Finals this morning 8-10 a.m. in L-235. Friday, May 30, at Tillie's Diner on Webster in Alameda, 8-10 a.m. for the early class.

Whew! I'm tired. This morning the first round of finals for English 1A went well, especially the skits :-) Those students who I spoke to about joining the other class on Friday, May 30 for breakfast and presentations let me know if you'd still like to come: Aisha and Ernest. We will meet in front of the L-building and walk over to Tillie's. I will be back by 12 noon. Bring your portfolio by my office (L-236) then. Friday is graduation, so I will only be around until 1 p.m. If you miss me, you have missed an opportunity to complete the course. Some students are not handing in a completed portfolio checklist. I need it filled out along with the portfolio which can be emailed to me, not the checklist.

I will be in the Writing Center tomorrow, Thursday, May 29, 10-12. You can turn your work in then.

We had outstanding presentations. Among them were, Marty, Melissa, Faraj, Marcus, and Yolanda. As I said, we had two skits; both were excellent!

Happy Birthday Aisha!

The Color Purple Essay
If you have not responded to 75 percent of the assignments on the blog, then The Color Purple essay is required. Make certain that you do an excellent job on the works cited page and that you respond to the question. The essay should be about 3 pages, and use one block quote, one direct quote and one paraphrase. You can post it here and include it in your portfolio which is due the day of the final. I didn't accomplish as much as planned, but I think the quality of student work on the research paper is representative of your growth from the first major essay, Alice Walker: A Life, to the midterm. I hope you capture this analysis in your essay two. Remember, you can have an extension if you don't think you can get the work completed by Wednesday, May 28, although, I will take early portfolio submissions :-)

Post The Color Purple Essays here. If you expect or want an A and are missing assignments, this essay can take the place of an essay you didn't do well on, like Alice Walker: A Life, if you add an additional scholarly reference, and bump it up to 5 pages.

Portfolio Checklist Spring 2008
English 1A

Name
Mailing Address
Phone Number
E-mail address
Course number and code

The only paper copies are the freewrites. Do not give me your originals. Turn this checklist into me filled out to the best of your ability the day of finals.

The portfolio narratives (These are essays)
1. The narrative will look at the 18 weeks, the themes we looked at this semester, social justice and the movement for civil rights in this country past and present. We read and watched films that illustrated the dangerous time many volunteers faced during Freedom Summer. Perhaps many of you were shocked at the bigotry and racist attitudes, the terrorism and brave men and women and children, named and unnamed who worked to make democracy available to all. In your research papers you chose a person to highlight who has made it their life’s work to continue in the same spirit of those leaders 40-50 years ago who sacrificed their lives, many of them, so racist policies like Jim Crow was outlawed. Talk about what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing and yourself, 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 here: reading and writing 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. You can also offer suggestions.

2. The second part of the narrative looks at the writing process and what you have been learning about yourself as a writer. Take two essays and talk about the planning, research and revision strategies you used. It helps to choose an early paper and compare to a later paper. Often you can more easily see the differences in your writing and a better example of mastery of certain concepts. Also discuss skills you need to improve and how you plan to address that.

Besides the two essays, I also want you to include the midterm essay and research essay, cyber-essays, and all the writing from Letter’s from Mississippi, including your scene. Please have a separate section for Children of the Movement.


Writing Workshop
We will work on the narratives together next week, Tuesday, May 27, 9-12 noon, maybe 1 p.m., in the Writing Lab. We will meet in the smaller lab, L-235.

Our final for the 8-10 AM class is Friday, May 30, at 8-10. We were thinking about meeting at Tilly’s on Webster for breakfast. We will decide this Thursday, May 22. The later class, 9-10, your final is Wednesday, May 28, 8-10 AM. We will meet in the Writing Center, L-235, if we don’t perform the skits this Thursday, May 22. Otherwise, Tilly’s is also an option for you. I believe Faraj and Melissa night need Internet, which means we will have to have a potluck on campus.

If you need technology, let me know 5/22. I have a laptop, a TV with VCR, DVD player and CD capabilities. Your portfolio is due Wednesday, May 28, at 12 noon for the English 1A, 9-10. If you need more time let me know Tuesday, May 27 when you come to the writing workshop. Bring all your work with you, drafts, etc.

Additional narrative considerations for the portfolio essay:
The second essay has students look at the writing process and discuss their own writing process: the topics chosen, the information used, revision strategies, writing as a process. This should include a definition of the difference between editing and revising and a value statement on the place for both in composition.

I am really interested in discourse about audience and how that shapes or determines how the writer approaches her topic.

I am also interested in discussion of the revision process, and whether or not seeing writing as a work in progress or a draft, liberates or stagnates the creative process. (Students are to use examples from their writing to illustrate these points.)

I'd also like students to think about and give at three specific ways how they have grown as writers and thinkers this semester. Each essay should be minimally 1-2 pages (250-500 words).

Grade Justification
What grade do you think you earned in the course? If you have a strong argument with proof: graded work. I will consider it.

Your essay and the attached copy of a completed grading sheet are the evidence.

Do you have any questions about writing or anything else?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Teacher Research
Can I use you writing in teacher research projects? I will give you full credit and inform you of its use. Indicate Yes or No. Please circle one.

Evaluation
In a third response evaluate the semester: teacher, textbooks, assignments, methodology, etc. Please be frank and feel free to offer suggestions.


Assignments:
Just put a check next to the assignments you have completed. I will put a grade next to the sections and assignments you do not have grades on. I will be emailing you grades for the midterm, research essay, Malcolm X’s daughter from Children of the Movement. Include the optional, The Color Purple, essay as a part of the portfolio due next week.

The narrative essays are the introduction to your portfolio which is a collection of all your writing this semester. Please give me a copy of your in-class notes if applicable. Do not give me a hardcopy. I’d like the portfolio on a CD or disk, with a completed checklist filled out.

Letter to professor in response to her letter to you 1/17 ____
MLK Jr. Speeches 1/17 _____
State of the Union 1/28 _____

Alice Walker: A Life 1/30 ______
Alice Walker: A Life 1/31_______
Alice Walker: A Life 2/4 _______

Martin Luther King III 2/5 ______
Anne Reeb 2/7 _______
Love 2/12 _____ 2/13 ______ 2/14 ______
Beauty 2/28________

Other essays
Propaganda Techniques _____
In-class collaborative essays_________________ (topic and participants)
_______________________________________________________________________

Midterm
The Fire Next Time: Down at the Cross _____
Prewriting posts______________

The Color Purple skit_______
performance_____

The Color Purple essay ________

Research Section
Library orientation worksheet ______ (paper copy)
Evaluation of a website_____ (paper copy)
Frontline World 4/7 _____
Planning Sheet 4/21______
S.E. essay draft posted 4/14 & 4/16 ________

Research essay final draft sent to professor (date) _______
Research essay grade___________ (written essay) _________________ (presentation)
Abstract or outline for classmates_____________

Films
Eyes on the Prize 2/19 ______
Banished (film) 3/3 _____
Argumentation 4/2 ______

Field Trips
Alice Walker at MoAD, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the MLK Jr. Memorial_____
Sonny’s Blues at Lorraine Hansberry _______
Alice Walker @ New World Expo _________
Bishop Desmond Tutu _________
Cynthia McKinney@ Speaking Fierce (Women of Color Resource Center)_______


Freewrites_____ (copies)

Anything else? _______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Scenes from The Color Purple Take One
English 1A, 8-9 AM class performed two of the three skits this morning. Here are some photos of scenes and clips of the play.

Rudy, Dominique, and Maria, with extras: Bianca and Deon, performed their skit/scene today. It went very well. They will present a final performance tomorrow. Rudy will present his essay on Thursday, followed by independent work on the portfolio essays.

I don't know if students have read Elements of Style. I suggest you do so this weekend and incorporate the text into your essay on revision. You are responsible for the essay on Malcolm's daughter. It was yesterday's homework. Some students are not producing passing essays without revision. I might have students write a short 2-page essay using The Color Purple as your source, Thursday, May 22. So be prepared. The topic will be from The Color Purple. I need to see that you can write a passing essay without revision in 50 minutes. Students will include three citations: one block quote, one paraphrase, and one shorter direct quote, plus a bibliography.

Students can prepare a thesis and an outline in advance. Choose one question:

1. Discuss Alice Walker's exploration of the theme forgiveness in The Color Purple.

2. Talk about Celie's development as a character, from a docile child and cowered woman, into the outspoken and eventually fully realized woman we see at the end of the novel journey. How is she assisted along the path to wholeness?

3. Shug is an independent woman who has a relationship with a man, who doesn't marry her. She bears his children and leaves them with her mother to raise, has a career as a singer, who is both admired and feared by her more conservative family and friends back home. Yet, Shug is just what Celie needs to stir her from a life she has settled into because "heaven is there when she dies." Walker's Shug makes her heaven on earth. Her view of God is as earthly as she is. She says:

"God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It" (195).

"God love everything you love--and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration."

"You saying God is vain? [Celie] ast."

"Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it" (196).

4. Compare Shug in the text to Shug on screen. The two character differ drastically from one another. Discuss how Steven Spielberg alters Walker's character and whether or not this adaptation to the screen does Shug justice.

5. Talk about the theme sisterhood as ememplified in Sofia's relationship with hers and Celie's relationship with Nettie. You can also look at the idea of sisterhood: Celie, Squeak, Sophia, Nettie, Shug...and how it is this support for Celie--the cypher, that eventually allows each sister to come into her own.

6. What does love have to do with it, is a question one can ask in reference to the relationships between Mister and Shug, Celie and Mister, and Celie and Nettie. One can also see how fear which dismantles and unravels love's power to transform in these characters and in other character's lives:Sophia and Harpo, Mister and his father, is ultimately subdued. Love is stronger than fear. Love is stronger than hate. Love is strong medicine as native people say. Talk about this powerful tool, love, and what love inspires each character to do, how it transforms their lives.

7. Talk about the moment when Celie realizes that her sister is alive and does love her. What shifts in the story and in Celie's life? What does this incident do for the story and how does this shift in Celie's perception affect the others, women and men, in the story?

8. Beauty is a theme in the novel. Why does everyone call Celie "black and ugly?" Why does she believe them? How does Walker show that beauty is not one's appearance but one's actions?

9. Talk about race and class in The Color Purple.

10. Talk about Celie's relationship to God and why she stops writing to God and writes directly to Nettie.

In the early class we started writing our skits for The Color Purple. I am inclined to let the extra assignment go and let the paper on Malcolm X's daughter be the final essay. We'll see how it looks when students post it. I am still working on questions. I asked students for suggestions, but I don't recall seeing any. I may be mistaken.

The second class had a great discussion on destiny and fate, choice and victimization. We read the essay and students are to post their response to the essay questions.

I will be around Tuesday, May 27, 9-12 in L-235 to help students with their portfolios. Our last meeting is this Thursday, May 22. I will be in the Writing Center tomorrow, May 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. I will not be here after class Thursday, my friend, poet Reginald Lockett died last week and his funeral is 5/22 at 11 a.m. He was a great friend and a fine poet and man.

Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz Cyber-Essay

Today is Malcolm X's birthday. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. and also was assasinated at 39 years old. Though shown as advesaries, the two men shared a lot and had a lot in common. Malcolm X appreciated Martin King's work and went to Atlanta to support him, yet King was away, so Shabazz met with Coretta Scott King instead. If you don't know anything about Malcolm X, you might want to read a short bio on him first, before responding to this essay. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio.htm

The topic of this paper takes as a theme, nature vs. nurture, fate vs. destiny. Think about this interview with another child of an icon, Ilyasha Shabazz, daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Her life shares some of the same challenges that Martin Luther King III spoke about: the expectations of greatness neither could live up to as children and young adults. King wanted to shoot hoops and Shabazz wanted to be a fashion model. Now both are carrying on their parents' legacy of civil leadership and civic involvement.

Was Ilyasah given a choice or did she take it? Was she a victim of circumstances or did she have certain privileges because of her parents?

How much of who she is based on her will rather than the family she inherited? If you like, you can talk about yourself and whether or not you choose your life, or if it was given to you, or perhaps it is a little of both. You could also bring in Martin Luther King III and talk about what the two children of icons share and how their lives differed.

The question is in here somewhere :-) Respond in 500 words minimally today and post it here.

Today in the later English class we completed watching The Color Purple the film. Students were asked to post potential essay questions here for review. We will write our essay on Wednesday in the Writing Center. We will have all the rest of our classes in the Writing Center. If you don't see this, I'll post a note on the door Monday, May 19, Malcolm X's birthday. We're going to write about Malcolm on Monday. I have an essay from Children of the Movement to share. It will be a cyber-essay. I will send you the grade for your research essays. So email them to me. After I send you the grade, you can post it, at the link labeled final drafts. Make certain you include a narrative of what major changes you made to the revised final draft as a note to me at the top of the paper. Don't include the outline or the planning sheet, if already posted last month.

We will work on this next week. The portfolio is due the day of the final. We will also write our scenes from The Color Purple and students will perform their skits the day of. If you write your skit alone, bring in multiple copies and other students can participate as cast. The grade is on the writing and the group will share the grade.

I really appreciate your flexibility this semester. Again, I'd like to purchase a copy of Letters from Mississippi with the poetry section included.

Final gatherings, parties, etc.
Last semester we went out to dinner. If anyone is interested in one more class outting, let me know. We could do dinner and a play, a museum exhibit, a concert.

Things to do this weekend besides study :-)
This weekend at San Antonio Park is the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. It's free.

The portfolio narratives
1. The narrative will look at the 18 weeks, the themes we looked at this semester, nature vs. nurture, and how what you've learned and discovered this semester about writing and yourself, college and life, have transformed or changed you. Do you have a choice over what happens in your life or are you a victim of circumstances?

What have you learned about yourself this semester? What have you learned about the discipline you are studying here: reading and writing 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. The second part of the narrative looks at the writing process and what you have learning about yourself as a writer. Take two essays and talk about the planning, research and revision strategies you used. It helps to choose an early paper and compare to a later paper. Often you can more easily see the differences in your writing and a better example of mastery of certain concepts. Also discuss skills you need to improve and how you plan to address that.

Reflective Writing
Today students were invited to reflect on their writing process. Students are to use 2 essays to illustrate their points. Students can use an essay from another course as evidence, one essay needs to be an essay written in our class. I suggest students use the research paper and the midterm.

We looked at Hacker, pages 26-27. What is the philosophical thinking behind the idea "draft" or "revision"? How does this free the writer's creative process?

We read another essay, Sushil's in the early class and Christina and Ernest's in the later class. After I give you a grade, you can post your final essay. Everyone should have an earlier draft that includes the planning sheets, document search and outline, introduction and conclusion.

Come see me tomorrow. I'm in the Writing Center from 10-12.

We'll be talking about portfolios next week and will start working on the portfolio essays so that students will get them in on time. The essay assignments in the portfolio include: all the cyber essays on MLK Jr. and Alice Walker, the Frontline World Responses, the Children of the Movement essays, Baldwin freewrite and Midterm, Research essay and all prewriting planning (outline, initial planning, document search, any grades revisions, and peer responses), Evaluation of a Website and all library assignments (from orientation), extra credit essays, if applicable, and The Color Purple essay. I will allow students to submit an essay from another discipline as a part of the portfolio. Ask the other teacher if it is okay first. Have the other professor sign off on the essay granting permission.

If students are okay with not reading Letters from Mississippi, we can just focus on the portfolios and wrap up any lose ends over the next few weeks. We can then read a a few Walker short stories, or Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," (I also have the new movie with Sean Combs), watch the Zora Neale Hurston documentary. We can respond to these on the blog.

The Color Purple Essay will be due next week. We'll write it perhaps Tuesday in class. Let me know Thursday, May 8, what you think about this plan. Respond here in the comment section. I certainly recommend the book.

Over the following class meetings we will look at different rhetorical styles. We will also look at the topic of knowing, how we know what we know and how we can apply these acquisition skills to other topics and areas of study.

Oh, bring in a hard copy of your research papers tomorrow to class. Print them out and bring to the Wriing Center. Include the outline, initial planning sheet, and document search. I believe some students posted their final drafts on the blog. You can all do this by tomorrow, even if you gave me a copy on a disk. Still bring in a paper copy to class. Label the final draft "final draft." If you have not previously posted all part of the research process, post it with the final draft, otherwise, just post the essay. Look at the "preview" to make sure you do not lose the formatting.

Elements of Style--we will be discussing the reading assignments in detail next week, so be sure to read the chapters mentioned. We'll complete the book by 5/15.

Oh, don't forget to comment on student research essays. Everyone has to comment on at least one essay.

Greetings class! Today we watched the beginning of the Color Purple film. We'll continue tomorrow and the next day. We'll start at the top of the hour. I assigned reading: Elements of Style read the Forward, Introduction and Elementary Rules of Usage. For Wednesday, May 7, read up to Section V: Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form and Words and Expressions Commonly Misused. Any edition is fine. Mine is the 4th edition.

Thursday, as previously noted, students will write an essay in class comparing the film to the novel. We will practice the 3-step thesis for this essay. The essay will be 4-paragraphs long, 500 words minimally, and employ the thesis, antithesis and synthesis strategy we've written collaboratively this semester. The 3-step thesis is a handout I gave you early this semester. I will explain it tomorrow. We'll practice it Wednesday and you will use it Thursday. I hope we get through the film, as I hope each of you gets through the book :-) It's a quick read.

Letters from Mississippi is not.

Today we met in class because Thursday is our normal Writing Lab day for the 9-10 a.m. class. Several students, and I am being generous, are behind. I have given students until Thursday, May 8 to get everything in. Beginning Monday, we will watch The Color Purple, Thursday students will write an essay in class comparing the film to the novel, or other essay choices. YOU WILL NOT GET THE ESSAY QUESTION IN ADVANCE, NOR WILL YOU BE ABLE TO MAKE UP THIS ESSAY IF YOU MISS CLASS.

This means students need to have completed the book by next Thursday, May 8. It's too bad we weren't able to complete it aloud, but such is life.

What else?

I will be writing a narrative for each student to let you know your writing strengths and weaknesses, and we will begin developing our final portfolios this month also, so they will be completed before final's week. I will include the portfolio check-list with the narrative evaluation.

We'll read Letters from Mississippi quickly then spend the last week developing the scene, rehearsing it for the day of finals performance. This is a group assignment and a group grade. If you don't participate or cannot participate, I will give you an essay assignment.

I'd like to read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, aloud, just because Alice Walker loved her work so much and it would be nice to hear the language. We'll see how it goes.

Some of you are doing very well, others started out doing well and have gotten behind on the research essay and perhaps on other work too. Don't be discouraged. You are not out of the passing target range if you have completed the midterm, a few of the earlier essays on King and/or Walker cyber-essays, and turn in the research paper.