Welcome to COA Summer 2012
English 1A, Summer 2012
Professor Wanda Sabir
Course codes: 30175
Class Meetings: June 18- July 26, 2012 (six weeks), 7:30-10 a.m., MTWTh
Location: Room CV213
Drop/Add dates: June 21: Drop with a Refund. Last day to add June 24. July 16: last day to drop w/a W and no refund.
Holidays: Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Portfolios due electronically: July 16. Class presentations: weeks 4 and 6. Class blog: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com/
Elphaba to Glinda:
"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!”
From “Defying Gravity,” Wicked, the Musical
Syllabus for English 1A: College Composition and Reading
English 1A is the first transferable college writing course. Don’t get nervous, hopefully you took English 201 and passed with a B or better. Perhaps you’re fresh out of high school, did okay on the placement exam and voila wound up here. Maybe you’re returning to college after a significant hiatus and aren’t confident in your writing, yet once again passed that placement exam, which, if you recall, tested grammar not writing. Keep your receipt and notice the dates, so you can get a full refund if you cut your losses and drop by June 21 (refund, no W), or July 16 with a W/no refund :-) So my joke wasn’t funny? Hang in there and you’ll do fine in the class if you:
1. Know what an essay is
2. Have written one before
3. Are ready to commit yourself to the task of writing
Plan to have a challenging, yet intellectually stimulating six weeks, which will—if you blink be finished before we can remember each other’s names (smile). We will begin the class with goal setting. Make a schedule and join or create a study group. It is really helpful. I usually let students revise essays until they have a passing grade. This summer, students will only get to revise one essay. This means that I expect students to make at least a C on each essay turned in. There will be three big essays where students will demonstrate their competence. Each of these essays is based on one of our books: Mighty Be Our Powers, Leymah Gbowee’s story; Half the Sky by journalist team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, an independent book of your choice (week 4), and the Social Entrepreneur Research Essay with presentation (week 6).
We will write many short essays as we review the basics of composition and ground ourselves in academic writing or the rules for proper documentation as given through the Modern Language Association.
Bring your Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers to class daily, along with whatever book(s) we are reading that week. We will start with Mighty Be Our Powers and Alice Walker’s We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For. Our short essays will come from this book. Bring to class daily They Say, I Say as well. We will complete this book in the first week and a half, so that we can then apply these sophisticated moves in our shorter writing as we use Hacker to practice documenting our sources.
Summer classes are challenging and if any of you are super students who think you can leap or fly through more than two classes successfully, think carefully about your choices before you sign the contract and begin this class. We are completing an 18 week semester in six (6) weeks. Do the math and DO NOT miss any classes and show up on time. Oh, and eat breakfast too. Coffee is allowed as well. If you have a laptop, bring it to class. It will save you a step, as almost everything you write needs to be typed and submitted either as a cyber assignment or as an essay. Essays are submitted electronically to coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com
I do not have office hours in the summer, so I will end class early at least once a week for students to talk to me. It will be like Kaiser—you’ll have 10-15 appointments. If you have questions, ask them in class before class ends. I am probably not going to have time to get back to texts and emails by 7:30 a.m., but I will check class emails at least once each day. Again the time will depend on my schedule that day, so get a classmate’s contact information and form a study group.
Treat this as a lecture class without the TA. The library is open daily so use it and the Open Lab and any ancillary resources here or at Laney to support you in this journey.
Philosophical Musings and Course Requirements
Writing is a social activity, especially the type of writing you’ll be doing here. We always consider our audience, have purpose or reason to write, and use research to substantiate our claims, even those we are considered experts in.
I believe we’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. Don’t let the numbers scare you. We’ll probably write more. This includes drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the library researching, reading documents to increase your facility with the ideas or themes your are contemplating, before you once again sit at your desk writing, revising, and writing some more.
Writing is a lonely process. No one can write for you. The social aspect comes into play once you are finished and you have an opportunity to share.
This semester we will look at women and girls and the inequities which make their lives more difficult just because of the gender biases present in most of the developed and underdeveloped world.
No, you didn’t accidentally end up in a public policy or cultural anthropology class; however, I found the arguments presented in Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, compelling and thought provoking.
We will write an essay based on the themes from this book. We will start with a true heroine’s journey, Leymah Gbowee’s challenging and exciting story about peace in Liberia, a country once at war. Liberia is a country with a complex history. It is the country African Americans formerly enslaved were shipped to once slavery ended and free labor was outlawed. Gbowee’s story, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War is really inspiring. Before the war, she’d planned to attend the university to become a doctor and war, the immediacy of war, changed all that temporarily as the protagonist became a mother and common law wife.
Mighty speaks to how dreams never really die as long as there is memory and hope and support, it also speaks to the great sacrifices a leader makes and the price these sacrifices have on oneself emotionally and physically, and on one’s family. The people who one loves and who one sacrifices for often don’t stand by one in the end as petty drama and jealousy eat at the fabric of the bond.
Excellently recounted, Mighty shows a woman whose life is a work in progress. At times I lose track of her age and then realize how young Gbowee is and what decisions she has to make concerning the lives of so many others. When the peace talk protests grow intense she is awake around the clock. I am amazed she has time for debriefing and self-reflection. Her sister’s support and her children’s understand is amazing. I love the aspects of the book that look at the culture she is a part of, which is clearly not western. The end of the book is too quickly summed up.
There is too much left to cover, I hope this is just part one of the story. I’d love to read the story from the perspective of Gbowee’s children, adopted and one’s she bore. I’d love to hear the story from the perspective of the wonderful friend she had in Tunde.
Mighty isn’t a love story, unless perhaps it is the story about a young woman coming to value herself and that loves growth. Mighty addresses the stress or pressures a leader faces and how unhealthy habits escalate and grow. True to form we learn that Gbowee is stubborn and learns her lessons the hard way whether that is as a girl or a more mature woman. She is not one to be pushed. Luckily we know the end of the story, that she survives. Mighty fills in the details as we count the casualties along the way. It is a sad and triumph story. No one wants the hero’s journey. Those who jealously pulled at Gbowee’s glory didn’t really want what she suffered, though in many cases her comrades suffered as much or more. I wish there was more regarding the strategy the organizers used and more information about what their handbook covered. It would have also been great to hear more of the women’s stories, perhaps in another book we will.
All writing is research writing so students will not write one long essay, rather four shorter essays based on themes from: Mighty, the midterm based on Half the Sky, the third an essay based on the book you chose written by a woman or about a woman, and the final essay is a research essay on a local social entrepreneur or business woman whose venture is not only viable economically, it is also changing the world for the better.
We will use They Say, I Say along with Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers to practice writing style and organization as well as review grammar where needed. I will give grammar quizzes over the first two weeks and if students do not make 100 percent, he or she will know where to focus their review work.
Students also need a notebook for in-class writing with a folder for handouts. You also need a couple of ink pens, a pencil with an eraser, a hole puncher, a stapler and a travel drive for saving one’s work. If you have a laptop, feel free to bring it to class. Tape recorders are fine too to record lectures.
We will keep a reading log for the two assigned books: Mighty and Half the Sky. These reading logs are to be typed and turned in with the completed essay portfolio. I have faith in discussion groups; however, many times students show up unprepared and the prepared students let these unprepared classmates ride. Each week we will change groups. The groups will be between 5-10 people each. If any of you has suggestions on how to make the peer cohorts more responsive and useful, let me know.
I am a firm believer in reflection or personal inquiry, so we will interrogate ourselves and our thinking and performance processes daily, weekly and monthly as we move through the course.
Back to Reading Logs
These reading logs or journals will be where students jot down key ideas and outlined responses for each discussion section, along with themes which arise, vocabulary and key arguments, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving.
Academic Blog
In this course, students will submit essays and other written work on-line. The academic blog is an opportunity for students to utilize multiple intelligences as they engage one another in a variety modalities. It is a public site, so do not post information there which is private. Students always have the option of sending me an email rather than posting a response to an assignment which is personal and private. You will get full credit, just note the assignment you are responding to. The site is: http://www.professorwandasposse.blogspot.com
Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course students will have an altered or heightened awareness of the world around them, especially discourse: speech and text. Students will see that everything is an argument, whether that is a cartoon, advertisement, or lyrics in a song. Students will be able to analyze and critique each incident or contact to evaluate its author’s purpose, audience, and evidence to determine whether or not such goal was met and if appropriate, act accordingly.
This course is intended to be both a group learning experience as well as an individually rewarding one. Mid-semester we will schedule conferences so students can confer with the instructor to evaluate his or her progress in the course. Classroom instruction will consist of lectures, small group work, and students working in pairs. This is an effective way for students to exchange ideas with classmates, compare reactions to readings and practice giving and receiving constructive feedback on class work.
Preparation for class, regular attendance and active participation is imperative for those students who wish to succeed in this course.
Of course it is your intention to make all the classes and to come on time, if you are absent let me know. Students are responsible for all materials and information given during the class time and if we write an essay in class, which we will do, students will not be able to make the missed essay assignment up. There are also no substitutions.
Requirements for homework assignments:
No late papers accepted. Students can only revise one (1) essay. Essays range between 2-5 pages, 500-1550 words. The cyber-assignments are generally shorter (250 words), as are freewrites.
Choose topics which give you enough to write about. We will use documentation to substantiate all of our claims. With this in mind, I expect all papers to utilize at least two (2) different outside print sources, in addition to the occasional interview, and broadcast news, that is, radio or television, Internet also.
You will learn to document sources; we will practice citing sources in text, using footnotes and end notes, and writing bibliographies and notes pages. Remember save all your work! This is a portfolio course.
Revision
On the one essay revision, the student writer needs to respond with a narrative to me regarding the writer’s understanding of what needed to be done. The student needs to list the errors, the rules that apply and correct the errors one at a time in the narrative which is written in essay form. Each errors is its own paragraph.
Reading and Writing
Reading great authors and writers helps you develop your style. It’s similar to eating a balanced meal for optimum health. A writer is only as intellectually healthy as the material he or she reads. Models are often a great way to practice a style of writing. I will occasionally make copies of articles from magazines and textbooks I think illustrate a particular style of writing I’d like you to practice, or perhaps an argument which have peaked my interest. If you find an argument, either a visual one or a written one you’d like to share please do so for extra credit.
Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Homework: Introductions
Please include your goals along with your name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address and send to me at coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com. The due date is June 18, 2012 by 11:59 p.m. I’d like to read the responses before class Tuesday, June 19.
Respond to the following questions as well in the same email:
What strengths do you bring to the class? What skills or knowledge would you like to leave with once the class ends? What can I do to help you achieve this? Is there anything I need to know, such as a hidden disability, childcare issues, etc., which might jeopardize this goal?
Do not forget to include the assignment in the subject line along with student name, course and time in all communication.
Cyber-Assignment Response to the Syllabus due by Wednesday, June 20, 2012.
Post on the blog. Include in your response acknowledgement that to pass the class one must have materials, such as textbooks preferably day 1 of classes, no later than day 2 (smile).
The syllabus response is a cyber-assignment due on the blog. Don’t email it to me. I will look for it there: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com Click “comment” and post your response to the syllabus there. Chose “anonymous” and type your name in the post. The posts have a character count, if ever you write more than the space allows, just continue the post in another document.
Grading:
Mighty: 10 percent
They Say, I Say/Hacker Exercises: 10 percent
Student Book—presentation and essay: 15 percent
Midterm—Half the Sky: 15 percent
Social Entrepreneur Essay & presentation: 20 percent
Portfolio: 15 percent
Cyber-Assignments: 15 percent
The cyber-essays and comments on student work are practice essays and count as participation. I changed the calculation this semester to force students to participate in our on-line discussions. This portion of your grade is 15 percent. Presentations accompany the major essays, but we have other presentations as well connected to the cyber-assignments. 35 percent is attached to two paper presentations: research and independent study. The portfolio, which is a collection of your major work this semester, is another hefty chunk. Save all your graded assignments for inclusion.
Pedagogy
English language fluency in writing and reading, a certain comfort and ease with the language, confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing, familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).
We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.
This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.
Evaluation—Getting that “A”
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily the best response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not a student can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this summer session in meeting your goals. I like to post essays on the academic blog as examples for other students. I will be asking students from time to time to submit copies for posting. The blog is cumulative, so you can read essays from Spring 2006 to now. The address for the class blog is: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com/
Office: D-219
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I’d like to wish everyone good luck. There are no office hours outside of those held in class 1-2 times a week. Ask me for my cell phone number. I do not mind sharing it with you. My email address again is: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com Do not send assignments or comments to wsabir@peralta.edu I will not see them. You will get class notifications from me there. Respond to the gmail account.
Exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently especially over the weekend or on holidays. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult.
Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio.
Students are expected to complete their work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance, if possible, to keep full credit. You lose credit each day an assignment is late and certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments prepared outside of class are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work (see Hacker: The Writing Process; Document Design.)
Cheating
Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course.
Homework
If you do not identify the assignment, I cannot grade it. If you do not return the original assignment you revised, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or loose the original assignment, you get a zero on the assignment to be revised. I will not look at revisions without the original attached - no exceptions.
Use blue or black ink when writing responses in class. You can annotate your books in pencil.
Textbooks Recap:
Gbowee, Leyman, and Carol Mithers. Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. New York: Beast Books, 2011.
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010.
Walker, Alice. We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. New York: The New Press, 2006.
Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.
Students need to choose a book by a woman author or about a woman who lives here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biographies and autobiographies are great. If you want to read a novel, let me see it first. Students will have a paper and a presentation based on the book. Choose one now and when we finish Half the Sky you can start reading it.
Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Fourth-Sixth edition. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins.
Recommended:
Pollitt, Gary. Craig Baker. Stewart Pidd Hates English: Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing Exercises. First or Second Edition. California: Attack the Text Publishing, 2008/9. ISBN: 13: 978-0-9755923-4-2
This syllabus is subject to change based on instructor assessment of class progress.
English 1A, Summer 2012
Professor Wanda Sabir
Course codes: 30175
Class Meetings: June 18- July 26, 2012 (six weeks), 7:30-10 a.m., MTWTh
Location: Room CV213
Drop/Add dates: June 21: Drop with a Refund. Last day to add June 24. July 16: last day to drop w/a W and no refund.
Holidays: Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Portfolios due electronically: July 16. Class presentations: weeks 4 and 6. Class blog: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com/
Elphaba to Glinda:
"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!”
From “Defying Gravity,” Wicked, the Musical
Syllabus for English 1A: College Composition and Reading
English 1A is the first transferable college writing course. Don’t get nervous, hopefully you took English 201 and passed with a B or better. Perhaps you’re fresh out of high school, did okay on the placement exam and voila wound up here. Maybe you’re returning to college after a significant hiatus and aren’t confident in your writing, yet once again passed that placement exam, which, if you recall, tested grammar not writing. Keep your receipt and notice the dates, so you can get a full refund if you cut your losses and drop by June 21 (refund, no W), or July 16 with a W/no refund :-) So my joke wasn’t funny? Hang in there and you’ll do fine in the class if you:
1. Know what an essay is
2. Have written one before
3. Are ready to commit yourself to the task of writing
Plan to have a challenging, yet intellectually stimulating six weeks, which will—if you blink be finished before we can remember each other’s names (smile). We will begin the class with goal setting. Make a schedule and join or create a study group. It is really helpful. I usually let students revise essays until they have a passing grade. This summer, students will only get to revise one essay. This means that I expect students to make at least a C on each essay turned in. There will be three big essays where students will demonstrate their competence. Each of these essays is based on one of our books: Mighty Be Our Powers, Leymah Gbowee’s story; Half the Sky by journalist team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, an independent book of your choice (week 4), and the Social Entrepreneur Research Essay with presentation (week 6).
We will write many short essays as we review the basics of composition and ground ourselves in academic writing or the rules for proper documentation as given through the Modern Language Association.
Bring your Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers to class daily, along with whatever book(s) we are reading that week. We will start with Mighty Be Our Powers and Alice Walker’s We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For. Our short essays will come from this book. Bring to class daily They Say, I Say as well. We will complete this book in the first week and a half, so that we can then apply these sophisticated moves in our shorter writing as we use Hacker to practice documenting our sources.
Summer classes are challenging and if any of you are super students who think you can leap or fly through more than two classes successfully, think carefully about your choices before you sign the contract and begin this class. We are completing an 18 week semester in six (6) weeks. Do the math and DO NOT miss any classes and show up on time. Oh, and eat breakfast too. Coffee is allowed as well. If you have a laptop, bring it to class. It will save you a step, as almost everything you write needs to be typed and submitted either as a cyber assignment or as an essay. Essays are submitted electronically to coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com
I do not have office hours in the summer, so I will end class early at least once a week for students to talk to me. It will be like Kaiser—you’ll have 10-15 appointments. If you have questions, ask them in class before class ends. I am probably not going to have time to get back to texts and emails by 7:30 a.m., but I will check class emails at least once each day. Again the time will depend on my schedule that day, so get a classmate’s contact information and form a study group.
Treat this as a lecture class without the TA. The library is open daily so use it and the Open Lab and any ancillary resources here or at Laney to support you in this journey.
Philosophical Musings and Course Requirements
Writing is a social activity, especially the type of writing you’ll be doing here. We always consider our audience, have purpose or reason to write, and use research to substantiate our claims, even those we are considered experts in.
I believe we’re supposed to write about 8000 words or so at this level course. Don’t let the numbers scare you. We’ll probably write more. This includes drafts. What this amounts to is time at home writing, time in the library researching, reading documents to increase your facility with the ideas or themes your are contemplating, before you once again sit at your desk writing, revising, and writing some more.
Writing is a lonely process. No one can write for you. The social aspect comes into play once you are finished and you have an opportunity to share.
This semester we will look at women and girls and the inequities which make their lives more difficult just because of the gender biases present in most of the developed and underdeveloped world.
No, you didn’t accidentally end up in a public policy or cultural anthropology class; however, I found the arguments presented in Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, compelling and thought provoking.
We will write an essay based on the themes from this book. We will start with a true heroine’s journey, Leymah Gbowee’s challenging and exciting story about peace in Liberia, a country once at war. Liberia is a country with a complex history. It is the country African Americans formerly enslaved were shipped to once slavery ended and free labor was outlawed. Gbowee’s story, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War is really inspiring. Before the war, she’d planned to attend the university to become a doctor and war, the immediacy of war, changed all that temporarily as the protagonist became a mother and common law wife.
Mighty speaks to how dreams never really die as long as there is memory and hope and support, it also speaks to the great sacrifices a leader makes and the price these sacrifices have on oneself emotionally and physically, and on one’s family. The people who one loves and who one sacrifices for often don’t stand by one in the end as petty drama and jealousy eat at the fabric of the bond.
Excellently recounted, Mighty shows a woman whose life is a work in progress. At times I lose track of her age and then realize how young Gbowee is and what decisions she has to make concerning the lives of so many others. When the peace talk protests grow intense she is awake around the clock. I am amazed she has time for debriefing and self-reflection. Her sister’s support and her children’s understand is amazing. I love the aspects of the book that look at the culture she is a part of, which is clearly not western. The end of the book is too quickly summed up.
There is too much left to cover, I hope this is just part one of the story. I’d love to read the story from the perspective of Gbowee’s children, adopted and one’s she bore. I’d love to hear the story from the perspective of the wonderful friend she had in Tunde.
Mighty isn’t a love story, unless perhaps it is the story about a young woman coming to value herself and that loves growth. Mighty addresses the stress or pressures a leader faces and how unhealthy habits escalate and grow. True to form we learn that Gbowee is stubborn and learns her lessons the hard way whether that is as a girl or a more mature woman. She is not one to be pushed. Luckily we know the end of the story, that she survives. Mighty fills in the details as we count the casualties along the way. It is a sad and triumph story. No one wants the hero’s journey. Those who jealously pulled at Gbowee’s glory didn’t really want what she suffered, though in many cases her comrades suffered as much or more. I wish there was more regarding the strategy the organizers used and more information about what their handbook covered. It would have also been great to hear more of the women’s stories, perhaps in another book we will.
All writing is research writing so students will not write one long essay, rather four shorter essays based on themes from: Mighty, the midterm based on Half the Sky, the third an essay based on the book you chose written by a woman or about a woman, and the final essay is a research essay on a local social entrepreneur or business woman whose venture is not only viable economically, it is also changing the world for the better.
We will use They Say, I Say along with Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers to practice writing style and organization as well as review grammar where needed. I will give grammar quizzes over the first two weeks and if students do not make 100 percent, he or she will know where to focus their review work.
Students also need a notebook for in-class writing with a folder for handouts. You also need a couple of ink pens, a pencil with an eraser, a hole puncher, a stapler and a travel drive for saving one’s work. If you have a laptop, feel free to bring it to class. Tape recorders are fine too to record lectures.
We will keep a reading log for the two assigned books: Mighty and Half the Sky. These reading logs are to be typed and turned in with the completed essay portfolio. I have faith in discussion groups; however, many times students show up unprepared and the prepared students let these unprepared classmates ride. Each week we will change groups. The groups will be between 5-10 people each. If any of you has suggestions on how to make the peer cohorts more responsive and useful, let me know.
I am a firm believer in reflection or personal inquiry, so we will interrogate ourselves and our thinking and performance processes daily, weekly and monthly as we move through the course.
Back to Reading Logs
These reading logs or journals will be where students jot down key ideas and outlined responses for each discussion section, along with themes which arise, vocabulary and key arguments, along with primary writing strategies employed: description, process analysis, narration, argument, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, problem solving.
Academic Blog
In this course, students will submit essays and other written work on-line. The academic blog is an opportunity for students to utilize multiple intelligences as they engage one another in a variety modalities. It is a public site, so do not post information there which is private. Students always have the option of sending me an email rather than posting a response to an assignment which is personal and private. You will get full credit, just note the assignment you are responding to. The site is: http://www.professorwandasposse.blogspot.com
Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course students will have an altered or heightened awareness of the world around them, especially discourse: speech and text. Students will see that everything is an argument, whether that is a cartoon, advertisement, or lyrics in a song. Students will be able to analyze and critique each incident or contact to evaluate its author’s purpose, audience, and evidence to determine whether or not such goal was met and if appropriate, act accordingly.
This course is intended to be both a group learning experience as well as an individually rewarding one. Mid-semester we will schedule conferences so students can confer with the instructor to evaluate his or her progress in the course. Classroom instruction will consist of lectures, small group work, and students working in pairs. This is an effective way for students to exchange ideas with classmates, compare reactions to readings and practice giving and receiving constructive feedback on class work.
Preparation for class, regular attendance and active participation is imperative for those students who wish to succeed in this course.
Of course it is your intention to make all the classes and to come on time, if you are absent let me know. Students are responsible for all materials and information given during the class time and if we write an essay in class, which we will do, students will not be able to make the missed essay assignment up. There are also no substitutions.
Requirements for homework assignments:
No late papers accepted. Students can only revise one (1) essay. Essays range between 2-5 pages, 500-1550 words. The cyber-assignments are generally shorter (250 words), as are freewrites.
Choose topics which give you enough to write about. We will use documentation to substantiate all of our claims. With this in mind, I expect all papers to utilize at least two (2) different outside print sources, in addition to the occasional interview, and broadcast news, that is, radio or television, Internet also.
You will learn to document sources; we will practice citing sources in text, using footnotes and end notes, and writing bibliographies and notes pages. Remember save all your work! This is a portfolio course.
Revision
On the one essay revision, the student writer needs to respond with a narrative to me regarding the writer’s understanding of what needed to be done. The student needs to list the errors, the rules that apply and correct the errors one at a time in the narrative which is written in essay form. Each errors is its own paragraph.
Reading and Writing
Reading great authors and writers helps you develop your style. It’s similar to eating a balanced meal for optimum health. A writer is only as intellectually healthy as the material he or she reads. Models are often a great way to practice a style of writing. I will occasionally make copies of articles from magazines and textbooks I think illustrate a particular style of writing I’d like you to practice, or perhaps an argument which have peaked my interest. If you find an argument, either a visual one or a written one you’d like to share please do so for extra credit.
Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Homework: Introductions
Please include your goals along with your name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address and send to me at coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com. The due date is June 18, 2012 by 11:59 p.m. I’d like to read the responses before class Tuesday, June 19.
Respond to the following questions as well in the same email:
What strengths do you bring to the class? What skills or knowledge would you like to leave with once the class ends? What can I do to help you achieve this? Is there anything I need to know, such as a hidden disability, childcare issues, etc., which might jeopardize this goal?
Do not forget to include the assignment in the subject line along with student name, course and time in all communication.
Cyber-Assignment Response to the Syllabus due by Wednesday, June 20, 2012.
Post on the blog. Include in your response acknowledgement that to pass the class one must have materials, such as textbooks preferably day 1 of classes, no later than day 2 (smile).
The syllabus response is a cyber-assignment due on the blog. Don’t email it to me. I will look for it there: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com Click “comment” and post your response to the syllabus there. Chose “anonymous” and type your name in the post. The posts have a character count, if ever you write more than the space allows, just continue the post in another document.
Grading:
Mighty: 10 percent
They Say, I Say/Hacker Exercises: 10 percent
Student Book—presentation and essay: 15 percent
Midterm—Half the Sky: 15 percent
Social Entrepreneur Essay & presentation: 20 percent
Portfolio: 15 percent
Cyber-Assignments: 15 percent
The cyber-essays and comments on student work are practice essays and count as participation. I changed the calculation this semester to force students to participate in our on-line discussions. This portion of your grade is 15 percent. Presentations accompany the major essays, but we have other presentations as well connected to the cyber-assignments. 35 percent is attached to two paper presentations: research and independent study. The portfolio, which is a collection of your major work this semester, is another hefty chunk. Save all your graded assignments for inclusion.
Pedagogy
English language fluency in writing and reading, a certain comfort and ease with the language, confidence and skillful application of literary skills associated with academic writing, familiarity if not mastery of the rhetorical styles used in argumentation, exposition and narration will be addressed in this class and is a key student learning outcome (SLO).
We will be evaluating what we know and how we came to know what we know, a field called epistemology or the study of knowledge. Granted, the perspective is western culture which eliminates the values of the majority populations, so-called underdeveloped or undeveloped countries or cultures. Let us not fall into typical superiority traps. Try to maintain a mental elasticity and a willingness to let go of concepts which not only limit your growth as an intelligent being, but put you at a distinct disadvantage as a species.
This is a highly charged and potentially revolutionary process - critical thinking. The process of evaluating all that you swallowed without chewing up to now is possibly even dangerous. This is one of the problems with bigotry; it’s easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.
Evaluation—Getting that “A”
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily the best response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not a student can demonstrate mastery of a skill - in this case: essay writing. Grades are an approximation, arbitrary at best, no matter how many safeguards one tries to put in place to avoid such ambiguity. Suffice it to say, your portfolio will illustrate your competence. It will represent your progress, your success or failure this summer session in meeting your goals. I like to post essays on the academic blog as examples for other students. I will be asking students from time to time to submit copies for posting. The blog is cumulative, so you can read essays from Spring 2006 to now. The address for the class blog is: http://professorwandasposse.blogspot.com/
Office: D-219
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I’d like to wish everyone good luck. There are no office hours outside of those held in class 1-2 times a week. Ask me for my cell phone number. I do not mind sharing it with you. My email address again is: coasabirenglish1A@gmail.com Do not send assignments or comments to wsabir@peralta.edu I will not see them. You will get class notifications from me there. Respond to the gmail account.
Exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently especially over the weekend or on holidays. Again study groups are recommended, especially for those students finding the readings difficult.
Keep a vocabulary log for the semester and an error chart (taken from comments on essay assignments). List the words you need to look up in the dictionary, also list where you first encountered them: page, book and definition, also use the word in a sentence. You will turn this in with your portfolio.
Students are expected to complete their work on time. If you need more time on an assignment, discuss this with me in advance, if possible, to keep full credit. You lose credit each day an assignment is late and certain assignments, such as in-class essays cannot be made up. All assignments prepared outside of class are to be typed, 12-pt. font, double-spaced lines, indentations on paragraphs, 1-inch margins around the written work (see Hacker: The Writing Process; Document Design.)
Cheating
Plagiarism is ethically abhorrent, and if any student tries to take credit for work authored by another person the result will be a failed grade on the assignment and possibly a failed grade in the course if this is attempted again. This is a graded course.
Homework
If you do not identify the assignment, I cannot grade it. If you do not return the original assignment you revised, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or loose the original assignment, you get a zero on the assignment to be revised. I will not look at revisions without the original attached - no exceptions.
Use blue or black ink when writing responses in class. You can annotate your books in pencil.
Textbooks Recap:
Gbowee, Leyman, and Carol Mithers. Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. New York: Beast Books, 2011.
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010.
Walker, Alice. We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. New York: The New Press, 2006.
Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.
Students need to choose a book by a woman author or about a woman who lives here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biographies and autobiographies are great. If you want to read a novel, let me see it first. Students will have a paper and a presentation based on the book. Choose one now and when we finish Half the Sky you can start reading it.
Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Fourth-Sixth edition. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins.
Recommended:
Pollitt, Gary. Craig Baker. Stewart Pidd Hates English: Grammar, Punctuation, and Writing Exercises. First or Second Edition. California: Attack the Text Publishing, 2008/9. ISBN: 13: 978-0-9755923-4-2
This syllabus is subject to change based on instructor assessment of class progress.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 4:07 PM
18 Comments:
I believe this is going to be a fast paced and exciting semester. It will build our minds to learn about new literature and a new way of learning our grammar and writing skills. If we use our minds as a tool and take our professors advice we can all grow this semester. Let's continue to learn and grow consistently and independantly, but united. I think all of the recommended books will be a huge benefit. Let us take advantage of our resources.
Tamara Qirreh
Eng1A Summer '12
730a-1020a
The syllabus is heavy on the eyes. It looks like a lot to put on a checklist, but I am confident we will finish it. Given the limited amount of days we have in these short Summer semesters, the amount of work looks intimidating. But overall, this is an English class, so I would not expect less. I am excited to see what we will all accomplish by the end of the semester.
Linde Huang
Professor Wanda Sabir
COA English 1A
June, 19, 2012
The syllabus is a long and daunting read but essential to know what we must in order to pass the class. To pass the class one must have materials, such as textbooks, paper, pen, and or laptop. We will be learning at an extremely fast pace so we as students must try harder to stay on board and not lose focus on the prize; a greater understanding and use of our critical writing and thinking.
Manucher Khajvandi
Eng1A Summer '12
730a-1020a
Tiffany Chang
Professor Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
19 June 2012
I found the tone of the syllabus to be really surprising. Usually, the syllabuses teachers distribute are bland, so it was interesting having personal inputs in this one. I liked the introduction, where we, as students, are aware that the professor is experiencing the class with us. The feeling immediately becomes more friendly and enjoyable. Professor Sabir is not just lecturing, but actually going through the learning process with us (and is as crazy to agree to teach a 7:30 am class as we are to enroll in it).
I found the syllabus introduction to be inspirational. Professor Sabir fills the page with stories of the significance of literature at the San Quentin State Prison as well as refers to important inspirational figures like Aung San Suu Kyi. She states her goal of wanting the students to enrich the learning experience and master the art of writing an essay, like being able to think “a bit more clearly, learn how to ask questions, evaluate sources, and write an academic essay”. I also like how she also states the emphasis of the course, which is the gender bias against women and girls around the world. This will definitely be an intense course, but I’m sure we’ll all survive it.
Professor Sabir stresses the importance of a prepared student, and so it is important that students get all of the materials (including books, notebook, folder, pens, etc.) for the course as soon as possible.
This class, English 1A is definitely not an easy class to get through. We have so much to do in so little time. The workload definitely seems intimidating as it requires proficient writing skills and the willingness to learn. I understand that to pass this class, I would need to have all of my books as we will be using them in our class. We’ll be writing a total of three major essays with the books that we’ll be reading together but in addition to that we’ll also be doing essays on books that we choose to read. However, I do not have all my books yet, but I am definitely going to have everything as soon as possible. From here on, I will work hard for the grade I want.
Chie Shan Chan
This class, English 1A is definitely not an easy class to get through. We have so much to do in so little time. The workload definitely seems intimidating as it requires proficient writing skills and the willingness to learn. I understand that to pass this class, I would need to have all of my books as we will be using them in our class. We’ll be writing a total of three major essays with the books that we’ll be reading together but in addition to that we’ll also be doing essays on books that we choose to read. However, I do not have all my books yet, but I am definitely going to have everything as soon as possible. From here on, I will work hard for the grade I want.
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English1A Summer 2012
19 June 2012
When I first began my college years I chose to put off english as it is one of my weaker subjects. I have more of a mathematical mind, but I understand grammar is also important when one is striving to be successful. Once we started testing ourselves to see what forms of grammar we remembered, I realized it was a mistake to put off taking an english class for so long. I now know long hours of studying is required, and in order to pass the class one must have materials, such as textbooks, preferably by day one of classes, no later than day two (wink and a smile). I am honestly looking forward to learning what professor sabir has to teach us, and implementing the newly aquired knowledge into my life in the future.
Anthony Gamarra
Professor Sabir
English 1A
19 June 2012
Freedom Quickwrite:
Freedom is when one doesn’t have to be restricted from the decisions that one makes. For example, the complete opposite would be slaves. I have learned so much about them throughout my school years. Slaves don’t have freedom at all. They have owners who tell them what to do and slaves have no say in anything at all. They can’t do anything for themselves but obey and that’s not what freedom is about at all. But today marks the day where enslaved African Americans learned that they are free. Freedom allows people to believe what they want, decide what they want, and say what they want without having to ask another’s permission. But I don’t think there’s an exact definition for freedom, it’s more of a feeling you get. I feel that I have plenty of freedom in my life. I have never been grounded or stopped from going to places that I really want to go. I would always be given a choice. But there were times when I wasn’t allowed to do something because my mom felt that it was unsafe. I may be limited to some things but in the end, I get to choose how I want to live my life.
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English 1A
19 June 2012
I'm glad and relief that we got to read the syllabus in class since it is a little long. This class does not seem like an easy class to pass, but i will try my best to achieve the grade i want. Although this is a fast pace summer class I hope everyone including myself will be able to keep up.I'm looking forward in reading the books because they all seem very interesting. Also I'm excited to learn what this class brings and is looking forward in learning new things. Professor Sabir seems like a very nice and happy person, so i am very excited to learn from her.
Lori Nguyen
Professor Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
June 19, 2012
I want to start off by saying this wasn’t what I expected a English syllabus to look like. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I’m just saying it’s something I’m not use to seeing, it feels a little more personal and not just the standard list with dates and percentages of all assignments throughout the semester. I know this class isn’t going to be easy, but then again nothing good in life is ever easy at first. I will work for an A grade and take in all the information that I learned and apply it outside of class.
Juan Santoyo
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
June 19 2012
The syllabus is a really lengthy read, although it is not very difficult to read. The post is in depth and I like how she tells us the entire curriculum on it. Reading all the books she is telling us to read will probably be a challenge for most of us, but we will get through. Grading breakdown is simple to understand and the Textbooks Recap at the end is very helpful to those who need to know what books we will need. I hope to make friends with most of you guys.
*Ahahaha messed up the previous post. I'm sorry.
The syllabus is a really lengthy read, although it is not very difficult to read. The post is in depth and I like how she tells us the entire curriculum on it. Reading all the books she is telling us to read will probably be a challenge for most of us, but we will get through. Grading breakdown is simple to understand and the Textbooks Recap at the end is very helpful to those who need to know what books we will need. I hope to make friends with most of you guys.
Raymond Hui
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
June 20 2012
Monica Contreras
English 1A Summer 2012
June 19 2012
Professor Wanda Sabir
As I was reading over the syllabus, I was surprise to see all the material that will be covered in six weeks. I went ahead and got all the books listed on the syllabus. The syllabus is very clear and states how the assignments should be completed. I am aware that there will be four essays we will have to write in these six weeks, two of which will be based on two books assigned. I am very excited to learn about the movement of women. I know there is many women out there who have made many differences In our lives. I am eager to learn more about different women who came part of our history. I know it is very important to come to class everyday and have your mind ready to grasp all the information that is given to us. I want to be successful in this class and I know that with my hard work and the help of my professor this will be possible. The syllabus was very different to the ones that I am use to reading. Usually the syllabus just lists the assignments. This syllabus was very fun to read and you can tell that she really put in work into writing out the syllabus. This made it interesting and convinced me to read the whole syllabus as oppose to skipping some parts. I want to become a better writer and have the ability to write in a way that my writing is understood. Hopefully by the end of this course I will have achieved my goal.
Mohammad Anwar
Professor Sabir
English 1A
June20/12
The syllabus looks really hard but I am happy for it. when I sign in to this class I was aiming to learn how to write and become a good book readers. It seems I come to the right class. During this six weeks, I have to study a lot according to this syllabus, and I am willing to do it. I want to use every minutes of the time to study and learn all the materials. I hope every everyone get a good grade beside it looks a little hard to even think about getting A.
Yizhe Liu
Professor Sabir
English1A summer 2012
June 20 2012
The syllabus provided all information that we need to follow the course. For me, it is a big challenge. The schedule is absolutely intensive: in only six weeks, we have to read five books, write four essays and prepare two presentations. With all the accessible resources, I’m sure that if I follow the syllabus, I will learn a lot and my English will have a significant improvement. I believe nothing is impossible and here I’m defying gravity.
Christopher Nguyen
Eng1A Summer '12
730a-1020a
The syllabus is very long and looking at the amount of work we have to do,it kinda makes me question myself if I can even do this. Not to mention the limited about of days we have to finish all the work. But then again it is English and it is during the summer. Other than that to pass the class all you have to do is show up and bring your textbooks, paper, pen, or laptop and do all the work. But I’m going to have remind myself that we’ll be moving at fast pace and have to try to keep up.
Emmanuel Sanchez-Vazquez
Professor Sabir
ENGL 1A
June 21, 2012
Response: Acknowledgement to syllabus.
Professor Wanda Sabir wrote the program of this English 1A summer course with clarity and some advice. The syllabus is exceptional, and supported by the cyber blog I found myself without confusions or questions. I believe that this is a class where I will achieve the student learning outcomes. The topic of this course will be woman and their lives in a gender bias world, and this inequity will be understood through the books Mighty Be Our Powers, Half the Sky and We Are the Ones We Been Waiting For. Professor Sabir also explains in her written plan that this class is a portfolio and electronically course, and six intellectually stimulating weeks. The schedule is Monday through Thursday from June 18 to July 16, the portfolio due date, at Cougar Village 213 from 7:30 to 10:20 am. Attendance, preparation for class, and active participation are important, but not as important as saving all work written - reading logs (“journals” of the books), sort essays, notes, vocabulary log-, one revision essay, three essays, and two presentation. I like what I read about the grade not representing the work done (smile). So, I believe this class will be interesting and will keep me healthy busy.
Danishia Mahomes
Prof.Sabir
English 1A
June 24,2012
Re:Responce to the syllabus
This semester of school is going to be crazy busy, just knowing what i know about your english classes. I love your style and I know that me having this class for three hours is going to be very helpful to my writting. The syllabus is well put together, but it is a whole lot to take in and remember. I am just looking forward to a fun imformative semester.
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