for a different future. Morrison has written an unforgettable, incisive, and compelling script, and writing the music and singing the role of Barbary is Rokia Traoré, one of Africa's greatest vocalists. Traoré plays off the griot tradition, transforming and extending classic Malian music into a "truly mesmerizing" (USA Today) sound. Peter Sellars, the creative, penetrating, and influential voice in the world of opera and theater, directs.

Freewrite

2011-10-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Ruined Thoughts (smile)

Ruined Topics

POETRY
Why one needs poetry in war times

Poetry as a symbol in Ruined

DEFINITION
What does it mean to be ruined?

RAPE as a metaphor for capitalism and neocolonialism, Western Cultures over consumption.

SOBRIETY
Why does Christian value his sobriety? What does the FANTA REPRESENT?

CHARACTER(S)
Character names: Christian, Fortune, Salima or Peace, Mama Nadi, Sophie (symbol of wisdom. Wisdom comes from suffering. Are Sophie and Mama Nadi two aspects of the same character or persona?

What about Salima and Josephine, are they aspects of the same composite character, a woman who is both victim and survivor in warfare? How does she survive? How does she transform the situation into a life which is while not opportune, somewhat bearable? )

SCENE
Scene: Eden turned in on itself. Congo is rich and deadly like the apple (Colton) can change one’s fortune forever

SYMBOLS
Colton—snake or is the snake or temptation greed

Love—how even in the worse situations there is love, there is a place for love and thus a place for hope

Fortune's iron pot.

BLOOD AS sacrifice, blood as cleansing, blood as renewal, blood as hope.

SOLDIER'S BOOT on Salima's chest, on her baby's skull and her comparison of it to something sweet (Nottage 46).

LANGUAGE
We looked at the language of the play and the dialogue. One can look more closely at how what is said doesn't always mirror what is done.

In Class Writing
Students spent a significant time exploring a topic, theirs or one of mine in an extended freewrite. No one wanted to do any collaborative writing (smile). Post your musings here for feedback. This is optional.

OUTLINE from the board
& Cyber-Assignment
1. Find a scholarly article connected to a theme you'd like to explore in your essay or connected to thematically to the play. Use the COA library database. Post a summary of the article here.

Read it and summarize it. When you have finished the summary, compare to the abstract. Where if at all do the two interpretations differ? How so?

Other HOMEWORK Outline continued

I gave a brief overview of the chapter on poetry. Students are to read it and bring in the text Tuesday.

2. Indivisible

3. Revisions (Look for mail from me re: essay revisions).

4. A Reading (Students are to look through their body of work for this semester and be prepared to share an essay next week: Short Fiction, the Novel, Grace Paley.) I shared a student essay, which got an A+.

5. Read Writing about Poems (82)

6. For Tuesday, bring in a thesis sentence you'd like to explore in an essay on Ruined and clear examples and ideas on how you plan to accomplish this task. Be prepared to write for half an hour in class, to finish the essay for Thursday.

We will also explore revision strategies (video).

7. I passed out a handout on Topical Invention. I want students to use one of each type of sentence in this essay on Ruined.

Completing "Ruined"

2011-10-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today we looked at Topical Invention, a questioning strategy to develop: analogies, definition, consequence, testimony.

When using this strategy, students are to reference the topic in each sentence.

The questions are:

Definition: What is it/What was it?
Consequence: What caused it/Did it cause?
Analogy: What is it like or unlike?
Testimony: What does an authority say about it?

We incorporated these questions into a three paragraph essay: Thesis or Pro-Argument, Antithesis or Con-argument, Synthesis or the mediation point between the two polarities.

We didn't complete the essay; however, we did complete it via discussion. Please post your reflections on this process, both topical invention and the 3-part essay.

Homework is to bring in the book or work you plan to use for your final essay. Also, bring in the collection of poetry: Indivisible. Bring in earplugs too.

Lastly, bring in a question you'd like to explore re: Ruined. We spoke about several angles and read the student essay in The Portable Guide.

We will have a freewrite connected to Ruined.

2011-10-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Today in class there was a complaint that though the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell was a great film, what was the connection between watching a film and writing an essay about literature or art?

Good question.

Some students are struggling with MLA and citations because they don't have materials in their possession and others are just rusty. In any event, no assignment is a throw away assignment. To make a film one has to be able to write and in a critique we look at themes, thesis or plot, character, etc., many of the same elements we have been looking at for fiction and plays, not to mention the social/political psychological aspect of the tale.

The theme is: Women and War. What makes one's writing compelling and interesting is what one brings, as in experiences, to the topic. The film I showed you is a awardwinning film that expands the story in Ruined. It is also topical, as in Liberia there is an election now.

If anyone finds the information about Layman Gbowee's book tour, please post it.

We spent a moment developing a potential opening sentence in a short response to Ritcker's film. We stated that it is about a peace movement started by a woman, Gbowee which is remarkable in that it united women cross culturally and cross other ethnic, religious and economic lines.

We started to draw parallels between Laymah and Mama Nadi looking at how sex is used as a tool to stop war and establish peace, even if their motivations are viewed similarly by all.

Safety for the women and their families, safety for the patrons in the brothel--safety for the nation are places where the two stories also overlap.

Not many students saw altruism as a characteristic of Mama Nadi, except Nick who mentioned Mama Nadi's agreement to let Sophie stay. Other student countered this with Mama Nadi's dependence on Christian for girls and goods and how she needed to continue to cultivate his favor.

Ruined
Ruined is also topical as next week is Congo Week.

We read up to Scene 5 and a part of Scene 6. We will finish the play on Tuesday and talk a bit about poetry. Students should also bring in their books they are reading, the point of reading a play aloud was to give students an opportunity to read their book.

"Women and War" Freewrite and Essay

2011-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

We watched video a couple of weeks ago on a PBS series: Women, War and Peace, which kicked off Tuesday, October 11, 2011. See http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/

The film Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a part of the series. Reflect on an essay on the topic of Women and War. Connect to Ruined.

Use 3 citations in the essay (250 words). Post here.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Film Synopsis
"Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about a agreement during the stalled peace talks.

"A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations" (http://praythedevilbacktohell.com/synopsis.php)

Announcements
Next week is International Congo Week. There will be activities happening throughout the world to bring attention to what is happening there, esp. to the women. If you go to an event, and write about it, you can have extra credit. Visit http://congoweek.org/why-congo-week.html and http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/

This weekend is also Litquake Weekend, October 7-15. Visit http://www.litquake.org/

Cyber-Assignment on Ruined

2011-10-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

Homework is to think about the characters in Ruined, Mama Nadi and the women in the brothel: Salima, Josephine and Sophie; Fortune, Salima's husband, his friend, Laurent, the military, Christian and Mr. Harari and lesser unnamed characters.

Write a brief recap and analysis of where we are in the story now and the symbolism Nottage captures in her characters and the setting, of the horrors of war. Later we even notice subtle irony in Nottage's choice of names for the characters as well, esp. Fortune, Salima's (which means "peace), husband. Is the brothel a kind of "Eden"?

If so, then who or what is the snake?

Post reflections here. Reference "Elements of Drama" (92) and "Literary Criticism" (143) specifically interpretive analysis looking at Formalism and New Criticism and Feminism and Gender Criticism, Post-colonial Criticism (a little), and Psychological Theories like archetypes (148-149). Marxism works as well, but I think LC and FNC provide a better framework for this analysis.

We will write this essay at the end of the month and start the Poetry unit towards the end of the month as well. We will have a special guest, Maria Acuna who will talk about her work and give us a writing assignment. Students will also team up to make presentations on Elements of Poetry per Writing about Literature.

Girl in Translation Essay Assignment

2011-10-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today students wrote their essays on Girl in Translation. This was an extended freewrite. Make sure you use 1-2 sources outside the book for your essay. If you only site from one source the other can be a bibliography.

Develop a question or statement to guide the writing. If students want to expand on the freewrite already posted, this is certainly okay.

The essays can be submitted via Internet today or by tomorrow if students needed more time to finish. Send to: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Cyber-Field Trip Sign-up for next Thursday, October 13, 2011

2011-10-05T21:06:00.001-07:00

Let me know if you are interested and bring your $5 to class Monday-Tuesday, October 10-11, 2011. I want to buy the tickets in advance. The venue will not hold tickets for us, but I doubt that they sell out. However, one never knows, Marc is famous here and well-loved.

We can meet at West Oakland BART at 6:30 PM and travel together. YBCA is on Third and Mission Street, 701 Mission Street in San Francisco.

YBCA is pleased to present the world premiere of Joseph’s newest project, Red, Black & GREEN: Marc Bamuthi Joseph/ The Living Word Project October 13 - 22 7:30 p.m. Admission $5 You can buy as many tickets as you like. Invite friends and family.

Overview

It is a hard and obvious truth that people of color are under-represented in the environmental movement. It is also a hard and obvious truth that violent crime and poor education pose more of an imminent danger to most poor neighborhoods than environmental crisis. I personally am of the belief that the movement for social change and environmental accountability are one and the same, that focusing on steps to sustain the planet ultimately forces us to envision a pathway to sustaining humanity. — Marc Bamuthi Joseph

YBCA has had a long and fertile association with Bay Area artist and director Marc Bamuthi Joseph whose artistic work reflects an evolving aesthetic that integrates spoken word with contemporary movement to produce performance works that are populist, experimental and that challenge formal models from both a cultural and environmental.

2011-10-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today students shared reflections on Grace Paley's body of work. All of the poetry and stories were outstanding. Many students had similar selections like Alex and Nick, Angela and Jacqueline. The two women spoke of loving the eroticism in a poem about an older woman (smile).

Tia's poem elucidated a lot of conversation as we tried to figure out who was speaking--we looked at motives and regret in light of a tragic character's suicide. It was interesting how often one's ability to empathize with a character might be constrained by one's inability to see their dilemma. The conversation was wonderful as well. I found Nick's comments quite moving and insightful. I liked his personal reasons for choosing the work he did and connecting the poem he shared with the themes from the prose poem.

We then read Act 1, Scene 1. With nontraditional casting, the reading was fun.

Students then shifted back to Paley and read and commented on each other's essays and gave them a grade. Some students had to take the essay home and revise it, others turned them into me.

Homework is to read the chapter on writing about plays in Writing about Literature.

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts (a film)

2011-09-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Today we watched a film about Grace Paley www.gracepaleythefilm.com

At the library orientation students were told about various literary databases. Use at least one of them to get more information about Paley.

Homework is also to visit the film website. Read about the film and the director. Respond to the following questions in 500 words (2 typed pages). Bring a copy of the essay to class. Also bring in a Paley short story or a poem or two, maybe three to share Tuesday.

Essay assignment:

Who is/was Grace Paley? How did she integrate writing and activism: the writer as social change agent? Use examples from the film and from one scholarly article about the writer. Use the COA library database. Sot there are three sources: Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, directed by Lilly Rivlin; one scholarly article, and your Paley poem or story.

Epilogue. . . Ten Years after That Reflection

2011-09-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Post your reflections on ten years after Kimberly "took a breath, got off the bed and opened the door" (Kwok 303).

Respond to a classmate's post too.

Homework

2011-09-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Finish the book.

Bring in 6-7 essay questions, one or two per concept, related to literary concepts: Plot, Theme, Characters, Point of View or who's telling the story, Setting, Symbolism.

Bring the questions in electronically and print a set when you arrive and post them (smile).

We'll write a short essay in class, one individually as a freewrite and one as a group.

Lecture: Kimberly as super hero. Writing from a feminist perspective.

Notes: Immigration as a theme. Matt as antithesis or antihero or is he? How does choice effect Kim's life and its overall outcome? Is happiness or even a realistic goal? Is Kim's mother selfish?

Information Literacy for Changing Audiences

2011-09-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Cyber-Freewrite

Recap, review and reflect on research. Why is research important in this information saturated age? How does research or weighing one's options help scholars develop cogent theories? is research just limited to the academy? What specifically did the librarian share with you today that you didn't know? what was different from other orientations you've attended in the past here or elsewhere? What if anything did he leave out?

Visit the librarian, Steve Gerstle's webpage at the College of Alameda (peralta.cc.ca.edu).

Cyber-Assignments, In-class and for homework

2011-09-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today in class I reviewed each essay before students sent the assignment to me to make sure it was correct. Some students came in later and missed this long process (smile). If you got to class afterward, ask a classmate to show you theirs before you send your assignment into me.

We then got into "Lit Circles" to discuss Girl in Translation.

The in-class Cyber-Assignment is to look at themes in GIT and write a three paragraph-essay about it. use 3-citations, one per paragraph. Post here and respond to a classmate's post (group post).

Homework

1. Read chapters 6, 7, 8 (up to page 182).

2. Cyber-Assignment: The book lends itself to a hero's journey. Imagine Kimberly with her cape and sword.

What is her kryptonite(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptonite)? Are there villains and other heroes in the story? Who is the love interest? What challenges does Kimberly face of her own creation and that of others like her aunt and her teacher(s), her mother, American of western cultural values vs. Chinese or eastern culture?

Reflect on Kimberly as the flawed heroine in three paragraphs. Respond to a classmate's analysis.

As an aside think about how character development in a novel differ from that in a short story? Don't forget to respond to Tuesday's cyber-assignment re: review and reading the author's website for background information. I had an interview with Jean Kwok. I will post a link here later. It was on my radio show when she was on a book tour: wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org or blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks

Peer Reviews, Girl in Translation

2011-09-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Essays are due Thursday, Sept. 22. Bring them in electronically already set up to email. Students will email them to me from class.

Homework is to read chapters 4-5. The discussion was really sparse, really sparse. Only a few students shared passages from the book. Makes me think students didn't read the book (hum).

Come to class prepared Thursday.

Cyber-Assignments

1. Post a reflection on the peer review process from the point of view of the recipient and the advisor. What did you enjoy about the process? What did you gain? What did you learn about yourself? What will you do differently next time you have such an opportunity?

2. Secondly, students are to find a published review for Girl in Translation and review the author's website. Read the review and post a response. How doe Kwok's life experience inform her material?

Try out the COA Library Database (smile). There is more to research than google.com

Essay Assignment

2011-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

1. Discussion: Essay 1, Short Fiction

What is the question your essay will answer?

2. Composition

3. Homework: Bring in the completed essay to class Tuesday electronically. Bring in Girl in Translation. Read up to page 63. Students can always read ahead. Write a reading log with character descriptions, a short summary per chapter, any questions.

We meet here.

Future calendar items: On Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, 9 AM we will meet in the library, behind the reference desk for an orientation with Professor Steve Gerstle.

Cyber-Assignment

2011-09-13T23:26:00.001-07:00

Post your reflection on the poem: "A Moment of Silence" here. Today we started in C-212 and ended up in A-232. There were quite a few trees felled (smile). Handouts galore: 3-Part Thesis, various invention worksheets, and Questions for Discussing Essays.

Homework is to bring in a completed Initial Planning Sheet and an outline, which should include a thesis.

Students are to chose one story or look at a device across the landscape of multiple stories for the essay we will start on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011. The essay will use one citation per page: 1 free paraphrase, 1 block quote and 1 shorter citation. The fourth or last page is the works cited. If the essay is longer than 3 pages then the writer can use more citations.

Students should review literary devices associated with fiction like plot, character, point of view or narrator, diction, imagery, setting, theme (smile). The stories chosen should be ones we haven't written about already, although if one is looking at a character across multiple landscapes then of course one can reference earlier stories.

Students are to bring in a completed or polished essay Tuesday for a peer review in class. After the peer review, students will email the entire portfolio to me. It will include: The polished draft, the peer review, the initial planning sheet, and the outline, oh and all the cyber-assignments associated with The Dance Boots. Students can compile these assignments. All of these documents will be submitted in a word document.

There is a Pow Wow at Evergreen College this weekend, Sept.17, 2011. I'll post more later.

Homework Recap and Cyber-Assignment (smile)

2011-09-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today students discussed "Refugees Living and Dying" and "Shonnud's Girl" (59 and 77). In class students are to post a three paragraph response to a story (1).

Today's homework is to write a response to "Ojibwe Boys." Tuesday students will have an opportunity to discuss the entire work and talk about essay ideas.

Handouts: Intial Planning Sheet, OWL guide to Thesis Sentences, Literature Circles.

One of your classmates, Tia is reading poetry this weekend at Webster Street Jam Festival at 10 AM. It is the festival's 10th anniversary. She was invited by Alameda's Poet Laureate Mary Rudge.

Free Write: September 11, Ten Years later

2011-09-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

We'll listen to Michael Jackson's song, "Heal the World."

For a while when September 11, rolled around people asked, where were you? I don't think any of us have ever forgotten. Seated among us are many young men and women who have been overseas fighting a war begun by President George W. Bush after 9/11.

President Saddam Hussein is gone--a literal off with his head. President Obama got Osama bin Laden, but without a body who's to say that was really him. The man eluded us for years. One hung the other shot and buried at sea.

With the "bad guys" gone, why is peace seemingly farther away that before? Is the sun rising in the west? Have I been praying in the wrong direction, is that how I missed the rising sun and its brilliant decline all these turbulent days since?

So what are your thoughts? How can we as Jackson sings, "Heal the world? Make is a better place for you and me and the entire human race?"

Post your responses here.

The plan for today is:

1. Freewrite

2. Review thesis sentence development

3. Group discussions on two stories by stories

4. Write essay 3-4 paragraph essays. Post and email them to me.

5. Homework is already stated below.

6. Extra credit: If anyone attends an art event this weekend around the commemoration of Sept. 11 and writes about it (250 words min), you can have extra credit.

Email me the extra credit assignment and post your short essays here as well. If you take photos, send them to me too.

I am still working on the annotated assignment list. I haven't forgotten. So far, most of the writing looks good. The MLA is sloppy and as advanced students, one has to do a better proofreading job.

Assignments and Cyber-Assignment on "Maggie and Louis"

2011-09-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

Post the short essay taking its topic from "Maggie and Louis." We will complete the book this week and write an essay next week.

In class today, in small groups students looked at the story "Maggie and Louis" and discussed the elements one looks at when discussing literature from Writing about Literature. We also read a published student essay.

Some students were able to complete the essay from Dance Boots, others were not. For the collaborative essay on "Maggie and Louis," put all the names in the heading.

The essay was to look at one of the elements and write a compelling essay (Gardner 57-60). Each paragraph needs to use a citation: short quote, block quote and free paraphrase (not necessarily in that order.)

Post the essay here. Do not forget the works cited.

For Thursday, students are to read the next two stories and as a freewrite, students have a choice whether to respond to "Refugees Living and Dying" or "Shonnud's Girl" (59 or 77).

We reviewed chapters 3 and 4 in Writing about Literature (43 and 57). Purchase the book on-line by next week. Next week we will start Girl Interrupted and I will give you a more detailed assignment schedule as well by then, if not sooner.

Students can read ahead in Dance Boots. Thursday's homework will be to write a response to "Ojibwe Boys." Tuesday students will have an opportunity to discuss the entire work and talk about essay ideas.

Essay 1 on short fiction is due next Thursday for a peer review. The final draft is due either Friday or the following Monday by 12 noon. We can talk about this.

Freewrite Reflection on The Role of Good Reading

2011-09-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today we met for the first time in A-232. We will meet here on Thursdays for the entire semester.

1. The cyber-assignment has to do with the premise that good reading is necessary to good writing (smile).

Write a 250 word response (3 paragraphs) to Writing about Literature:Introduction The Role of Good Reading (1-15). Please include a citation per paragraph (3).

One citation should be a paraphrase, another a short quote, the third or last a block quote (4 or more lines). See Hacker 424-425).

Don't forget to include a works cited page, that your MLA is perfect for the page set up, that is heading and header, margins, and in-text references (page numbers).

2. Students will email themselves a copy of the post. Make sure you paste and attach it and copy me: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

3. Analyzing fiction (Chapter 4 pages 57-60; 77-81). Literary Criticism and Literay Theory (143-)

4. "3 Seasons" --Discussion.

5 Homework: Write a response to the story (250). Use three citations, one per paragraph.

Film and Theatre in the SF Bay Area

2011-08-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

Beginning Sept. 1 and for consecutive Thursdays in Sept. at 7:30 PM there will be a hip hop film festival presented by Fist Up! Productions. Visit http://www.lapena.org/. There is a $5 donation, but it is optional.

On Sept. 29, also at La Peña Cultural Center, in Berkeley near Ashby BART, Dennis Kim performs excerpts from "Tree City Legends," I saw this really wonderful work in the Hybrid program at Intersection for the Arts about two years ago.

The San Francisco FRINGE Festival starts next week too. Visit http://www.sffringe.org/

2011-08-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

I noticed that students are not using proper MLA for their posts. Writers need to have a heading and a works cited where appropriate.

To post:

Click on "comment." Post response in box, then click anonymous, make sure you have included a heading: student name, course and time, date, my name.

Student Name (first and last)
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 201 A (or B) 8-8:50 AM or 1:30-3:20 PM
24 August 2011

Title

Content

Recap

2011-08-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today we reviewed the short story: The Dance Boots. In groups students developed a character analysis of the protagonist Artense. Post a reflection on the discussion process at the link for the assignment. Also post the group narrative there along with everyone in the group's name.

Other homework is to read: Three Seasons and the first section of The Portable Guide (1-42). Don't forget to annotate the selections. I let you go early by mistake--don't worry, it won't happen again (smile).

If there are any questions, call me (smile).

The Dance Boots Cyber Assignment

2011-08-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

We spent the first meeting introducing ourselves to one another, answering questions about the syllabus. I gave students my cell number, so if you left early make sure you ask me for it. Students also exchanged phone numbers with peers.

I gave students copies of the title story in the collection, The Dance Boots. We spoke for a bit about literature and how it's defined. We all agreed that it was an art form with various genres.

In the Portable Guide in the section on fiction, it speaks to ways to analyze or think about fiction. For homework, students were to write a 250 words analytical response summary looking at themes raised in the story along with characters, plot, scene, themes, etc.

If the story references a period in American history you are not familiar with, do some background research. If you have the book, read the author's preface. I forgot to give you a copy. Students can also skim the section on Writing about Fiction.

I am interested in how well students capture the author's intent in their writing. After you post your response, please respond to at least two student responses. Mention the students by name. These comments can be short (smile).

Syllabus for Fall 2011

2011-08-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

English 1B Fall 2011 College of Alameda
Professor Wanda Sabir

Class Meetings: Tuesday/Thursday, August 23-Dec. 8, 9:00 AM to 10:50 AM.
Course code 40009.

No classes: 9/5; 11/11; 11/24-27. Final Exam: Tuesday, Dec. 13 8-10 AM (Portfolios due via e-mail. There is no sitting exam.)

Drop dates: Sept. 2 (w/refund), Sept. 17 (w/out a W), Nov. 23 (w/W).

Syllabus for English 1B: College Composition and Reading Course code 40009
http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/

English 1B is a transferable college writing course. It builds on the competencies gained in English 1A with a more careful and studied analysis of expository writing based on readings of selected plays, poems, novels, and short fiction.

Writing is a social activity, especially the type of writing you’ll be doing here. We always consider our audience, have purpose or reason to write, and use research to substantiate our claims, even those we are considered experts in.

We’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. The 8000 words over the semester (not per essay) include drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the library on campus and public libraries too. Students will be researching, and reading documents to increase his or her facility with the ideas or themes he or she is contemplating, before he or she once again sits at his or her desk writing, revising, and writing some more.

Writing is a lonely process. No one can write for you. The social aspect comes into play once you are finished and you have an opportunity to share.

We are practicing skills which you developed in English 1A. The difference is we are looking at literature and analyzing other genres, in our case: poetry, fiction, music, theatre, visual arts, and dance. In order to do justice to the topics you chose to explore, the writer cannot ignore the history of the genre nor its current discourses or new roots.

I will be looking at the writing, but more than this I will be paying attention to the scholarship, which is why each essay has to include a citation from a scholarly article—4-10+ pages.

Your essays can use multiple styles . . . be creative. However, I need to know that you know how to write an essay, so save the creative work for last (smile). And if you plan to deviate from the norm, don’t surprise me, share the idea with me first.
We are going to read a book or play every few weeks. We start with short fiction and then move into a novel, dramatic literature, another novel and conclude with poetry. I am going to show you a film. We finish with students selecting writing outside of the assigned readings and writing a research analysis based on the work. The selection can be two short poems or a longer one, a novel, another play or a short story.

On Thursdays we will have critiques when an essay is due. More on this later. We will practice writing research analyses mid-semester. Students will grade each other based on a rubric.

Office Hours
I am a phone person, so when I give you my telephone number, use it. My office is D-219.

If you are a poor writer, get a tutor. We will have minimal revisions, like none unless the essay is horrible—students only get 1-2 BAD ESSAY DAYs (and the penalty is writing a correction essay, plus revising the essay). We will do peer reviews. I want to see polished work.

Methodology

We will use Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide, Second Edition by Janet E. Gardner in the class. There is a chapter for each genre of literature we will examine. We will review a chapter every week or two. The first section of the book reviews the writing process.

Keep a reading log/journal/notes containing key ideas outlined for each discussion section, along with vocabulary and key arguments listed, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving. I will collect these typed notes electronically with the completed essays. The essays will be submitted electronically. Type all your notes and in-class writing assignments.

I repeat: each book or play will have a corresponding essay. There will also be a series of short 250 word essay responses posted on the class blog pertaining to each piece of literature. Students have a choice of writing a new paper or expanding the cyber-assignment into a longer work. Each research paper will be between 3-4 pages long. This includes a works cited page.

Again, the final is an oral presentation of one’s paper or a defense of one’s thesis. The student portfolio is the FINAL for the class. We will talk about this more. If any students are creative writers and wants to lead a workshop, let me know (smile).

Each student will have to attend a literary event of his or her choosing: lecture or author event, play or film. We can attend an event together or separately. The writing assignment will be an analysis/critique, like a review . . . but a bit deeper. I suggest students read published reviews beforehand to prepare for the task. This essay will be minimally two (2) pages or 500 words, not including a works cited page with minimally two (2) sources. All essays have to have 1 citation per page, so in the case of a two page essay, that is two citations (period).

Essay research requirements

Each essay needs to use at least 2-3 outside sources which should include at least one (1) scholarly article along with other material (taken from the COA on-line Library Database (if possible). Each essay should also include One (1) direct quote, one (1) free-paraphrase and one (1) block quote—one citation per page—no more, no less. Each essay also needs to include a works cited page and a bibliography. It needs to be perfect. We will practice this in class. We will write many of the shorter essays in class or for homework. The task should be simple once students decide which four (4) elements they’d like to respond to in depth.

I am making an assumption that students know how to correctly document their sources using MLA. Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers or text. At this level, I expect students to know how to write passing essays at the first submission. Submit your best work the first time. Don’t submit drafts, masquerading as polished work. I am serious.

Midterm

One of the essays will be the midterm, possibly fiction maybe dramatic literature (smile).

Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester and action steps to get there. Separate into what you can do alone or have control over and what you might not have control over and why.

List them in order of importance.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Homework Assignment 1: E-mail introduction to me tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23, 2011. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com.

Assignment:

Besides the usual: where are you from? What languages do you speak besides English? What child are you in the family? What are your hobbies and why are you taking this class?

Include: your contact information: Name, Address, phone number, best e-mail address, best time to call and answers to these questions as well: What strengths do you bring to the class? What do you hope to obtain from the course – any particular exit skills? What do I need to know about you to help you meet your goals?

Homework Assignment 2:
Respond on the blog to the syllabus, so I have a record of your reading it. Make sure you include examples from the syllabus to support your points. The response is due by August 24, 2011, 9 AM.

Write a comment to me regarding the syllabus: your impressions, whether you think it is reasonable, questions, suggestions. This is our contract, I need to know you read it and understand the agreement.

Grading
Essays: 55 percent of grade

Short Story
1. The Dance Boots by Linda Legarde Grover is the text for the short story unit. Each unit includes the definitive essay, plus in-class writing, group writing and blog assignments.

The Novel
2-3. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok and The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the text for the fiction unit (2 essays), plus a film.

Dramatic Literature:
4. Ruined or some other selection (handout).

Poetry Unit
5. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry edited by Neelanjana Bannerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam

6. Final essay –student choice

Portfolio: 25 percent

Participation: 20 percent

What do I mean by participation? This includes preparation and active participation in group assignments, blog responses and posted comments; discussion group preparedness, attitude and leadership. To post comments select “ANONYMOUS” and then type your name in the post. Students do not need to get Gmail accounts.

To encourage participation, and for this, students have to be prepared, I weighed the preparedness and participation strongly which means I will be taking notes when students do not do their homework. If you are in a group where students are pretending to be prepared when they are not, drop me an anonymous note. If a student is absent, he or she cannot make up in-class assignments such as group work, freewrites, presentations, etc.

Portfolio Suggestion

Students can start a personal blog for the class and send me the link for your portfolio at the end of the course. This is not the only type of portfolio. The other is to submit a word document with the semester's writing.

Quizzes

I am not above pop quizzes on readings. Remember, this plan can change in a twinkling of the eye, if we find it isn’t working.

Writing Center

The Writing Center is a great place to get one-on-on assistance on your essays, from brainstorming and planning the essays, to critique in areas like clarity, organization, clearly stated thesis, evidence or support, logical conclusions, and grammatical problems. In the Writing Center there are ancillary materials for student use. These writing programs build strong writing muscles. The Bedford Handbook on-line, Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers on-line, Townsend Press, and other such computer and cyber-based resources are a few of the many databases available. There is also an Open Lab for checking e-mail, a Math Lab. All academic labs are located in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) or library. The Cyber Café is located in the F-bldg.

Again, students need a student ID to use the labs and to check out books. The IDs are free. Ask in Student Services (A-bldg.) where photos are taken.

Have a tutor of teacher sign off on your essays before you turn them in; if you have a “R,” which means revision necessary for a grade or “NC” which means “no credit,” you have to go to the lab and revise the essay with a tutor or teacher before you return both the graded original and the revision (with signature) to me. Revise does not mean “rewrite,” it means to “see again.”

When getting assistance on an essay, the teacher or tutor is not an editor, so have questions prepared for them to make best use of the 15-20 minute session in the Lab. I will give you a handout which looks at 5 areas of the essay you can use as a guide when shaping your questions for your peer review sessions. Please use these guidelines when planning your discussions with me also.

For more specific assistance, sign up for one-on-one tutoring, another free service. For those of you on other campuses, you can get assistance at the Merritt College’s Writing Center, as well as Laney College’s Writing Labs.

Correction Essays & Essay Narratives

All essay assignments you receive comments on have to be revised prior to resubmission; included with the revision is a student narrative to me regarding your understanding of what needed to be done, that is, a detailed list of the error(s) and its correction; a student can prepare this as a part of the Lab visit, especially if said student is unclear over what steps to take. Cite from a scholarly source the rule and recommendations for its correction.

Students can also visit me in office hours for assistance; again, prepare your questions in advance to best make use of the time. Do not leave class without understanding the comments on a paper. I don’t mind reviewing them with you.

Student Learning Outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes include a better facility with written communication which includes critical thinking, analysis and of course comprehension. Such tools help us make better choices and decisions about our lives and the lives of those persons we are responsible for. Hopefully students will gain an appreciation for the literary arts beyond what is due for the course. Education is not limited to the classroom; rather an implicit goal is always to trigger a desire in students to continue the cultural pursuit after transfer, after graduation, after career goals are met. Reading and writing are skills one does have to practice to prevent dullness, so another goal and SLO for this course is for students to know how to keep their tools ready for use which might translate into keeping a journal once the semester ends, reading more for pleasure, going to literary events, and/or hanging onto some of the course reference books like Diana Hacker's Rules for Writer.

English language fluency in writing and reading; a certain comfort and ease with the language; confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing. Familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).

We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.

This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.

Last words on Grades

We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily an honest response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this semester in meeting your goal.

Office Hours

I’d like to wish everyone much success. I am available for consultation on Wednesdays, 9:30-11:00 AM and on MW by appointment. I am also available after 3:30 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment. My office is located in the D-216 suite. My campus number is (510) 748-2131, however, I don’t have an office phone number yet. I will share that with students later this month or next.

My email again is: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com. Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me. I am more of a phone person. Texts are fine. Ask me for my cell phone number. I do not mind sharing it with you.

I am a phone person, especially on weekends, so take time to exchange email and phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expeditiously. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator.

I really am more a phone person than an email person, so you can call me if I don’t respond to an email. I do read your blog posts.

I’d encourage students to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently between classes. The semester will fly, if you don’t buckle up (smile). Study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult.

Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio electronically.

I do not expect students to confuse literal with free paraphrase (a literal paraphrase is plagiarism). Students should also not make confused word errors, sentence fragment errors, comma splice errors, subject verb agreement errors, errors in parallel structure, subject verb agreement errors, MLA citations errors, errors with ellipses, formatting an essays—margins, headings, etc. If you are not clear on what I mean, again I suggest drop the class and take it over the 18 week semester at a more leisurely pace.

Students are expected to complete work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance to keep full credit. Again certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work (see Hacker: The Writing Process; Document Design.)

In class writing is to be written in ink—blue or black, then typed for inclusion in portfolio or posting on blog: http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/.

Cheating
Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course.

Homework
If you do not identify the assignment, I cannot grade it. If you do not return the original assignment you revised, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or lose the original assignment, you get a zero on the assignment to be revised. I will not look at revisions without the original attached – no exceptions. Some student essays will be posted on-line at the website. Students will also have the option of submitting assignments via email: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Textbooks Recap:
Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Second Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.

Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots. Athens, Georgia and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.

Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon Books, 2007. Print. ISBN 0375714839

Bannerjee, Neelanjana and Summi Kaipa, Pireeni Sundaralingam. Ed. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Print.

Recommended

Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Fourth or Fifth edition. Bedford/St. Martins. (If you don’t already have such a book.)
A college dictionary. I recommend American Heritage.

Addtional materials

Along with a college dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, floppy disks, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.

Stay abreast of the news. Buy a daily paper. Listen to alternative radio:
KPFA 94.1 FM (Hardknock), KQED 88.5, KALW 91.7. Visit news websites: AllAfrica.com, Al Jazeera, CNN.com, AlterNet.org, Democracy Now.org, FlashPoints.org, CBS 60 Minutes.

2011-07-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Today's presentations were impressive whether that was an analysis of a poem(s), imagery as symbol in a story or critical inquiry about a lost art--the book, all the presentations were thought-provoking and informative.

We will complete the presentations tomorrow. I am available to answer questions about the portfolio up to Monday. If you have a question text me. Texting is easier now with the SMART phone key pad.

Congratulations!

Post your self-reflections if you presented and comments on other presentations in the prior post. Don't forget to post your abstracts.

Presentations Wednesday-Thursday, July 27-28 and Cyber-Assignments

2011-07-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday-Thursday students will present the papers they wrote in class today. Presentations need not be overly long. I think 5-10 minutes is sufficient.

It is the quality of the presentation that counts, not the length. Students are to bring a copy of the abstract to class, with enough copies for everyone, 21 should cover it. You cannot read the paper--no exceptions. You cannot read your paper from a PowerPoint presentation either. I will stop you. Make sure you rehearse what you plan to say at least once before tomorrow morning. It will make the actual presentation a lot smoother. We are going to ask you questions. This will be in addition to the 5-10 minutes. We will also take time to give you written comments on the abstract.

This is what students do when defending their doctoral thesis. We are serious.

You are defending your thesis or argument. State your thesis and then begin to provide evidence which supports or proves it. It should be fun. You can't fail, well maybe one could --fail, that is, but it would be mighty hard.

If you have a poem, you might want to give us a copy or use a projector so we can follow along. We will meet in A-232 at 8 AM both days. We will use a classroom located inside the larger lab for the presentations. I don't have a podium, just thought about it (smile). Maybe we can borrow one.

We will sign up first come first choice. If we finish with all the presentations in one day, then the final class will be spent working on portfolios and revisions.

Though students can toss one paper, excluding the one written today, all papers have to have a passing grade. C- is not a passing grade. As my grades are not due until next week, if students want to take the weekend to better prepare their portfolios, they are due at the latest Monday, August 1, 2011, at 8 AM.

Post self-reflections here and reflections and comments on classmate's presentation. Everyone should post his or her abstract here as well. If there isn't enough space for a comment and the abstract to share the same post, post multiple times.

Portfolio Checklist (draft)

2011-07-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Mary Rudge, Special Guest

2011-07-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

MARY RUDGE speaks internationally at universities, schools, cultural centers, libraries, poetry groups, and Peace events on five continents on teaching peace skills, and Poetry as a Healing Art, among other topics. Some of her poetry has been translated into several languages, published by Amnesty International and others. She was awarded Honorary Doctorates in Greece, Taiwan, New York, named Princess of Poetry in Italy and crowned as an International Poet Laureate in ceremony at the City Hall Rotunda. San Francisco. Newspapers have called her a global catalyst and one of the Bay Area's most charismatic poets. She is currently Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda.

She is an editor of numerous anthologies including State of Peace; The Women Speak, Peace Poems for Children, The Human Face of Love, co-author of Poems for the Philippines, author of Hungary, Austria and other Passions, Water Planet, Beat, She Can't Be Beat, When the Rapture Comes (a Beatzine selection), For Love of Jack London, His Life with Jennie Prentiss (with Eugene Lasartemay) and numerous other books.

Rudge is advocate of language as bringing transformation of individuals and society. She declares human creativity as the world's important resource, and urges, on all countries, wherever she travels and speaks, an education that teaches a semantics for peace, including word skills and techniques of arbitration, negotiation, reconciliation beginning from the earliest grades. "There are things people say in situations that transform minds, and that can defuse feelings that could be volatile. There are words that build friendships and words that widen differences, escalate anger, and make enemies."

Mary Rudge has been Art Director and teacher in schools and in the GATE program (Gifted and Talented) in Oakland and other cities. She annually coordinates a city-wide Haiku and short poems contest and reading for National Poetry Month Celebration in Alameda, as well as poetry and art events. In her own work she also frequently incorporates poetry into mixed media, and works with dancers choreographing and performing her poems at numerous events.

BLESSING

May everyplace you look
stones become bread
may mangos and papayas
and pineapples
fall into your hands
may you feed the hungry
and give them flowers
May swallows fly in the winds
of your passing
may monkeys dance
in the path before you
may children of all people
be your children
and all people be your family
may singing of small birds
in air surround you
may poems always be in your mailbox
coming in to praise you
going out to right wrongs
Remember you have the blessing
of all women before you
combing their hair by the lake
naming all beautiful things after
themselves
remember the women
who learned to walk on fire
lit your way
remember
the women who breathed fire
have blazed your path
remember
the women whose fire burned
pentcostal from forehead and brain
transformed your vision
remember your ancestress
the temple dancer
remember your ancestress
the Queen of the Euphrates
remember your ancestresses
Esther and Ruth
the mother who bore you
the woman you might have been
in another life
remember the women in chains and
whipscars,
with barbed wire wounds.
You are the one
whose sisters were buried alive
you are the one
whose sister drowned when
the river rose
whose sister died of famine
and drought
you are the one
who worked in the fields
of California
and slept by the roadsides
harassed in the marketplace
in a far country sen to Siberia
for speaking out,
locked up as insane
against your will
you are the woman imprisoned
in burnoose
with clitoris cut in ritual
whose husband was chosen for you
you are the woman burned
for your dowry
you are he woman whose feet
were broken and bound
who could not walk
You are the woman who
leaped over walls
who leaped into hearts
whose heart leaped forward
May others embrace and join you
May everywhere
you walk
stones become bread.

Poem by Mary Rudge
(published in Beat, She Can't Be Beat)

Where Was Your Pen In The War?

Where was your pen in the war?
Poking politicians, thrusting poems
for their eyes that showed they had always
been blind -- shoving blade-straight to heart pain,
puncture blood out blood in, probe
where screams matter?

In every situation requiring justice-unafraid
you would pierce slash slice
ink runs out like a river unsheathed thought
current flow crevices of brain vein to
finger-grasp channel of sheer nerve
carved deep with a sharp tool – make us
think again, act, move, someone move on
who'd ever think they could act that way,
pristine visible do it make possible?

On the horizon where you live I expected
ink eruption covering the sky,
explosion of words flurrying up and out,
for thousands of directions, multiplied
by the millions who copy making points
hitting marks. The air page-blank, I went
to find where you were, your pen
stronger than sword, sharper than dagger,
sure cutting as scythe — poke fun, rapier wit.

Sweetheart, where when 9/11 Babel twin
towers all tragic came down, was your pen?
Where was your pen in the war, baby" Poet
I love. With that pen magnified giant club,
each letter hard rock stroke at Goliath bone
head knock sense into the right, the left, too,
cutting past dross, through ignorance
clear a way. A desperation brings me –
the ability of cells to become a rose,
caterpillar transform to butterfly, –
society transcend to peace
surpasses other purposes. The poets
silence, absence, the real aid to evil,
mark of a traitor to life, to the world.

How angry I am, arrived
at your door, to see the note "gone fishing" –
I expected to carry off a box of passion,
reams of paper ammunition, we needed you,
right writing hand, what right have you,
you bastard while the world burns
to just be down by the river
watching the light on its beautiful forever flow.

poem by Mary Rudge
from anthology Flaunt Peace In The Face Of War

Bio and poetry: http://www.vspcity.com/insomnia/poetry/poetry4.htm#

Class Teaching Presentations on Poetry Cyber-Post

2011-07-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Please comment on your presentation and that of your peers. Excellent work everyone! A+. I loved the quote you shared Ricardo, please include it in your response re: the value of poetry from the film The Dead Poets Society.

Literary Events
Note: The writer, Sapphire, known for her book PUSH, adapted for the film, Precious is at Marcus Books in Oakland, MLK at 40th Street, tomorrow, July 21, 2011. She has a new book out, The Kid, (about Precious's child) and will be reading from it. The reading is free.

Tonight there is a screening at the African American Art and Culture Complex in SF, 762 Fulton Street @ Webster, on the Crisis in the Congo. There will be a discussion following it. It is free and the film is 26 minutes long.

Cyber-Assignments, Poetry Self-Reflections and comments and other thoughts

2011-07-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Homework
Don't forget to respond to the wonderful presentations on favorite poems this morning. We continue tomorrow with some of the poems set to music. Some students already responded to the presentations, so we will keep the conversation in that window for the rest of the comments.

Recap of instructions
Include a self-reflection naming your poem and why it was chosen. If you translated from another language, like you did Daniel, can you translate it for us? Alex, you don't have to worry as your poem was given to us in both languages.

Say something about each student and his or her selection/presentation.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Homework
We moved the three paragraph essay on a poem from Indivisible --the writer has to be one you haven't read yet, to Wednesday, July 20, 2011's homework, due Thursday, July 20, 2011. You don't have to post it, just case you plan to use this freewrite as the basis for your essay due next week, Monday, July 25, 2011.

Bring in your planning sheet and outline for your essay due Monday, July 25, 2011.

Thursday, July 21, 2011 Visit with Alameda Poet Laureate, Mary Rudge
Thursday, July 21, 2011, before our guest arrives we will talk about the portfolio and I'll have a checklist for you posted. We will work on the portfolio on Monday as well. The essay which takes its topic from a poem is due Monday 7:30 AM. Get the peer review via email from a classmate before Monday morning.

Final Essay, July 26, 2011
Tuesday we will write our essays. This is all we will do. You can have from 7:30 AM to 10:20 AM.

Paper Presentations

Wednesday, we begin presenting our essays (smile). I will see if we can get the Student Lounge in the F-building.

If you have ever gone to a scholarly conference, this is the etiquette: Dress up, bring a copies of your abstract for everyone. You can invite guests like parents, spouses, relatives, peers.

If you need a projector for slides, let me know. If you use PowerPoint, do not put your essay in this form. Absolutely no reading. I will stop you (smile--seriously).

The power point is for illustrations, clips from films, interviews, performances, etc.

You are graded on your form and the content(smile). Rehearse the presentation in advance. The presentation need only be 3-5 minutes. You will write a self-reflection and comment on classmate's work for homework.

Bring a tablet and prepare to take notes.

Writing about Poetry, A Group Cyber-Assignment & Homework

2011-07-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Freewrite
From July 18, 2011

Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.

1. Freewrite: Group--Indivisible--Read an entire body of work. Read it again thinking about literary devices and the different ways one can think about poetry. The poem will speak to you. A poet might have a discernible style that one sees in several works or the poet might demonstrate a certain flare for a literary device like internal rhyme, such as assonance.

Respond in a 3-4 paragraph essay. Cite the poem. Print a copy.

Homework
2. Homework is to read the introduction to Indivisible, read another poet and write a 3-paragraph response to the work. Post it here as well. Choose a poet you haven't explored yet.

Group Presentation
3. The group presentation is tomorrow from 8-10 AM. Keep it to 15 minutes max.

Films:
What do we do with them?

Divorce Iranian Style and Persepolis
Re: "Divorce Iranian Style" and "Persepolis," the film, if students watched the films, they were to be included in the bibliography for the essay, so you can add it in subsequent drafts (for the portfolio, etc.).

If anyone wants to write a short essay (250-500 words about either for extra credit, you can). If you went to see the play, Persepolis, Texas, then the work should be included in your bibliography as well.)

Literary events:
The literary event responses need to be between 250-500 words. You can turn them in after the event. They all need to be in by Monday, July 25, 2011. The form is a review. Read a review to see how one is written, that is, the elements of a review. Ask me for help, if you have questions.

Week 7: Day 1 (smile)

2011-07-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at Persepolis, Texas Saturday, July 16, 2011. We all thought Maryam's contemporary take on dislocation in the Texan Diaspora entertaining and thought provoking.

This week we look at poetry. Today we will have peer reviews of the Persepolis essays. As this is our third look at fiction, what do we know about literary analysis? How have we grown as critical thinkers about a popular genre of literature? When we look at our own writing, how has it developed over the landscape of three papers? Did we challenge ourselves to look at the work in a different way or did we rely on the more comfortable modes of literary critique, themes (smile)?

When one thinks about poetry, once again, themes are certainly a way to analyze it. However, we are going to look at the various styles of poems and for tomorrow and Wednesday we will in groups present a brief analysis of the various styles with examples.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, students are to bring in a favorite poem to share and talk about. Please bring in enough copies for everyone--22, which includes one for the presenter.

Today after this initial freewrite, students will choose a poem from the collection for a freewrite. Think about how poetry differs from fiction and dramatic literature, yet is the same. What do you like about the poem you chose? Share favorite lines; talk about the rhythm and language used. More so than in fiction, the language is heightened in poetry--language is almost in itself a character.

Homework: Finish the "Persepolis" essay. Due via email by 12 midnight.

Today is the last day to drop with a "W." Sometimes we jump into the deep end before its time, this doesn't mean we can learn to swim, it just means we need a bit more preparation first.

Read the section on Poetry. Be prepared to present Wednesday, July 20, 2011.

Persepolis: The film . . . and more like Essay 4

2011-07-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

This morning we watched the film, Persepolis in the Student Lounge (F-Bldg.). The third essay looking at fiction, this time--The Complete Persepolis, is due Monday, July 18, 2011, for a peer review. Bring the essay electronically. Send to me by Tuesday before class.

For extra credit, students can look at Persepolis the film and compare and contrast it to the novel. The style can be a review for a popular publication, you decide which one. Include this information in the IPS.

We will focus on poetry next week, and the final week, students can choose their own genre to write a literary expose on. We will write the essay in class on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. I will give you the entire session (7:30-10:20 to write it). The planning sheet is due Monday, July 25, 2011 for comment.

Field Trip Details

Class, I plan to attend the play Saturday, July 16, 2011, 8 PM. If you'd like to join me, let me know. I plan to reserve tickets today.

WS

PERSEPOLIS, TEXAS: INFO
About the show, which is one hour long:

How is it that a little girl born to Iranian parents, reared in the suburbs of Texas and schooled to become an architect became an ostentatious drag queen in San Francisco? How can the violence of the suburbs disrupt the dreams immigrants have for themselves and their offspring? Can the children of immigrants use their precarious cultural collateral to forge new identities, or are they mired by the consequences of exoticization? Persepolis, Texas, an evening-length, one-woman show premiering at CounterPULSE in July, lives and breathes in these questions. Using narrative, devised movement, and drag, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will take the audience to the Wild West, an Iranian living room, a suburban public school, and to Persepolis itself to explore how where we're from makes who we are.

Given how recent current events continue to exacerbate the image of Middle Eastern people in the media, Persepolis, Texas is an especially relevant story, one that will impact not only how people see Middle Eastern-Americans, but also how Middle Eastern-Americans see themselves. MFR Productions is excited about presenting the story of a “FOBspring” (child of a FOB, Fresh Off the Boat) who has queered model minority expectations while also occupying a unique position in the queer community by being a cis-gendered woman and also a drag queen.

The stakes are high for Maryam, because she is using my movement experience, writing experience, and her drag chops to develop her first solo show with director and dramaturg Sara Razavi. Maryam’s drag queen alter ego, Mona G. Hawd, will bring a dash of sequined vigilance as well as high artifice to the stage. Maryam counts Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique as one of her mentors, and is making work that is in many ways inspired by Faux/Real and Luxury Items. To contrast, her work will be focused on hyphenated identities and the construction and manipulation of gender and ethnicity. Maryam has been working on Persepolis, Texas since the Summer of 2010, and she is innovating within a framework of non-linear storytelling. To this end, she will engage members of the communities with whom she is most closely tied: the queer nightlife community, the queer performance art community, the middle eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which she is also a part.

Persepolis, Texas makes its world premiere at CounterPULSE on July 15-17th 2011. Maryam and MFR Productions are part of the Summer Special Program, which gives “artists and cultural innovators a variety of ways to access the plethora of resources and expertise” that CounterPULSE offers. This is a highly supported environment in which to present work, and MFR Productions is honored to be part of this pilot program.

In Persepolis, Texas, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will represent several character archetypes in telling a semi-autobiographical coming of age story. The Auntie, the Kid, the Unassuming Cowboy, the Pop Star, and the Tour Guide will all make appearances and tell their version of reality through Maryam’s. As such, these characters will invite her to different states of bodily being, and as she takes them on, she will slip into corresponding states that will dictate movement. Having been in two productions necessitating collaborated devised movement (Tell Them That You Saw Me and Total Facts Known), Maryam is excited to use her experience in allowing state-work to tell this strange story. Maryam is devising this piece alongside director and dramaturg Sara Razavi, who is also an Iranian-American with a strong understanding of the American suburbs. For Persepolis, Maryam will engage in a self-flagellation mourning ritual in cowboy regalia, whirl like a dervish at the foot of high school bleachers, do rope tricks at the steps of Persepolis, and will execute the elusive dance that every auntie wants her niece to do at a proper Persian mehmooni (party).

Here is a list of the characters:
The Persian Girl – early 20’s Persian-American girl from Texas
The Texan – early 30’s American man from Texas
Uncle – early 60’s Iranian-American man
Aunt – early 50’s Iranian – American woman
Kid – a little girl, age 9-10
Mona G. Hawd – drag queen
Suburban Mom – early 50’s American suburban housewife from Texas
Preacher/Healer – gender neutral faith healer
Hejabi Woman – an Iranian woman dressed in full chador
Googosh – Iranian pop singer/icon, performing since she was a little girl, now in her 60’s

MORDAB by Googoosh- Translation by Maryam Farnaz Rostami

In the midst of a naked expanse
Under the desert sun
Lies an aging swamp
Captive in the hands of the earth

I am that ancient swamp
Separate from everything on earth
The heat of the sun on my skin,
And the chains of the earth on my feet

I am the one who had hoped
To one day become the ocean
I wanted to become the biggest ocean in the world
I wanted to expand until I reached the ocean
I wanted to set the night on fire until I reached tomorrow

At first, I was a just a mountain spring
Underneath the timeless sky
But because of that dark moment
My path has lead to dry lands

My spring lead to a place beyond those that tall mountain
Instead, the hands of fate carved a void in my path

I am damned to the earth
The land now imprisons me
And the sky didn’t even cry
She chose to look away
Now I’ve become a swamp
A half-living captive
On one hand buried in the land
On the other, reaching for the sky

The sun from above
And the dirt from below
Are evaporating me
My life has come to this
I am a witness to my own death
But this is my fate, I’m a captive to the land

There is nothing real left of me
These are the last drops
The thirsty earth is taking even this with him
I’m drying up, I’m finished
Tomorrow when the sun comes up
The wind will fill this void with the dust of sand.

Show Details:

What: Persepolis, Texas: FOBspring to Drag Queen in One Generation!
World Premiere by Maryam Farnaz Rostami. Evening length solo performance of drag, movement and narrative.

When: Friday July 15th, Saturday July 16th, Sunday July 17th, 2011
Where: CounterPULSE 1310 Mission Street @ 9th, San Francisco
Tickets: General Admission: $20, CounterPULSE Members: $15

Counterpulse.org or 1-800-838-3006
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/177123
Web: http://counterpulse.org/persepolis-texas/
www.maryamrostami.com

About the Artists:

Sara Razavi has a BA in Sociology with a minor in Theatre Studies from UC Davis. In addition to her training at Davis, her theatre training involves a year-long theatre focus at University of Birmingham, in England. She was one of the founding members of elastic future, an experimental multi-disciplinary arts group working in theatre, film / video, and other live performance, with whom she has collaborated on several ensemble generated works. She is currently a regular performer and active Board Member of Golden Thread Production, a theatre company focused on exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. She has also been involved with other local theatre companies including Shotgun Theatre, TheatreFIRST, Darvag, and New Conservatory Theatre Company. Like Rostami, Razavi, is also of Iranian decent. She was born in Iran and left with her family when she was 7, after the Iranian Revolution, and during the Iran-Iraq War. She currently lives with her wife, in San Francisco, where in addition to her theatre work, she has worked as a nonprofit executive and is beginning business school at University of San Francisco this fall.

Maryam Farnaz Rostami is a San Francisco based drag queen and contemporary performance artist from Texas. Her work deals with the complexities of the modern condition through the lens of an overachieving child of model minorities. Trained as an architect, Maryam exacerbates and collides her many hats when making performance, and engages audiences on a visual, intellectual and emotional level. She is dedicated to artistic engagement as an invitation for thinking about, looking at and talking to one another differently. Her drag persona, Mona G. Hawd, uses lipsync, movement, narrative and dance and an exaggerated high femme medium to question ownership of images in our culture.

While in architecture school at the University of Texas at Austin, Maryam joined a group of dancers performing Iranian folk dance, and co-choreographed and performed traditional dances with a modern twist on and off campus. During this time, as president of the Iranian Students Academic and Cultural Organization, she presented culturally relevant performing arts including works that challenged status quo perceptions about Iranian-Americans in cabaret-style shows that consistently sold out. Since living in San Francisco, Maryam has collaborated and performed in popular movement-based theater pieces (Total Facts Known, Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, Fall 2009, Tell Them that You Saw Me, CounterPULSE, Summer 2010), and presented original work in well-attended or sold out venues (This is What I Want 2010 NQAF, WORK HARD). Her piece, Bordi Az Yadam (Taken From My Memory) shown at The Garage last July for This is What I Want re-appropriated the exoticized image of a veiled woman, pushing back on the notion that such a woman is marked by passivity. A dance using just her eyelids gave way to a durational display of auto-eroticism. At TOO MUCH! A Queer Performance Marathon 2010, Maryam choreographed a queered line dance (Right Down the Line) drawing from her Texan upbringing as well as her drag performance influences. Just this past January, at this year’s TOO MUCH!, Maryam and Ryan Crowder performed a durational crochet score in which they created outfits for one another over the course of the festival.

Maryam’s drag persona, Mona G. Hawd is necessarily political in nature. Drawing from exoticized notions of femininity, especially situated in highly oppressed conditions, Mona shoves away at status quo notions of what a proper Middle Eastern lady ought to be. To boot, Mona uses camp as well as high drag to spark imaginations for possibilities toward all sorts of liberation.
Maryam is honored to be supported by the communities in which she participates actively in San Francisco and the East Bay: the queer nightlife community in which she is a drag queen, the queer performance art community in she collaborates with dancers, art makers in movement, costuming and makeup design, the Middle Eastern performing arts community, as well as the Bay Area community of architects and architectural designers, of which Maryam is also a part.

You can listen to an interview with the playwright at: www.wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org (July 13, 2011). It is also available on iTunes.

Also visit:
http://vimeo.com/25007254
(The Persian Girl character as well as the Googoosh character have stayed in the play, while The Kid has morphed and changed into something else.)

maryamrostami.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4OTbt_DTU

Divorce Iranian Style

2011-07-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circumstances of Iranian women's lives. Following Jamileh, whose husband beats her; Ziba, a 16 year old trying to divorce her 38 year old husband; and Maryam, who is desperately fighting to gain custody of her daughters, this deadpan chronicle showcases the strength, ingenuity, and guile with which they confront biased laws, a Kafakaesque administrative system, and their husbands' and families' rage to gain divorces. With the barest of commentary, Longinotto turns her cameras on the court and lets it tell its own story. Dispelling images of Iran as a country of war, hostages, and fatwas, and Iranian women as passive victims of a terrible system, this film is a subtle, fascinating look at women's lives in a country which is little known to most Americans.

From: http://freedocumentaries.org/int.php?filmID=262

See also: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c454.shtml

Week 4: Day 1 The Plan (smile)

2011-07-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Post character profiles and lists here. Post freewrites here as well.

From the board:

1. Draw (not literally) a character profile of Marjane Satrapi's protagonist. Include page numbers. At the same time make a list of references she makes which need further inquiry, again, include page numbers.

2. Freewrite from Indivisible: Meena Alexander (143-147); Dilruba (157-163); Pramila Venkateswaran (164-169); Reena Narayan (170-175). Choose one writer.

3. Divorce Iranian Style. Dir. Kim Longinotto & Ziba Mir-Hosseini

4.Homework--Bring in two scholarly article references that explicate or support the narrative.

Here is a link to the download e-book: http://pdfwiki.blogspot.com/2008/02/persepolis-1-2-marjane-satrapi.html

5. Read up to "The Croissant" in Persepolis.

Essay 3: Writing about the Play

2011-07-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

One of the differences between fiction and theatre or writing for theatre is as one student put it in the freewrite, the dialogue. Almost everything happens between what is said and what is left out of the verbal discourse. Language is very important in all writing, and crucial in theatre.

Writers are told often to "show not tell;" however in theatre, one has to show because they audience won't be able to read the play afterward, even if he or she wanted to. Theatre is an immediate experience. The audience and the cast are creating meaning with each other. It is real time, you are a participant as is the elements like weather if it is an outdoor theatre (Ashland in Oregon, Bruns in Orinda).

So for this essay, think about the literary devices Lynn Nottage uses so well to grab and hold audiences. Look at her characters and how what they say both surprises and captivates you. Writing about themes is an easy way to write about literature. Writing about character and showing how language shapes character and how this language drives story and plot, might be harder to write, but you can try your hand at it (smile).

Essay 3 is due by Sunday, July 10, 2011, 12 noon. Be sure to attach and paste the entire portfolio which includes: The first draft written in class today, the completed draft with peer comments and the final draft with planning (Initial Planning Sheet and Outline). It is okay if the planning changed between today's draft and the final draft. Write a note for me.

Everyone should also have a bibliography including your book review and author profile.

The essay should be about 750 words or three pages. The fourth page is the works cited and the fifth page is the bibliography.

For this essay I will be looking at risk taking (smile). I will also continue to look at interpretation of major themes and motifs in the text and how well students integrate the text into such analysis.

I am still seeing too much plot summary. Give a brief synopsis and then tell us what you have discovered; what excites you about this particular piece of literature.

War is a hard topic to write about. Ruined is an exploration of war from the inside.
How does Nottage do this? Who and what are the weapons? Who and what are the casualties? Does war have anything to do with winners and losers? If not, why are there so many wars? What do all wars have in common?

Is this a universal story? How?

Week 3: Day 4

2011-07-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today we listened to four selections from Ise Lyfe's Pistols and Prayers: "God Fell from the Sky One Day"; "Cost of Apathy"; "Jan. 3, 2007--Ghana West Africa"; "Cups and Chairs".

Respond to one or all and to each other (at least one classmate). We are still in the world of Ruined--there is a thematic connection between Pistols and Ruined. You might look at: perceptions of women; male female relationships; colonization; war and its weapons, etc.

2. Writing about Plays

3. Homework: con't reading Persepolis. Read up to "The Soup." If you are
a slow reader, read more. Bring in Indivisible as well for next week. We'll take some of our freewrites from the collection of poems.

Week 3: Midterm Cyber-Assignments

2011-07-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we started reading Lynn Nottage's Ruined. It is a play about war and its effect on women. Students were to do background research on the play and its author, as they reflect on the work so far (we didn't complete it).

What does it mean to be "ruined?" Look at the play and do a close reading of a scene or character around a certain theme. Don't forget to use citations to support or prove your claims.

Day 2, Week 3

Today we talked about Ruined and what we know about Nottage--For today's freewrite respond to the following questions:

How is theatre more immediate than fiction? How is the audience's commitment more direct?

From the reading: "Writing about Plays," summarize some of the key points and use Ruined to illustrate them.

Homework:

Continue with the background research. If you haven't visited the Berkeley Rep website to see what was written about Ruined, do so. Chose a theme related to Ruined and develop a plan for our weekly essay.

One idea is to look at Love during a time of warfare. One could also look at the many faces of survival during war as relates to women and men. Another topic is how poetry helps the character Christian survive the war.

One could also define ruined in its multiple definitions as embodied by so many in the play. What is Lynn Nottage saying about humanity in this work?

Each essay needs to have at least 2 articles related to the topic included in the bibliography. One should be scholarly.

Essay 2: The Novel

2011-06-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Essay 2 is due by 12 midnight, Friday, July 1, 2011. Be sure to attach and paste the entire portfolio which includes: The first draft written in class today, the completed draft with peer comments and the final draft with planning (Initial Planning Sheet and Outline). It is okay if the planning changed between today's draft and the final draft. Write a note for me.

Everyone should also have a bibliography including your book review and author profile.

The essay should be about 750 words or three pages. The fourth page is the works cited and the fifth page is the bibliography.

For this essay I will be looking at how will you integrate the text into your analysis. We have been looking at motifs and symbols, myths and characters who are bigger than the contemporary story that houses them. Kim we agreed is a heroine. She is flawed, but a heroine nonetheless.

Several students were concerned about their thesis sentences. Don't worry. Write the paper, sometimes the act of composition helps the writer clarify his or her thoughts.

Events this weekend:
Visual Word: Poetry through Photography, curated by TaSin Sabir, at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Downtown Oakland, CA, (510) 465-8928. The reception Friday, July 1, 2011, 5:30 to 9 p.m. is free. The exhibit is up through August 29, 2011.

SF Mime Troupe at Delores Park in San Francisco this weekend. Visit http://www.sfmt.org/index.php

The Tony Award-winning SF Mime Troupe opens July 4th in Dolores Park with its 52nd season premiering "2012 - The Musical!"

A small political theater company, Theater BAM!, finds itself at a crossroads: should they keep telling the stories they feel can change the world (and starve while telling them), or feed at the corporate trough, sell out, and be the mouthpiece for The Man. Tough decision. But before having to make it, they are offered an artistic commission that may save the company; all they have to do is create a new play, "2012 - The Musical!" But is it political? Will it keep with the company's original mission? What's the true purpose of this frivolous production, and who's really bankrolling the thing?

July 15, 2011
Persepolis, Texas
Maryam Farnaz Rostami

Presented as part of CounterPULSE’s Summer Special
http://counterpulse.org/category/events/upcoming/

JUL 15-17, FRI-SUN at 8PM
$20 General Admission ($15 CounterPULSE Members)

Persepolis, Texas is the story of how a little girl born to Iranian parents and raised in the suburbs of Texas came to become a drag queen in San Francisco, California. Using narrative, devised movement and drag, Maryam Farnaz Rostami will take us to the Wild West, a nouveau-traditional Iranian living room, a suburban public school, and at Persepolis itself and explore how where we’re from makes who we are.

Next week at the San Francisco International Arts Festival:
http://www.sfiaf.org/

Their is more theatre at Marsh Theatre in both Berkeley and San Francisco. Visit http://www.themarsh.org/

I have seen Don Reed's E-14th, Brian Copeland's Not a Genuine Black Man, and Dan Hoyle's The Real Americans. I want to see Dan's father's piece, Old Geezer ,the Marsh Youth and Marga Gomez. I also want to see Tales of the City at ACT-SF.

Drift Away

2011-06-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today the freewrite is based on the song "Drift Away," (made popular by Dobie Gray)rearranged by Rene Marie on her latest album Voice of My Beautiful Country (Motema).

Oh, today is the Last Day to Drop Summer Session Classes Without “W” Appearing on Transcripts.

Reflect on the lyrics. You can think about Ma and Kim or yourself (smile).

Drift Away
(composers Williams, Warren and Heidi Williams)

Day after day I'm more confused
So I look for the light in the pouring rain
You know that's a game that I hate to lose
I'm feelin' the strain, ain't it a shame

Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away

Beginning to think that I'm wastin' time
I don't understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
I'm countin' on you to carry me through

And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue
The guitar's comin' through to soothe me
Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You help me along makin' me strong

Day 3, Week 2 Freewrite

2011-06-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Respond to the Ise Lyfe's poem (poetry) beginning with "We Exist" from Pistols and Prayers the CD. We also listened to Prayer, Chyldhood, Just a Thought, Oakland Stand UP, and Pride.

In class today we:

2. Continued the group discussions.

3. Reviewed thesis sentences, organization, support; MLA --in-text citations, parentheticals; Verb tense when writing about literature

Sample thesis (handout--Three-Part Thesis sentence)

Although novelist JK uses her (life) experience as an immigrant as a basis for her character, Kimberly Chang, there the two diverge, as Girl in Translation is a hero's journey, where instead of scaling tall buildings, she slays dragons in sweat shops, rescues mute damsels in drag, and then takes her knight and rides off on her Ducati.

Notes continued

Introduction:

Background on Kim. How did she get to America. Other key characters in the saga: Ma, Aunt Paula (the ogre), Pa-ghost, Matt, (Annette).

Character profile of the superhero:
She's flawed or damaged, a product of her environment. . . (think about her fatherless son). There could be a sequel.

How does she fix other people's lives when she can't fix her own?

Problems she resolves. Each problem could be a paragraph:
Housing, language, culture: American & Chinese, generational gaps between Kim and her mom. The gaps elasticity: grows and shrinks. Look at the use of translation to bridge this bridge they keep repairing.

Super Hero Profile:
Self-sacrificing, sacrifices personal happiness for others, doesn't have many friends, secretive, protective of weak and vulnerable, brave. Believes in her mission. Is dishonest, yet genuine. (What she might lack in idealism, she makes compensates in actions.

A superhero has super power, Kim's is her math & science skills. The superhero might always be well-intentioned, but the outcome might not always be favorable or helpful.

In Kim's case, one could say, a superhero is not more mature than her age-mates, so she often makes mistakes based on her limited life experiences, and in this case limited English language fluency.

A superhero is self-reflective and respectful (most of the time).

Problems connected to heroism like loneliness.

Conclusion:

Takeaways:
What are the tangible takeaways? Is she successful? In what way? What does she have to show for her work? Is the world safer because of her?

We also looked at the larger story here that of America and its large immigrant population, people who have nothing yet achieve greatness as they translate their lives into marketable currency.

Homework:
Prepare for the essay on the novel, Girl in Translation. Bring in a detailed outline with an Initial Planning Sheet. You will have 1 1/2 hours to write and we will spend 20 minutes on a peer review and the rest of the time in revision. I hope you can turn the essays in tomorrow. We shall see.

We are going to see Pistols and Prayers on Friday, July 1, 2011, 8 PM at 408 14th Street. I will be next door at an artist reception at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland, 5:30 p.m. until 7:45 p.m., where I have ten photographs from my trip to Senegal in 2009. The exhibit is called: The Visual Word: Poetry through Photography. The reception is free.

Class Discourse Day 2, Week 2: Homework

2011-06-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today we are going to discuss the readings looking at all the elements: protagonist/antagonist, plot, character, setting, point of view, symbolism, style.

Life in Translation is a hero's journey. Look at Kim as that hero. Who is the damsel? What demons does she have to slay to reach nirvana? Who's in her posse of knights? How does the author, Jean Kwok juxtapose these very good and very bad characters to create a tale that is both fantastical yet realistic?

How does this tale fit into Feminist and Gender Criticism? Give this a womanist or feminist reading (Gardner 144). Also look at Psychological Theories, specifically archetypes (149).

"An archetype is a universal symbolic pattern. Examples of archetypal characters are the femme fatale, the trickster, the great mother and father, and the dying god. There are archetypal stories as well. Examples are stories of great floods, virgin births, creation, paradise, the underworld, and a final apocalypse. True to their universal nature, archetypal characters and stories appear again and again in myths across many diverse cultures" http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_archetypes.html.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

In each group write a three paragraph response.
Post here drafts. We will complete the essays tomorrow.

Homework
Post three thesis sentences that look at Kim Chang and the "heroes journey." In one of the thesis sentences incorporate text from the novel.

Revisions
If you received your essay back, revise it if required and get back in by the date requested. Also complete the book, Girl in Translation.

Reflection on Freedom

2011-06-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

We listened to Kim Nalley sing the standard, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free," from She Put a Spell on Me: Kim Nalley Sings Nina Simone (writers Richard Lamb and William Taylor).

Reflect on freedom through the eyes of Kim Chang, the protagonist in Girl in Translation.

Reflection on Girl in Translation; homework and class plan

2011-06-27T07:52:00.001-07:00

Reflect on the story so far: the protagonist, An-kim, her mom. . . themes like child labor, immigration, slum lords. . . Cinderella--where's the prince?

Comment on at least one classmate's post here as well.

2. Peer Review for Essay 1--Rubric

3. COA Library

4. Published reviews, author bio (Jean Kwok)

5. Homework is to read the next 100 pages in Kwok and the handouts on Revision.

Recap of Day 4, Week 1

2011-06-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today we started our essays for the short story assignment. There were several handouts: two from the Literary Handbook and one about the COA library database for use off campus. I also gave students the handout: "Questions for Discussing Essays."

We began the class with an overview of the week. I played Carmen Lundy's "Come Home," as an introduction to the theme of "home," as illustrated in the short story collection The Dance Boots. By the way, the book is in the college bookstore. The manager told me she couldn't get it (smile).

We decided that we would start the essays in class on Thursdays for the first few weeks and complete them for homework over the weekend. The entire package is due Monday, June 27, 2011. We'll start the class with a peer review and then students will email their essay portfolio to me.

Homework
1. Homework is to start the novel, Girl in Translation. Read 100 pages for Monday, another 100 pages for Tuesday and Tuesday night complete the book for Wednesday.

2. Bring in a copy of a published review of the book and information about the author. Use the Library Database to find an article if you like and to see if she is in the author database (I gave students the access code for off campus use).

3. Students exchanged email addresses with classmates to get a peer review prior to turning in the final draft of the in-class essay due Monday, June 27, 2011. I want to see the draft written today, Thursday, June 23, 2011.

Students will turn in the June 23, 2011 draft and a final draft on Monday, June 27, 2011, an in-class electronic peer review, planning sheet, and outline. All this makes up the Short Story essay portfolio.

Thursday, June 30, 2011, we will write the essay taking its topic from Girl in Translation.

Other Readings
Skim the chapter on Writing a Literary Research Paperand read the chapter we reviewed on Common Writing Assignments.

Field Trip
I thought a good day for me to go to the Ise Lyfe play is July 1, 2011. I'll have more information about this on Monday, June 27, 2011.

A Note from a Classmate

2011-06-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

There are two films in the "On Demand" section of Comcast which are related to the stories that we are reading. The films are in the independent movies category. The films deal with Indian boarding schools.

The titles are: "The Only Good Indian," and "Older than America." Unlike the stories we are reading, the movies actually deal with rape that also occurred in the schools as well as the beatings.

Walls Freewrite

2011-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Post here. The theme is taken from Meklit Hadero's "Walls," on her compact disk, On a Day like This.

Look at walls as a symbol. Reflect on the theme of barriers --personal or societal. You can also look at the short stories we've been reading and the walls in the characters' lives.

For the freewrites, students have the option of posting anonymously. If you do post anonymously, send me a copy with your name so you can have credit (coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com).

MLA
Hadero, Meklit. "Walls." On a Day like This. . . . Porto Franco Records, 2010.

2. W@L: Chapter 4--Review pp. 57-60. Read pp. 61-77 (again). Complete p. 77. Review pp. 79-81.

3. "Maggie & Louis, 1914." (short story).

4. Homework is to catch up on the reading. I have given students the Preface and four (4) stories from The Dance Boots.

Handouts today included one on thesis sentences (from COA library carousel) and another handout called The Initial Planning Sheet.

For the essay due tomorrow, on The Story:
Here is an example of an opening paragraph looking at character and a second paragraph or third looking at how themes tie into character:

In The Dance Boots , author Linda Legrade Grover uses characters to populate the landscape that is her "mythical Mozhay Point Indian Reservation and allotment lands of tribe Objbwe extended families. . . in the heart of the six reservations of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, a few hours' drive north of Duluth, Minnesota, . . . on a hill on the shores of Lake Superior" (Preface 1). We meet several memorable characters in the first several chapters, some more striking than others; however, all of their lives, dreams and unrequited wishes resonate long after their demise or the chapter ends. One such character is (two such characters are). . . .

Loss, disappointment and shame haunt these (same or other) characters in Grover's stories "The Dance Boots" and "Maggie and Louis, 1914."

The Assignment
The assignment is to use 1-3 literary devices such as theme and character, plot, style, setting, or symbolism to show how these devices move the story forward.

Characters
Characters are often born of themes or the themes are their mission in the text--they exist as a vehicle for the event. Themes or reoccurring topics are not necessarily the plot.

Other literary devices again are: plot, point of view, setting, symbolism, style (57-60).

The Writing Assignment re: citations
Use examples from the text to illustrate your point; however this does not mean you can have more than 1 direct citation per page. For each essay use: free paraphrase, short citations, and a block quote.

Use only 1 direct citation per page.

Thursday In-class Essay Assignments, beginning Week 1, June 23, 2011
Bring in a completed Initial Planning Sheet electronically, that is on a flash drive and emailed to yourself. The Thursday essays will be a manageable 4-6 paragraphs (750-1250 words) or 3-4 pages. This can include the works cited page.

Bring in an outline for the essay, a detailed outline with a thesis and the sources or evidence one wants to use in the argument.

Tomorrow, we will talk about the essay, perhaps share thesis sentences. Look at research on-line on the topic, if such exists (smile). Write the essay, have a peer review and then email everything to ourselves. I will let you have the weekend for the first essay. You can turn it in Monday, June 27, 2011, via Internet.

Each essay will be a separate portfolio. We will talk about this more tomorrow.

Organization
Since I am giving you copies from a book (2-3), I suggest students invest in a notebook where you can put the various books together by chapter.

Day 2 Homework and Cyber-Assignment

2011-06-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Write a 250 word summary of "Three Seasons." In your introduction, site the name of the story, its author and the section you wish to delve into more deeply. Talk about the episodic style of the story and why the author might have decided to use this way to tell Maggie's story. If you like, you can talk about thematic overlap between "The Dance Boots" and "Three Seasons."

Why three seasons? What happened to the fourth? What season is left out?

Keep reading. The next chapter "Maggie and Louis, 1914" was handed out along with another chapter from Writing about Literature, "Writing about Stories" (57).

Post your summary/analysis here.

Character Profiles: Protagonist & Antogonist

2011-06-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Post your character profiles here. Include the names of all parties involved in the composition.

Cyber-Assignment 1 and Recap for Day 1 Week 1

2011-06-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today we covered a lot in a short time. I noticed a typo in the syllabus. I say, "Students are to attend a literacy event," when what I meant to write is a "literary event." We talked about Ise Lyfe's Pistols and Prayers as a possible field trip. It is at a new theatre space in downtown Oakland; I think 408 14th Street, Friday-Sundays, through July 17, 2011. More later.

Many students are completing university requirements for their undergraduate degrees. This is exciting. Good luck! Only one student missed the entire class and another student was absent. I gave students my mobile phone number. Students let me know if the information on their registration forms re: phone number and email address are correct.

You do not have to email me contact information if I have it already. I think you have a couple of days to drop the course. I don't take anything personally, so if this is not the time or the teacher or the campus for you--be well and so long (smile).

Recap
We completed Homework Assignment 1 & 2 (in the syllabus) combined with an assignment here. If students didn't finish, they were instructed to email it to themselves to post later. Make sure you always post your assignments where instructed. If you ever have trouble posting, email the assignment to me by the due date and we can address the problem in class. Always save a copy in your own email account and on your flash drive (do both).

Fiction
We looked at fiction --Someone said, "It's fake" not factual (smile), as a genre of literature. Even though fiction might be imaginative or not real, in that it didn't happen, it could have happened-- that's why it works for us as a story.

Some fiction is also historic, in that, the events or the time the story takes place is based on a true account. This is true in the first story we are reading. Linda LeGarde Grover's The Dance Boots evokes themes about Indigenous people's lives which are entirely plausible.

In small groups, students read aloud the title story and discussed its themes, point of view (first, second, third), narrator(s) (reliable vs. unreliable), (limited view vs. all knowing or omniscient -- like god (smile).

Students identified the protagonist (main character) and/or the antagonist (minor character), plot --what happens in the story or the point of the story, not to be confused with themes or reoccurring ideas, symbolism, style-tone, language.

We only got to page 9 or 10, which means homework is to read the rest of the story. Students were also given two chapters from The Portable Literature Guide to read. It is a refresher.

Homework con't.
I gave students: "Three Seasons," the next story from The Dance Boots,to read.

Cyber-Homework Assignment for June 20, 2011. Due June 20, 2011
Please post a response to the process for day 1. How did the class go for you?

Talk about your literature discussion group and what you discovered about the story and about yourself as a reader.

Respond to at least two other posts. The comments can be short: 50-100 words. You can respond to two students with the students named in one post.

Group Work

2011-06-20T07:05:00.001-07:00

Getting to know each other. Class introductions and Discussions on Writing and Process.

Interview each other. Take notes.

Questions:

Is this your first course at COA? What brings you to the class? Where are you from? What languages do you speak besides English? What books have you read lately that take your breath away? What are you reading now? What are your career goals? What are some of your hobbies? What strengths do you bring to the class?

In groups introduce one another to the others. We will have report backs from the groups to the entire class. For this one needs synthesize the information gleaned from the presentations.

Letter to Students

2011-06-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

June 20, 2011

Dear Students:

I am going to try to make this class as painless as possible, but extractions are sometimes necessary if one hasn't taken care of one's teeth (smile).

How many of you love the dentist and look forward to the twice yearly check-ups? I do, and if I have to get as shot, the dentist rubs a local on my gums were the injection is to occur to lessen the pain from the needle's insertion--I hope to spread a little local pain relief on the class so that you get through surgery with out too many difficulties.

The process is often still painful nonetheless.

I like short sessions--I think the 18-week model is a waste of time. I have taught ENG 1A in 6-8 weeks; ENG 5 in 3 weeks and 6 weeks and ENG 201 in 3 weeks. The secret to all college courses is to stay on top of the reading. You cannot bluff your way through. We are serious scholars and if you haven't done the reading, I am not interested in anything you have to say on the topic no matter what rich perspective you might have re: your life and experiences because you cannot tie it to the text and everything is tied or connected to the text here.

We are not reading for pleasure, watching films for fun or getting together in literature circles to become friends. If we have fun, make friends and enjoy the process, that's great, but we are here to work and sometimes work is not pleasant.

Such uneducated perspectives--that is, students who want to talk but haven't completed the assignments, take the discussion on tangents we cannot afford to visit here; outside discussions are great, but we have to get through this and to do so efficiently we have to be disciplined.

If you are in a discussion group where students are not focused, let me know and I will move you. In fact, we will move to new groups for each genre or type of writing discussed. It might keep you awake if you have to get to know another group of people each week--maybe not.

Good luck this summer. I hope all of you get As (smile).

Peace and Blessings,

Wanda Sabir
Professor of English
Peralta Community College District,
College of Alameda
Office: D-219

Assignment 1 In-class and Tips on the Process

2011-06-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Full Name
English 1B
Professor Wanda Sabir
20 June 2011

Summarize the themes. What do you know about the teacher based on the syllabus? How do you get an "A"? What important information should you note? How does this class fit into your overall academic and life plan? What do you plan to do differently this tie in an English course? What lessons do you bring from prior courses to help this course proceed more smoothly for you?

Is this your first summer course? First course in a junior college?

What preconceptions hang over JCs?

If you didn't have to be here for six weeks, what would you be doing? No one spends their summer inside a classroom cramming, if at all possible.

Post your response to these questions and anything else you'd like to share in the comment section of the syllabus.

Don't forget to fill out your goals and objectives. Email me your contact information and anything I need to know to help you reach these goals. My email address is: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

The Process: A Work in Progress

2011-06-15T19:01:00.001-07:00

Draft of the Process

Readings and Texts
Most Thursdays we will write an in-class research essay. Students will do the planning in advance.

June 20-24
The Short Story: What is Writing about Literature? Genres . . . genres are more than simple categories they are world within themselves where to belong one must understand the language--philosophical and explicit.

Texts:
The Dance Boots
Writing about Literature: “The Role of Good Reading;” “The Writing Process;” “Common Writing Assignments;” “Writing about Stories” 57-79

June 27-30
The novel-- Is it just a longer story?

Texts:
Girl in Translation
Persepolis (start)
“Writing about Stories” 57-79 con’t. “Writing about Poems” 82-89 (start)

July 4 (holiday) July 5-7
Persepolis (finish)
Poetry--easy or difficult?

Text:
Indivisible
“Writing about Poems” 82-89 con’t.

Two essays:
Argumentative essay on a theme (250-500 words).
Themes or images in poetry (250-500 words).

July 11-14 Poetry con't.

Text:
Graphic novels, plus books into film.

Indivisible con’t.
The literary research essay 1 rehearsal. Students have a choice re: genres: poetry or fiction

“Writing a Literary Research Paper” 110-138 (includes examples); “Literary Criticism and Literary Theory” (143-153)

July 18-21 theatre . . . the language of theatre.

Texts:
“Writing about Plays” 92-107
Ruined by Lynn Nottage (handout)

Writing Assignment:
Literary research essay 2 rehearsal.

Final week: Wrapping it up: July 25-28
Students will chose a genre and write a literary research essay – polished and sophisticated.

We'll write the essay on Tuesday, July 26.

Syllabus Summer 2011

2011-06-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

English 1B Summer 2011 College of Alameda
Professor Wanda Sabir

Course code 30775, Room CV200 7:30 AM to 10:20 AM

Class Meetings: Monday, June 20-Thursday, July 28; No class: Monday, July 4
Final Exam: (Portfolios due via e-mail): Friday, July 29, 2011, by 12 noon.
Drop dates: June 22 (w/refund), June 30 (w/out a W), July 19 (w/W).

Syllabus for English 1B: College Composition and Reading
http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/ (class blog)

English 1B is a transferable college writing course. It builds on the competencies gained in English 1A with a more careful and studied analysis of expository writing based on careful reading of selected plays, poems, novels, and short fiction.
Writing is a social activity, especially the type of writing you’ll be doing here. We always consider our audience, have purpose or reason to write, and use research to substantiate our claims, even those we are considered experts in.

We’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. Yes, even in the summer (smile). The 8000 words include drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the public library (as the COA library is closed this summer.) Students will be researching, and reading documents to increase his or facility with the ideas or themes your are contemplating, before you once again sit at your desk writing, revising, and writing some more.

Writing is a lonely process. No one can write for you. The social aspect comes into play once you are finished and you have an opportunity to share.

We are practicing skills which you developed in English 1A. The difference is we are looking at literature and analyzing other genres, in our case: poetry, fiction, music, theatre, visual arts, and dance. Since this is hip hop culture the political is always a consideration as the genre emerged from a political context, but then this is not unusual—aesthetics plus politics. In order to do justice to the topics you chose to explore, the writer cannot ignore the history of the genre nor its current discourses or new roots.

I will be looking at the writing, but more than this I will be paying attention to the scholarship, which is why each essay has to include a citation from a scholarly article—4-10+ pages.

Your essays can use multiple styles . . . be creative. However, I need to know that you know how to write an essay, so save the creative work for last (smile). And if you plan to deviate from the norm, don’t surprise me, share the idea with me first.
We are going to read a book or play a week. We start with short fiction and then move into a novel, poetry and another novel. I am going to show you a film. We finish with students selecting writing outside of the assigned readings and writing a research analysis based on the work. The selection can be two short poems or a longer one, a novel, another play or a short story.

I am flexible here, since students could always choose another poem from our anthology or collection of stories. We will write most of the essays in class. I will give you Thursdays to write. We will practice writing research analyses mid-semester. Students will grade each other based on a rubric.

We will end class a bit early so office hours can take place at the end of class. I am thinking twice a week from 9:30 to 10 AM. I am a phone person, so when I give you my telephone number, use it. My office is D-219, but I probably won’t be hanging out there often. Come on time, awake and prepared and you’ll get through the class.
If you are a poor writer, you will not pass the class. We will have minimal revisions, like none unless the essay is horrible—students only get one BAD ESSAY DAY (and the penalty is writing a correction essay, plus revising the essay). You will write your essays on Thursday. We will do peer reviews. I want to see polished work.

Student Learning Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes include a better facility with written communication which includes critical thinking, analysis and of course comprehension. Such tools help us make better choices and decisions about our lives and the lives of those persons we are responsible for. Hopefully students will gain an appreciation for the literary arts beyond what is due for the course. Education is not limited to the classroom; rather an implicit goal is always to trigger a desire in students to continue the cultural pursuit after transfer, after graduation, after career goals are met. Reading and writing are skills one does have to practice to prevent dullness, so another goal and SLO for this course is for students to know how to keep their tools ready for use which might translate into keeping a journal once the semester ends, reading more for pleasure, going to literary events, and/or hanging onto some of the course reference books like Diana Hacker's Rules for Writer.

Methodology
We will use Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide, Second Edition by Janet E. Gardner in the class. There is a chapter for each genre of literature we will examine. I will make the material available to you beginning June 20, 2011. We will review a chapter a week, except for week one, we will read 4 chapters. The first three are reviews of the writing process.

Keep a reading log/journal/notes containing key ideas outlined for each discussion section, along with vocabulary and key arguments listed, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving. I will collect these notes with the essays on Thursday. The essays will be submitted electronically. Type all your notes and in-class writing assignments.

I repeat: each book or play will have a corresponding essay. There will also be a series of short 250 word essay responses posted on the class blog pertaining to each piece of literature. Students have a choice of writing a new paper or expanding the cyber-assignment into a longer work. Each research paper will be between 3-4 pages long. This includes a works cited page.

Again, the final is an oral presentation of one’s paper or a defense of one’s thesis. The student portfolio is the FINAL for the class. We will talk about this more. If any students are creative writers and wants to lead a workshop, let me know (smile).

Each student will have to attend a literacy event of his or her choosing: lecture or author event, play or film. We can attend an event together or separately. The writing assignment will be an analysis/critique, like a review . . . but a bit deeper. I suggest students read published reviews beforehand to prepare for the task. This essay will be minimally two (2) pages or 500 words, not including a works cited page with minimally two (2) sources. All essays have to have 1 citation per page, so in the case of a two page essay, that is two citations (period).

Essay research requirements
Each essay needs to use at least 2-3 outside sources which should include at least one (1) scholarly article along with other material (taken from the COA on-line Library Database (if possible). Each essay should also include One (1) direct quote, one (1) free-paraphrase and one (1) block quote—one citation per page—no more, no less. Each essay also needs to include a works cited page and a bibliography. It needs to be perfect. We will practice this in class. We will write many of the shorter essays in class or for homework. The task should be simple once students decide which four (4) elements they’d like to respond to in depth.

I am making an assumption that students know how to correctly document their sources using MLA. Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers or an acceptable. At this level, I expect students to know how to write passing essays at the first submission. Submit your best work the first time. Don’t submit drafts, masquerading as polished work. I am serious.

Midterm
There will not be a midterm.

Jot down briefly what your goals are this summer and action steps to get there. Separate into what you can do alone or have control over and what you might not have control over and why.

List them in order of importance.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Homework Assignment 1: E-mail introduction due June 20, 2011. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com.

Please send me an email and introduce yourself to me. Besides the usual: where are you from? What languages do you speak besides English? What child are you in the family? What are your hobbies and why are you taking this class?

Include: your contact information: Name, Address, phone number, best e-mail address, best time to call and answers to these questions as well: What strengths do you bring to the class? What do you hope to obtain from the course – any particular exit skills? What do I need to know about you to help you meet your goals?

Homework Assignment 2:
Respond on the blog to the syllabus, so I have a record of your reading it. Make sure you include examples from the syllabus to support your points. The response is due by June 21, 2011, 12 noon.

Write a comment to me regarding the syllabus: your impressions, whether you think it is reasonable, questions, suggestions. This is our contract, I need to know you read it and understand the agreement.

Grading
Essays: 55 percent of grade

Short Story
1. The Dance Boots by Linda Legarde Grover is the text for the short story unit. Each unit includes the definitive essay, plus in-class writing, group writing and blog assignments.

The Novel
2-3. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok and The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the text for the fiction unit (2 essays), plus a film.

Dramatic Literature:
4. Ruined or some other selection (handout).

Poetry Unit
5. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry edited by Neelanjana Bannerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam

6. Final essay –student choice

Portfolio: 25 percent

Participation: 20 percent
What do I mean by participation? This includes preparation and active participation in group assignments, blog responses and posted comments; discussion group preparedness, attitude and leadership. To post comments select “ANONYMOUS” and then type your name in the post. Students do not need to get Gmail accounts.

To encourage participation, and for this, students have to be prepared, I weighed the preparedness and participation strongly which means I will be taking notes when students do not do their homework. If you are in a group where students are pretending to be prepared when they are not, drop me an anonymous note. If a student is absent, he or she cannot make up in-class assignments such as group work, freewrites, presentations, etc. If a student misses a class he or she should drop the course—two classes definitely. Each meeting is equivalent to about a week of class during the regular semester.

Portfolio Suggestion
I suggest students start a personal blog for the class and send me the link for your portfolio at the end of the course.

Quizzes

I am not above pop quizzes on readings. Remember, this plan can change in a twinkling of the eye, if we find it isn’t working.

Writing Center

Not available this summer. Students will have to help each other (smile). Summer courses are not for the weak in skills, no matter how strong in commitment and attitude. Students have to know how to read and write already and just need the additional practice.

English language fluency in writing and reading; a certain comfort and ease with the language; confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing. Familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).

We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.

This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.

Last words on Grades
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily an honest response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this summer session in meeting your goal.

Office Hours
None scheduled this summer, so catch me on those in-class office hours or by phone.
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. (Jot my cell number down in this section.) My office number is (510) 748-2131 (right now, but it is changing).

My email address is: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com
I really am more a phone person than an email person, so you can call me if I don’t respond to an email. I do read your blog posts.

I’d encourage students to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently between classes. The summer will fly, if you don’t buckle up (smile). Study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult.

Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio.

I do not expect students to confuse literal with free paraphrase (a literal paraphrase is plagiarism). Students should also not make confused word errors, sentence fragment errors, comma splice errors, subject verb agreement errors, errors in parallel structure, subject verb agreement errors, MLA citations errors, errors with ellipses, formatting an essays—margins, headings, etc. If you are not clear on what I mean, again I suggest drop the class and take it over the 18 week semester at a more leisurely pace.

Students are expected to complete work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance to keep full credit. Again certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work (see Hacker: The Writing Process; Document Design.)

In class writing is to be written in ink—blue or black, then typed for inclusion in portfolio or posting on blog: http://poeticsrapandtothersocialdiscourses.blogspot.com/.

Cheating
Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course.

Homework
If you do not identify the assignment, I cannot grade it. If you do not return the original assignment you revised, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or lose the original assignment, you get a zero on the assignment to be revised. I will not look at revisions without the original attached – no exceptions. Some student essays will be posted on-line at the website. Students will also have the option of submitting assignments via email: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com.

Textbooks Recap:
Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. Second Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.

Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots. Athens, Georgia and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.
Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. Print.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis.

Bannerjee, Neelanjana and Summi Kaipa, Pireeni Sundaralingam. Ed. Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian Poetry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2010. Print.

Recommended

Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Fourth or Fifth edition. Bedford/St. Martins. (If you don’t already have such a book.)
A college dictionary. I recommend American Heritage.

Additional Items
Along with a college dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, floppy disks, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.
Stay abreast of the news. Buy a daily paper. Listen to alternative radio:
KPFA 94.1 FM (Hardknock), KQED 88.5, KALW 91.7. Visit news websites: AllAfrica.com, Al Jazeera, CNN.com, AlterNet.org, Democracy Now.org, FlashPoints.org, CBS 60 Minutes.

2010-12-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Today we worked on the portfolios and two students presented their book report essays. Most of the class was absent and I am dropping students today who are missing more than one essay assignment who have not communicated with me.

Homework is to complete the SE essay and send in via email by Friday, Dec. 3, 2010: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Work on the portfolios. Presentations are Tuesday we will answer questions and wrap up a wonderful semester (smile). Thursday we will not meet.

I'll be around Monday from 9-11 AM in A232 to help anyone who drops by with the portfolio and with revisions. Remember, all the essays included in the portfolio have to be graded. The exception is The Angry Black White Boy essay which is the final.

Operation Small Ax, Do the Right Thing, Michael Jackson's Vision: Beat It & Bad

2010-11-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Post reflections on the films above here. Re: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Operation Small Ax, what themes do they share and what do this say about privilege, entitlement, disenfranchisement, racism and police brutality?

Think about classics West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet and themes that make the stories evergreen. What is unfortunate about this notion? Where is the hope for peace and justice? I remember in the final episode of the Matrix, Neo when asked what he wants, says, "peace." The Oracle says when asked for how long, says, "as long as it can." A rainbow appears in the sky as the curtain closes.

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing is based on the events that happened at Howard Beach in 1986 and the hottest day in NY at that time when Lee began to write. Set in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the community's changing demographics are at the heart of a story where those who are left, those who carry the history are not allowed to share it or refuse to change.

It is also a story where once again, police serve those who are privileged, the property owners--Sal, the Italian pizzeria owner. This is also the Brooklyn which still reels from the 1987 Tawana Brawley rape allegations. It's a keg ready to explode.

Portfolio Checklist

2010-11-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Man in the Mirror

2010-11-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

Reflect on the thesis in the song and use examples from the the video Jackson uses as evidence. Be specific. Give three examples.

2010-11-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

Portfolio Narratives

For students who are interested in starting the portfolio essays now, here are the questions which serve as the introduction to the portfolio.

The portfolio narratives (These are essays)

1. The fist narrative will look at the 18 weeks, the themes we looked at this semester, privilege and entitlement. Talk about what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing, 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 in this class: composition and reading 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. Besides the two essays you use as evidence to discuss your revision process, I also want you to include the The Known World essay, the book report essay and the social entrepreneur essay. We have already started the narrative on revision (check past cyber-assignments). Each essay needs to be 250 minimally words.

The checklist will list all the assignments, but you know what they are. On the checklist include the assignment grade. All the essays included in the portfolio are graded essays, except the final essay: The Angry Black White Boy.

If anyone would like help assembling the portfolio bring the assignments electronically to class beginning next week, Monday, Nov. 29 and we will have a few portfolio assembly workshops: Nov. 29 (9:30-10:30, 12-1, 3-4), Nov. 30 (1-2), and Dec. 1 (3-4).

3. Cyber-Assignments: Start collecting all your cyber-assignments. It takes a while to go through all of the posts, so start now. There is a section on the portfolio for these assignments.

4. Freewrites: Type your in-class freewrites. This is another section for your portfolio. Some freewrites are also cyber-assignments.

5. Extra credit. If you have written any essays this semester for extra credit they would go in this section.

6. Evaluation: There is a course evaluation for the class which is optional. I also ask if I can use any of your work for academic research.

This is a preliminary checklist.

November 23, 2010 Cyber-Assignment Post and Other things

2010-11-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Today we listened to Marcus Shelby Orchestra's SOUL of the Movement, Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The freewrite is from Totems--Sheroes & Sheroes, Anti- & Otherwise. Read pp. 247-248. Choose a poem and analyze 1-3 salient arguments and give supporting evidence.

Operation Small Ax video--Talk about it. We watched it last week

Se Essay, Book Report revisions, etc.

The Angry Black White Boy--the play, finish and discuss the characters, themes, arguments. Start reading the novel which is on-line.

For homework visit Adam Mansbach's website http://www.adammansbach.com/ and read his essay about hip hop fiction.

Check the SE dates for essay due dates.

Sample Portfolios
Today I posted sample portfolios on several desk top computers this morning.

2010-11-17T17:44:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow we will try to complete the play The Angry Black White Boy. Start reading the novel. Bring to class next week.

Social Entrepreneur Essay: New Dates

2010-11-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

English 1B Social Entrepreneur Due Dates:

Planning Due by Thursday, Nov. 18 (write and share)_____________
Essay: Planning Sheet, Outline, Thesis due Thursday, Nov. 18 (write and share in class) __________

First Draft Tuesday, Nov. 30 (peer reviews)__________

Final Draft due via email, Thursday, Dec. 2. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Presentations: Dec. 2.
If we have time, students who missed the book report presentation can make it up. Don't forget the abstracts.

Portfolios
We will spend Dec. 6-8 working on portfolio assembly. Bring all of your work to class this week: all the graded drafts. The portfolio is due: Wednesday, Dec. 15, by 12 noon. Email it to me: coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Make sure you paste it and attach it. Remember attach only one Word Document, not several documents. If you send it wrong, I will not read it, and this might jeopardize your grade.

2010-11-10T17:37:00.001-08:00

I'll post the Portfolio Checklist later this week, so check back. I look forward to reading the book report essays.

A few students have been absent a lot and are missing work. Check-in with me, the last day to drop with a W is next week

Book Reports

2010-11-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Post responses to classmate's book report here. Presenters post a self-reflection on the process, what you learend and what you did well and how you might improve for the next presentation: Social Entrepreneur.

American Cultures Presentations

2010-11-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Post responses and narratives here. For each presenter, also post a self-reflection on the process: writing to speech. Use substantive responses.

Writing Workshop/Future Assignments

2010-11-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

1. Outlines for Book Report Essay Die-Three Part Thesis (worksheet)

2. The Known World--if you are behind, revise the essay and turn it in now.

3. Angry Black White Boy --the play, continue reading aloud.

4. Presentations: American Culture (Tuesday, Nov. 9). Bring in your object. Check the syllabus for the assignment (Sept. 14, 2010).

American Culture Assignment: Bring in an object that represents American culture. Share the reasoning or rationale with your audience. You will paste the document on the website. I plan to videotape the presentation to post on the blog. I hope no one objects.

I will provide a link next week for the comments and posts.

From October 18, 2010

2010-11-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

I need to approve the book before you start reading.

The Known World essays are in and students are ready to move on. If any revisions are still required, turn them in ASAP.

Social Entrepreneur Essay
Our last essay, the Social Entrepreneur Essay planning is due mid-November for peer review. Choose an artist who is using their work for social change, to interrupt the status quo re: entitlement and privilege especially entitlement based on race, gender and class.

The Angry Black White Boy
This essay will be our final and is due with the portfolio, so there will still be a social entrepreneur essay due. This essay will profile an artist who is using his or her work for social change.

I will give you essay questions in December for the Angry Black White Boy. In the meantime, we will read the play based on the novel.

Portfolio
We will start reviewing the portfolio process in November. We will not have an in-class final. The portfolio is due by December 15 via email coasabirenglishB@gmail.com

More later on the portfolio.

Cyber-Freewrite and Class Schedule

2010-11-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

1. Today the freewrite is to chose a poem from Reed's From Totems to Hip Hop "Politics" and respond in a three paragraph essay: use the three-part thesis sentence in the introduction.

2. Book reports conversation.

3. Angry Black-White Boy reading

4. Correct exercises in Argumentation chapter (Hacker handout)

REMINDER
Frontline World Assignments (October 18, 2010)

There is only one response to this assignment which was due October 31, 2010. Catch up.

Self-Reflection on Revision Strategies and Evaluating a Website

2010-10-28T09:57:00.001-07:00

Reflect separately on the exercises: Revision Strategies and Evaluating a Website.

Revision Strategies video.

Reflect on the revision process and video. What does it mean to revise? Where does revision fit into the overall writing process? What did Norm mean when he mentioned "skilled and unskilled writers"? What did Sandra Perl mean when she spoke about "editing prematurely"?

What assumptions did Dr. Flowers mention that writers have about "good writing"? What does planning have to do with any of this? What is "perfect draft syndrome"? How is revision a way to transform the writing? What is writer-based, reader-based writing?

What are the steps to revision? How are these steps confirmed by Diana Hacker in her various grammar style books in the section on revision? If you don't have Hacker, use the grammar style book you have to respond to the question.

How is keeping the reader in mind an important part of the writing process? What analogy does one of the character's use to describe the actual document?

Did you hear the questions used in the Initial Planning Sheet also used in the program?

Check out this website

2010-10-28T09:13:00.001-07:00

Today students are evaluating websites. This website is a really fantastic medium for filmmakers out of Canada. Some students elected to evaluate it; however, all students are encouraged to visit it and listen to a few of the interviews: http://highrise.nfb.ca/ The director Katerina Cizek was a guest on my radio show October 27, 2010 in the first hour: www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks She has a film in the United Nations Association Film Festival 2010: The Bicycle. Visit www.unaff.org The films are screening through October 31 at Stanford University.

This assignment is a part of the Library Assignment sheet I gave to students connected to the Social Entrepreneur assignment. The questions re: Evaluating a Web Page are on the College of Alameda site. Look at Library Worksheets. Students paired up to complete this in-class assignment and then sent it to me as an attachment and pasted in the document: Don't forget to include both students names, if you were a team. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

We then watched a video on Revision Strategies: The Write Course and worked on revising The Known World essays.

Homework is to continue reading the book you chose. Let's meet in A-232 next week as well both days.

Proceed and Be Bold starring Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.

2010-10-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

We spent most of the class watching this film about a former corporate administrator who leaves his profession and begins to make art--printmaking.

I showed the film as an example of an artist who is also an entrepreneur, a social entrepreneur.

How does APK use printing to alter or change the world? What is his motivation? How is printing art? How is what Amos does with printmaking metaphor, even poetry?

What about his life is most intriguing and most existing? What questions does Proceed raise? What questions does it answer?

Write this response in the form of a profile of APK and a film critique/review. Use a published review of the film as a guide. Give citations. Visit Brown Finch Films for more information. The response should be minimally three paragraphs.

I returned a few TKW essays. The revisions are due at the next meeting unless you need to see me. A couple students do. I am around on Wednesdays--call me. I have office hours in the morning and afternoon.

Visit http://www.kennedyprints.com/

http://sfdocfest.bside.com/2009/films/proceedandbebold_sfdocfest2009;jsessionid=DACE16C369829B888458937DF8CE65AE

Cyber-Freewrite

2010-10-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

1. Choose a poem from Totems: Politics . Develop three 3-part thesis sentences.

2. Review assignments

3. Read a play: The Angry Black White Boy

4. Homework: Continue reading your book, complete the Frontline World assignment.

Angela Davis: Radical Pedagogy Cyber-Assignment

2010-10-20T10:38:00.001-07:00

In class on Tuesday we watched a film by director, Angela Carroll about social critic and activist, Professor Angela Y. Davis. After a lively discussion, students were then introduced to the three-part thesis sentence form which we practiced.

Students were to respond to the film in three paragraphs. Homework was also to start reading one's approved collection of stories or novel and to begin thinking about the Social Entrepreneur project and doing the Frontline World exercises.

Notes

2010-10-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Frontline World: Engaged Citizenry Cyber-Assignment

2010-10-18T16:23:00.001-07:00

Frontline World Cyber-Assignment Post(s)http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/socialentrepreneurs.html

Respond to 3 stories by 10/18-10/31. Bring in headphones for the computer. Post your Frontline World Responses (3) on the blog.

Answer the following questions in your response to the program.

Outline:

1.Who is the social entrepreneur profiled?
2.What problem did the person profiled identify?
3.What is the name of the organization they started?
4.Describe their relationship to the community that they serve?

• Why they decided to address this issue?

5.What is the local component?
6.How does the community own the process?

Book Report Essay Due Nov. 12

2010-10-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

This semester we are looking at Privilege

Each student was asked to choose a novel. The author needed to be alive and living in the Northern California if possible. I suggested students chose a subject or author who might also work as a topic for the Social Entrepreneur profile. For example, Isabel Allende is a wonderful Chilean writer who is also social entrepreneur. She is not under 30, but that is okay. Another wonderful writer is Maxine Hong Kingston and my favorite writer, Alice Walker.

For each essay, students need to find three articles: a published book review or analysis, and for the author, see if there is something on the author in Literary Criticism, (on-line in the Library Database and in COA library (public libraries as well). Third, find an article that addresses one of the themes in the book. Include all of these sources in your works cited page.

The essay will be 3-4 pages and in it you will summarize your book’s major themes and analyze them. Tell us something about the author and how he or she comes to write the book if applicable. You can always save this for the presentation, that and if the book is the author’s first.

Abstract
The presentation is weighted heavily here, so prepare well, and please include an abstract which includes the title of the book, the key points you plan to make and any arguments you’d like us to consider. Bring in copies for each student.

Book Report

Planning Sheet, Outline, Thesis Nov. 4___________
First Draft Tuesday, Nov. 9___________
Final Draft Friday, Nov. 12 via email____________
Presentations: Tuesday, Nov. 16___________

The presentation is a quarter of the grade for this assignment

Social Entrepreneur Essay Assignment Due Nov. 19

2010-10-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Assignment: Social Entrepreneurs: Engaged Citizenry
English 1B

Choose an artist who is using their work for social change, to interrupt the status quo re: entitlement and privilege especially entitlement based on race, gender and class.

Introduction

Open with the problem statement. Be descriptive.

The thesis sentence names your social entrepreneur as a person who is addressing the problem identified in the introduction.

Body paragraphs
Background on the social entrepreneur and what brings them to the work. You can cite statistics here to illustrate the problem

Introduce the organization or business venture. Does the work grow out of the community? How do the SE and the community interact?

Are there any partnerships with other organizations and/or government?

Are there any peer reviews or industry reports?

What are the measurable results for the community? Share a story here.

What are the measurable results for the SE. You could quote the SE here.

Narrative
Your essay needs to answer all of these questions; you can structure it like a typical problem/solution essay or cause and effect.

The person has to be alive. Try to find someone local, who is living in the San Francisco Bay Area or in California. The person has to have been doing this work for 10-20 years (the length of time is negotiable; see me).

You need to locate 5 sources on your subject to form a bibliography; you don't have to cite them all. The sources can be published or broadcast interviews, books, articles, and films or you can interview them yourself. The person cannot be a relative. You can work in groups and share data. In fact, I encourage it.

You will have three citations: 1 in-text citation, one paraphrase, and one block quote in the essay. The rest of the writing has to be your own. The essay should be 4pages (English 1A). This does not include the works cited page or bibliography.

English 1B Social Entrepreneur Due Dates:

Planning Due by Tuesday, Nov. 18 (share)_____________
Essay: Planning Sheet, Outline, Thesis due Tuesday, Nov. 16 __________
First Draft Tuesday, Nov. 30 (peer reviews)__________
Final Draft due via email, Thursday, Dec. 2. Send to coasabirenglish1B@gmail.com

Presentations: Dec. 2
Supplementary Assignments

On-line Frontline World (on-line responses 3) Start Tuesday, October 19_______
Library Research sheet: Thursday, October 21_______________
Website Evaluation completed (worksheet) by October 30 (in-class) _____________
List of sources (5) minimum in MLA format due Tuesday, Nov. 13 (share in class) ___________

2010-10-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Homework is to catch up on the essay writing, if behind. Students can email me, just call me and let me know you have sent a revised essay. In your preamble, let me know what changed between drafts and the grade, if any given or comments.

Homework is also to bring in a book written by a Northern California writer 30 years old or younger. Sources to find such writers are: The Northern California Book Reviewers Association, Before Columbus Foundation, Poetry Flash.

This is Banded Book Month, I was told and there is a book display at Laney College Library students might want to check out. Berkeley is also a participant in Banned Books Month in the past.