Today students peer reviewed Stewart Pidd Essay 2: Pronoun Agreement. We then read Sybil Baker's "Earl S Braggs: Poet of Place," along with Earl S Braggs' "Why We All Went to War"(5-12).

We didn't have a chance to meet in Literature Circles, so the assignment is to review Dreams up to Chapter 12 and reflect on the themes and what we know about Obama so far. Take into consideration Obama as we know him know, 44th president of the United States, and his first State of the Union.

I want students to use Baker's treatment of Earl S Braggs' work, as a model. Braggs travelled a lot yet, "explored small towns and larger cities here and abroad and our collective relationship to them. As an African American, Braggs writes about place as a perpetual outsider" (Alehouse 10).

Do you think Obama is the perpetual outsider? How so, why not? Respond in a 250 word essay.

Other homework is to keep reading Dreams up to Chapter 14. We'll spend the bulk of Monday morning in discussion. Get a copy of Baker to read, if you don't have the book. No one came by the Writing Center Thursday and asked for a copy, so I presume everyone made arrangements to get a copy. I heard on the news after Obama's State of the Union that he was a president of peace, that his interests are on domestic policies, whereas Bush, always presented himself as a wartime president. Do you
agree with this analysis? How so?

Pidd homework is to continue from page 108-123. On Essay 2: Pronoun Agreement, some students didn't complete the works cited page, also they didn't use alliteration in the title. We will complete essay 3, page 153 in class Thursday, March 4: Point of View (153-172).

If you are not clear on any of the concepts, please see me and ask for more work. I have supplementary assignments I can give you to help if you need more practice work. This is a review; however, for some students, this survey of grammar is not enough. There are quizzes I have not made copies of yet, plus other work in the axillary section I need to reference, like the MLA (302...which I did).

Fieldtrip
I'll be at Black Rep on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. with Paola (8-9 class) and other students, Nely, Rebecca, and Bridgett will be attending Sunday afternoon show at 4 p.m. They exchanged numbers today. I am no sure about anyone else. Ask for the $15 price. Tell the person at the door you are my student. The $15 is not the dinner gala price--Saturday-Sunday evening.

Absence
Keep reading Dreams and moving forward in Pidd. You should be up to page 86. If you want to identify the errors in Jimmy Dent's essay, by all means do so. You'll note that it is much longer.

I still hope to write a draft of Essay 2, Thursday. We shall see.

Field Trip
Re: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, at Black Rep, 3201 Adeline Street, in Berkeley, closes this weekend. Saturday, Feb. 28, is an option. The shows are 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. If we get 20 students, tickets are $15 each. I'd like to attend the matinee on Saturday, but if more of you can attend the Sunday then I will attend that show also. Tickets are $15 to $44.

Sunday, March 1, there is a 4 p.m. show. Group rates tickets are $15 without a meal. I need to check the price for tickets that include the Champagne Dinner. The playwright will be here this weekend, so you can meet her and she will sign your books. She will be speaking on Sunday, March 1.

Let me know Wednesday if you can make the Saturday or Sunday and how many tickets you need.

Recap and Homework
Wednesday we met in the Library for an orientation with Steve Gerstle. Today, for those students who are not caravanning to Sacramento to protest police violence, we will review preposition and verbal phrases, along with the next Coach T's section, and prepare for the next essay. I hope to give everyone back their essays this morning. Remember, today is my long day. I will be around until 3 p.m. (12 noon to 3 p.m.) in the Writing Center (L-234). Come by, no appointment is necessary. The phone number there is (510) 748-2132.

We will also continue our conversations on Obama. We are up to Chicago (Chapter 6). Some of you are further along than that. Keep reading and begin to think about a theme you'd like to consider for an essay. The midterm next month will take its theme from Dreams. It will be 4-5 pages long, and utilize 4 sources, one of them Obama's first book.

If you didn't pick up a copy of the handout with the code to use the library databases off campus, get one from the librarian at the reference desk. It is an invaluable resource you cannot access without a charge on-line.

Also, I put one copy of Pidd on reserve in the library and another copy on reserve on the bookshelf in the Writing Center (L-234) ask for it and do your assignments at the college if you do not have materials.

Homework is to read to Chapter 12. Students who came to class without their books were advised to go to the library and borrow a book on reserve to read there. Some students were upset, but there was nothing they could do today without books if they weren't prepared.

The Literature Circles looked at the various characters in the book so far, charted Obama's travels and places mentioned. They looked at the author's literary devices like flashback, dialogue, narrative voice....I asked students to consider the plot, thesis or main point the author is making in the book. One student said it was a search for his identity which he felt was connected to that of his father's whom he didn't really know. The book is a search for the absent father.

I liked the way students in the first class were lively in their conversation, passionate, would be a better term. All of those in the group were contributing valuable perspectives on the topics raised.

In the second class students in one group exchanged email addresses for a later recap. Other students read together in pairs. Still others who were in similar places in the book got together for discussion.

You probably noticed the exercises in the next two sections are a little more time consuming than those in the prior chapter. If you haven't started complete the exercises. There is a lot of valuable practice on fixing sentence fragments and recognizing phrases, pronouns which take a singular verb and those which do not, and those which can take either.

I am looking forward to identifying errors in Pidd's second essay, "Pronoun Agreement," on Monday, Feb. 23 (see page 86-89).I'd like to have the essay written by Thursday next week for the peer review check-list. Perhaps we'll look ahead next week also at future essays.

Start carrying Alehouse daily.

Field Trip
I'd like to recommend we attend the play, For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enuf by Ntozake Shange at the Black Rep in Berkeley on closing day, March 1. The playwright will be there.

Here is a review by Andre (English 1A, 9-9:50 AM).

Andre Stephens
English 1A 9:00 – 9:50
Professor Sabir
February 17, 2009


For Colored Girls Who Have Attempted Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf

On Saturday, February 14, I attended the play For Colored Girls Who Have Attempted Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Sean Scott is the co-director and his grandparents started the Black Reportore Theater in Berkeley, CA, 44 years ago. Sean was a linebacker for the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders which are two of my favorite NFL teams. Sean had described the play as a coreopoem so I figured there would be dancing and poetry. The play was written by Ntozake Shange in 1974. According to Sean, the play is going to be produced in New York by Whoopi Goldberg.

There are 10 main actresses at the beginning of the show wearing different colors. One other actress appears at different parts of the show and does dance numbers, but has no speaking part. Although the women are from different cities and states, all of them share the fact that they have been mistreated by men. None of them have had an easy life because of rape, abortion, abuse, being cheated on, and taking care of their man. The women seem to have lost their self-respect and the thing that seems to give them hope is music and dancing, and being there for each other.

The cast was diverse and all of the actresses talented. The performance by the woman who played a little girl running away to see Toussaint was great. Later on she played a boyfriend who had been abusing his girlfriend and gets drunk and angry when she refused to marry him. In the end, the abusive drunk drops his kids out of the window of an apartment. All the women lay hands on the mother of the kids and it seems to allow God to take control of her life. They all end up finding their strength and will not longer allow lives be controlled by a man. They realize they are beautiful black women. The production was centered on hope and inspiration.

After the play was over, the actresses lined up and everyone got a chance to shake their hands. I would absolutely recommend seeing this play. There was some questionable language, but it didn’t take away from the play.

Read Obama's Dreams up to Chicago (132) by 2/17. Keep a reading log for each chapter: note the vocabulary, themes, characters, and any literary devices you'd care to note, like the author's use of analogies or comparisons.

We'll probably spend most of the class 2/17 in Literature Circles after a couple of quizzes from Pidd.

Love Your Enemies Cyber-Post
For the Martin King essay, "Love Your Enemies," reflect on his notion of love. Why does King say we must love our enemy as ourselves? Was he always successful at this? How does he propose we do so?

Do you think Obama in the text is doing the same? What about in his position as President of the United States?

Use evidence from Dreams and from King's sermon to support your claims.
I posted the essay in the comment section of this post. Use one in-text citation(quote). Use a signal phrase, that is, introduce the speaker. For example: Martin Luther King says..."QUOTE" (page number)PUNCTUATION.

Post by Feb. 16, 2009.

Love Personified or at Least Illustrated Cyber-Post

I have been assigning this reflection for the past four years, that I can remember, and this year, in three classes, especially this morning, I can say that I was really moved by the power of love moving in the lives you, my students: love as a force, love as inspiration, love as friend, love as responsibility--love as enemy, love as pain, love as regret, love as promise.

Today the presentations were great in both classes--it was really special and for those who were present, we were truly blessed.

Post a reflection on the presentations here--your own and a classmates', and your Martin King sermon response. You can also post your written response to the "Love as Object" Assignment. Remember too, that you can continue to reflect on love anonymously through the weekend, at the earlier post. Jeremy, we wish you a happy birthday, and Mama Bridgett, we wish you a happy birthday too.

I have been sitting here too long. The rain has taken a break again and I should probably head over to the parking lot--you know what they say about fools who miss out on their blessings? Well, maybe you don't. There is this story about a person who thought they were forsaken and what is was is they didn't take advantage of the opportunity when it presented itself.

I say this to say that, I hope I don't end up soaked because this is the third time the rain has stopped, yet, I am still posting assignment. I can hear Bridgett asking me this morning if I'd gotten the assignment from the board, and I said yes.

Today students graded each other's papers using the checklist on page 50-51. We first went over the MLA guidelines on pages 302-305. Some students were still confused, I hope they have clarity now, or plan to come by the Writing Center, L-234, tomorrow, 12-3 to see me and work it out.

The freewrite was to look at analogies in the text, where Obama employs the literary device where he uses something concrete to explain an abstract concept. Sometimes the analogies serve as descriptions.

Alehouse and Praise Song for Learning Communities Cyber-Posts

Today in the early class we reviewed the first Pidd essay, then students who hadn't completed the assignments were given an opportunity to do so. Only two students had books, so they were able to begin the section on verbal and prepositional phrases (53-67). The next section looks at pronoun agreement (70-85). Essay 2 is on page 86-87. We will complete Essay 2, by next Thursday, Feb. 19.

Tomorrow we will run the checklists on peer essays, assign a grade and give the justification to the professor. If students have too many substantive errors, then they need to be referred to me for a consultation. Be honest in your critique and if there are questions get another classmate to read he paper also, and see if her results are the same as your findings. If you don't agree, refer it to me with a narrative describing the process. I will give you rubrics tomorrow also.

Look at pages 302-303 for MLA style student papers. Complete the exercise on pages 304-305. Read up to page 308. We'll run through the Works Cited exercises next week when you come back.

If you haven't already done so, complete the paraphrasing package (330-on). I think I ended on page 347. Complete the review (347). We will practice signal phrases in our freewrite and in our response to each other's essays.

Alehouse
In the second class we were able to read poetry from Alehouse, because most of the students had the book. After we read poems from pages 30-38, ending with a reflection on keeping a notebook (also the title of a really famous essay by Joan Didion, students were instructed to reflect on the imagery, writing or other poetic devices which elicited certain discernible responses either emotional or intellectual they wanted to share. I also stated that sharing lines they enjoyed or reflecting on the reasons why they liked the poem, understood it...was also okay.
Post your freewrites.

On the Martin King essay, I'd like you to read it and in your presentation Thursday, speak about the types of love and how your object fits into this scheme.

Reminder: Next Wednesday, you have a presentation. We will make the presentation on Thursday, Feb. 19, instead, because we have library orientations for both classes, 8-9 and 9-10 2/8. We will meet in the library with Professor Steve Gerstle, librarian.

I am pleased to see so many students meeting together in study groups. Three students visited me today in my office. One was lost. I encourage all of you to join or form a study group. One of your classmates was sending his posts to the wrong blog for the past six weeks. Now he has to re-post everything.

Cyber-Post
Those who are in study groups talk about why they work and what the tangible benefits are.

Homework Addendum

Homework also concerns love--I know how much you love Stewart Pidd and want him to be a successful writer (smile)> Today in class we reviewed chapter 2 and in pairs and as a class looked at the essay, "Skating Rules," (32), and then listed the errors on page 33. This was homework.

We then developed paragraphs using the handy template the editors so graciously supplied. In the second class we completed all of the paragraphs, so the homework was to bring in introductions and conclusions (read to and do assignments up to page 51). Wednesday, Feb. 11, bring in a completed essay, typed for a peer review.

I might have an electronic classroom, so email it to yourself, also, just in case. There is no school Friday, Feb. 13-Monday, Feb. 16. We'll be moving right along into Coach T's Insightful Insights (53-85).

For Thursday, Feb. 12, bring in an object that represents love. You will post a commentary on the assignment and your choice by Feb. 13.

Also, for Wednesday, read the following essay by Martin King on love. We spoke in call about agape, eros and philia. Three words in the Greek language for love which have slightly different meanings.

Martin King wrote a speech about love, and said in this reflection on the term, that agape was the love closest to the kind of love God has for creation.

Here is the link for Martin King's essay. Read it and be prepared to talk about it in class on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2009: http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/571117.002_Loving_Your_Enemies.html

Love Reflections Cyber-Post
Today for our freewrite we reflected on "Love". We are going to reflect on love through next week, Monday, February 16. Please post your reflections on the topic anonymously or use a pen name. It will make it easier to address you directly when commenting.

Valentine's Day is a time when people reflect on those feeling they might have for a special loved one. We are going to look more broadly at this concept, expressed in three Greek terms for love: agape, philia and eros.

What are your thoughts on V-Day? For some, V-Day is a day to reflect on violence against women. For others, V-Day is a day for romance: candlelight, flowers, chocolate. It is a day Hallmark makes a killing, along with Sees candy stores. Tuesday, Feb. 10, 12:00 or so, until early afternoon, there will be a dating game, STD testing, and other fun/educational activities in the F-Bldg. or Student Lounge.

We were speaking about "agape," in class today. One reference was to Jesus or God. This type of love is god-like, selfless and spiritual (American Heritage Dictionary).

Agave, not agape is the plant that the alcoholic beverage Tequila is made from, so the reflection I made regarding the secular nature of agape, or perhaps the fact that this kind of love could also intoxicate, was wrong...linguistically anyway. The student who told me this was wrong, the term is actually agave--

I thought being drunk with love for humanity is an interesting analogy, still is, especially if one references the poet/mystic Rumi who speaks of drunkenness with the wine of God. Hum, I wonder how many words for love exist in the Persian language and in Arabic? Rumi was Persian.

Other words which are used to define love given were: compassion and unconditional love. I read somewhere that love is an action word. On Martin King's birthday, citizens are encouraged to put love into action and participate in service activities (we spoke of this already this term, re: the Starbucks incentive for community service.)

Cyber-Response

Today we met in Literature Circles to discuss Chapters 2 and 3 from Dreams from My Father. The early class, while small seemed really engaged and all discussion groups said they liked the synergy between the participants and asked if they could stay together. So if you weren't present, you might have to find another group (smile).

Bridgett has a biblical reference for Obama to share. It is in Judges, the section on Rebecca.

I asked students to talk about the themes in Chapter 2-3 which overlap those expressed in Chapter 1, the Intro, and Preface, and then continue with the prescribed roles.

The homework is to continue Part 2 in Pidd, and complete page 32. You can complete the entire section if you have an hour. We will, as stated below, complete the essay in class Tuesday/Wednesday in groups and individually.

Post a reflection on the Literature Circle experience today here. Discuss today's highlights, what you covered and what you left out.

There are a lot of great events this weekend:

The African American Celebration through Poetry, 2/7, 1-4 PM at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline Street, (510) 238-7352.

The Black Choreographers Here and Now opens their season at Laney College Theatre, 2/6-2/8.

The Black Health Summit Free Family Day, 2/7, 8-6 at the Marriott Convention Center, 12th and Broadway. Visit www.babuf.org

Harriett Tubman opens at the Malonga Theater, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, 2/13-2/15.

The Museum of the African Diaspora is free this month. It is located on Mission Street near Third Street in Oakland.

The Black Summitt is next weekend at Foothill Community College. Talk to me if you are interested in attending. I am presenting.

Thank God it's Friday...no? Well it's my Friday and as I sit here in A-213 freezing at 5:30 p.m.--I've been on campus since 6 a.m. I am ready for the weekend. Tomorrow we will continue our literature circles.

We reviewed Part 2, Sentence Errors. The vote was split so we discussed the text as a large group; tomorrow the name of the game is minimalist, as in small is good. Next week, we will write our first Pidd essay, piece of cake, or at least, that is the hope. We will write a sample essay as a group maybe Tuesday, then students will have the opportunity to write their own for peer review the next day or Thursday, depending on how difficult you find the exercise.

If you'd like feed back on anything you have posted, or plan to post beforehand, print a copy and give to me. I will read it, grade it and return it with feedback. The best way to find out how you are doing is to come to office hours. I have more time then. I have a new program, Naturally Speaking, which I haven't used yet.

I like face to face consultations, at least initially, but if cyber-critiques are all some of you have time for, email me the papers you'd like feedback on, and if they are short (500 words or less) bring to class.

Reflections on Process Cyber-Post
A few students in the early class completed their homework, the only problem was that they came in late, so they didn't get a chance to share.

Homework today is to reflect on the paraphrasing exercises. How does paraphrasing help students in their reading, writing and critical thinking skills?

Please complete the exercises on paraphrases (330-347) in Pidd.Tomorrow we will talk about our first essay and begin to paint by numbers (smile). See pages 18-30 (review Sentence Punctuation). Essay 1: 31-51.

Please post your literal paraphrases at the assignment 2/2, along with the free paraphrases. If you have a question regarding the answer to any questions on paraphrasing post those questions there as well. Students you can give each other feedback. In the 9-10 a.m. class several of you had to revise a few words you didn't replace with a synonym.

I am going to see if we can complete an essay every other month, with the Dreams theme essay as the midterm. We can begin the research essay when we get to essay 3-4 in Pidd. There are only five.

Bring Poetry on Tap to class next week. We'll begin reading selections next week.

Study Groups
More students are forming study groups: Mesha, Gerrell, Bridgette, and one other student. They had to move a couple or times before they found a study room where they could talk, but they didn't give up.

Field Trips?
Are students interested in attending plays or poetry readings, concerts, author events and other culturally enriching activities together? Let me know. I attend more than one play a week and concerts frequently for my other job: arts critic.

Literal/Free Paraphrasing

Today in class we continued our conversation on paraphrasing and practiced the literal and the free paraphrase in Pidd pp. 330 to 347. We also completed the index cards. The questions are after number 5 in the syllabus where you list your goals. I accidentally deleted the heading on the printed syllabus. The heading is there in the on-line post.

I made copies of the section on paraphrasing for students without books. I gave the handouts to students last Thursday. If you miss class call someone. I also passed out copies of the syllabus, however it is more correct here (on-line).

The class is shrinking. If you are still enrolled, don't stop coming to class and arrive on time.

Homework is to take a paragraph in Dreams for My Father and do a literal paraphrase. I might have told you to do both a literal and a free for the same passage, but I don't remember, so we can do the free paraphrase in the morning.

You will post samples of both here for homework tomorrow.

I hope you are finding the exercises useful. If you can state something in your own words, this means you know it. The practice of literal paraphrasing, while not academically ethical, is a useful tool when struggling to comprehend an author's words.

I ask students to use paraphrase, direct citations and block quotes in their essays. One of each in a 750 word essay is generally a sufficient use of the text.

Keep reading Dreams and keep a reading log. Thursdays will probably be our Literature Circle day, with other discussion opportunities introduced whenever possible. What's going on with the Obama Administration? Have you seen any of your issues addressed?