The Plan for Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009

Tomorrow in class first thing students will revise their midterm essays after watching a short video called: Revision Strategies. I noticed the envelop was still full this afternoon, which means some students did not pick their essays up.

Secondly, after I give students about 20 minutes to revise their essays, we will take a poll and see how many students have not made a presentation this semester. I want to let students write their final essay this week, Thursday, Nov. 19, on their novel. Next Tuesday we will complete our presentations--on the novel, and start the portfolios. If you have missed all the presentations, this is your final opportunity. If there is time, I will consider other presentations. Students who have the same novel can present together. We will devote the entire class period to these presentations. I'd like abstract prepared and enough copies for each student. The earlier presentations were practices. This one gets a grade.

I will give you the narrative questions by Thursday, Nov. 19. Next week students will assemble their portfolios and turn them in.

For students who are behind you will probably not be able to complete this task by Nov. 25, so I am extending the deadline to Monday, Nov. 30. Come to class Dec. 1 so that we can review all work and you can revise anything which is not acceptable.

Email the portfolios to: professorwandasposse@gmail.com
In the title line identify yourself and the course with code and semester: Wanda Sabir, English 1B Fall 2009 Class Code...

Everyone needs to come to class on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and maybe Thursday, Dec. 3. I am not reading any new assignments after Nov. 23/24.

Assignments this semester recap posted 9/09/2009 and 9/22/2009: You cannot revise your midterm or final, which is the Hip Hop Fiction essay. I have let students revise the midterm twice and now three times. For those students who complete the final on Nov. 19, I might consider a revision with the portfolio. Remember, all revisions have to include a narrative.

1. Women in Hip Hop with a side-bar on Hyper-Masculinity: October 1

2. The Graf or Writing Movement, October 6 essay is due for peer review, Oct. 8 presentation

3. Dance or Bi-boying, Bi-Girling, October 13/15

4. DJing, Oct. 20/22—

5. MC or Poet/Rapper Oct. 27/29, Nov. 3 presentation

6. Nov. 5/10 Project reports in small groups

7. Nov. 12/17 Fiction presentations (all)

8. Extra credit: Hip Hop as a Global Movement, Hip Hop Theatre, Hip Hop Spirituality (turn in by or before Nov. 12).


Assignment:

Start with an artist who exemplifies the genre you wish to talk about. This person will provide the frame for you to tell the story of the development of the genre. This person will help you illustrate your point as well as focus the essay which is just a reflection on a larger topic.

Choose 3-4 key points you wish to develop. Give us a brief bio of the person, why they decided or how they found themselves using hip hop culture as their lens, include a sample of their work, compare and contrast it with both historic and contemporary examples….

Within each essay give a definition of hip hop culture and how the element emerges, reflects, fits into and expands this philosophical landscape.

If you are speaking of women in hip hop—the topic is broad so your introduction could be a historic overview and then you can focus your paper on the artist of your choice who illustrates attributes you’d like to consider in the paper.

Even though you are focusing on one artist, place your artist within the context of the work…which means you have to center the person within her genre surrounded by her peers…show how the work the artist produces expands and enlarges the scope of the discipline.

You can look both nationally and internally. In at least one paper, I want the focus to be on an artist who is from Northern California. The person has to be alive. If you chose to write about graffiti or writing I’d encourage students to borrow Style Wars, it is a great history of the Graffiti movement. You can also use material from Piece by Piece and the essay I gave you to read.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop is a great resource and of course so is Total Chaos, both are by Jeff Chang.