Today the reserved lab was taken so we held class in L-202. It was a nice large smart classroom that I am going to see about holding, as a back up for Thursdays. The only problem with this set-up is that there are no writing databases on the desktop. In the lab I could have shown you the Beckford Handbook on-line which is also by Diana Hacker. There students could have looked up signal phrases, paraphrases, and other topics we discussed in the lecture. The assignment changed a bit from what I mention below. Students reflected on the first 5 chapters of Alice Walker: A Life in three paragraphs. In this brief reflection use two direct quotes and 1 paraphrase.

POST THE RESPONSE FOR TODAY HERE.

Visit http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/rules6e/Player/pages/Main.aspx. Beckford is better, but this site is good for practice exercises. Check it out in the Writing Center L-234, 231.

Homework is as stated below. We will meet in the Writing Lab on Monday. Keep a separate journal on each book beginning with White's.

Today in class we discussed Alice Walker: A Life. Homework was to read up to chapter 6, or page 32. We will respond to the reading on-line tomorrow in the Writing Center. Students will write a three paragraph essay incorporating one citation into each paragraph.

Alice Walker suffered a horrible accident that changed the way she perceived herself. What lessons did she learn from this accident? How does knowing this about her effect your re-visioning of her essays?

Homework: Keep reading Walker. Read chapter 6-12 over the weekend. Ask questions of the text, make predictions about what's coming, be prepared to share. We'll divide into literature circles on Monday. Don't forget to keep a vocabulary log and a reading log for each section. In the log note the key themes, characters and any other important information.

Let's meet in the Writing Center on Monday also, so you can share your impressions on-line. Does anyone know how I can set up a chat room in google blog space?

The sun is setting; I think I should go home :-) Monday, we'll get back to the Coretta King: Revisited assignment.

Bush's State of the Union. Today we had a class discussion on the president's speech last night. In the 9-10 class our discussion was quite involved. Students will complete their group outlines on Coretta Scott King: Revisited tomorrow. One student will post the outline here for the group. The group can also write a summary and post that also.

Homework is to purchase the textbooks: Alice Walker: A Life, Elements of Style (any edition), to bring in a grammar style book, plus a college dictionary. In Alice Walker: A Life read the title page, the publication information, noting Alice Walker's and the author's ages, plus the table of contents, the prologue, and Walker's family tree. We'll read the first chapter together and talk about it tomorrow.

We will meet in the Writing Center, L-234 on Thursdays this semester. Students will post assignments on the blog during the week. Thursday assignments will be emailed to me. You will receive a grade on these essays. If you area absent the assignment will be posted there as well. These essays will be skill building essays. This week, 1/31, we'll work on MLA format for essays and books, in text citations, and signal phrases. Last week was an assessment.

We'll practice certain types of rhetorical forms and look for their application in each other's writing, strategies like the use of examples, process analysis, cause and effect, compare and contrast, argumentation, definition, division and classification, when addressing certain topics. (All of this is in the section in Hacker called: The Writing Process.)

We will also discuss in more detail what is reasonable thinking and what is fallacious, what makes an argument sound and what invalidates it. We will talk about deductive and inductive reasoning and practice identifying the more common fallacies by name. We'll also look at propaganda, especially where marketing is concerned-- goods and ideas.

One of the cyber-assignments will look at the presidential candidates and their arguments on similar issues and the strategies they employ in trying to best their opponents. Students will watch two debates and talk about the arguments raised and the argumentative strategies employed and whether you feel its fair or unfair.

Next Thursday we will look at the three types of essays: narrative, expository, and descriptive. I believe everything is an argument. We will also look at essay planning, and the parts of an essay: introduction, body and conclusion; and the structure of an argument.

We will also touch on invention strategies: listing, mapping, clustering, questioning; essay planning, essay style and format, grammar, syntax, punctuation and mechanics and where to find help.

We'll adjust this list as the writing situation arises.

Tonight's homework is to watch the presidential State of the Union Address, 6 PM on all major networks: TV and radio. It's always more fun to watch than to just listen; however if you aren't home then you can visit the White House on-line or look at CBS.com or CNN.com for taped broadcasts.

Identify 3-4 arguments and respond to them in agreement or disagreement. The essay should be 250 words or 1 typed page. Read the Walker essay on Coretta Scott King also. We'll discuss it in class and outline it together.

In the 9-10 class we had a lively discussion about Walker's essay and poem: On Stripping Bark from Myself and "The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It." Afterwards we read and discussed Choice: A Tribute to MLK Jr.

This morning in class we wrote our essay responses to Alice Walker's 1966-67 essay: The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?" The question I wanted to students to reflect on in a 500 word essay is the same one Walker contemplated, now 41 years ago. What good did the Civil Rights Movement serve? Do you agree with Walker's assessment today? Why or why not? Use concrete examples and support from the text.

I had new students joining us this morning, so they spent the time reading and planned to email me later. Please send essays to professorwandasposse@gmail.com. Attach and paste the assignment. I cannot always open attachments.

Homework for the weekend is to read another Walker essay handout and bring in an outline to share 1/28. You don't have to type the outline.

Start with the thesis then continue with the major points and subsequent evidence gleaned from the essay. The essay is another Walker essay: "Choice: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

I like this outline form; however if there is a another form you like better, please use the one you are more familiar with

THESIS
This statement is a declarative sentence. See Diana Hacker: "The Basics"

MAJOR POINT 1
EVIDENCE
EVIDENCE
EVIDENCE

MAJOR POINT 2
EVIDENCE

MAJOR POINT 3
EVIDENCE
AND SO ON

CONCLUDING SENTENCE
Summarize the conclusion in a sentence.

Next week
Depending on how this writing assignment goes, we might continue to meet in the Writing Center for Thursday morning reflections on the week's writing topic and to review certain concepts and skills. Do you like that idea? Students need to bring Alice Walker: A Life to class Monday, january 28, along with a grammar style book, and a college dictionary. Of course you need a notebook, pen, folder for papers. Other stationery items like a stapler, paper clips, white out, a pencil, also help.

Today in clsss we read a poem by Alice Walker, "Each One, Teach One," did some writing on themes that arose from the reading then talked about it. The second class was a little more expansive than the first class. However, both discussions were insightful. We then exchanged homework assignments so that students could give each other feedback on the homework. In the first class we ran out of time; the second class had a bit more. I hope the exercise was useful. Some students asked if they could revise their essays and turn them in the next day. I told them yes.

Homework was to read the handout: "The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?" Students will respond to a question tomorrow in class. We are meeting in the Writing Center (both classes).

Homework for Thursday, January 24, is to finish the MLK Jr. Cyber-Assignment. I won't dock you if you need to get it in Friday after 12 midnight. Get it in by 5 p.m.

The new semester has begun and I'm excited to have met such engaged adults. I arrived yesterday on campus and realized I didn't have keys to the classroom. The dean unlocked the classrooms for me, and after introductions we went over to the Writing Center (L-234) to read the syllabus on-line and discuss first assignments. A lot of students were confused. I hope things are clearer after reading this.

All of the students in the early class (8-9) raised their hands when I asked if everyone had an email address. Many students overall are computer literate, under 20, a few just out of high school. We also have continuing students and students who are on multiple Peralta Community College campuses, like Laney next door.

In the second class, once again, most students had no problem accessing the blog once the hardware booted up. The second class ended as my office hours began and I was able to answer questions and help students get started. It's too bad we don't meet in a lab or smart classroom all the time. Towards the end of the semester, we'll be meeting in the Writing Center more often.

I was able to pick up copies of the syllabus and the letter after 10 a.m. and put copies in the bin outside my door. Also, if you ever have trouble posting an assignment on the blog, email it to me so it won't be late, then come to my office and I can show you how. Sometimes certain computers won't allow the posts. If this happens to you at school switch to another computer.

I also went by the bookstore to see what was in stock. The Evelyn White: Alice Walker: A Life is in, along with Letters from Mississippi.

There is nothing due Tuesday in class. Go to a MLK Jr. event and write about it for Wednesday, January 23. If you are working an can't attend an event, read about King Day events and write a response. The essay should should be minimally 250 words or one typed page. The cyber essays are due by Thursday at midnight. Respond to one of your classmates posts there. Students pay attention to where you post your assignments. As the days progress you need to look at dates to make sure the responses correspond to the correct assignment. If you post elsewhere, we will get confused. Again, for the cyber assignment, do not post them all at once. Spread it out over the week. Also include a reference to the site where it was published in your bibliography or works cited section at the end of the work.

NOTE: COA library has King's speeches in the collection. You don't have to utilize the links on the blog. A book is fine as a resource. The links just make it easier. If you use a book, remember to include a reference to your source in the paper when you post it on the blog.

These essays are just warm-ups and are supposed to create a community dialogue. Relax and enjoy each other's interpretations of King's profound insight on the human condition, one that extende beyond these borders.

Don't forget to respond to my letter. It's in the comment section at the syllabus post. Put Tuesday, Feb. 12 in your calendar. We will meet in the library for an orientation with Steve Gerstle, librarian.

Cyber Writing Assignments 1-3 January 17-24

Visit these websites and read three speeches by Dr. King over the next week. Write a summary/analysis of each speech. You can choose any speech except: “I Have a Dream.” Each response should be minimally 250 words of one typed page (double space.) Post it on the blog. Respond to one student essay. Read the essay first, and then respond.


http://www.mlkonline.net/

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/contents.htm

http://members.aol.com/klove01/martinsp.htm

Welcome to COA Spring 2008

English 1A, Spring 2008
Course code: A0048/9

Class Meetings: Jan. 17-May 22, 8-9 & 9-10, MTWTh
Location: Room D-206/D-205

Holidays:1/21, 2/15-18,5/16, 5/26, Spring Break:3/24-30, Staff Dev.: 3/6
Final Exam Week: May 27-30


Each One, Pull One (Thinking of Lorraine Hansberry)

…We must say it all, as clearly
as we can. For, even before we are dead,
they are busy
trying to bury us.
—Alice Walker


Syllabus for English 1A: College Composition and Reading

English 1A is the first transferable college writing course. Don’t get nervous, hopefully you took English 201 and passed with a B or better. Perhaps you’re fresh out of high school, did okay on the placement exam and voila wound up here. Maybe you’re returning to college after a significant hiatus and aren’t confident in your writing, yet once again passed that placement exam, which, if you recall, tested grammar not writing. Keep your receipt and notice the dates, so you can get a full refund if you cut your losses and drop by Feb.14, or Apr. 29 with a W :-) So my joke wasn’t funny? Hang in there and you’ll do fine in the class if you:

1. Know what an essay is
2. Have written one before
3. Are ready to commit yourself to the task of writing

Plan to have a challenging, yet intellectually stimulating 18 weeks, which I hope you begin by setting goals for yourself. Make a schedule and join or create a study group. 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.

I believe we’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. This includes drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the library researching, reading documents to increase your facility with the ideas or themes your are contemplating, before you once again sit at your desk writing, revising, and writing some more.

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

This semester we will look at racism in America. Racism is a system where people are favored or denied favors based solely on their visible or invisible racial heritage. A poet, whose work I love, Sekou Sundiata, said in a poem that he was condemned solely based on the skin he was in. He died last year.

We will use the civil rights movement and the events of Freedom Summer to base our critique. We will also look at several biographies that look at the legacy leaders in the various movements in American history: Civil Rights, Segregationist, and Black Power. In English 1A we will also look at Alice Walker’s life, one that spans all of these periods in American History. We’ll sprinkle a little poetry, like water on the flames James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time will possibly ignite. A brilliant writer, Baldwin, writes a book length essay to his nephew. It is quite powerful. This book is a stylistic parallel to The Color Purple which is referred to in Alice Walker: A Life. I included it in my English 1A class syllabus because many people know the movie and the play, but not the book. Their Eyes Were Watching God (English 201) is a story by another southern writer, Zora Neale Hurston, who was relatively unknown prior to Walker’s scholarly exploration of her life.

We’ll conclude the semester with a reading of the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Hansberry was the first women and black person to get the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Alice Walker was the second woman and African American to get the honor.

We will write an essay based on the themes from each book. You will also write a research essay. You will need a grammar and style book. I recommend Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers, (St. Martin’s Press) and a notebook for in-class writing with a folder for handouts. You also need a couple of ink pens, a pencil with an eraser, a hole puncher, and a stapler.

I like to read and can’t resist a great story. All of these authors know how to spin a tale. We will be looking at the various characters, their journeys and their choices. Why do they do what they do? Do they need to make better choices, divorce their families, get new friends, think for themselves?

We will keep a reading log. Discussion groups will meet each week. Students will also keep a reading log/journal/notes with key ideas outlined for each discussion section, along with themes which arise, vocabulary and key arguments, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving.

At the completion of each text as I said, we will write a short essay about the work. We will begin with Alice Walker: A Life, followed by The Color Purple, then Letters from Mississippi and lastly, The Fire Next Time. We will conclude with A Raisin in the Sun or Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. I find that plays are best read aloud.

Research Project
Alice Walker is a social entrepreneur. She certainly used her craft and her life to better the world. The entrepreneurship comes in when we look at her publishing imprint and her motto that she and her partners only publish books they like. Alice Walker has helped other writers get exposure, and used her position at Ms Magazine and elsewhere, to further the careers of many other writers.

She has also used her craft as a tool for activism, not to mention her life. I’d like each of you to find another artist who is using their craft to better the world and is also a business person or entrepreneur. Your research project will entail finding a social entrepreneur who has been active in his or her community for at least 20 years and have documented resources you can draw from: books, essays, articles, films.

The paper will be between 5-7 pages. This will include a works cited page and bibliography. Students will make 5-10 minute presentations of these papers in May during final’s week. The paper will be due about two-three weeks prior to the presentation. We’ll discuss this task further later on. Start thinking of whom you might want to profile now.

New Heroes
Visit PBS.org The New Heroes, to read about social entrepreneurs. (I’ll show you a few episodes from the series.) Too often people feel helpless or hopeless when there is a lot you can do as an individual as soon as you realize the answer lies inside of you. If possible chose an entrepreneur who lives in Northern California, someone you’d like to interview and perhaps meet. There is also a series on PBS called Frontline World with many SE profiled.

We will visit the library for 1-3 special sessions to help you better prepare for this project. Students can work on the project together and share resources. Each person has to write his or her own paper, but you can make a group presentation if you like.

Library Sessions: Tuesday, February 12. We will meet in the library instead of the classroom.

Reading great authors and writers helps you develop your style. It’s similar to eating a balanced meal for optimum health. A writer is only as intellectually healthy as the material he or she reads. Models are often a great way to practice a style of writing. I will occasionally make copies of articles from magazines and textbooks I think illustrate a particular style of writing I’d like you to practice, or perhaps an argument which has peaked my interest. If you find an argument, either a visual one or a written one you’d like to share please do so.


Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.

1.



2.



3.



4.



5.

Please put your name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address on the card you’ve been given, then answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper or index card (handed out):

What strengths do you bring to the class? What skills or knowledge would you like to leave with once the class ends? What can I do to help you achieve this? Is there anything I need to know, such as a hidden disability, childcare issues, etc., which might jeopardize this goal?

Homework Assignments
First Assignment is to go to a MLK Jr. event and write a reflection on it. If you can’t do that, read an article about activities held in his honor. Think about this man and his legacy. In an essay write about MLK Jr. and what he meant to America and its people? Did King choose his life or was he groomed for the role he eventually played? Due Wednesday, Jan. 23, 250 words min., typed, double-spaced. The assignment is due 1/23.

Second Assignment is a handout: Read the essay. What is the essay about? Does Martin Jr. think he owns his life? What do you perceive is his struggle? What is the position of the author? What does the interviewer think about “Marty”? Do you agree? Read the essay and be prepared to respond in class the next day in a short essay. We'll probably do this Thursday.

If you are not American, write about someone MLK Jr. reminds you of, if you don’t know him or his work. He has been called a peacemaker, a man who wanted freedom, justice and equality—equal access, for his people.

He lived in a time when there was segregation. If you don’t know the historic period he lived in. Do a little background research first before writing.

Grading
Alice Walker: A Life; The Fire Next Time; The Color Purple: 35 percent
Midterm: 10 percent
Final: 15 percent
Research Essay/Presentation: 15 percent
Portfolio: 15 percent
Peer Reviews from Lab teachers: 5 percent
Participation: 5 percent

The essays from the textbooks are practice essays; the essays on the literature are analysis. Together they are about a fourth of your grade. The midterm and final are another fourth and your portfolio and the tutoring Writing Lab component is the final fourth. Plan to visit the Writing Center (L-234-231, 748-2132) weekly. Have a teacher evaluate your essays for form and content; the aim is lucid, precise, and clear prose.

This is a portfolio course, so save all of your work. You can average the grades to see how to weigh the various components. Participation is included in the daily exercises and homework portion of the grade, so if your attendance is exemplary, yet you say nothing the entire 18 weeks, you lose percentage points.

The Writing Center
The Writing Lab is a great place to get one-on-on assistance on your essays, from brainstorming and planning the essays, to critique on the essay for clarity, organization, clearly stated thesis, evidence of support, logical conclusions, and grammatical problems for referrals to other ancillary materials to build strong writing muscles such as SkillsBank, the Bedford Handbook on-line, Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers on-line, Townsend Press, and other such computer and cyber-based resources. The Lab is open M-Th 8-7, Fridays, 8-2. It is also open on Saturday. There is an Open Lab for checking e-mail, and a Math Lab. All academic labs are located in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) second floor.

Students need a student ID to use the labs and to check out books. The IDs are free and you can take the photo in the F-Building, Student Services. There is also a Cyber Café in the F-Building on the second floor in the cafeteria area.

Have a tutor or 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 minute session in the Lab. I have given you a handout designating five (5) areas you might want to have the tutor or teacher look at. 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 Colleges’ Writing Center, as well as Laney’s. You can also come see me during my office hours. I am here everyday except Friday.

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; a student can prepare this as a part of the Lab visit, especially if said student is unclear over what steps to take.

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 reading them to you.

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.

Grades, Portfolio
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily the best response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not a student can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this summer session in meeting your goals. I like to post essays on the academic blog as examples for other students. I will be asking students from time to time to submit copies for posting. The blog is cumulative, so you can read essays from Spring 2006, Fall 2007, up to now. I have posted a welcome and the syllabus. The address is http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com/

Office Hours
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I am available for consultation on TTh 10:00-12:00, and by appointment on MW after 3 p.m. in L-236. Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me. My office number is (510) 748-2131, e-mail professorwandasposse@gmail.com. Ask me for my cell phone number. I do not mind sharing it with you.

I don’t check my e-mail on weekends so I’d advise you to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator. Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio.

Students are expected to complete their work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance, if possible, to keep full credit. You loose credit each day an assignment is late and certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments prepared outside of class 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.)

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 loose 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.

All assignments completed away from class should be typed. Use blue or black ink when writing responses in class. You can annotate your books in pencil.

Textbooks Recap:
Alice Walker: A Life. Evelyn C. White. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2004

Letters from Mississippi. Elizabeth Martinez with Introduction by Julian Bond.
http://www.ecampus.com/book/9780939010714

The Color Purple. Alice Walker. New York: Harcourt, 2003

The Fire Next Time. James Baldwin. Vintage, 1993

The Elements of Style. Any edition. Williams Strunk Jr., E.B. White. Longman Publishers.

A Grammar Style Book. If you don't have one, I recommend:
Rules for Writers. Fifth or Sixth Edition. Diana Hacker. You can visit my office and see others you might like better.

Recommended:
The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.

Revolutionary Petunias. Alice Walker. Harcourt.
Great site for used books: http://www.ecampus.com/book/9780156766203#syn

Children of the Movement. John Blake.
http://www.ecampus.com/book/9781556525377

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.

Also stay abreast of the news. Buy a daily paper. Listen to alternative radio: KPFA 94.1 FM, KQED 88.5, KALW 91.7. Visit news websites: AllAfrica.com, Al Jazeera, CNN.com, AlterNet.org, DemocracyNow.org, FlashPoint.org, CBS 60Minutes on-line.

Assignment
Click the comment tab and read the letter posted there, if you haven't done so already. Post a comment addressed to me.