Assignment for

December 12 Final Exam from 12:30-2:30

The Final Exam Handout is posted in Blackboard.

December 5

1. Evaluate the last three essays about important words. (I have put sets in the envelope on my door.)
2. Correct the grammar on the draft I returned.
3. If you didn't turn in a revision at the end of class, get it to me by Tuesday at 4:00. Follow the revision requirements--don't forget your reflection.
4. Revise or write anything that you can. This will be almost the last chance to complete work for the class.
5. Show up if you want to know about the final.

December 3

1. Revise one essay, ready to be turned in. Follow the revision requirements, and complete one Revision Strategy from Chapter 14.
2. Bring your handbook.

November 28

Click here for the link to the website with the transcript of "Hush."

1. Meet in the lab.
2. Bring your handbook.
3. Work on revisions.

I forgot about the rubric for an academic essay. I will post the rubric in the course documents in Blackboard tomorrow morning.

November 26

1. Complete a draft of an essay on "Hush." The draft should meet the minimum requirements for the assignment. Click here for a copy of the assignment sheet.
2. I highly recommend that you complete a revision of at least one of the other essays. Follow the Revision Requirements (and remember that if you get it to me on time, I will have feedback for you on Monday).

November 19

1. Add a page or two to your exploratory writing on “Hush”: write more analytically about at least one scene or character that you have described.
2. Cut out the best/most interesting passages from your exploratory writing—choose no more than a third of your total writing. Cut chunks that include supporting detail. Don’t just snip out sentences or parts of sentences—although you may want to do that a couple of times.
3. Then paste these passages back together in a logical order: organize the passages. Leave space between passages. Leave larger space between groups of passages that belong together, and mark these divisions with a row of symbols of some kind.
4. Consider this cut and paste exercise a merging of the creative and critical.

For "points" convert your exploratory writing that we did in class into an academic paragraph that develops a point about one of the scenes we watched--or a comparison of the two.

The process of ongoing revision of your essays can begin as soon as you want. Follow the directions on the handout I gave you in class. It is posted in the course documents in BlackBoard as "Revision Requirements."

November 14

1. The extensive exploratory writing assignment is posted in BlackBoard. If you missed viewing the video in class, you will need to make arrangements to see it.

November 12

Meet in LIB 206 to watch a DVD.

1. Be sure that you have turned in your latest drafts of both essays (words and hell) by 2:00 tomorrow. You can bring a hard copy by the office or send it as an attachment to an email.
2. Complete Revision Strategy 14.16 on pages 622-623 of The Curious Writer for both essays.
3. Complete the exploratory writing defined below:

Below are the opening lines of the TV show we are going to watch on Monday. They are spoken by a psychology professor. Write for at least 10 minutes on each of the following, responding to the idea. You can jump back and forth. Try to make yourself understand what is being said—think of examples of what it might mean.

Then write a focused explanation of something you understand from thinking of one or more of these statements. Include an example or two from your experience.

• So this is what it is. Talking about communication, talking about language. Not the same thing.
• It's about inspiration, not the idea, but the moment before the idea when it’s total, when it blossoms in your mind and connects to everything.
• It's about thoughts and experiences that we don't have a word for.

November 7

1. Revise your words essay so that it fits the standards of an academic essay.
2. Revise (or write) your paragraphs about Hell to turn them into a draft of an academic essay.
3. Be sure to have saved (electronic) copies of both of these essays that you can access in class (as well as printed copies).

November 5

We will meet in the classroom so that the other class can use the lab.

1. Read and evaluate the essays that were turned in for Assignment #1. The essays, instructions, and rubric are posted in the course documents in BlackBoard. I have also put a couple of "packets" in the folder on my door (8 rubric/instruction forms paper-clipped to the essays).

October 31

1. Write a third paragraph based on one of the images of hell from the link at the right of the page or for the popular image that you found when I assigned that to you weeks ago. (There are two paintings at the link right now; I made add more.)
2. Write a single sentence that states the point that all three of your paragraphs have in common. The idea that connects them.
3. Revise your two paragraphs (and write the third) so that you have used quotation marks where appropriate (where you have used the orginal language) and that you have summarized everything else completely in your own language.
4. Make sure that you have put in proper format the file that your three paragraphs are in. Use the link to the right for instructions on what to do for a formal assignment. (Double space, MLA identifiying information, and proper MLA header.)

October 29

1. The final draft of your "words" essay should be submitted electronically by 2:00 Tuesday, October 30. So you will have time for final questions in class Monday. An assignment description, rubric, and the chosen "high satisfactory" paragraphs are posted in the course documents in Blackboard.
2. Following the criteria for a good academic paragraph, revise/write the two paragraphs about hell assigned for October 22 (#3 and #4 in the assignment). The description of an Academic Paragraph is posted in the course documents in BlackBoard.
3. Try again to write an appropriate question that will guide the writing of an essay about hell. The assignments we have done so far and the materials I have given you should be the basis for shaping your question--not something unrelated to them. If you haven't read pages 69-75, it's time to do so.

October 24

1. Organize all of the assignments, notes, drafts, etc. for you "words" assignmnent in a folder or 3-ring binder. (Two of the key early assignments in this process were the grocery list and explode the moment brainstorming. If you do not have these for your current topic--for whatever reason--you need to do them. I have posted both handouts in the course documents in BlackBoard.)
2. Write a table of contents for the contents of that folder or notebook. The table of contents should list everything in the order you have organized it: include a description of the assignment and the date that it was completed.
3. Have significant revision completed on your words essay, though I'm going to give you a little more time to complete the final draft.
4. Send me links to artworks depicting hell. (Points for useable links, up to two.)
   

October 22

1. Revise your "words" essay based on today’s peer review. You will turn it in electronically by next Thursday. The next draft will probably be published for the whole class, so the essay should be as close to finished as you can get it.
2. E-mail me an evaluation of your peer review experience. Evaluate your group's effort overall, but also address your own efforts and the efforts of each of your group members. Was each member prepared? Did each of you participate actively?
3. Revise your paragraph about the hell cartoons. If you turned in a draft, you have some feedback. If you are going to be turning in a first draft, consider two things: write for a reader that does not know the cartoons and focus on a clear idea that connects at least 3 cartoons with an interesting point.
4. Draft another paragraph using one (or both) of the literary depictions. Focus on a point that can be connected to the paragraph about cartoons.
   

October 17

1. Read pages 69-75.
2. Have your "words" essay ready for peer review: the emphasis of the review will be focus and support, so be sure you have told your stories well and that each one can be related to the personal meaning (to you) of the words.
3. If you missed your appointment, come in during office hours for feedback as soon as possible. Let me know when you intend to come. That way I can prepare for you and you can be sure that no one else will be there at the same time.
4. Submit electronically to me by Friday your 1,000 Words--with explanations of why each set of words was included.
   

Ocotober 15

1. Revise your first essay, based on your meeting with me. You should be preparing to have it peer reviewed by your group in the week after break.
2. Have a conversation with the two literary descriptions of hell that I handed out. (I'll put some in the envelope on my door.)
3. Formulate at least two questions that might provide a starting point for writing about hell.
4. Remember to be on the lookout for a popular image of hell (Advertisement, segment of a TV show, segment of a movie). Be ready to share an image with the class.

October 3

1. Have a conversation with the cartoons I passed out in class. (See page 34 in the text for what "conversation" means in this context. Read recursively. Write. Shift perspectives--listed in box on page 43.) There are some copies of the handout in a folder on my door.
2. Draft a paragraph about the cartoons that uses three of them to support a conclusion about what hell is according to those cartoons.
3. Draft a paragraph that describes the time you came to your personal ideas about hell. (We did a ten-minute exploratory writing about personal ideas of hell in class.)
4. Be on the lookout for a popular image of hell (Advertisement, segment of a TV show, segment of a movie). Be ready to share an image with the class after fall break.
   

October 1

1. Read through Chapter 2 in The Curious Writer, pages 33-67. Read for a good understanding pages 36-54.
2. Apply the ideas from reading Chapter 2 to the following readings, specifically, set a relevant reading goal and read recursively:

• pages 597-602
• pages 637-647
• Reread "Long Overdue," pages 99-102.

September 26

1. Complete the Points Brainstorming. (By the way, things such as this are "writing activities" when you are thinking about your grade contracts.) Click here for a copy of the instructions.
2. Read “Long Overdue” on pages 99-102.
3. Spend at least an hour making experimental revisions on your draft. We read pages 597-599 in The Curious Writer in class as a preparation for this process of "reseeing" the paper. Complete at least the first two and print the result:

• Try moving your stories/events around in a different order—out of chronological order. Maybe go so far as to do the Frankenstein draft strategy on pages 624-625--though that is not required (this time).
• Use a visual element to communicate something (think printable, e.g. color won’t show up when you print): font type or size; rearrangement of text on the page. Some simple suggestions if nothing else occurs to you:
  • Insert headings between paragraphs.
  • Try to represent someone’s speech--or other detail--by the font style or size.
  • Distinguish your “words” (from the song, etc.) visually.
• Optional third experiment: Notice something that Nye does in “Long Overdue” that seems unusual and interesting and try it out in your essay.
  

September 24

1. Revise your essay about the song or words:

• Apply anything you have learned from our discussions this week.
• Use the feedback I gave you.
• Make sure you have met the basics indicated in the September 12 assignment.
• Insert relevant words from your song or important passage into each of the stories you are telling. (Or insert a description of the music if you aren't using words.) You can stick them in however you want, but do something to help the reader recognize that they are the words and separate from the description of events.

Click here to go to the essay on Bob Dylan I tried to play in class. It won't be exactly like what you are doing, but the auther provides good examples of relating personal events to music/songs.

September 19

1. Become very familliar with the five essays I gave you. Be ready to provide support for your group's evaluation. Mark passages that are examples of why you gave it the evaluation you did.
2. Have a printed copy of the words or song your paper is based on. (A copy that you can eventually copy and paste from will help in the future.)
3. Read the comments I made on your draft and begin to respond in some way. (You don't have to respond in a way that you will share with me, but you should continue the conversation that is expressed in my comments.)

September 17

Consider the first two steps as a dialectical process that you can go back and forth between. Spend about an hour on each.

1. Continue to revise your essay. I hope today's exercises gave you some ideas of how to improve your focus (thesis) and your details (support).
2. Continue to read and analyze the sample essays. We will continue to discuss them in groups and define what makes an essay highly satisfactory, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory. Click here for the sample essays. (I have also put copies in an envelope on my door.) Click here for the group work instructions.
3. Send me an e-mail from your school account to tell me which grade you want to contract for. Include any questions or points you might want to negotiate. Click here to log on to e-mail.

September 12

1. Choose either one song or the words as the subject of your first essay.
2. Draft at least 4 paragraphs telling stories that show how the song or words were meaningful. These should be personal stories about things that you did, things that happened to you. Each paragraph should be at least 100 words—probably not much more than 200. The paragraphs should average around 150 words. (Word counts are just ballpark numbers to help you know how far to push yourself or when you should pull yourself back and focus.) The total # of words should be at least 600. It is OK to write more than that.
3. One of the paragraphs should focus on a crucial moment. If you decide to write about a song or words other than the ones for which you have already written such a paragraph, be sure to repeat the "Explode the moment" strategy. (Refer to pages 616-617 in The Curious Writer.)
4. Write a short paragraph at the end of your paragraphs that reflects upon all of these stories: what they have in common, what they show about your connection to the song.
5. (If you feel compelled to provide an introduction at this point, don’t spend more than 5 minutes on it.)
   
   

September 10

1. Use your freewriting from class to write a paragraph about the event you focused on. (Everyone identified a passage from his/her 1,000 words that was connected to several personal events, made a "grocery list" of those events, and then exploded the moment on one event very significant to the personal meaning of the words--put yourself in the moment and then fastwrite for 5-7 minutes.)
2. Complete at least one learning styles inventory and plan, using the links on my website. Print a copy of your results. After you take a learning styles inventory, use the links on the learning styles site and on my website to research your dominant learning style. Identify some ways of adapting your work habits to capitalize on your dominant learning style (or styles). Write one goal for the semester related to your learning styles.
   

September 5 (No class on Labor Day)

We'll meet in the classroom LIB 206

1. Respond to my letter via e-mail. (See assignment for August 29.)
2. Complete a draft of your list of a thousand words. (See the Assignment for August 27.)
3. Have a completed list of goals printed and ready to hand in.
4. Respond subtantively on the Blackboard discussion by Tuesday afternoon. Most of the issues seem to be about settled. If you have a different opinion on anything--put your two cents in. The main issues I'd like more input on are the points issue I raised in the Attendance thread and the legitimate excuses issue in the late work thread. (Remember what most of you have said about students' responsibilities.)
5. Complete a paragraph (150-250 words) using the brainstorming notes you made in class. The paragraph should tell the most significant story that shows how and why the song you have chosen is meaningful.
6. Try really hard to tell a story about a fun learning experience—not a school assignment (at least 100 words). Tell the story of what you did/what happened—show the fun.

All of these tasks I'm thinking are 15-20 minute activities (unless you're way behind on your goals work or 1,000 words).

August 29

1. Work on the surveys and lists we started in class. (In class we did Exercise 1.1, categorized the weekend list of writing tasks into easy and hard, identified what made writing fun or not fun or memorable, completed the survey on pages 20-22 in the text, and began a list of personal strengths and weaknesses--both in how you write (process) and what you write (product).
2. Respond to at least two threads in the syllabus discussion in Blackboard.
3. Before beginning the reading assignment: begin writing a letter to someone you haven’t seen in a long time (years). Write until you feel you are actually writing to the person. Make some brief notes about anything that happened as you wrote.
4. Read Chapter 1, with our current discussions in mind.
5. Produce at least 300 words about one of the songs on your list—tell about events and how the song relates to them.
   

Looking ahead, before next Wednesday, you should

• Respond to my letter via e-mail. Click here for a copy of the letter.
• Complete your thousand words exercise

August 27

1. We will meet in lab: It would be great if everyone was logged on by class time!!
2. Bring your book.
3. Have a good start on your thousand words—begin to word process and save: they will be submitted to be posted online. Click here for a link to the website I showed you in class. If you weren't in class, the assignment, which you will work on over the next week or so is to identify the 1,000 words that have special meaning to you. They could be words to a song, words from a book, words your mother said, etc., etc., etc. The best way to get an understanding of what to do is to visit the website I refer to above. You can also see my thousand words. if you click here.
4. Make a list of at least 2-3 songs that are meaningful to you: that connect to events in your life or have influenced events in your life.
5. Keep track of what you write over the weekend. Make a list. Be aware of every time you pick up a pen, type at a keyboard, tap secret code into your cell phone.
6. Read the posted syllabus draft--at least I hope it is posted before the weekend.
7. Produce at least 500 words on your writing experiences Tell stories. I'm not asking you to write an essay or paragraphs, just some stories:

   o Fun writing experiences (at least one)
   o Opposite-from-fun writing experiences (at least one)
   o Describe some things you have written and/or your experiences writing them (at least one) that stand out in your mind because

   § You are proud of them
   § They were extremely difficult
   § Other people liked them
   

August 22

I have given you a draft copy of the syllabus for you to use as a worksheet. Before Wednesday’s class, you should work through the syllabus, accomplishing the following:

1. You should write in response to the writing cues provided throughout the syllabus. You don’t need to write a policy, just your ideas about the policy area. The writing cues are in different fonts and are followed by some lines to indicate where a response is expected. Of course, you can write more than those lines indicate. You may want to write (or word process) all of your responses on separate paper. You can also write comments or responses where there are no lines.

2. You should place a brightly colored X in the shaded areas on the office hours chart to indicate the one hour that you are most likely to want to consult with me during the week. You can check two additional hours with blue or black ink.

3. You should read the grade contracts, decide which level you will “contract” for and prepare to discuss an individual contract with me in the next two weeks. Make a list of terms that should be defined.

August 20

First day of class: show up with your writing tools.