Greetings, Eh 123 Students

Today’s Agenda

1) Discussion of annotations and observations

2) Discussion of journal writing

3)  Journal Assigment:

Describe “the student” in a couple of paragraphs. Now,

describe yourself in no less than two pages as a beginning

university student. What do you bring to your college experience from your hometown and high school experience? What kinds of expectations for yourself do you have? From your teachers, your peers? (These will be done in your journals).

4) Discussion: Who were you writing to in this assignment? How did that affect what you said or didn’t say? 

5) Journal Assignment: Write a page and a half journal entry in which you begin to compare the culture of your hometown and high school life with that you are experiencing here at college as of now.  Here you will begin to formulate some generalized observations of similarities and differences in your experiences.

Homework:

 Part 1) Answer this question in a full-page essay in your

journal: Why is the second chapter called “The Syllabus”?

Part 2)  Write a two page essay in which you describe your “culture”.  Be prepared to present this next time. The definition of this “culture” is up to you. It is your description and should include everything that you think is relevant.This is meant to be prewriting for a later stage of writing and should be considered as such.   Do take into account the kinds of things Albom mentions, for instance on page 42, but speak to the contemporary (current) issues.

Optional Video Lectures (watch if you want a refresher)

Video One

Video Two

Video Three

· Diagnostic

Instructions:

Part 1: Study the image below closely. For the next fifteen minutes, I want you to imagine that this woman is your mother. I want you to use your imagination to come up with answers to the following questions. You must be as specific as possible in your answers, and use standard English grammar.

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Why does she look this way? Who are the children around her? When was this picture taken? Why are these people so dirty? What did this family have for breakfast this morning? What kind of breakfast was it? Where does she work? What are her hopes and dreams for the future? Be as specific as you can be.

Part Two: For the For the next fifteen minutes, I want you to imagine that this man is your father. I want you to use your imagination to come up with answers to the following questions. You must be as specific as possible in your answers, and use standard English grammar.

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Why does he look this way? Wgat were his parents like? When was this picture taken? Where did he buy his expensive suit? What did his family have for breakfast this morning? What kind of breakfast was it? Where does he work? What are his hopes and dreams for the future? Be as specific as you can be.

· Policy and Procedures

· Discussion of writing process

     o Journals

    o Oral presentation component of class

    o Annotation

Homework:

Annotate pages 1-45 of Tuesdays With Morrie.

Print out Policy and Procedures sheet and bring it to class with you.

Optional Lecture Videos:

One:

Two:

For today, you were to:

Part 2) Write a two page essay in which you describe your “culture”. Be prepared to present this next time. The definition of this “culture” is up to you. It is your description and should include everything that you think is relevant.This is meant to be pre-writing for a later stage of writing and should be considered as such. Do take into account the kinds of things Albom mentions, for instance on page 42, but speak to the contemporary (current) issues.

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We will begin today with a presentation of our essays. Each presenter will have approximately five minutes. If not everyone gets a chance to read today, we will complete our presentations on Thursday.

If time permits, we will discuss the other writing you wrote for today:

Answer this question in a full-page essay in your journal: Why is the second chapter called “The Syllabus”?

I will collect your journals at the end of class today.

Homework:

Write a two page essay in which you give your interpretation, at this early point in the book, of Morrie’s statement: “we’re teaching the wrong things” (35). The essay should be a thoughtful examination of Morrie’s statement and not a sermon on what should be offered instead (there’s time later to examine alternatives). This is not an evaluation of whether he is right or wrong at this point, but your attempt to put in writing what it is you think he means. You may quote from the author’s account of himself if it helps you. Please do use personal experiences or that of others you know as examples to help explain your interpretation if you can. You can and should utilize the ideas from your previous writing. Incorporate your ideas, for example, of “culture” and what you might think needs to be different or changed (again, not a rant or preachy), or what you believe to be right about yours.

Today’s Agenda

We are going to begin today with an in-class writing assignment. Write for the next 10 minutes on the following topic:

How do Morrie’s ideas seem to correlate with his idea of “making your own culture”?

Class Discussion

Group/Class Discussion: How would you describe Morrie’s main characteristic? Why?

Is this part of Morrie’s character a part of “your culture” and its values?

How much do you think it is valued generally in your culture?

In-class work on draft three of the literacy autobiography

EDITING BATTLE STATIONS (count off by 4)

Group one: Basic Grammar and General Specificity

Group Two: Tension of Opposites

Group Three: Setting

Group Four: Character and Dialogue

Homework:

Final Draft of Literacy Autobiography Due in class.

In two pages in your journal, write a reflective piece which answers both of the following questions:

1) How is my literacy experience active in the creation of a “culture of my own”? Do I still use what I have learned in a significant way? Did I learn what not to do? Did I learn a different attitude that has served me well, or not so well? How does this correspond to the idea of “making one’s own culture”?

2) Take a look at the very first entry you wrote regarding your hometown and high school experience and culture.  After you’ve re- read what you wrote then, answer the following as well:  is becoming a college student likely to present conflicts with the culture (or some aspect of it) I came from in any way? How would I describe that conflict, at this point? If not, why not? And, how do you think your previous experiences with “literacy” may help you?

•1)      For today you were to read and annotate 46-88 in Tuesdays with Morrie.

•2)      Get out a sheet of paper, these are notes for yourself. Review your annotations, and put down brief notes and page numbers for yourself on the sheet.

•3)      Get into groups and discuss what you found to be the most interesting, or about those sections of the text that you have the most questions.

•4)      Class discussion

•5)      Our Project for the next two weeks:

•a.       Last time I said that writing is a process.

•b.      We have begun that process, the early writing, with the work you have produced so far.

• i.      Journal  entries in which you have reflected on your culture

• ii.      A presentation on your culture

• iii.      A two page essay on what Morrie’s statement “We are teaching the wrong things.”

•6)       We need to make CERTAIN that we are keeping these items in our files.

•a.        From now on, bring you JOURNAL, BOOK, AND FILE to class, each and every time.

•7)      The name of this essay is “Literacy Autobiography”

• i.      What does the word Literacy mean? What does the word “Autobiography” mean?

• ii.      We will be working on this project both in and out of class over the next few weeks. You must ALWAYS have the work with you in class, and you must ALWAYS have done the homework. If you do not, you will be marked absent.

•8)      Here is how we are going to begin:

•a.       First draft of literacy autobiography: using the work you have done so far, describe in a first draft (a minimum of two pages) one influential person who has taught you something significant:

• i.      how to think differently about something important

• ii.      how to do something you couldn’t do before

• iii.      or who somehow influenced your “literacy” (academic, social, emotional, cultural) to this point.

•b.      You are to bring THREE COPIES of the first TWO pages to class on Wednesday.

•9)      I would take the next five or so minutes to review your own writing to see if there is any information in there that you will be able to use, maybe something that you will be able to take out and place directly within the paper.

Optional Lecture Videos

Video One

Video Two

Video Three

Will be posted soon

Today’s Agenda

1) Let’s begin today by getting out our copies of Tuesday’s With Morrie. Turn to page 40. On this page, Morrie and Mitch talk about the “tension of opposites.” What is this all about?

2) General Discussion of “Tension of Opposites”

3) Okay, now that we have talked about the tension of opposites, I want you to get out your journal and open to a new journal entry. For the next 10 -15 minutes, we are going to write an entry on the following topic:

Whether you know it or not, as you were writing you were beginning to describe something that is similar to the “tension of opposites” that is described in Tuesdays with Morrie. That is to say, you are writing about how you transitioned from one understanding of yourself and your world to a different understanding of yourself and your world, and how that transition “pulled” or changed you.

I want you to write a full page in which you describe what this “tension of opposites” was like for you. Describe what life was like for you before this person had a major impact on you, and what life was life afterwards.

2) Let’s get into groups of three. I want you to begin today by discussing how the writing you just did could be incorporated effectively into your literacy autobiography WITHOUT taking it on as a “moral to the story.” In other words, how can you “show” this transition to the reader and not “tell it” to him or her?

3) Class Discussion.

3) Now I want you to begin editing your groupmates’ work:

a. Basic grammar: Sentence fragments and run-on sentences

b. Proper punctuation

c. Capitalization

d. Opportunities to move from GENERAL Details to SPECIFIC DETAILS

Homework:  Re-draft your essay to reflect the changes suggested by the people in your group, and also incorporate your “tension of opposites” writing into the draft. Bring three copies with you to class on TUESDAY. Also, read and annotate 89-122.

1) Let’s get out our books. For today, you were to read 89-122. I want you to go over your annotations for few moments and circle or underline passages that caught your attention.

2) Let’s get into groups and discuss the reading. In particular, I want you to talk about the way in which Mitch DESRIBES SETTINGS.

3) Class Discussion of reading

4) Now let’s get out our writing for today. You were to incorporate the tension of opposites into your writing. Discuss in your groups how you did that.

Read your groupmates’ papers, and note how they incorporated the tension of opposites into their writing. On the back of the paper, write a few sentences about how you think they did it, or if they did not do it well.

In a new journal entry I want you to do the following:

I want you to describe in SPECIFIC detail exactly WHERE this event took place. Describe the place, the sounds, the smells, the objects that were around you in as much detail as possible. Describe what the WEATHER was like. I want you to produce a SIGNIFICANT amount of writing that you may be able to incorporate into your draft. This is all information that relates to SETTING.

Second Journal Entry

For the next 15-20 minutes, I want you to write an extended and detailed (two pages) journal entry on the following subject:

WHO was present when you had this life changing experience? How were they dressed? How were you dressed? How did they speak? What did they say? What gestures did they make? What did they show you?  You are to be as specific as possible.

When you are done, I want you to get into groups and distribute your three copies. Group members are to:

1) Comment on how the author could improve or otherwise reform their draft so that his or her description of the SETTING better incorporated into the writing.

When this is done, I want you to go around and discuss EXACTLY where in the paper you could incorporate details that pertain to the PEOPLE who were PRESENT during your important moment.

Homework:

Bring to class three copies of the third draft of your Literacy Autobiography. It should include dialogue! You must add several lines of dialogue in the narrative for the next draft.  Use active verbs, indentations, quotation marks. At this stage, you should be editing out all the extraneous material. You may need to condense the time frame and focus more tightly on a single conversation or moment in the relationship. You may want to refer to the book again, especially the episode when Morrie meets the news anchor for an example of packing meaning into a very short descriptive narrative.

Pass Back Journal:

•1) Journal should be just for this class

•2) Keep your posts separate, and make it easy to find each one.

•3) Keep all of your posts in the journal. No more loose leaf entries.

Today’s Journal Entry:

I want you to write a one and a half page journal entry on the following topic: Who are the “we” in Morrie’s statement “we are teaching the wrong things”?  Who taught you cultural attitudes you still have?

Your Homework for today was the following:

Write a two page essay in which you give your interpretation, at this early point in the book, of Morrie’s statement: “we’re teaching the wrong things” (35). The essay should be a thoughtful examination of Morrie’s statement and not a sermon on what should be offered instead (there’s time later to examine alternatives). This is not an evaluation of whether he is right or wrong at this point, but your attempt to put in writing what it is you think he means. You may quote from the author’s account of himself if it helps you. Please do use personal experiences or that of others you know as examples to help explain your interpretation if you can. You can and should utilize the ideas from your previous writing. Incorporate your ideas, for example, of “culture” and what you might think needs to be different or changed (again, not a rant or preachy), or what you believe to be right about yours.

You were to bring three copies of your essay with you to class. Get them out.

Discussion of the writing process:

•1) Prewriting

•2) Writing

•3) Proofreading

•4) Editing

•5) Re-writing!

We are going to count off into groups of four.

Get into groups

In your groups I want you to do the following:

•1) Give your three copies of your essay out to the members of your group.

•2) Your job is to go through each of the three essays and do the following:

•a. Locate the main idea of the essay. Where is it? Find it and circle it.

•b. Find the best piece of evidence that the author uses to support his or her main idea, circle it.

•c. Find the worst piece of evidence that the author uses to support his or her main idea, put a check mark next to it.

•d. When you are finished, I want you to write TWO detailed paragraphs on the back of the essay explaining what you though the writer did WELL, and what it is they need to focus on to make their writing better.

Optional Video Lecture Videos

Video One

Video Two

Video Three

Homework for Tuesday:

Annotate 46-88 of Tuesdays With Morrie.