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

Essay Assignment

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

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)

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

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"

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

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

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/

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

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

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

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.

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

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)

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 six week summer course, the themes we discussed: immigration, family, assimilation, alienation, genocide, disenfranchisement, colonization, war, violence against women. . . . 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. 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.

Mary Rudge, Special Guest

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.