In the essay, students can within reason use more than one quote, let's say two (smile). Don't go crazy though. The point of limiting the citations is to not get an essay that is filled with quotes.

Start reading Half the Sky. Look at the website: http://halftheskymovement.org/
We will read about 70 pages a night.

We reviewed the components of an introduction, so I will expect really powerful introductions. The essays are due Monday via email: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com Remember to paste and attach the document--1 document not several attachments. Put everything in a word document, with a header: last name and page number.

Essay 1

This first essay will be a response to the book: Mighty Be Our Powers. In this essay students should address a topic which takes its theme from Leymah Gwobee's life story. Since this is a short essay (3-5 pages), students should rely on just the book as evidence and use the other sources (2) as a part of the bibliography--film and book review.

Use Hacker as a reference in citing sources both in-text and in the works cited and bibliography.

Cite one source per page: 1 block quote, 1 shorter in-text citation, 1 free paraphrase.

Let They Say, guide the writing as well. Make sure we are clear what the conversation is, you are entering. Give the context for all citations. Make sure you preserve the intention of the author.

When submitting the essay, include the Initial Planning Sheet and the Outline. These additional requirements for the essay follow the last page of the essay: the bibliography.

We spent a significant amount of time in class discussing this essay, especially the topics or subjects one might consider writing about. I have posted the brainstorming we did this morning and yesterday on Mighty Be Our Powers.

I will be looking at whether or not the paper makes sense and how organized it is. Secondly, I will note how well each writer incorporates the text into the work as evidence, how accurate the in-text citations and works cited and bibliographies follow MLA guildelines.

If the first two are met, the paper will be a passing one. Students can only revise one essay this summer.

Today we read from Alice Walker's We Are the One's We've Been Waiting For, the section "All Praises to the Pause; The Universal Moment of Reflection" (47-79).

It took almost an hour to complete. Afterward students were to engage Leymah Gbowee and Alice Walker in a conversation about the need for reflection or as Walker puts it, pausing, especially after victories like graduations.

In a short response, have Leymah identify three (3) points in Walker's essay to reflect on. Walker can respond in a fictional dialogue or through her writing. Write in Leymah's voice. You can start anywhere in Leymah's story you like: at the war's end, when her sister dies, when she leaves Daniel, when she stops drinking. . . after she graduates from college.

Use the text to inform the conversation.

Homework is to bring in a completed Initial Planning Sheet and a published book review. We will develop thesis sentences together tomorrow. Think about themes.

Post your conversations between the two women here. When the speaker changes, change the line. Each speaker has her own line.

Include a works cited page for the two books.

Bring your laptops. We will meet here and then walk over to L202E which is where we will meet beginning tomorrow. The doors to the Learning Resource Building (LRC) will be locked. I need to negotiate this for tomorrow morning for the next three weeks (smile).

NOTE:

We completed Exercises: 49-1; 53-3; and 55:1. I told students to not use the MLA handout I gave you (yellow). Perhaps we will look it over and correct it.

the Plan:

Today after splitting into two groups, the third students who needed to catch up on the reading, we continued with the Literature Circle discussions.

Following the discussions students worked together to develop a collaborative essays taking into consideration the following questions or statements about Leymah. Post the essay here.

The film, which most students have not watched give another dimension to a woman who bares her soul to us--part 1, that is, in Mighty.

Questions

1. Develop a character profile of Leymah. Include references to her closest constituents or allies.

2. How does Leymah's life change significantly in this section?

3. How does Leymah realize her mission and come into her power?

4. Define power or empowerment using Leymah as key witness or example.

5. How is Leymah still a flawed heroine?

Use They Say, the "Framing Quotations" (45-47) to complete this exercise. Use at least two direct citations or a combination of direct quote and free paraphrase.

III. Hacker's Rules for Writers & They Say

Students completed several exercises from Hacker on-line exercises re: MLA.

IV. Freewrite: Stop Runnin' from Your Own Shadow

V. Homework: Keep reading. . . finish the book between Wednesday and Thursday. Tomorrow we will practice citing and doing more writing, developing questions for the essay we will write on Thursday.

We will also look at essay planning and complete tomorrow in class.

I am still looking for a place we can write. If possible, it would be great to complete the essay in class (smile). We will have peer reviews on Thursday as well.

We met in A-232 this morning, because we were locked out. Tomorrow we are back in CV-213. Keep your fingers crossed (smile).

Today we reviewed They Say, chapter 1. We wrote a summary of the prologue together, then students summarized a chapter of the first section of Mighty using two templates from They Say.

Post the summaries here. Include everyone's name in the heading. Also include a works cited page.

Homework. Watch the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Continue reading from Mighty. Prepare a list of key characters and character descriptions. Read They Say Part 2. Complete exercises (14-15); (28-29). Note the plan posted last week. Even if we do not accomplish everything, it would be useful to note our intention.

Prologue Summary:

In the "Prologue" of Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood . . ., author, Leymah Gbowee questions our perspectiove of warfare. She states we only view surface aspects of the war, like body counts and other atastrophes, rather than internal suffering. Often the perspective, she says, is male dominated. She writes this memoir to give voice to women and children of war, to tell their stories, ones which might not be as popular; however, key to understanding what ahppened in Liberia in its entirety, one has to consider the side of the story typically left out--Gbowee's constituents.

Works Cited

Gbowee, Leymah, with Carol Mithers. "Prologue." Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War--A Memoir. New York: Beast Books, 2011. ix-x. Print.

Gerald Graff, and Cathy Birkenstein. "One: 'They Say: Starting with What Others Are Saying." They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Inc., 2010. 23-24; 25-26. Print.

Works Cited Notes

1. In the works cited example, I could not show the hanging indent. When the citatation is longer than one line the rest of the citation is indented and justified ("hanging").

2. Note the addition of the co-author for Mighty and the page numbers in both. Include the pages templates referenced came from.

3. Note the quotation marks for the titles in They Say.

Cyber-Assignments and Recap

Today's freewrite looked at the terms: Dissonance, Conflict and Compromise, all elements the protagonist Leymah Gbowee confronts in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers.

Post your response to the freewrite here.

Homework:

Revise the summaries of the Thompson article and post here as well as email to me (attach and paste in the email: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com)

Read the corresponding sections in Hacker. We went over a few this morning. I posted some re: analyzing a text and annotating in the June 20 post. To stay on top of everything note the day by day plan.

Right now I am improvising. Read the Preface, Intro and Part 1 in They Say, I Say. I believe, if you look at June 25, we will look at Part 2 for Tuesday. Readings assigned on Monday.

In Mighty read the preface and Part 1. I suggested to students that they read Part 1 and Part 2, so Monday reading Part 3 will not feel so enormous a task.

We will write a fast draft on Thursday. Just bring in the essay planning sheet and an outline.

Here is a link to the film. We will watch it in class. Full episode (53:31):
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/full-episodes/pray-the-devil-back-to-hell/


We Are the Ones
We will start the We Are the One's Freewrites on Monday as well. Bring the appropriate books to class.


Freewrites
When you post your freewrites or assignments, make sure that you include the heading, a title and space the writing so that it is legible. Put spaces between the paragraphs, the title and the essay, around block quotes, etc.


Handouts
There were three-four handouts today.

For the super students:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/gbowee-lecture_en.html

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/07/141162208/gbowee-talks-about-winning-nobel-peace-prize

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/10/143509346/nobel-peace-prize-accepted-by-3-women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFluqvgtSJE (On Peace after the Nobel Peace Prize)

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06192009/watch.html

Be the Change; Gbowee after the Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/features/leymah-gbowee-on-life-after-the-nobel/

If you have Mighty, you can start reading it now.

For Monday, read the Prologue and Part 1;

For Tuesday, read Part 2

For Wednesday, read Part 3

Essay Plan and Outline is due Thursday. We will write a fast draft in class. The final draft is due, Monday, June 25.

It is a fast read. Take notes as you read. See Hacker 50c "Reading with an open mind and a critical eye" (401-403)

Freewrite and Cyber-Assignment

Today in class the freewrite looked at summer and time's passage. I waxed philosophical for a bit first (smile). However, how you chose to reflect on summer solstice or the longest day of the year is up to you.

The second part of the reflection had to do with the developing ideas to write about or Invention using topics. Our topic is "time." We spent some time looking at what is meant by abstract nouns vs. concrete, what empirical means and how one can communicate one's meaning when the idea is not tangible.

Students were to develop a definition: what is it/what was it, an analogy: what is it like or unlike, a consequence: what caused it/did it cause/will it cause, and testimony: what does an authority say about it.

Use the word TIME in each sentence.

Students shared their freewrites and thesis sentences.

We then broke into groups and shared homework from the package: Writing with a Thesis. We completed the package and reviewed the answers.


We took a break and then reviewed essay structure, paragraph structure and Initial Planning for essay writing: What is the subject? Who is the audience? What is the purpose of the writing task? (Hacker 8). What question the writer would like the essay to answer? What will be the main writing strategy?

We talked about annotating texts (Hacker 12-13). I had a handout, but students seemed comfortable with the task, so we skipped that assignment.

In Hacker we went over Planning. Homework is to read and do any associated exercises pertaining to Section 1a (1-11); and 1b (11-16).

Tomorrow we will look at Writing about Texts: 46a (346-351); and summarizing: 46c (351-357); 53c (417-418); 51c (408-409).

Homwork is to summarize the essay we read and annotated: "Does Our Writing Style Give Away Our Gender?" by Clive Thompson

Bring in a three paragraph summary analysis where you clearly state the thesis or premise or key point. Talk about the writer's intention and whether he is fair in his judgement. Look at the evidence. Is the work unbiased?

In each paragraph use one type of evidence from the article: a free paraphrase, a shorter in-text citation and conclude with a block quote. The essay will have a total of only three (3) citations.

Bring the summary to class to share in the morning. Bring Mighty Be Our Powers as well.

NOTE: On the cyber assignments. Set them up like essays:

Heading:

Student Name
Teacher
Course name
Date

Title

Content

Students are putting the heading at the end of the writing. This is the wrong location. See MLA for essays.

NOTE 2:I noticed one response to the syllabus included with the freewrite on "freedom." Post it with the syllabus assignment.

Freewrite Cyber-Assignment:

Reflect on the term "freedom." If one is defying gravity then one has a sense of what it means to be free. Today, June 19, 1865, in Texas, enslaved Africans learned they were free. This message had been delayed and thus is celebrated to date in Texas and throughout the United Stated as Emancipation Day or Juneteenth.

Post your freewrites here in the "comment" section.

We got stuck for a while in the corrections of the Multiple Choice Mid-term Exam 1. Students are to email me their scores, total score, as well as the scores for each section. Conclude this note with a statement on how each of you plans to use Rules for Writers to address this deficit in your knowledge. Email to coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com

We reviewed or defined what a thesis sentence is then completed exercises in a package I handed out. Homework is to complete the package and bring to class to review with classmates.

Class is over at 10:20 a.m., so beginning Thursday, we will add the extra 20 minutes into our day (smile). Don't kill the messenger (smile).

Buy your materials. A few students had Hacker and a dictionary. Bring your materials to class daily. The response to the syllabus is due tomorrow as well.

Today in class we reviewed the Letter to Students and the Course Syllabus. The time went quickly. Homework is in the syllabus. I asked students to include their freewrite from the song "Defying Gravity." I published the song lyrics below.

I am so happy most of you have a laptop and phones that double as laptops (smile). Buy your books. If you are purchasing them online, do so right now. Students can also rent books from the College of Alameda Bookstore.

You need Alice Walker and they do not have copies of her book, the rest of the titles are there. Get Walker at another book store, online or from the public library ASAP. I am going to see if any of these essays are also online.

I have published the assignment schedule for the summer session, look below. I will give students the essays assignments one at a time for the four major essays: Mighty, Half the Sky, Book Report and the Social Entrepreneur essays.

Wicked - Defying Gravity Lyrics

GLINDA

(spoken) Elphaba - why couldn't you have stayed calm for

once, instead of flying off the handle!

(sung) I hope you're happy!

I hope you're happy now

I hope you're happy how you

Hurt your cause forever

I hope you think you're clever!

ELPHABA

I hope you're happy

I hope you're happy, too

I hope you're proud how you 

Would grovel in submission

To feed your own ambition

BOTH

So though I can't imagine how

I hope you're happy right now

GLINDA

(spoken) Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry:

(sung) You can still be with the Wizard

What you've worked and waited for

You can have all you ever wanted:

ELPHABA

(spoken) I know:

(sung) But I don't want it - 

No - I can't want it

Anymore:

Something has changed within me 

Something is not the same

I'm through with playing by the rules

Of someone else's game

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It's time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try

Defying gravity

I think I'll try

Defying gravity

And you can't pull me down!

GLINDA

Can't I make you understand?

You're having delusions of grandeur:

ELPHABA

I'm through accepting limits

''cause someone says they're so

Some things I cannot change

But till I try, I'll never know!

Too long I've been afraid of

Losing love I guess I've lost

Well, if that's love

It comes at much too high a cost!

I'd sooner buy

Defying gravity

Kiss me goodbye

I'm defying gravity

And you can't pull me down:

(spoken) Glinda - come with me. Think of what we could

do: together.

(sung) Unlimited

Together we're unlimited

Together we'll be the greatest team 

There's ever been

Glinda - 

Dreams, the way we planned 'em

GLINDA

If we work in tandem:

BOTH

There's no fight we cannot win

Just you and I

Defying gravity

With you and I

Defying gravity

ELPHABA

They'll never bring us down!

(spoken) Well? Are you coming?

GLINDA

I hope you're happy

Now that you're choosing this

ELPHABA

(spoken) You too

(sung) I hope it brings you bliss

BOTH

I really hope you get it

And you don't live to regret it

I hope you're happy in the end

I hope you're happy, my friend:

ELPHABA So if you care to find me

Look to the western sky!

As someone told me lately:

"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"

And if I'm flying solo

At least I'm flying free

To those who'd ground me

Take a message back from me

Tell them how I am

Defying gravity

I'm flying high

Defying gravity

And soon I'll match them in renown

And nobody in all of Oz

No Wizard that there is or was

Is ever gonna bring me down!

GLINDA

I hope you're happy!

CITIZENS OF OZ

Look at her, she's wicked!

Get her!

ELPHABA

:Bring me down!

CITIZENS OF OZ

No one mourns the wicked

So we've got to bring her

ELPHABA

Ahhh!

CITIZENS OF OZ

Down!    

http://www.metrolyrics.com/defying-gravity-lyrics-wicked.html

Daily Lesson Plans

SABIR English 1A at COA Summer 2012

Week 1: June 18-21, 2012

DAY 1 June 18, 2012
Introductions—Class interviews

Review Essay Writing

Essay structure from sentence to paragraph. Developing topic sentences. Types of sentences (Hacker). Types of paragraphs (Hacker)

Topic sentences, supporting one’s point with evidence . . . credible vs. unreliable sources
Topical invention, three part thesis

What is an argument—fallacious arguments . . . review. Propaganda, advertising. What does it mean to be prejudiced or biased in one’s thinking?

What is a thesis?
Essay planning—the outline
Documentation—evaluating sources, CRAP test and other library exercises
Grammar—give Grammar Exam 1, correct in class

Freewrite
Defying Gravity—Write a 250 word response to this song. In what way are you defying gravity, all the naysayers –even internal ones, in this moment, right now?

Homework—in the syllabus. Send me an introduction of yourself and your contact information. You do not have to keep to a word limit, share as much as you like beyond what is expected.

Homework:
Diana Hacker Planning Section 1 Generating ideas and sketching a plan (2-11) and 1B Experiment with ways to explore your subject (11-16)

Diana Hacker.com/rules Complete ancillary exercises where apropos. Note shaded boxes.

Handouts:
Initial Planning Sheet
Excerpt from Writing with a Thesis
Library handout on Thesis sentences
(WEEK 1, NOT DAY 1)

Document Design (skim)

DAY 2
Freewrite: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness –read introduction. Write a response. Show the Baldwin pc. and the follow-up work. Homework, write a short response to the two short films. Make sure you document the sources. Practice paraphrase (dialogue), summary and direct citation in this short response.

Reading: The Three Fates (15). Do the meditation exercise for homework. Post and bring a copy of the response to class to share in groups.
Discuss and practice Ways to Explore one’s subject (11)

Homework: Reading Hacker 1C Formulate a tentative thesis (16); 1D sketch a plan (17)

Reading They Say, I Say—Read the Preface, Introduction and Part One (pages xvi to 51). In class we will do exercises using Walker and other writing and student writing. Bring copies of your writing(s) to class if you do not have a laptop.

DAY 3
They Say part 1 (19-51)

Freewrite: We are the Ones: Childhood (31) Read in class. Homework due by Monday, June 25. Today is the first day of summer; it is also the longest day of the year.

DAY 4
Homework: Read I Say for Monday, June 25, (55-101)

Show film: Pray the Devil Back to Hell. In class practice They Say: "Starting with what others are saying," "Her Point is: The Art of Summarizing," and then "As He Himself Puts it." This will be an in-class writing assignment or a group writing assignment. I am not sure yet. We will be in a classroom with technology so students can type it in class and post to the blog.

Homework: Start reading Mighty Be Our Powers. Show the interview on-line with Gbowee re: the Nobel Peace Prize. We will complete the book this week. The essay is due Thursday, June 28, for a peer review, week 2. The final draft is due, Monday, July 2, 2012.

Diana Hacker 46: Writing about Texts. Active Reading (346)

Constructing reasonable arguments 47 (358).

As you read Mighty, think about the author’s arguments stated and unstated. Think about inconsistencies or incongruence between what is stated and what is shown through actions. What makes Leymah such a provocative and lively character is the way she is able to do great work despite her dysfunctional home environment. Self reflection is key in Mighty, yet at the end of the book, is Leymah free or is this just an episode in a series called life?

We will read a book a week. There will be an essay due each week beginning, Week 2, Thursday, June 28.

Essay due dates:
Essay 1 June 28 peer review; final draft due via email July 2 Mighty
Essay 2 July 5 peer review; final draft due July 9 Half
Essay 3 July 16—Book Report essays due with abstracts. Final draft due, July 19 via email.

Bring copies of the abstract for class and post on the blog. What is an abstract? An abstract is a brief synopsis of your key points or argument. See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/656/1/

Types of Abstracts

There are two types of abstracts: informational and descriptive.

Informational Abstracts

• communicate contents of reports
• include purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations
• highlight essential points
• are short—from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the report (10% or less of the report)
• allow readers to decide whether they want to read the report

Descriptive Abstracts

• tell what the report contains
• include purpose, methods, scope, but NOT results, conclusions, and recommendations
• are always very short— usually under 100 words
• introduce subject to readers, who must then read the report to learn study results

Qualities of a Good Abstract

An effective abstract

• uses one or more well-developed paragraphs, which are unified, coherent, concise, and able to stand alone
• uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure in which the parts of the report are discussed in order: purpose, findings, conclusions, recommendations
• follows strictly the chronology of the report
• provides logical connections between material included
• adds no new information but simply summarizes the report
• is intelligible to a wide audience

Steps for Writing Effective Report Abstracts

To write an effective report abstract, follow these four steps:

1. Reread your report with the purpose of abstracting in mind. Look specifically for these main parts: purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations.
2. After you have finished rereading your report, write a rough draft WITHOUT LOOKING BACK AT YOUR REPORT. Consider the main parts of the abstract listed in step #1. Do not merely copy key sentences from your report. You will put in too much or too little information. Do not summarize information in a new way.
3. Revise your rough draft to
• correct weaknesses in organization and coherence,
• drop superfluous information,
• add important information originally left out,
• eliminate wordiness, and
• correct errors in grammar and mechanics.
4. Carefully proofread your final copy.

July 17 - 18 presentations for Book Report Essay.

Thursday, July 19. Complete research on Social Entrepreneur.

Included with this Book Report essay is a self-reflection on the presentation, one’s strengths and what one learned. Also include student feedback. For each presentation, students are to respond to classmate’s work:

Questions to Consider when responding to Student Presentations
1. What three areas of the essay were strongest? Be specific and use details.

2. What was most engaging about the work?

3. Name 1-2 things you learned from the presenter that changed the way you think about his or her topic. You can always comment more.

Essay 4 Social Entrepreneur Due for peer review Monday, July 23 Final draft due Wednesday, July 25. Abstracts due Tuesday, July 24. Presentations begin, Tuesday, July 24-25.
July 26, portfolio assembly workshop. Portfolios due Friday, July 27, 2012.


WEEK 2 June 25-28

DAY 1
I Say for Monday, June 25, (55-101)
Literature Circles meet. Practice documenting sources using in class writing to practice lessons from They Say I Say.

Freewrite: When Life Descends into the Pit (38). Read in class.

Homework: Walker (47-79)
Evidence—types of evidence

Literature discussion. Group activity. Character profile exercise for key characters, starting with Leymah Gwobee. This is a cyber assignment.

DAY 2
Freewrite: “All Praises to the Pause” (short essay). Write a 250 word response using as a reference this chapter from We Are the Ones. Include a free paraphrase, a shorter citation and a block quote.

Respond to a student essay using They Say for analysis: Parts 1 & 2.

Literature Circles
Group Writing activity
Diana Hacker: Evaluating Arguments 48;

Writing about Texts 46 (346)
Outlines and summaries

52 Supporting a thesis (411-418)
54 Integrating sources (418-426)
Documenting Sources: 55 (426-436)

56 MLA manuscript format; sample paper (463-475)

DAY 3
Freewrite: Summarize the key moments in Leymah’s life up to now and tie into your book review or interview. Utilizing They Say moves, plant a naysayer, show why what “they say” or she says, matters in now that you have completed her memoir.

Group discussion on essay topics. Initial Planning Sheet due with Essay Outline to share on Mighty. Bring a book review of Mighty to share.

DAY 4
Freewrite: Share Alice Walker’s “All Praises to the Pause” with Leymah in a conversation. In her voice, have her respond. How is Crowns and Thorns like “the pause”? How does war get in the way of one’s ability to “pause”? What does Leymah say of the “emptiness” Walker references as “possibility” (73)?

Peer Reviews using Microsoft Comment.

Half the Sky preview with video. Frontline World resource. Books for Essay 3. Bring to class for approval. Start thinking about a social entrepreneur a woman whose business is also making the world a better place. If you need suggestions, let me know.

Reading & Writing Reading Logs: Prepare the first five chapters of Half the Sky for discussion on Monday, July 2. Use the Literature Circle Assignment to guide some of your comments or questions after your brief summary. All logs should briefly summarize the plot of the chapter and list key characters with a profile. Don’t forget to include page numbers.

WEEK 3 July 2-5 HALF-WAY MARK

DAY 1
Check-in. How is everyone doing? If you do not know how you are doing we should talk.
Freewrite: Crimes Against Dog (80).

Half the Sky discussions begin. We will discuss 5 chapters each day beginning July 2. Keep reading logs noting the key ideas, characters, plot, location, organizations, heroines and villains; vocabulary, geography, history lessons, etc. You will turn in these notes when you turn in the essay. Type your notes.

DAY 2
Half Chapters 5-10
Due Initial Planning Sheet; Outline

DAY 3
Holiday. No classes.

DAY 4
Freewrite: “This Was Not an Area of Large Plantations: Suffering Too Insignificant for the Majority to See” (88). Read and respond in class.

Half Chapters 11-14
Essay due for peer review


WEEK 4 July 9-12

DAY 1
Library orientation 9 AM
Half essay due via email to coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com

Freewrite Read Chapter 7: “I Call that Man Religious” (111). Write your own gospel as you meditate on what it means to be American.

Homework: Complete the book you are reading this week and prepare planning sheets and outline. Don’t forget to bring in at least two outside sources, preferably one on the book and the other on the author. The essay is due Monday, July 16 with abstracts for a peer review. The final draft is due on July 19 via Internet. Include all related assignments like the self-reflection and students comments. Presentations start July 17-18, 2012.

They Say: Part 3 “Tying it All Together,” Chapters 8-10 (103)
They Say: Part 4 “In Specific Academic Settings (139)

We will look back at Mighty and Half and our own writing to reflect on these final sections of the book.

Review. This is the time to ask for clarity on any writing matters or areas you feel weaker than others as a writer. Make a list of what you’d like covered this week.

DAY 2 Week 4 July 9-12 con’t.

Freewrite/Cyber-Assignment: Write a summary analysis of your book. Use three citations: one block quote, one shorter citation and one free paraphrase. This free write should be three –four paragraphs long.

Post on the blog. Respond to one student’s post. If there is already a response there, chose another student summary essay analysis. Using They Say, incorporate “I Take Your Point” or Reading for the Conversation into your comments (139). “The Art of Metacommentary” may also work (129).

Talk about the Social Entrepreneur Essay. Look at Frontline World videos. Read an article about Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank.

DAY 3
Cyber-Assignment Freewrite: Bring in a book review and summarize it. Now write your own book review.

Review key writing concepts. Practice citing sources, MLA exercises from Hacker, practice writing thesis sentences using the 3-part thesis format.

We’ll spend a little time talking about your book report essay and presentation. Abstracts are due next week as well.

Talk more about the SE essay. What a video about Mimi Silbert, founder or Delancy Street Foundation.

DAY 4
Freewrite Walker on “Grief” (164)

We might read a play today.

Week 5 July 16-19

DAY 1
Freewrite: Glimpse of Life Beyond the Words (183)

Peer Reviews and Abstracts due for peer review

DAY 2-3
Presentations of Book Report Essays July 17-18.

DAY 4
Independent study. Essay 4 due by Friday, July 19

Week 6 July 23-26 FINAL WEEK OF CLASSES
DAY 1
Essay 4 Social Entrepreneur Due for peer review Monday, July 23 Final draft due Wednesday, July 25.

DAY 2
Abstracts due Tuesday, July 24. Presentations begin, Tuesday, July 24-25. Each student is to respond to all presenters. This is a cyber assignment. Note the questions you were asked to consider for the Book Report presentations:

1. What three areas of the essay were strongest? Be specific and use details.

2. What was most engaging about the work? You can also comment on the way the essay was delivered, the presenter’s voice or passion for the topic and why he or she was so moved.

3. Name 1-2 things you learned from the presenter that changed the way you think about his or her topic. You can always comment more.

DAY 3
Presentations conclude

DAY 4

Thursday, July 26, portfolio assembly workshop.

FINALS DUE:
Portfolios due Friday, July 27, 2012. Email to coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com

Sunday, June 17, 2012


Dear Students:

Instead of being out enjoying this hot summer day, I am sitting propped up in my bed since 7 a.m. writing a syllabus, sketching out a plan for the next six weeks we can all live through and now writing one of my famous letters (smile).

All of us must be a little insane—I can’t imagine why anyone would voluntarily agree to a 7:30 in the morning freshman comp class, but as there is a waiting list—we certainly are not alone in this bewilderment as if insanity in great numbers is a consolation door prize (smile).

Most of you are probably among the many students who would have gone straight to Cal or one of the UCs if they hadn’t decided to restrict their admission of first and second year students. Some of you might be just out of high school as high schools often groom overachievers who sport GPAs like 4.9. These new graduates from school, often on their own for the first time, are used to getting up early and cramming, so why not continue the grueling practice of academic bench pressing? These young people have decided to join those of us who don’t qualify for John George –yet (smile), adults who are looking to change their circumstances for the better—

Kidding aside. I hope this summer course proves to be both fun and rewarding. I am one of those teachers who loves to read and write and does not cut any slack even when condensed milk is all we have in the ‘fridge. It is going to be a six week jaunt through four or five books and four essays with two presentations, no office hours and very little time to sleep.

But you will survive.

Isn’t there a Gloria Gaynor tune with that line? We’re not talking about love walking out the door, as Alice Walker shares in the collection of essays, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness, that as long as we don’t walk out on ourselves everything will work out okay.

The character in the song tells her lover who comes back:

“Go on now, go walk out the door
Just turn around now
('cause) you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Do you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die?
Oh no, not I. I will survive
Oh as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive;
I've got all my life to live,
I've got all my love to give and I'll survive,
I will survive. Hey hey” (http://www.lyrics007.com/Gloria%20Gaynor%20Lyrics/I%20Will%20Survive%20Lyrics.html).

So if you have any doubts, now is the time to send them packing. You will not have time to placate self-doubt while you read books about women who have beaten so many odds that one can only say, well I might have it bad, but that woman over there, that girl-child over there, has it a lot worse.

I visited San Quentin State Prison on Friday, June 15, to see Hamlet, performed by inmates who are a part of a Shakespeare company behind bars. The play adapted by Lesley Currier, Marin Shakespeare Company, directed by Suraya Keating and Lesley, is I believe Shakespeare at San Quentin’s eighth production. Not only did the actors perform their roles, they also wrote a parallel play inspired by Hamlet which they will perform in August this year. It was my second time at Shakespeare at San Quentin. I was present at another performance last August, Twelfth Night, a comedy set in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury in the '60s.

I dashed up to the prison after completing my Friday morning Internet radio show broadcast, just a day after BART was shut down after a fire, the same week a patron committed suicide. I know the train operator, who texted me just after it happened last Monday morning at the Bayfair BART Station. The day was lovely, last Friday—it is amazing how lovely the view is from the prison. I’d last been there February 20, 2012, for the national prison occupation. Years before I’d witnessed an execution, not literally—I was in the yard when Stanley “Tookie” Williams, was executed.

Hamlet is a tragedy. A young man away at school gets notice that while away his dear father has died. When he returns for the funeral, he finds his uncle the new king, having married his brother’s wife. Later on, the king’s ghost haunts the manor and Hamlet not only sees the ghost—it speaks. It tells Hamlet that his father was murdered.

Now no one can see the ghost except Hamlet, which is unfortunate, because soon the rumor circulates that the heir is crazy—perhaps he’s just sad, grief stricken and angry that his mother and uncle have usurped his father’s memory without proper or just ritual.

Hamlet is a play about grief and rage and revenge and forgiveness. All themes the men in blue face daily as some with indeterminate or life sentences try not to dwell on the fact that they may never see life outside the institution.

If one is familiar with the Shakespeare tradition, one knows that male actors played all the roles. One person in the Q&A asked the actor who played a female character how he was man enough to do so given traditional prison culture? This was the prisoner’s first time in one of the plays too. The actor laughed and said that his initial trepidation was alleviated through the support he received from the cast and his desire to do the best he could with the role.

After rehearsing since August last year, the men performed to a full chapel, every seat taken, San Quentin television filming the performance for those inmates who would not be able to attend, reporters interviewing guests including me. Only certain inmates are eligible to attend the performances. I met quite a few men who are being released soon, one young man was just 21 and he’d been incarcerated since he was 16.

California Lawyers in the Arts or for the Arts (smile) was there and have been able to keep this program active after threats to its funding meant certain death. For many men in the audience, it was their first time seeing a Shakespearean play. One man spoke of how he’d dropped out of school and hadn’t had the opportunity to complete his education. I met men who were just learning to read. One man proudly shared the first book he’d completed: orator and free fighter, Frederick Douglass’s 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. I promised to write him. Douglass is well known for a speech he gave where he looked at the irony and hypocrisy of a nation founded on such lofty principals as ours yet endorsed and supported enslaving its citizens. It is called: “What to the American Slave is the Fourth of July” delivered July 5, 1852: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html and http://edsitement.neh.gov/launchpad-frederick-douglass-http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwhat-slave-fourth-july .

I mention Hamlet because I started this conversation with a question about choice and sanity. Given a choice none of us would spend our mornings and evenings cooped up in a building writing essays about women who have learned not to let anyone hold them down, as Elphaba says to Glinda in her song, “Defying Gravity.” I heard Ben Vereen sing this tune at a concert at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko last week as well. He played the Wizard in Wicked on Broadway.
Certainly grave events impact our lives daily, yet, like so many of the women we will meet this summer like Leymah Gwobee who ended a war in her country that had been waging off and on for decades, that one can function despite dysfunction. One can find something to laugh and smile about even when one is not physically free. Just think about Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi finally accepting her award 21 years after she won it while under house arrest in 1991.

She said, “'Often during [her] days of house arrest it felt as though [she] were no longer a part of the real world.’”

“Receiving the Nobel accolade in 1991 ‘made me real once again,” the Burmese opposition leader told the Norwegian Nobel committee in Oslo's City Hall” (googlenews.com).

See http://www.rfa.org/english/news/burma/nobel-06162012170101.html and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18464946, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-lecture_en.html (the entire text of the speech) lecture http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1809 (29 min. live).

She spoke last week of compassion fatigue, which she says is expressed by the lack of concern for those who are suffering. Sometimes those who have resources think the ills of society will never end, yet Aung San Suu Kyi says we all have a role to play in peace making. She speaks about how forgotten those who are locked away as prisoners feel.

“’To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity. When I met Burmese migrant workers and refugees during my recent visit to Thailand, many cried out: “Don’t forget us!” They meant: “don’t forget our plight, don’t forget to do what you can to help us, don’t forget we also belong to your world.’”

It is my hope this semester that you make friends for a lifetime and meet people along this literary academic journey who will spark something within you that fuels your journey and gives perhaps an inarticulate life direction.

Often the essay is the first step in such articulation. The word comes from the "M.Fr. 'essai' which means “an attempt or try” (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=essay). One doesn’t have to know all the answers. One doesn’t have to be an expert to feel passionately about certain issues. However, the scholar backs up what he or she believes with strong reasons.

It is my intention this summer session to equip students with tools to think a bit more clearly, learn how to ask questions, evaluate sources, and write an academic essay that expresses the writers’ intention as we hold onto our hats and the seats of our pants (smile).

Peace and Blessings,

Wanda Sabir