Post a reflection or comment or summary of key arguments found in the film in 100to 250 words.

http://alongthefenceline.com/

Today we watched the film: Living on the Fence Line. Visit http://alongthefenceline.com/

You will find profiles for the women here. Bring in your notes. We will practice writing an essay together tomorrow. We will also look at returned essays over the next two days and how to improve them. This will be one-on-one. I will print out copies of your essays with my comments. Do not revise your essays without talking to me first, also, don't feel discouraged. Writing is a process.

This week we will look at revisions in Writing Workshops. We will also look at argumentative writing.

Keep moving through Pid. The lessons learned there will be helpful, especially Subject Verb Agreement.

Cyber-Freewrite

Post your freewrites from Wednesday, regarding Mother Earth's Birthday Party. Were you invited? Are you planning on attending? How old is she this solar return?

Today I was listening to Democracy Now as I wandered inadvertently onto the High Street Bridge and had to drive all the way through Alameda via Otis to Central to Webster streets this morning mindful of the traffic signals and speed limits.

The guests were responding to President Obama's compromise or what he calls: The People's Budget, re: the Republican suggested cuts to medical coverage to balance the budget.

In the meantime, Detroit, Michigan's population is decreasing, because people cannot not find work and are leaving one of this country's industrial centers.

At the round table discussion: Assessing Obama’s Budget Plan & State of U.S. Economy were Author Thomas Frank, Rev. Jim Wallis, and Activist/Philosopher Grace Lee Boggs.

Bogg's also addresses this issue in: "The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism For the Twenty-First Century."

What I want you to consider is what she stated when she said the "real revolution is a cultural one." She said we needed to examine our relationships with one another. That the very jobs we state we want and need have contributed to our excessive consumption. See http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/14/grace_lee_boggs_on_detroit_and

What is her argument? What evidence does she use to support it? Where do you agree and where do you disagree?

I liked the idea of a cultural revolution and began the query with, "what is culture?"

Cyber-Assignment

Today we watched Revision Strategies. Post a response here. Will this information affect how you response to the task or seeing your essay anew?

In the first class we also talked about argumentation, deductive and inductive reasoning. We watched the introductory section of a film entitled: Pink Saris.

In the second class we reviewed the Possession Quiz and had a longer discussion about what it means to revise and how one can tell when he or she is finished. A student also brought up the problem of having too much feedback, especially when it is contradictory.

Announcements

Quite a few students were absent, I hope those students who are sick recover soon. I appreciate those students who text me and let me know why they are absent. Tomorrow there is a reading in the COA Library at 12 noon. I will read a poem and perhaps a short essay.

The Oakland International Film Festival continues this week at the Art Deco Theatre in Alameda on the old navy base about 10 minutes from the college. Visit www.oiff.org for the schedule. The film festival closes at the Grand Lake theatre in Oakland, Thursday, April 14, 2011.

Make up presentations: Thursday, April 14, 2011. Students who missed the presentation will have an opportunity to make it up. We will start with the presentations. If a presenter is late, that is, we have started, they miss out. We cannot start before 8 AM, so let's meet in the classroom, D-206 (?) and then we will migrate over to A-232.

Don't forget, especially if you are presenting. Also, we need the abstracts. Pass them out at the top of the hour.

Today students had the opportunity to catch up. Tomorrow we will complete the Possessives essay, Essay Exam 2. Bring your books to class. We will write the essays out long hand. We will review the quiz given last week first.

I am trying to make it through all the essays by the morning. Wednesday and perhaps Thursday, we will revise essays in class.

When you return from Spring Break we will be critiquing the Social Entrepreneur essay, reviewing argument and essay structure, reading a play and working on the portfolio. The SE presentations are the final. We don't have a final exam. The portfolio is the final assignment.

Cyber-Assignment
Tomorrow we will watch a video called: Revision Strategies. Post your reflections on the video here.

What did you learn about revision and what was reenforced that you already knew?

Cyber-Assignment

The second class had abstracts, which was wonderful. All the abstracts gave its audience the plan for the presentation and one gave a synopsis of the book. Even if there was no synopsis, within each presentation, the plot became clear. Some students analyzed the plot and themes, others still confused the two and gave a synopsis of the book mixed with analysis.

Presentations were excellent, from skits and power point presentations to creative collages, students showed a visual comprehension of key elements of their texts. I was impressed with the level of detail involved in certain presentations such as Erin, Eman and Cherefah's which included an image of their mapping or invention process. I loved Dereje, Morgan, Andrew and Ashante's attention to the assignment with regard to topical invention: definition, analogy, consequence, and testimony.

The same was true with David's group as well. His use of geese to symbolize the boys, now men, in The Pact, was a wonderful analogy which he continued to refer to as the group acted like a tag team, each member elaborating on an aspect of the book or a theme they highlighted in their research. Thailea's comments on friendship, a further elaboration on David's comments, was powerful and her writing quite remarkable.

I hope students heard her use of parallel structure when she wrote: "the friendship between the boys formed a triangle of hope, trust and motivation."

The collages created by Stacey, Summer, Ellie, and Alex were lovely and provided a creative range reflecting the varied intellectual perspectives of the group members. Some students filled the page, while others left room for the viewer to add his or her own perspectives, arguments or thoughts. I thought Alex's placement of notes on the back of his collage clever and the entire presentation well rehearsed, polished and professional.

I hope the students will bring the posters back and put them on the bulletin board in the classroom (A-232).

Assignment
Post your responses to student presentations here. Talk about what worked well. If you had any questions, here is the place to ask them. Did the students follow their plan? Can you formulate the thesis? What were some of the arguments presented? What evidence did the students use to support their arguments?

If presenters did not give classmates an abstract, post that as well with student names in the group.

If a student was a presenter, write a self-reflection on the process, what you learned and what surprised you most about the planning and the presentation. This forum is not the place to beat oneself up. Only share the positive aspects of the experience and what you learned about yourself and about the group process, and what you plan to do differently, if anything, next time.

Homework
Bring in your completed essays tomorrow for a peer review. Email everything to yourself.

We will end with presentations (1-2). Make sure they are well-rehearsed.

In the morning we will start with our presentations. If we can get through all in one class then great. If not, we will continue on Thursday or Monday. Most students are presenting in groups. We will have a peer review on Thursday. Bring in your book report essays and all the supplementary materials such as: notes, planning sheets and outlines.

Students will turn in their essays with peer reviews.

We will write the Possessives essay on Monday. We will write it out, so bring your books to class. There was cheating on Essay Exam 1, so we will do the essay in class. Hopefully we can get to the Parallel Structure quiz next week as well. We will complete the Parallel Structure essay when you return and the Subject Verb AGR essay the first week back.

We shared names of social entrepreneurs today. Many students are still undecided. Choose someone. Go to the KQED website and peruse the women profiled over the years as local heroes.

The play, Ruined closes at Berkeley Rep this Sunday, April 10, 2011. The International Women's Film Festival kicks off April 6-10, in San Francisco at the Roxie Theatre on 16th Street near Mission, http://www.womensfilminstitute.com/sfiwff-2011-films-and-schedule/.

The Oakland International Film Festival also kicks off this week, April 7-15, 2011, http://www.oiff.org/films.html with screenings in Oakland at the Grand Lake Theatre, Laney College Theatre and panels at the Claremont Hotel. Other screenings are at the Art Deco Auditorium in Alameda.

Today we read from Alice Walker's We Are the Ones (handout). The freewrite was in response to a meditation. Next week I am participating in a poetry reading in the library, April 12, 2011. April is National Poetry Month and within the month is National Library Week.

Sunday in San Francisco, April 10, 2011, at the SF Main Library is the Northern California Book Awards at the SF Main Library on Larkin. It is a great opportunity to meet marvelous writers from Northern California.