- Eng 100
For this paper, you must be presenting an ARGUMENT. This is not just research- you are stating and supporting an opinion.
Your essay choices:
1. From Decisive Writer (DW), page 276, Option 1: You can write any of the questions there or make up a thesis similar to those ideas.
2. DW page 277, the last line of Option 2.
3. DW, page 278 - Option 3: You can write on this one if you pick an image that we relate with racism, like a stereotypical portrayal of a black or Asian or Hispanic person in a movie or on TV or in a print ad. You would describe the portrayal, explain the impact that portrayal has (whether positive or negative) and say if that portrayal should be censored or not.
- Option 4: You can write on the question: What are some of the consequences of judging someone on his/her physical appearance. State clearly whether these consequences are positive or negative.
Dates:
1. Post your freewrite to the blog by adding a comment to the section labeled "Freewrites" by Sept 13, midnight.
2. Post your outline to the blog by submitting a comment to the section labeled "Outlines" by Sept 16, 5pm.
3. Draft 1, due in class 9/24. 1 peer review on 9/24. Online peer review due 9/30 12:00 noon. Email the review to your partner AND to me for credit. Honors: 3rd review due 9/30, 3pm. Email to partner AND me.
4. Final paper: 10/1
Requirements:
Title and works cited page. Please note on title page if you are an honors student.
Very few grammar/spelling errors- get a tutor!
Solid PIE paragraphs with good transitions as you move through your ideas.
Properly cited and punctuated quotes. You need a minimum of 2 quotes from 2 different sources. Honors: Need 4 quotes minimum
3-5 pages: no more, no less.
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Wk 1 and 2 -- BOTH WK 1 AND WK 2 HOMEOWRKS ARE DUE MONDAY SEPT 10!
Aug 27
In class:
Intros/ice breaker
Syllabus: stress attendance, late work, revision
Active reading demo
Hw:
- Get books
- Begin vocab log (2 word min. per week)
- Visit the course blog site
- -Alexie. 15 and 832 w/study guides
- -Baldwin pg 36 w/ study guide and 831 w/post-reading discussion questions
- -Diaz, pg 247- different assignments for honors and non-honors students: see study guide
STUDY GUIDE ALEXIE
1. Annotate!! Take notes, underline, interact with your reading.
2. Collect 1 vocab word per week for your vocab log. Aug 27= week 1, and you will add one word every week after. The word can come from the reading, or anywhere in the world you encounter words (check out some graffiti! Good vocab words in graffiti).
Study guide on Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
1. pg 14: PREDICTION and INFERENCE: Read the bio on Alexie. Based on the info there, what do expect to find in the story? What kinds of themes or ideas?
2. pg 15: INFERENCE: Explain the line “I knew there were plenty of places I wanted to be, but none where I was supposed to be.” What does Alexie mean? How does he feel about this?
3. pg 16: ANALYSIS: Explain how Alexie is acting in the 7-11. What is he doing, why, and how? Use a quote from the story to back you up. (In other words, SHOW me what he is doing and then explain why- you can't just TELL me.)
4. pg 17: ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION: Why do you think Alexie has included the dream sequence at this point in the story? What does the dream tell you about his state of mind, about the things that haunt him?
5. pg 18: REFLECTION: the top of this page is juxtaposition: horrible violence contrasted with something mundane and harmless. News is often presented to us this way: Today 100,000,000 people died in the Middle East. Meanwhile, there’s a dog that can say “I love you” in Texas! Let’s go to the live footage. “ Does this style of delivering the news annoy you? Comfort you? Do you even notice anymore?
6. pg 18: SYNTHESIS: Explain Alexie’s struggle to form an identity. What are the conflicting forces pushing at him?
7. pg 18-19: ANALYSIS: Why does the BIA kid need to be “beaten by an Indian, any Indian.”
8. pg 19: EXTRAPOLATION: what do you think of the story’s last line? What does it mean? Is that an expression of hope, or of despair? What does it say about the experience of American Indians like Alexie?
Annotate to read actively. Also this may be a good place to collect vocab, so be on the look out for new words.
Alexie Superman and Me- pg 832
832-833
1. ANALYZE: Do you think Superman being Alexie’s first reading might have an effect on him later?
What kind of effect?
2. DEFINE: Define metaphor. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:metaphor&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
2. PARAPHRASE ANS REFLECT: Describe Alexie’s idea about paragraphs. This is a metaphor. Do you think this one about paragraphs works?
3. INTERPRET AND PROVE YOUR IDEAS: What is the first sense you have that Alexie feels like an outsider, someone in the margins of the dominant culture? Quote the exact line and explain how you interpret that line.
834
4. INTERPRET/ANALYZE: Explain why failing was a complicated thing for Alexie. Why did he refuse to fail?
5. SNTHESIZE: How is writing a form of power for Alexie? How is he using that power?
SONNY’S BLUES p. 36
1. PREDICT AND ANALYZE: Read the bio on pg 36. if we think of writing as a kind of art that can be used to resist, what societal problem do you predict Baldwin wrote Sonny’s Blues to protest against?
37
2. INTERPRET/REFLECT: Baldwin uses a metaphor of a ceiling on which boys bumped their heads. What is he trying to say? Have you experienced any repression similar to this, or can you think of a person or group of people who still are experiencing it?
37-40
3. INFER: Why does the narrator act so angry and hostile to kid who comes to tell him about Sonny?
42
4. INFER: Why do you think Sonny gave up on going to India?
45-46
5. SUMMARIZE AND ANALYZE: Paraphrase the story of the father’s brother’s death. What impact would that experience have on the way the parents raised Sonny and his brother? Why do you think the mom waited so long to tell her son about it?
48
6. EVALUATE: Considering Baldwin’s metaphor about the bumping your head on the ceiling of your life’s possibilities, what is particularly tragic about Sonny’s statement that believing that people ought to do what they want to do, that otherwise they shouldn’t even be alive?
51
7. EXTRAPOLATE: Now consider your answer to #6, and relate that answer to your reaction to the narrator’s fight with Sonny in which he tells Sonny he would be better off dead. How do you think the narrator feels about having said this? Do you think, in some way, the author of the story (Baldwin) agrees with what the narrator said to Sonny?
55
8. SYNTHESIZE: Both the narrator and Sonny are resisting the unfairness of their lives in some way. What is the difference in the way they refuse to “just take it”?
57-58-59
9. REFLECT: Music becomes a source of power in this story. Do you agree that music has power? Why/why not?
10. EXTRAPOLATION: what do you think of the story’s last line? What does it mean? Is that an expression of hope, or of despair? Or both?
Baldwin, 841
1. Read the essay “Autobiographical notes.” When done, answer these questions:
1a) How does Baldwin show you that writing was a source of power for him?
1b) What aspects of Baldwin’s life do you see reflected in Sonny’s Blues?
Diaz, p 247
All students: Read the story. When you are done, write for 5 minutes about what the story made you think or feel. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation or anything: just write.
Honors students: create a study guide similar to the one I created above for this story. Minimum of 10 questions. You do not have to write answers too, just questions).
------------this is all the homework for week one, but you also have homework for week 2. Pace yourself! All the homework for week 1 and 2 are due in class 9/10, our third week------------
wk 2
Sept 3: no class (labor day).
HW:
1. Read this info on paragraphing for your GLOBAL issue for the week. We will discuss what I mean by global issues week 3
Different types of paragraphs
Here we have some definitions of different types of paragrahs:
Persuasive
Expository
Narrative
Descriptive
First we will discuss a definition of a persuasive paragraph. A persuasive paragraph gives the writer's opinion on the topic and tries to get the reader to agree with it . When you write a persuasive paragraph , you should give facts and examples to back up your opinion. Otherwise you won't persuade or convince your reader that your opinion is the right one.
The main purpose of an expository paragraph is to give information about a topic. It may explain ideas, give directions, or show how to do something. An expository paragraph uses transition words (such as first , second, and most importantly in the model below). These words help guide the reader through the explanation.
In a narrative paragraph, you tell a story by sharing the details of an experience come alive.
A descriptive paragraph describes a person , place , thing , or an idea. When you write a descriptive paragraph, you should use words that help your readers see , hear , smell, taste , and feel what you are describing. You should tell your readers what colors things are how big things are , what things sound like , ect. Your readers should feel as if they are right there with you.
For Composition courses, you will most often be writing EXPOSITORY text, though elements of narrative, persuasive, and desciptive writing will come into your work.
A good paragraph for an essay that is informative and convincing has a P (point, or topic sentence), 2 examples of I (information: facts, quotes, examples and the way they prove what you want them to prove) and an E (explanation: the wrap up line that tells reader why it all matters. Another way of explaining the PIE parapraph is to think of the TELL ME (topic sentence), SHOW ME (examples and proof) and SO WHAT? (how does this info relate to your overall thesis, the main idea behind your essay).
2. Try this. Read the paragraph below and decide what kind of paragraph it is (narrative, expository, or descriptive). Note your answer here after you read:______________________________
At a good cheese store, you can get a quick lesson in geography while you sample cheese from around the world because cheese really is an international food. For example, you might taste the soft cheese such as Brie from France and cottage and cream cheese from the United States. After that, you might sample the semisoft cheese such as Limburger from Belgium and Munster from Germany, again showing you how multi-cultural cheese can be. Then, you could try the hard cheeses like Cheddar from England, Edam from Holland, and Swiss from Switzerland. Finally, you might buy some of the very hard cheeses like Parmesan or Romano from Italy. In doing so, you might discover that though we have a great deal of diversity on this Earth, we also have something in common: perhaps a love of cheese can bring the world together.
3. Underline or cut and paste the P (point) above.
4. Cut and paste or type out the pieces of I (information) above.
5.Cut and paste or underline any instances of E (explanation) above. Hint: A good convincing paragraph has more than just a line of E as its final sentence. You should find at least one more explaining example, in which the writer tells the reader WHY the evidence is important.
6. Now read pages 522-523 in Decisive Writer (DW) text, and read the following on sentence variety (also in DW) 46-49.
7. Then go to: http://www.writing101.net/student_resources/combining_sentences.shtmlDownload the file and print it, then read it.
8. Next:Write a well structured (PIE) paragraph for the following question. When you are done, go back to check for P, at least two pieces of I, and plenty of E. Then check your sentence variety and grammar. Try for some longer, complex sentences along with some short and simple ones. Use proper grammar as you do so!
QUESTION: What are the effects of discrimination?
9. Also collect your two vocab word for the week in your STAR vocab grid IN READER.Print the work sections of your homework and bring them to class on the 10th. If you will be missing class, send your homework to me via email or via the blog by Sept 10, at 6:00pm or I will not accept it.
