Post your arguments re: The Known World here. Freewrite: Include a Rogerian version as well (extra credit). Students might have to post the essays in more than one post.
Discuss the difficulties or ease in composing these essays based on the models. Did the topic influence the form? Was this topic easier to discuss using one form over another? Do the forms overlap and if so, how?
Rogerian
What issue am I going to investigate?
What is my thesis?
What common ground exists between my views and those whose views differ from mine?
What are the challenging views on the matter that I need to discuss?
How can I most judiciously highlight the limitation of the challenging views and suggest a mutually agreeable way of overcoming these limitations?
Based on shared views about my thesis, what can I add in the way of evidence that would be compatible with challenging views?
What are my own concluding reflections in light of the above?
Using the above information, what can I say in my opening paragraph that would best introduce my argument and engage my reader’s attention?
Checklist
1. Do I find common ground with those whose views differ from my own?
2. Do I carefully consider the weaknesses of limitations of my point o view as well as those of others? Do I share these with my readers?
3. Is my tone cooperative rather than confrontational?
4. Do I encourage multiple [perspectives rather than a singular one toward the issue?
5. Do I treat views with which I disagree respectfully? Do I give more emphasis to the point of agreement than the points of disagreement?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Finals
Congratulations! You did it-that is, completed the term. Now for final details: Portfolios are due no later than Sunday afternoon, August 1, 12 noon. I need to file my grades by Monday, August 2.
Final Essay
The portfolio checklist includes all the WLTC assignments completed. If they were completed in the book, just include the score. Freewrites, reading logs, essays--all graded drafts and narratives (completed/revised). The only new essay is the Black Like Me essay which can use any one of the argument models discussed: Classical, Toulmin, or Rogerian.
I'd also like a brief note on why you chose this model over another, include an Initial Planning Sheet, plus an Outline.
Narratives or Introduction to the Portfolio
Each narrative is about 250 words and they are the introduction to the portfolio.
Narrative 1 talks about the six week course: what you learned about writing and logic and thinking critically that you will carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning. You can talk about books and other instruction materials and the instructor.
The second narrative will talk about your revision process and what specifically you have learned about yourself as a writer that makes you a better writer at the end of the course than you were at the start. Use two graded essays as evidence.
Portfolio
The portfolio documents is a word document. Do not send items separately. Attach the document and on the cover sheet include: Name, address, phone number, course name and code.
The assignments can be grouped and this forms your table of contents:
Narratives 1 & 2
WLTC Assignments
Freewrites
Cyber-Assignments
Tim Wise related assignments
From the Bottom of the Heap Assignments
The Known World Assignments
Black Like Me Assignments
Anything Else, such as extra credit assignments (graded assignments)
Final Essay
The portfolio checklist includes all the WLTC assignments completed. If they were completed in the book, just include the score. Freewrites, reading logs, essays--all graded drafts and narratives (completed/revised). The only new essay is the Black Like Me essay which can use any one of the argument models discussed: Classical, Toulmin, or Rogerian.
I'd also like a brief note on why you chose this model over another, include an Initial Planning Sheet, plus an Outline.
Narratives or Introduction to the Portfolio
Each narrative is about 250 words and they are the introduction to the portfolio.
Narrative 1 talks about the six week course: what you learned about writing and logic and thinking critically that you will carry forth into your lifelong pursuit of learning. You can talk about books and other instruction materials and the instructor.
The second narrative will talk about your revision process and what specifically you have learned about yourself as a writer that makes you a better writer at the end of the course than you were at the start. Use two graded essays as evidence.
Portfolio
The portfolio documents is a word document. Do not send items separately. Attach the document and on the cover sheet include: Name, address, phone number, course name and code.
The assignments can be grouped and this forms your table of contents:
Narratives 1 & 2
WLTC Assignments
Freewrites
Cyber-Assignments
Tim Wise related assignments
From the Bottom of the Heap Assignments
The Known World Assignments
Black Like Me Assignments
Anything Else, such as extra credit assignments (graded assignments)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Terms in a Toulmin Argument
Many writers of arguments look to terminology developed by philosopher Stephen Toulmin to describe the elements of an argumentative essay. You can use these to check that your argument has all the key ingredients it needs to be successful.
A claim (proposition, thesis): answers the questions "What point will your paper will try to make?" or "What belief or opinion is the author defending?" To be credible to an audience, claims must usually be supported with specific evidence. For instance, a writer may claim that "Standardized tests are biased against female and minority students." In a Toulmin argument, readers ask, "How do you know that is true?" or "What is that based on?" Such questions are challenging the writer to prove the claim with support. In order to defuse an audience’s potential challenges, some writers use qualifiers to clarify their claims and protect their credibility. Acknowledging that the claim may not be absolute protects them from proving that their claim is true in every case. Qualifiers are usually adverbs that modify the verb in the claim or adjectives that modify a key noun; some common ones are typically, usually, for the most part, some, several, few, and sometimes. Qualified versions of the first claim might be "Many standardized tests are biased against female and minority students" or "Standardized tests are sometimes biased against female and minority students." Either of these, because of the limiting qualifiers, are easier to prove than the unqualified claim.
Support (evidence, backing) is the examples, facts and data that aid in proving the claim's validity. Depending on who your audience is, this evidence could also include emotional appeals, quotations from famous people or recognized experts, or statements based on the writer’s personal credibility. In the argument on test bias, readers might expect to see statistics that prove the test questions are biased, samples of misleading questions, quotations from educators and testing experts, and testimony from students who have taken such tests. All of these might be good kinds of support, depending on the identity of the audience.
Underlying the claims in Toulmin arguments are warrants, the inferences or assumptions that are taken for granted by the writer (and sometimes by the argument). Warrants connect (conspicuously or inconspicuously) the claim and the support; they derive from our cultural experiences and personal observations. For instance, if over the last five years, girls at Madison High have received higher grades than boys in every subject and yet the Madison boys consistently score higher on the SAT than the girls do, someone might claim that the SAT was biased against girls. The warrant for this claim is the belief that something must be preventing the girls from showing their academic excellence on the SAT.
Finally, a key point in Toulmin arguments is the concession, which brings differing opinions together by acknowledging a part of the opposing argument that cannot be refuted. Conceding that an opposing point is valid and then building upon it to further one's own claim allows a writer to make the audience feel appreciated without giving up her or his own position. For instance, in the SAT argument, the writer might concede that other reasons, like test anxiety or fewer math courses, lower girls’ scores on the test, but go on to provide evidence that even when these factors are considered, the questions are written in such a way as to favor boys. If the writer can discredit the opposition’s counter-arguments by proving their logic is faulty, their support is weak or their warrants are invalid, he or she has created a rebuttal that supports his or her own original position and furthers his or her claim.
THIS HANDOUT WAS CREATED BY TUTORS MEREDITH REYNOLDS AND SCOTT GILBERT.
A claim (proposition, thesis): answers the questions "What point will your paper will try to make?" or "What belief or opinion is the author defending?" To be credible to an audience, claims must usually be supported with specific evidence. For instance, a writer may claim that "Standardized tests are biased against female and minority students." In a Toulmin argument, readers ask, "How do you know that is true?" or "What is that based on?" Such questions are challenging the writer to prove the claim with support. In order to defuse an audience’s potential challenges, some writers use qualifiers to clarify their claims and protect their credibility. Acknowledging that the claim may not be absolute protects them from proving that their claim is true in every case. Qualifiers are usually adverbs that modify the verb in the claim or adjectives that modify a key noun; some common ones are typically, usually, for the most part, some, several, few, and sometimes. Qualified versions of the first claim might be "Many standardized tests are biased against female and minority students" or "Standardized tests are sometimes biased against female and minority students." Either of these, because of the limiting qualifiers, are easier to prove than the unqualified claim.
Support (evidence, backing) is the examples, facts and data that aid in proving the claim's validity. Depending on who your audience is, this evidence could also include emotional appeals, quotations from famous people or recognized experts, or statements based on the writer’s personal credibility. In the argument on test bias, readers might expect to see statistics that prove the test questions are biased, samples of misleading questions, quotations from educators and testing experts, and testimony from students who have taken such tests. All of these might be good kinds of support, depending on the identity of the audience.
Underlying the claims in Toulmin arguments are warrants, the inferences or assumptions that are taken for granted by the writer (and sometimes by the argument). Warrants connect (conspicuously or inconspicuously) the claim and the support; they derive from our cultural experiences and personal observations. For instance, if over the last five years, girls at Madison High have received higher grades than boys in every subject and yet the Madison boys consistently score higher on the SAT than the girls do, someone might claim that the SAT was biased against girls. The warrant for this claim is the belief that something must be preventing the girls from showing their academic excellence on the SAT.
Finally, a key point in Toulmin arguments is the concession, which brings differing opinions together by acknowledging a part of the opposing argument that cannot be refuted. Conceding that an opposing point is valid and then building upon it to further one's own claim allows a writer to make the audience feel appreciated without giving up her or his own position. For instance, in the SAT argument, the writer might concede that other reasons, like test anxiety or fewer math courses, lower girls’ scores on the test, but go on to provide evidence that even when these factors are considered, the questions are written in such a way as to favor boys. If the writer can discredit the opposition’s counter-arguments by proving their logic is faulty, their support is weak or their warrants are invalid, he or she has created a rebuttal that supports his or her own original position and furthers his or her claim.
THIS HANDOUT WAS CREATED BY TUTORS MEREDITH REYNOLDS AND SCOTT GILBERT.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Final Week 6
Today in class we completed the exercises in WLTC analyzing arguments as we talked first about our last book, White Like Me, specifically a character who seemingly is sympathetic to the inequality in the south between races yet makes a remark to his friend that is in agreement with all he says he is against, white supremacy and white privilege (Griffin 79 first paragraph).
After completing the analysis of the arguments Exercise 6A (145-149), we reviewed deductive and inductive argument 7F (179-180). Homework is Exercise 7G (180-182), 7H (182-183); 7I (193-194), 7j (194-195). (I might have added an exercise not given in class, if I did excuse me and do it anyway (smile).
We then shifted to the handout re: Toulmin and we read a a couple of pages of the Virginia Woolf essay (handout). Students are to complete the Woolf essay as well as read the student essay. We will work in groups tomorrow on the exercises and talk about the structure of the Toulmin essay and how to recast the question explored in the classical essay model here.
Students will write another argument and present it on Wednesday. We'll practice it together using Black Like Me tomorrow.
Homework
Besides the essay, homework for July 27 is Exercise 7K (195). Be prepared to present it on July 28, in class, reduce to standard form and draw a diagram on the board. We will try to get to Writing Assignment 13 and 14 as freewrites in class 7/28). We will also do exercise 8D.
Read chapter 8 again for Wednesday, July 28, 2010. We will talk about all the argument forms: Classical, Toulmin and Rogerian.
Portfolios
I will give students a portfolio checklist before Wednesday. Portfolios are due, electronically by Friday, July 30, 12 noon. Email to: coasabirenglish5@gmail.com
If there are essays without grades, get them in before Wednesday. A C- is not a passing grade. If the essay says NC or no credit that is not a passing grade.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Great Debaters
Respond to the film. Use you knowledge of argument and two forms: classical and Rogerian to analyze the debater's strategy similar to the way we analyzed student essays yesterday in class. Talk about the type of argument and the appeals. Reduce at least one argument to its standard form and talk about the validity or soundness of the elements. Talk about the role of humor, the drama of the moment --it was theatre. Talk about the presenatation and the material helped the team command the attention of the audience (even those persons listening on radio) and elsewhere, and ultimately win the final match at Harvard.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Presentations
Today students will present their classical arguments from themes addressed in Edward P. Jones's The Known World. We might have time to look at the closing scenes from the film: The Great Debaters.
Homework was to complete the essay (250 words min.) and the exercises in WLTC chapter 8.
Post reflections here on the process of preparing to present the argument and the difference between oral and written arguments per today's exercise. Also reflect on what you did well and where you would like to improve. A part of good oratory skills is enunciation and projection. It's not cute to mumble or make your audience strain to hear you. Practice projecting your voice. For the next presentation, students will lose points if we can't hear you.
Homework was to complete the essay (250 words min.) and the exercises in WLTC chapter 8.
Post reflections here on the process of preparing to present the argument and the difference between oral and written arguments per today's exercise. Also reflect on what you did well and where you would like to improve. A part of good oratory skills is enunciation and projection. It's not cute to mumble or make your audience strain to hear you. Practice projecting your voice. For the next presentation, students will lose points if we can't hear you.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Week 5 Day 1
I don't know if a count down makes the time creep or speed up (smile). Today in class we reviewed the definition of argument. Only a few students had definitions and of the definitions only a couple were good (vague term, but it's late and I have a lot more to write).
We reviewed the Hacker chapter on Reasonable Arguments and did the exercises. The plan had been to review The Language of Argument (200) in WLTC and then review Inductive and Deductive Arguments (157).
The plan now is to practice writing three types of arguments over the next few days: Classical, Toulmin and Rogerian. Homework was to bring in an outline of a classical argument. We will take the outline and write a short essay in class for our freewrite tomorrow. Students can rework the same topic and thesis for each of the three essays. The topic is to take its theme from The Known World.
We spoke of the three types of argument situations: political or deliberative, such as "deliberating over military and civic policies; the other was legal (forensic), such as courtroom prosecution or defense motions. The third category of oratory--celebratory (epideictic)--generally falls outside the scope of argument. This type of oratory was used in eulogies, commendations, dedications, and so on" (White Billings 83).
We spoke of rhetoricians or Sophists who "emphasized the pragmatic skills necessary in winning an argument" and the sport, what we call debate or oratory contests (White Billings 83). Later in the Platonic schools, under Aristole, the game was refined and elevated into a science--"a middle ground between the truth-seeking and the mercenary pragmatism of the Sophists by viewing rhetoric as the art of finding the best available means of persuasion in a given case--that is, by applying the rigors of philosophical reasoning to actual problems" (White Billings 83).
We reviewed topical invention: definition, consequence, analogy and testimony.
The Classical Model of Argument
The classical model for structuring an argument is both simple and versatile. Here is an outline.
I. Introduction
A. Lead-in
B. Overview of the situation
C. Background
II. Position statement (thesis)
III. Appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and evidence
A. Appeals: to ethics, character, authority (ethos); to emotions (pathos); to reason (logos)
B. Evidence: citing of statistics, results, findings, examples, laws, relevant passages from authoritative texts
IV. Refutation (often presented simultaneously with the evidence)
V. Conclusion (peroration)
A. Highlights of key points presented (if appropriate)
B. Recommendations (if applicable)
C. Illuminating restatement of thesis
"Rhetorical arrangement, is an art, not a computer program. Hence, not all introductions are alike in scope or tone; in fact, sometimes the orator may dispense with an introduction altogether--as when someone wants to hear only 'the bottom line.' Similarly, the orator may want to refute opposing views before presenting the evidence. The orator may also decide whether the evidence should be striking factual--that is, appeal exclusively to reason--or should include ethical and emotional appeals as well (White Billings 85).
"Classical Model Flowchart
"What issue am I going to investigate? [Example: The issue of visual arts education inn U.S. public schools.]
"What is my thesis? [Example: Acquiring basic skills in painting, illustrating, and sculpting is as important as acquiring math ad reading skills.]
"What evidence can I use to support my thesis convincingly? [Example: Timely published reports by properly credentialed experts (such as educational psychologists) that explain why acquiring visual arts related skills are as important as math and reading skills.]
"What are the opposing views that I must acknowledge and refute? [Example: The argument that math and reading skills must take priority over visual arts skills in today's world overlooks that fact that creative thinking is just as important as analytical thinking.]
"In light of my evidence and refutation of opposing views, what are my recommendations for resolving the problem/ [Example: We must find ways to integrate math and reading with painting and illustrating.]
"What are my concluding reflections?"
Using the above information, what can I say in my opening paragraph that would best introduce my argument and engage my reader's attention? (White Billings 109).
We reviewed the Hacker chapter on Reasonable Arguments and did the exercises. The plan had been to review The Language of Argument (200) in WLTC and then review Inductive and Deductive Arguments (157).
The plan now is to practice writing three types of arguments over the next few days: Classical, Toulmin and Rogerian. Homework was to bring in an outline of a classical argument. We will take the outline and write a short essay in class for our freewrite tomorrow. Students can rework the same topic and thesis for each of the three essays. The topic is to take its theme from The Known World.
We spoke of the three types of argument situations: political or deliberative, such as "deliberating over military and civic policies; the other was legal (forensic), such as courtroom prosecution or defense motions. The third category of oratory--celebratory (epideictic)--generally falls outside the scope of argument. This type of oratory was used in eulogies, commendations, dedications, and so on" (White Billings 83).
We spoke of rhetoricians or Sophists who "emphasized the pragmatic skills necessary in winning an argument" and the sport, what we call debate or oratory contests (White Billings 83). Later in the Platonic schools, under Aristole, the game was refined and elevated into a science--"a middle ground between the truth-seeking and the mercenary pragmatism of the Sophists by viewing rhetoric as the art of finding the best available means of persuasion in a given case--that is, by applying the rigors of philosophical reasoning to actual problems" (White Billings 83).
We reviewed topical invention: definition, consequence, analogy and testimony.
The Classical Model of Argument
The classical model for structuring an argument is both simple and versatile. Here is an outline.
I. Introduction
A. Lead-in
B. Overview of the situation
C. Background
II. Position statement (thesis)
III. Appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and evidence
A. Appeals: to ethics, character, authority (ethos); to emotions (pathos); to reason (logos)
B. Evidence: citing of statistics, results, findings, examples, laws, relevant passages from authoritative texts
IV. Refutation (often presented simultaneously with the evidence)
V. Conclusion (peroration)
A. Highlights of key points presented (if appropriate)
B. Recommendations (if applicable)
C. Illuminating restatement of thesis
"Rhetorical arrangement, is an art, not a computer program. Hence, not all introductions are alike in scope or tone; in fact, sometimes the orator may dispense with an introduction altogether--as when someone wants to hear only 'the bottom line.' Similarly, the orator may want to refute opposing views before presenting the evidence. The orator may also decide whether the evidence should be striking factual--that is, appeal exclusively to reason--or should include ethical and emotional appeals as well (White Billings 85).
"Classical Model Flowchart
"What issue am I going to investigate? [Example: The issue of visual arts education inn U.S. public schools.]
"What is my thesis? [Example: Acquiring basic skills in painting, illustrating, and sculpting is as important as acquiring math ad reading skills.]
"What evidence can I use to support my thesis convincingly? [Example: Timely published reports by properly credentialed experts (such as educational psychologists) that explain why acquiring visual arts related skills are as important as math and reading skills.]
"What are the opposing views that I must acknowledge and refute? [Example: The argument that math and reading skills must take priority over visual arts skills in today's world overlooks that fact that creative thinking is just as important as analytical thinking.]
"In light of my evidence and refutation of opposing views, what are my recommendations for resolving the problem/ [Example: We must find ways to integrate math and reading with painting and illustrating.]
"What are my concluding reflections?"
Using the above information, what can I say in my opening paragraph that would best introduce my argument and engage my reader's attention? (White Billings 109).
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Extra Credit: The New Jim Crow
I watched this interview tonight and found it really enlightening re: the prison system and racial hieracrcy which gives some citizens privilege as is disenfranchises others. The two attorneys, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, were quite eloquent in their conversation with Bill Moyers about this crisis.
If any student watches the program and writes something about it, that is, writes a critical analysis, he or she will get extra credit. One page, 250 words is fine. Writers include a works cited page, and email the essay to me.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.html
April 2, 2010
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. This week, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL observes the anniversary of King's murder by examining America in light of his dream. What would he think of our country today and where would he focus his fight against inequality and injustice?
Two talented lawyers who've dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after King's death.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, "I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today."
Stevenson adds that to reach King's dream, America must address the causes of poverty, "I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we're never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned."
Both believe that America's policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportianatetly affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the "war on drugs." According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
A consequence of this disparity, and America's harsh treatment of lawbreakers, according to Alexander, is a population of people living in conditions shockingly like African Americans experienced under Jim Crow:
Today in communities of color across America, large majorities of African American men have been branded criminals, felons for life. And as a result, many are denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to public education-- public benefits. Many of the forms of discrimination we thought we left behind in the Jim Crow Era are legal again, once you've been branded a criminal.
Stevenson points out that these are not inevitable policies:
We didn't have to incarcerate people for 10, 20, 30, 40 years for simple possession of marijuana, for drug use. We didn't have to do that. We made choices around that. And now the consequences are devastating. I think they're not only devastating from a political perspective, but — I think this is the way I think it relates to Jim Crow, as well — it's also been devastating within communities of color. Right now, for black men in the United States, there's a 32 percent chance you're going to jail or prison. In poor communities and minority communities, urban communities, rural communities, it could be 60 percent or 70 percent. You're born, you're a ten-year-old kid. There's a 70 percent chance that you're going to go to jail and prison. What does that do to you?
If any student watches the program and writes something about it, that is, writes a critical analysis, he or she will get extra credit. One page, 250 words is fine. Writers include a works cited page, and email the essay to me.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04022010/profile.html
April 2, 2010
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. This week, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL observes the anniversary of King's murder by examining America in light of his dream. What would he think of our country today and where would he focus his fight against inequality and injustice?
Two talented lawyers who've dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after King's death.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, "I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today."
Stevenson adds that to reach King's dream, America must address the causes of poverty, "I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we're never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned."
Both believe that America's policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportianatetly affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the "war on drugs." According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
A consequence of this disparity, and America's harsh treatment of lawbreakers, according to Alexander, is a population of people living in conditions shockingly like African Americans experienced under Jim Crow:
Today in communities of color across America, large majorities of African American men have been branded criminals, felons for life. And as a result, many are denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to public education-- public benefits. Many of the forms of discrimination we thought we left behind in the Jim Crow Era are legal again, once you've been branded a criminal.
Stevenson points out that these are not inevitable policies:
We didn't have to incarcerate people for 10, 20, 30, 40 years for simple possession of marijuana, for drug use. We didn't have to do that. We made choices around that. And now the consequences are devastating. I think they're not only devastating from a political perspective, but — I think this is the way I think it relates to Jim Crow, as well — it's also been devastating within communities of color. Right now, for black men in the United States, there's a 32 percent chance you're going to jail or prison. In poor communities and minority communities, urban communities, rural communities, it could be 60 percent or 70 percent. You're born, you're a ten-year-old kid. There's a 70 percent chance that you're going to go to jail and prison. What does that do to you?
Recap and Freewrite
Yesterday, July 14, 2010, we covered the white boad with a list of terms associated with "Critical Thinking."
Homework was to read The Known World up to and including Chapter 6 and to catch up on other assignments. The freewrite was to summarize the first few chapters of TKW, but students hadn't annotated the book so were unable to complete the assignment.
We concluded with a matching of wits, re: fallacious arguments (Chapter 5 WLTC).
Today we started the class with the film: "Three Black Panthers & the Last Slave Plantation." See http://3blackpanthers.org/
Freewrite
Respond to the term: "resistance" when reflecting on TLSP. What recourse did the enslaved Africans (African Americans) have against the forced bondage. Define the term in light of the subjects. Offer analogies and include euphemisms related to slavery and imprisonment.
How does one make such an abstract term vivid and clear? How does one make it walk or live?
Today we will continue looking at fallacies and complete the handout and exercises from Diana Hacker.
Homework:
Complete TKW and be prepared to answer selected questions about the book. We will write three short essays next week based on themes from TKW such as: family-- both enslaved and free Africans and whites; violence, resistance, education, health-- both mental and physical, work or labor.
Wednesday's presentation will be based on an argument taken from TKW. Students will take a theme, preassigned and present their argument to the class. We will also practice using a Venn diagram in this presentation (if possible) at this time as well.
Revision and addition to homework assignment
Do Exercise 8A (201)in the book. Also read and review Chapter 8 (200-209). We will do the exercises in class Monday along with the argument exercises we didn't get to this morning. We shared successful essays, so students could hear what a passing essay sounds like. Thanks to students who shared.
Homework was to read The Known World up to and including Chapter 6 and to catch up on other assignments. The freewrite was to summarize the first few chapters of TKW, but students hadn't annotated the book so were unable to complete the assignment.
We concluded with a matching of wits, re: fallacious arguments (Chapter 5 WLTC).
Today we started the class with the film: "Three Black Panthers & the Last Slave Plantation." See http://3blackpanthers.org/
Freewrite
Respond to the term: "resistance" when reflecting on TLSP. What recourse did the enslaved Africans (African Americans) have against the forced bondage. Define the term in light of the subjects. Offer analogies and include euphemisms related to slavery and imprisonment.
How does one make such an abstract term vivid and clear? How does one make it walk or live?
Today we will continue looking at fallacies and complete the handout and exercises from Diana Hacker.
Homework:
Complete TKW and be prepared to answer selected questions about the book. We will write three short essays next week based on themes from TKW such as: family-- both enslaved and free Africans and whites; violence, resistance, education, health-- both mental and physical, work or labor.
Wednesday's presentation will be based on an argument taken from TKW. Students will take a theme, preassigned and present their argument to the class. We will also practice using a Venn diagram in this presentation (if possible) at this time as well.
Revision and addition to homework assignment
Do Exercise 8A (201)in the book. Also read and review Chapter 8 (200-209). We will do the exercises in class Monday along with the argument exercises we didn't get to this morning. We shared successful essays, so students could hear what a passing essay sounds like. Thanks to students who shared.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Known World Arguments in Standard Form from July 13, 2010 in class discussion
Today we had a small group, so the three students who were prepared met in a Literature Circle and discussed Edward P. Jones's book. They looked at characters, scenes, the plot and storyline, then identified three arguments and restated them in standard form.
We concluded the class with an excerpt from the film: Deacons of Defense.Some students wanted to write a response for extra credit. Post the response here as well.
Make sure everyone's name is on The Known World post.
Homework was a reminder to bring three fallacious visual arguments to class and be prepared to discuss them.
Where we're going notes:
Over the next three classes the lectures will consist of looking at the three types of argument forms: the type spoken of in WLTC Rogerian (87), the Classical Model or Aristotelian and the Toulmin model. We will practice these forms as we review deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and reasonable and unreasonable or fallacious arguments.
I also found two other types of strategies of reasoning besides induction and deduction: categorization, analogy, authorization, and plea. We will connect fallacies to the type of argumentation strategies where they appear. It might help students recall them easier.
We will have a brief quiz Thursday, July 15 on critical thinking terms and on Monday, July 19 on fallacies.
We concluded the class with an excerpt from the film: Deacons of Defense.Some students wanted to write a response for extra credit. Post the response here as well.
Make sure everyone's name is on The Known World post.
Homework was a reminder to bring three fallacious visual arguments to class and be prepared to discuss them.
Where we're going notes:
Over the next three classes the lectures will consist of looking at the three types of argument forms: the type spoken of in WLTC Rogerian (87), the Classical Model or Aristotelian and the Toulmin model. We will practice these forms as we review deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and reasonable and unreasonable or fallacious arguments.
I also found two other types of strategies of reasoning besides induction and deduction: categorization, analogy, authorization, and plea. We will connect fallacies to the type of argumentation strategies where they appear. It might help students recall them easier.
We will have a brief quiz Thursday, July 15 on critical thinking terms and on Monday, July 19 on fallacies.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Week 4, Day 1
We've covered a lot of ground over the past month. I hope students are feeling a bit more comfortable about talking about the language of argument. The Wise essays are still coming in. We're on revisions which are still, for some students, not passing essays yet. Students need to write a passing essay the first time. If one receives a grade over revise the grade is a letter grade below this grade--A/R is a B; B/R is a C; C/R is a D.
When writing the critique essay, make sure to include a citation from Hacker for each error. Cite the rule, use the essay to cite the errors and then give the correction. Pay attention to the details and do not leave anything out.
Each essay focuses on one of the books, which means writers have to cite from the text. Other sources are fine, but the paper is about the themes and topics from each text. Use examples from the text to illustrate points.
Today in class we wrote a definition essay (Writing Assignment 10 124), shared and then read the two student essays defining the word: "radical." Tomorrow in class we will refine the essay written in the freewrite. Bring it to class.
We also played a game where students in teams named fallacies (WLTC chapter 6).
I also handed out the chapter from Hacker on Writing "Reasonable Arguments." Skim it. We will talk about it tomorrow.
We are reading The Known World. Homework is to read up to page 100. Don't forget the reading logs. In addition to one's notes, pull 3-5 arguments from each chapter and put in standard form. The From the Bottom of the Heap essay is due by Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
We are going to The Marsh in San Francisco Wednesday evening to see the Dan Hoyle play. So far, two students have confirmed.
We looked at the question of morality vs. legality this morning and came up with two thesis sentences. I added a third:
1. People contemplate doing moral acts due to their legality.
2. Good behavior only counts when there is a reward.
3. R. H. King's potential for self-development was arrested by his early incarceration at Scotlandville where he learned that "black men of a certain age were destined for prison or the grave" (129).
Wednesdays presentation is to bring in 3-5 visual or multimedia fallacious arguments. Be prepared to share and post your findings.
When writing the critique essay, make sure to include a citation from Hacker for each error. Cite the rule, use the essay to cite the errors and then give the correction. Pay attention to the details and do not leave anything out.
Each essay focuses on one of the books, which means writers have to cite from the text. Other sources are fine, but the paper is about the themes and topics from each text. Use examples from the text to illustrate points.
Today in class we wrote a definition essay (Writing Assignment 10 124), shared and then read the two student essays defining the word: "radical." Tomorrow in class we will refine the essay written in the freewrite. Bring it to class.
We also played a game where students in teams named fallacies (WLTC chapter 6).
I also handed out the chapter from Hacker on Writing "Reasonable Arguments." Skim it. We will talk about it tomorrow.
We are reading The Known World. Homework is to read up to page 100. Don't forget the reading logs. In addition to one's notes, pull 3-5 arguments from each chapter and put in standard form. The From the Bottom of the Heap essay is due by Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
We are going to The Marsh in San Francisco Wednesday evening to see the Dan Hoyle play. So far, two students have confirmed.
We looked at the question of morality vs. legality this morning and came up with two thesis sentences. I added a third:
1. People contemplate doing moral acts due to their legality.
2. Good behavior only counts when there is a reward.
3. R. H. King's potential for self-development was arrested by his early incarceration at Scotlandville where he learned that "black men of a certain age were destined for prison or the grave" (129).
Wednesdays presentation is to bring in 3-5 visual or multimedia fallacious arguments. Be prepared to share and post your findings.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Other Homework
Complete From the Bottom of the Heap. Start The Known World. We will talk about this book next week. Make sure you have read Chapter 5, skim Chapter 6. Complete the exercises already assigned in Chapter 5. You can write in the book
We reviewed Exercise 5C (116) and Exercise 5D (117). We will review Exercise 5E (119-120) Monday. Our freewrite for Monday will be Writing Assignment 10 (124). We will review pp. 126-128. Homework will be Writing Assignment 11 (129).
We reviewed Exercise 5C (116) and Exercise 5D (117). We will review Exercise 5E (119-120) Monday. Our freewrite for Monday will be Writing Assignment 10 (124). We will review pp. 126-128. Homework will be Writing Assignment 11 (129).
The Farm: Angola USA Cyber-Assignment
We watched half the film, The Farm: Angola USA. Respond to the film here in a short three paragraph essay (250 words min.). Cite three arguments the directors make and concrete support or evidence for the claims. Don't forget to respond to at least one other student.
Name some of the hidden assumptions about guilt and innocence. Look at the story from the perspectives of the incarcerated men and the prison officials. How effective are the directors in presenting a variety of viewpoints? Is there an implied or unspoken bias? What do the director's think about Angola State Prison? Are they fair to all sides?
What type of reasoning this this: deductive or inductive? How is the profiling of the six men an effective way to tell the story? What surprised you most? How is film an important or useful instrument for argumentation and/or for stories like this?
What does the documentary form say about "best evidence"? Talk about what is stated versus what is implied. See WLTC (Chapter 2 and Exercise 2L page 52)
Complete the film: Visit http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/a-decade-behind-bars-return-to-the-farm-4329/Overview42#tab-Videos/06700_00
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Day 10: Library Orientation on Critical Thinking
We didn't get to the freewrite posted below. Most students turned in their revised Wise essays. I need the essays by tomorrow. I do not want to go into the weekend with two essays to read and reread. We had a productive library orientation. Many students had not read chapter 5.
If a student does not have a text, it is his or her responsibility to make arrangements to copy the chapters. Students are responsible for the material and we will have a quiz next week, maybe tomorrow on terms.
There are just three weeks left--my how time flies when one is having fun (smile). Tomorrow we will write an essay in class. Students are to bring their notes from From the Bottom of the Heap, as well as a scholarly article that supports the thesis or argument. We are completing Writing 8 (WLTC).
Tutors are available and students who need such support need to take advantage of such before it is too late. Presentations the final week: Tuesday-Wednesday will look at fallacies. Students will work in teams and present a visual examples of the fallacies assigned. These teams will also create Venn diagrams, and put the arguments into standard form and indicate whether the argument is inductive or deductive.
Students will also write an original skit to be preformed the next week and perhaps during the final week of class as well. I am thinking about reenactment of scenes from the text: Black Like Me and/or a conversation between Tim Wise, John Howard Griffin, Robert King, and/or perhaps a character in The Known World?
The final essay taken from a theme from The Known World will be turned in with the portfolio.
Next week we will continue to write and analyze arguments.
I am thinking out loud since students are behind. This musing is subject to change pending a conversation with students.
Reading Logs
Oh, I am expecting students to include reading logs with their essay tomorrow for the King book and all subsequent books: vocabulary logs, questions, notes, etc. If you have notes for Wise, great.
Cyber-Post
Post your freewrite re: Library orientation here.
Revisions
Revised essays earn the higher grade.
If a student does not have a text, it is his or her responsibility to make arrangements to copy the chapters. Students are responsible for the material and we will have a quiz next week, maybe tomorrow on terms.
There are just three weeks left--my how time flies when one is having fun (smile). Tomorrow we will write an essay in class. Students are to bring their notes from From the Bottom of the Heap, as well as a scholarly article that supports the thesis or argument. We are completing Writing 8 (WLTC).
Tutors are available and students who need such support need to take advantage of such before it is too late. Presentations the final week: Tuesday-Wednesday will look at fallacies. Students will work in teams and present a visual examples of the fallacies assigned. These teams will also create Venn diagrams, and put the arguments into standard form and indicate whether the argument is inductive or deductive.
Students will also write an original skit to be preformed the next week and perhaps during the final week of class as well. I am thinking about reenactment of scenes from the text: Black Like Me and/or a conversation between Tim Wise, John Howard Griffin, Robert King, and/or perhaps a character in The Known World?
The final essay taken from a theme from The Known World will be turned in with the portfolio.
Next week we will continue to write and analyze arguments.
I am thinking out loud since students are behind. This musing is subject to change pending a conversation with students.
Reading Logs
Oh, I am expecting students to include reading logs with their essay tomorrow for the King book and all subsequent books: vocabulary logs, questions, notes, etc. If you have notes for Wise, great.
Cyber-Post
Post your freewrite re: Library orientation here.
Revisions
Revised essays earn the higher grade.
Freewrite: Blink Your Eyes
Watch Sekou Sundiata's Blink Your Eyes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H18mBu9LI2Y
Listen: http://new.music.yahoo.com/sekou-sundiata/
What is the argument here? Summarize the story and then put the argument in standard form. What do you think of the argument's form? Is it effective?
Respond to a classmate's post.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Day 9 and Cyber-post In-class writing assignment
Reminder: Tomorrow we meet in the Library (LRC) at the desks in front of the wall-size screen. We will spend the second half of the class reviewing the homework assignments: 4 C (92), 4D (93), 4 E (94-98), Writing Assignment 7 (98-100). Wherever possible, write in the book.
Read Chapter 5 and continue in From the Bottom of the Heap. Today we wrote a 3-part essay based on the dialectic process: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The topic was: Slavery in US History: Pros and Cons.
Students need to complete From the Bottom of the Heap by Thursday. For those students who are waiting for the book to arrive, we will be finished with the book this Thursday. Next week we start The Known World again, so bring the book to class.
Tomorrow and/or Thursday, we'll look at evidence from From the Bottom of the Heap that supports a claim that slavery never ended for some US citizens. As you read, pull out evidence that support such a supposition. Remember, on Thursdays, we meet in L-202E.
Post your collaborative essay paragraphs here. Identify the position: thesis, antithesis or synthesis. Make sure all the writer's names are included in the post. Many students are behind on the reading. I know who is keeping up. You cannot write an essay without reading the book, so far, I think I have only read a few essays which demonstrate a grasp of the concepts presented by Wise and clearly identify and analyze his salient premises. Most students are bringing in other evidence because (this is just my hypothesis) they have not read the book, so can't discuss his argument's trajectory: explanations or conclusions.
Read Chapter 5 and continue in From the Bottom of the Heap. Today we wrote a 3-part essay based on the dialectic process: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The topic was: Slavery in US History: Pros and Cons.
Students need to complete From the Bottom of the Heap by Thursday. For those students who are waiting for the book to arrive, we will be finished with the book this Thursday. Next week we start The Known World again, so bring the book to class.
Tomorrow and/or Thursday, we'll look at evidence from From the Bottom of the Heap that supports a claim that slavery never ended for some US citizens. As you read, pull out evidence that support such a supposition. Remember, on Thursdays, we meet in L-202E.
Post your collaborative essay paragraphs here. Identify the position: thesis, antithesis or synthesis. Make sure all the writer's names are included in the post. Many students are behind on the reading. I know who is keeping up. You cannot write an essay without reading the book, so far, I think I have only read a few essays which demonstrate a grasp of the concepts presented by Wise and clearly identify and analyze his salient premises. Most students are bringing in other evidence because (this is just my hypothesis) they have not read the book, so can't discuss his argument's trajectory: explanations or conclusions.
Field Trips
I'd like to recommend two plays, both at the Marsh. I was looking at our attending the Dan Hoyle play, next week, Wednesday, July 14, 2010. The Marsh is on the BART route; we could meet at a central BART station and go together.
The second play is also one I recommend. We can talk about dates.
Dan Hoyle's THE REAL AMERICANS July 8 - September 25, 2010!
Just Added 3 new days!
wed, thur & fri at 8pm
saturdays at 5pm
sundays at 3pm
NO SHOW:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Marsh is proud to announce the world premiere of Dan Hoyle's new solo show, THE REAL AMERICANS. After traveling the globe for his first play, "Circumnavigator," and studying Nigerian oil politics for his third, "Tings Dey Happen," this time Hoyle is back in the United States, turning his eye and ear on America's culture wars. Fleeing the liberal bubble of San Francisco and his hipster friends, Hoyle spent 100 days traveling through small-town America in search of some tough country wisdom and a way to bridge America's urban/rural divide. Instead, Hoyle found himself immersed in the populist anger of the people whom Sarah Palin famously described as "The Real Americans" and awed at the disconnect between Obama Nation and Palin Country. Portrayed with humor, sympathy, confusion, angst and song, this vivid performance challenges the audience to move beyond their bafflement and engage with the future of a politically polarized America.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/8946 Charlie Rose interview
Tickets:
Wednesday: $18-$35 Thursday: $20 - $35
Friday: $22 - $35
Saturday: $28 - $35
Sunday: $22-$35 sliding scale
$50 reserved seating
For Tickets Call
Brown Paper Tickets
24/7 Ticket Hotline
800-838-3006
For Info Call
415-826-5750
THE MARSH Berkeley Extends DON REED'S EAST 14th - TRUE TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER Through August 1, 2010
EAST 14TH chronicles the true tale of a young man raised by his mother and ultra-strict stepfather as a middle class, straight A, God-fearing church boy. The boy, however, wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn't know dear old Dad was a pimp. Very funny, definitely poignant — a ride down a street you won't soon forget. The San Francisco Chronicle described Reed as an "Irresistible presence," and the East Bay Express declared the show ‘...Nothing short of amazing." The show is a best Bay Area Critics Circle Award Solo Performance nominee.
The Marsh, a breeding ground for new performance, is delighted to announce that Don Reed's EAST 14TH - TRUE TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER has been extended at The Marsh Berkeley through August 1, 2010. The show has now entered its second sold-out year –it started at The Marsh San Francisco in May, 2009! – and its thirteenth extension. Reed, who is the comedian/warm-up host for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno during the week, is delighted to be spending his weekends performing on his home turf in the East Bay.
Due to events already scheduled at The Marsh Berkeley, the show will play on different days of the weekend. For exact dates see below. When playing on Fridays, the show will start at 9:00 pm, on Saturdays at 8:00 pm and on Sundays at 7:00 pm. All shows take place at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley. For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
Friday, July 9; Sunday, July 11
Friday, July 16; Sunday, July 18
Saturday, July 24; Sunday, July 25
Saturday, July 31; Sunday, August 1
WHERE: The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley near Shattuck
TICKETS: $20-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved Seats $50; For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
For more information call 415-826-5750 or visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org
The second play is also one I recommend. We can talk about dates.
Dan Hoyle's THE REAL AMERICANS July 8 - September 25, 2010!
Just Added 3 new days!
wed, thur & fri at 8pm
saturdays at 5pm
sundays at 3pm
NO SHOW:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Marsh is proud to announce the world premiere of Dan Hoyle's new solo show, THE REAL AMERICANS. After traveling the globe for his first play, "Circumnavigator," and studying Nigerian oil politics for his third, "Tings Dey Happen," this time Hoyle is back in the United States, turning his eye and ear on America's culture wars. Fleeing the liberal bubble of San Francisco and his hipster friends, Hoyle spent 100 days traveling through small-town America in search of some tough country wisdom and a way to bridge America's urban/rural divide. Instead, Hoyle found himself immersed in the populist anger of the people whom Sarah Palin famously described as "The Real Americans" and awed at the disconnect between Obama Nation and Palin Country. Portrayed with humor, sympathy, confusion, angst and song, this vivid performance challenges the audience to move beyond their bafflement and engage with the future of a politically polarized America.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/8946 Charlie Rose interview
Tickets:
Wednesday: $18-$35 Thursday: $20 - $35
Friday: $22 - $35
Saturday: $28 - $35
Sunday: $22-$35 sliding scale
$50 reserved seating
For Tickets Call
Brown Paper Tickets
24/7 Ticket Hotline
800-838-3006
For Info Call
415-826-5750
THE MARSH Berkeley Extends DON REED'S EAST 14th - TRUE TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER Through August 1, 2010
EAST 14TH chronicles the true tale of a young man raised by his mother and ultra-strict stepfather as a middle class, straight A, God-fearing church boy. The boy, however, wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn't know dear old Dad was a pimp. Very funny, definitely poignant — a ride down a street you won't soon forget. The San Francisco Chronicle described Reed as an "Irresistible presence," and the East Bay Express declared the show ‘...Nothing short of amazing." The show is a best Bay Area Critics Circle Award Solo Performance nominee.
The Marsh, a breeding ground for new performance, is delighted to announce that Don Reed's EAST 14TH - TRUE TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER has been extended at The Marsh Berkeley through August 1, 2010. The show has now entered its second sold-out year –it started at The Marsh San Francisco in May, 2009! – and its thirteenth extension. Reed, who is the comedian/warm-up host for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno during the week, is delighted to be spending his weekends performing on his home turf in the East Bay.
Due to events already scheduled at The Marsh Berkeley, the show will play on different days of the weekend. For exact dates see below. When playing on Fridays, the show will start at 9:00 pm, on Saturdays at 8:00 pm and on Sundays at 7:00 pm. All shows take place at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley. For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
Friday, July 9; Sunday, July 11
Friday, July 16; Sunday, July 18
Saturday, July 24; Sunday, July 25
Saturday, July 31; Sunday, August 1
WHERE: The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley near Shattuck
TICKETS: $20-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved Seats $50; For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
For more information call 415-826-5750 or visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Day 8
Students are falling by the wayside like ducks on a shooting range--what a violent image, if the ducks are real.
1. Freewrite: Check-in. How are you doing? How can I facilitate your completion of the course? Send me an email: coasabirenglish5@gmail.com
2. Argument--WLTC
3. Review exercises --revision (essays). Review MLA
4. From the Bottom of the Heap read and discuss
5. In class essay on race and privilege: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
6. Homework: posted already. Revise essay 1. Read From the Bottom up to page 104. Write a summary 250 words of the events so far. Draw a profile of Robert Wilkerson. What do we know about him? What can we expect? Is he a character, such that we can predict the trajectory of his life? How does this confirm what Wise says about privilege and race and class?
1. Freewrite: Check-in. How are you doing? How can I facilitate your completion of the course? Send me an email: coasabirenglish5@gmail.com
2. Argument--WLTC
3. Review exercises --revision (essays). Review MLA
4. From the Bottom of the Heap read and discuss
5. In class essay on race and privilege: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
6. Homework: posted already. Revise essay 1. Read From the Bottom up to page 104. Write a summary 250 words of the events so far. Draw a profile of Robert Wilkerson. What do we know about him? What can we expect? Is he a character, such that we can predict the trajectory of his life? How does this confirm what Wise says about privilege and race and class?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Presentations today Cyber-Rsponse
Presentations today were great! Don't forget to post the your arguments with your comments. Reflect on the process: what went well, what you learned and if anything what you might do differently next time.
Lastly, comment on a classmate's argument: what did you like about it? What did you learn?
Please bring your cartoons and ads tomorrow. I'd like to take a picture of the images to post at the assignment link. thanks!
WLTC Homework June 30-July 7
Assignments:
Exercise 4A (81-82) due July 1, 2010. Write in the book whenever possible.
Exercise 4C (92-93) Due July 1, 2010
Writing Assignment 7 (98-100). Due July 6. Print out and bring to class.
Exercise 4D due July 7, 2010. Writing Assignment 8 (102) Due July 7, 2010. Bring scissors to class.
Exercise 4A (81-82) due July 1, 2010. Write in the book whenever possible.
Exercise 4C (92-93) Due July 1, 2010
Writing Assignment 7 (98-100). Due July 6. Print out and bring to class.
Exercise 4D due July 7, 2010. Writing Assignment 8 (102) Due July 7, 2010. Bring scissors to class.
Books
Go to the bookstore and purchase From the Bottom of the Heap. There are 12 copies of the book in the bookstore. The Known World will be in Thursday, July 8, in the college bookstore.
Black Like Me is in as well already. Get the books, we will continue with From the Bottom of the Heap tomorrow.
Read the first few chapters, up to chapter 8 (66). How does King's life verify Wise's argument on privilege?
Note any passages that are disturbing or shocking. Does the author make any assumptions you agree or disagree with?
Black Like Me is in as well already. Get the books, we will continue with From the Bottom of the Heap tomorrow.
Read the first few chapters, up to chapter 8 (66). How does King's life verify Wise's argument on privilege?
Note any passages that are disturbing or shocking. Does the author make any assumptions you agree or disagree with?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Cyber-Assigment due June 29, 2010
Begin the three-four paragraph response with an introduction which brings in Wise and then responds to same question as reflected in your life.
What trigger (3-4) moments predisposed Tim Wise to interrogate his life? Cite the text. Now connect his investigation to one of your own. If this treasure hunt is a new one for you, use Wise's self-reflective journey as a model. It form can be a short story or an essay response to the question about travel, choice and destinations. You can even write a poem.
The assignment
Find three (3) instances in you life which when reflected upon predisposed you to think, act, be a certain way today. What choices have you made (possibly brave or courageous choices Wise would say) to be where you are right now?
To exercise critical thinking means to take measured steps until one's eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Critical thinkers reflect and tread lightly just in case he or she needs to back track and find those bent leaves and footprints still visible he or she passed along the way.
Living consciously or being awake as opposed to sleep walking through life means one takes nothing for granted, yet keeps notes, makes plans and then tears up the paper just in case. One doesn't want to make a trail, the fun or lesson is in the journey--what one finds along the way not in the destination.
This response should be about 250 words. If you write a response that doesn't fit in one post, break it up into two or more. 250 is a benchmark, you can always write more.
What trigger (3-4) moments predisposed Tim Wise to interrogate his life? Cite the text. Now connect his investigation to one of your own. If this treasure hunt is a new one for you, use Wise's self-reflective journey as a model. It form can be a short story or an essay response to the question about travel, choice and destinations. You can even write a poem.
The assignment
Find three (3) instances in you life which when reflected upon predisposed you to think, act, be a certain way today. What choices have you made (possibly brave or courageous choices Wise would say) to be where you are right now?
To exercise critical thinking means to take measured steps until one's eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Critical thinkers reflect and tread lightly just in case he or she needs to back track and find those bent leaves and footprints still visible he or she passed along the way.
Living consciously or being awake as opposed to sleep walking through life means one takes nothing for granted, yet keeps notes, makes plans and then tears up the paper just in case. One doesn't want to make a trail, the fun or lesson is in the journey--what one finds along the way not in the destination.
This response should be about 250 words. If you write a response that doesn't fit in one post, break it up into two or more. 250 is a benchmark, you can always write more.
Day 5 & 6
Monday we reviewed exercises from chapters 1-3 in WLTC. We began with a lengthy discussion following a freewrite on the qualities of good writing.
Students then shared essays plans and/or essays. Only two students had drafts for review. Today, we had a small class, most students came in, dropped off their essays and left. It was strange. Other about half the class didn't show.
I wonder what that means (smile). I have to check my roster, maybe students have dropped the class.
Monday's homework was to start reading Edward P. Jones's book, but the bookstore didn't order it, so we will start with The Autobiography Black Panther: Robert H. King, followed by The Known World. This will give students a chance to purchase it. I called the college books store to see if the manager can order it. Check public libraries, independent booksellers like Books Inc. on Park Street in Alameda, Marcus Books in Oakland, or one of the many corporate sellers and yes, on-line.
We will conclude the class with Black Like Me.
I'll return the essays tomorrow with comments. You have a couple of days to get it back to me with corrections and an essay where you instruct the writer how to correct and/or revise the essay per comments.
Bring Wise's book to class. We are not finished with it. The handout I gave students on paraphrasing was to be completed by Thursday. If you have any questions, bring them up in class.
Today we looked at standard form, arguments with missing claims or hidden assumptions (Occam's razor 61, 62-63). We completed Exercise 3D, 3B and 3C. Homework for Thursday, July 1 is Exercise 3E).
Wednesday students will make their first presentations (reference Exercise 21 page 42-43). Students are to bring in one ad and one cartoon to share. Strudent will identify the argument and present it in standard form on the white board. Please note any implicit messages or hidden assumptions.
There will be a cyber-assignment attached to this presentation.
Finally, students are to respond to the following prompt at the link above. Begin the three paragraph response with an introduction which brings in Wise and then responds to same question as reflected in your life.
What trigger (3-4) moments predisposed Tim Wise to interrogate his life? Find three (3) instances in you life which when reflected upon predisposed you to think, act, be a certain way today? What choices have you made (possibly brave or courageous choices Wise would say) to be where you are right now?
To exercise critical thinking means to take measured steps until one's eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Critical thinkers reflect and tread lightly just in case he or she needs to back track and find those bent leaves and footprints still visible he or she passed along the way.
Living consciously or being awake as opposed to sleep walking through life means one takes nothing for granted, yet keeps notes, makes plans and then tears up the paper just in case. One doesn't want to make a trail, the fun or lesson is in the journey--what one finds along the way not in the destination.
This response should be about 250 words.
Students then shared essays plans and/or essays. Only two students had drafts for review. Today, we had a small class, most students came in, dropped off their essays and left. It was strange. Other about half the class didn't show.
I wonder what that means (smile). I have to check my roster, maybe students have dropped the class.
Monday's homework was to start reading Edward P. Jones's book, but the bookstore didn't order it, so we will start with The Autobiography Black Panther: Robert H. King, followed by The Known World. This will give students a chance to purchase it. I called the college books store to see if the manager can order it. Check public libraries, independent booksellers like Books Inc. on Park Street in Alameda, Marcus Books in Oakland, or one of the many corporate sellers and yes, on-line.
We will conclude the class with Black Like Me.
I'll return the essays tomorrow with comments. You have a couple of days to get it back to me with corrections and an essay where you instruct the writer how to correct and/or revise the essay per comments.
Bring Wise's book to class. We are not finished with it. The handout I gave students on paraphrasing was to be completed by Thursday. If you have any questions, bring them up in class.
Today we looked at standard form, arguments with missing claims or hidden assumptions (Occam's razor 61, 62-63). We completed Exercise 3D, 3B and 3C. Homework for Thursday, July 1 is Exercise 3E).
Wednesday students will make their first presentations (reference Exercise 21 page 42-43). Students are to bring in one ad and one cartoon to share. Strudent will identify the argument and present it in standard form on the white board. Please note any implicit messages or hidden assumptions.
There will be a cyber-assignment attached to this presentation.
Finally, students are to respond to the following prompt at the link above. Begin the three paragraph response with an introduction which brings in Wise and then responds to same question as reflected in your life.
What trigger (3-4) moments predisposed Tim Wise to interrogate his life? Find three (3) instances in you life which when reflected upon predisposed you to think, act, be a certain way today? What choices have you made (possibly brave or courageous choices Wise would say) to be where you are right now?
To exercise critical thinking means to take measured steps until one's eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Critical thinkers reflect and tread lightly just in case he or she needs to back track and find those bent leaves and footprints still visible he or she passed along the way.
Living consciously or being awake as opposed to sleep walking through life means one takes nothing for granted, yet keeps notes, makes plans and then tears up the paper just in case. One doesn't want to make a trail, the fun or lesson is in the journey--what one finds along the way not in the destination.
This response should be about 250 words.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Argument in Standard Form Cyber-Assignment
Homework due today was to identify ten (10) arguments and pull out premises or evidence for five (5). Post 2-3 arguments in standard form here. Indicate the page number from Wise's book.
Day 4 Recap and Cyber-post
Today in class we watched a video on Argumentation (The Write Course). We reviewed Chapter 2 and looked ahead to Chapter 4 and practiced identifying arguments and then structuring them in standard form. Students worked in groups.
Many students never purchased or checked the Wise book out of the library (public library). Everyone has to write the Wise essay. Of the other essays, I am going to make one of them optional. Keep track of the types of essays written. There are three types--one per essay.
Post your summary of the video here. The summary should be about 5-10 sentences long. Don't forget to include a works cited page or section.
Many students never purchased or checked the Wise book out of the library (public library). Everyone has to write the Wise essay. Of the other essays, I am going to make one of them optional. Keep track of the types of essays written. There are three types--one per essay.
Post your summary of the video here. The summary should be about 5-10 sentences long. Don't forget to include a works cited page or section.
The Wise Essay
First of all, my suggestion regarding meeting in L-202E is not possible as there is a class meeting there at 10 AM, Monday, June 28, so we will meet in our regular classroom, D-205. (We will meeting in A-202E on Thursdays beginning July 1. I am also scheduling a library orientation ASAP, so stay tuned.)
Bring your completed Wise essays and/or drafts to class. The final essay will be due the following day, so.... It would probably be a good idea if when you completed the book, each of you at least wrote a fast draft on one of the questions posted here in the next day or two.
Many students are stuck on the requirement/suggestion regarding spending time in the writing center, 4-6 hours for the summer. If you feel you don't need the extra assistance, don't worry about it. I did notice errors in SV Agr., spelling, and missing words in the comparative news story assignment. Read your papers aloud to yourself before you turn them in. I do not know if you can do better when you give me work with errors I would think writers of your status could catch in the editing process.
Questions I offer here speak to the thoughtful task Wise has set for himself, that is to use his privilege to disturb the rest of others like himself. He mentions that to tell his story, he of course has to tell that of his family, a story they might not want to share or appreciate Wise's airing of the family's collective laundry. However Wise says, he writes "from a place of pure love, which is neither unreflective nor uncritical nor blind, but which is above all else, honest" (xi).
Essay Assignment
In each essay response include three citations from Wise: 1 block quote, 1 in-text citation, and 1 free paraphrase. (3 for the entire essay which should be between 3-4 pages long, not including the works cited page.)
The essays are to be typed. Please include an outline with the essay. Read 1 scholarly article on the theme: "privilege." You do not have to cite it, include it in the bibliography section of your essay.
Use the 3-part thesis to develop the thesis for this essay. Staple the pages together and bring a copy to class Monday, June 28. Again, we will meet in D-205.
You can access the COA library database off campus. Before you come to class stop at the library and find an article to augment your research on "privilege." Ask the librarian for the password for the library database.
Questions
1. The word "privilege" is used multiple times in Tim Wise's book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. How does the author define the word and what examples does he use to support his claim that privilege is not earned, it is inherited, that privilege by its very nature, like capitalism means there is a clear divide between those that have and those who have not?
2. Choose 3-5 salient arguments which illustrate the point that one's "privilege" affects all aspects of one's life. If one is among the "anointed" then life is good, if not, what then according to Wise?
3. Look at Wise's writing: style, tone, language used or diction. Analyze his examples--describe their variety. Identify the themes. Who is his audience? What are the strengths of his argument(s), what if any are its weaknesses?
4. Wise uses his life to illustrate "privilege." Describe how he does this and its effectiveness.
5. According to Tim Wise, are you privileged? Are you disappointed with his assessment? Had you thought yourself privileged prior to Wise's scholarly treatment on the topic? Do you agree with his assessment? Write a letter to Wise sharing your personal story with him in light of what you know about his experiences. Use historic analysis, description, examples and statistics where necessary to convince Wise that you have given the question serious consideration.
Students can post essay questions here at the link. I will evaluate them and add the better questions to this list. Post your suggestions by Friday.
Bring your completed Wise essays and/or drafts to class. The final essay will be due the following day, so.... It would probably be a good idea if when you completed the book, each of you at least wrote a fast draft on one of the questions posted here in the next day or two.
Many students are stuck on the requirement/suggestion regarding spending time in the writing center, 4-6 hours for the summer. If you feel you don't need the extra assistance, don't worry about it. I did notice errors in SV Agr., spelling, and missing words in the comparative news story assignment. Read your papers aloud to yourself before you turn them in. I do not know if you can do better when you give me work with errors I would think writers of your status could catch in the editing process.
Questions I offer here speak to the thoughtful task Wise has set for himself, that is to use his privilege to disturb the rest of others like himself. He mentions that to tell his story, he of course has to tell that of his family, a story they might not want to share or appreciate Wise's airing of the family's collective laundry. However Wise says, he writes "from a place of pure love, which is neither unreflective nor uncritical nor blind, but which is above all else, honest" (xi).
Essay Assignment
In each essay response include three citations from Wise: 1 block quote, 1 in-text citation, and 1 free paraphrase. (3 for the entire essay which should be between 3-4 pages long, not including the works cited page.)
The essays are to be typed. Please include an outline with the essay. Read 1 scholarly article on the theme: "privilege." You do not have to cite it, include it in the bibliography section of your essay.
Use the 3-part thesis to develop the thesis for this essay. Staple the pages together and bring a copy to class Monday, June 28. Again, we will meet in D-205.
You can access the COA library database off campus. Before you come to class stop at the library and find an article to augment your research on "privilege." Ask the librarian for the password for the library database.
Questions
1. The word "privilege" is used multiple times in Tim Wise's book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. How does the author define the word and what examples does he use to support his claim that privilege is not earned, it is inherited, that privilege by its very nature, like capitalism means there is a clear divide between those that have and those who have not?
2. Choose 3-5 salient arguments which illustrate the point that one's "privilege" affects all aspects of one's life. If one is among the "anointed" then life is good, if not, what then according to Wise?
3. Look at Wise's writing: style, tone, language used or diction. Analyze his examples--describe their variety. Identify the themes. Who is his audience? What are the strengths of his argument(s), what if any are its weaknesses?
4. Wise uses his life to illustrate "privilege." Describe how he does this and its effectiveness.
5. According to Tim Wise, are you privileged? Are you disappointed with his assessment? Had you thought yourself privileged prior to Wise's scholarly treatment on the topic? Do you agree with his assessment? Write a letter to Wise sharing your personal story with him in light of what you know about his experiences. Use historic analysis, description, examples and statistics where necessary to convince Wise that you have given the question serious consideration.
Students can post essay questions here at the link. I will evaluate them and add the better questions to this list. Post your suggestions by Friday.
Day 3
Well Day Three was full. I covered a lot in the two hours. We had an extended and quite provocative conversation about Tim Wise's argument about race and privilege as we looked at the invention process: asking questions, listing, and connecting ideas.
As the white board became covered in writing, students shared passages from Wise's book that supported claims noted. We agreed and disagreed, defined words and then redefined them for clarity.
We looked at a process called Topical Invention to develop thesis sentences which are: definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony. We talked about the two types of arguments: inductive and deductive and the three major types of argumentative claims: fact,value and policy and what kind of claim Wise makes in his book.
Inductive argument is a movement from the specific data to the general claim, while the deductive argument moves from the general statement which is presumed true to the specific examples that prove it. Inductive arguments are said to lead to probability rather than certainty. Whereas, the deductive argument leads to certainty if the major points outlined in a syllogism are true.
This discussion led to a brief conversation about flawed thinking or fallacies. There are two types of fallacies: formal and material. Formal has to do with deductive reasoning and inductive, has to do with the material or evidence.
We talked about the form of the essay and where the thesis usually appears in the written discourse. We didn't talk about the parts of an essay or paragraph for that matter. We will later and the textbook, Writing Logically Thinking Critically discusses thesis development, structuring the argument and evidence--what is evidence and why is it important.
Homework
We reviewed the homework from WLTC in class. Homework for the evening was to keep reading Wise. We will finish the book on Monday, June 28, and start the essay then. Homework was to go through the book, up to page 61 and identify 10 arguments and of the ten choose 5 and find evidence that supports it from the text. Students could write in the book.
We will continue in WLTC this morning and watch a video on Argumentation (The Write Course).
As the white board became covered in writing, students shared passages from Wise's book that supported claims noted. We agreed and disagreed, defined words and then redefined them for clarity.
We looked at a process called Topical Invention to develop thesis sentences which are: definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony. We talked about the two types of arguments: inductive and deductive and the three major types of argumentative claims: fact,value and policy and what kind of claim Wise makes in his book.
Inductive argument is a movement from the specific data to the general claim, while the deductive argument moves from the general statement which is presumed true to the specific examples that prove it. Inductive arguments are said to lead to probability rather than certainty. Whereas, the deductive argument leads to certainty if the major points outlined in a syllogism are true.
This discussion led to a brief conversation about flawed thinking or fallacies. There are two types of fallacies: formal and material. Formal has to do with deductive reasoning and inductive, has to do with the material or evidence.
We talked about the form of the essay and where the thesis usually appears in the written discourse. We didn't talk about the parts of an essay or paragraph for that matter. We will later and the textbook, Writing Logically Thinking Critically discusses thesis development, structuring the argument and evidence--what is evidence and why is it important.
Homework
We reviewed the homework from WLTC in class. Homework for the evening was to keep reading Wise. We will finish the book on Monday, June 28, and start the essay then. Homework was to go through the book, up to page 61 and identify 10 arguments and of the ten choose 5 and find evidence that supports it from the text. Students could write in the book.
We will continue in WLTC this morning and watch a video on Argumentation (The Write Course).
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Letter to Students, Summer 2010
June 22, 2010
Dear Students:
Well summer is here and with it English 5/211. I normally do not teach in the summer, it makes the fall semester too long and I feel like toast by December, but I needed the money so here I am (smile).
I love rhetoric or the art of argumentation. I think the mastery of critical thinking and argumentation is an invaluable skill which translates into every aspect of one’s life. I used to teach argument in my developmental courses. We analyzed arguments, practiced drawing Venn diagrams, and became quite adept at identifying deductive and inductive arguments and noting whether they were claims of fact, policy, or value.
Audience is key when preparing a brief and we learned how to both identify our audiences and figure out how to address them, that is, identify concepts we both agree on. Agreement is a good place to start when dealing with controversy—which is another name for argument.
We learned that there were no absolutes and to think so was alienating to one’s audience who might be that exception one excludes.
I guess this is the attorney/lawyer wannabe talking. I actually took LSAT and applied to Stanford and to New School many years ago. I even got letters back from both, but decided to go to the University of San Francisco and get my masters in writing instead, a choice I do not regret.
Funny it was in a Teaching Writing course that I learned about thesis sentences and how to structure an argument. This was back in 1995-’97. Another reason why I wanted to go to USF was sentimental. My dad used to work there when I was a child. He’d tell me stories about drunken priests—too much communion wine and how much he liked working there. I think the Jesuits liked my dad too.
I grew up in San Francisco at a time when BART was an idea whose tracks were laid when I was admitted into UC Berkeley under Affirmative Action, and MUNI was on strike. I used to walk past San Francisco City College to the Geneva Station. We lived on Holloway at Granada Avenue (a street we lived on as well).
Prior to this, my family lived in Visitation Valley –we're from New Orleans. When my father was released from Angola State Prison, he sent a bus ticket to the welfare office which kicked my mother off aide and so my young mother, baby brother and I caught the Greyhound bus to Northern California where we lived first in San Francisco's Fillmore District in a rooming house—the bathroom and kitchen were shared.
Then we moved to the projects on Brookdale. I attended John McLaren Elementary School. My mother would comb my hair while I slept, breakfast set on the table before she left. My job was to get my bad brother up—he was five, feed him and get the two of us to class each morning. After school I’d go to the lower yard and grab his hand and we’d walk home. Our deaf neighbor Kathy would watch us for Mama. I remember her dog and her bright red hair. On paydays, my mother would treat us to warm cashews from Sears or Woolsworths. She also bring home fruit candy slices and around Thanksgiving and Christmas, fruit cake which she’d soak in rum. I have really delicious memories of that time. On New Year's Eve she'd let us smell the bubbles in her champagne. They tasted like tickles.
My mother worked at the Naval Shipyard in Hunter’s Point. She was a keypunch operator. Later she was transferred to Mare Island and to Treasure Island. (Treasure Island was beautiful.) My dad was unemployed a lot and absent the rest of the time. But when he was employed he worked as counselor at Bayview Mental Health Agency and as a house painter and a custodian for the San Francisco public school system.
My mom and dad had an on again, off again relationship—more off than on, and then more on than off.
Yes, it was kind of dysfunctional, but I have had therapy around co-dependence and trust issues developed in my formative years and I think I am getting better, even if not completely well yet (smile), let’s just say, I’m functional (smile).
No seriously, I had a great childhood as childhoods go. I had art classes at the deYoung Museum. I went to symphonies, the opera and dance performances at the Opera House.
My mother took us to see Michael Jackson and James Brown. I sculpted and drew and dreamed of being an artist or an architect or a medical illustrator. What I really wanted to do was paint signs over the freeway, but my mentor told me girls couldn’t paint those kinds of signs. I didn't know the word sexist then.
I came of age during at the height and demise of the Nation of Islam and at the same time, the Black Panther Party. Black Power was swirling overhead and I think the magic dust settled within me, because those movements have shaped a world view, which for a few tweaks and tucks I still hold today.
I have always loved to write. I remember having a poem: Life is Nature, Nature is Life, published in the sixth grade journal. Writing was my entree into the gifted and talented courses in junior high where I wrote original plays which my classmates performed for the school. I attended Visitation Valley Jr. High until I transferred to Muhammad University of Islam where I graduated at fifteen and a half class valedictorian.
I was a young mother, 20, though not as young as my mother, 15. I have two daughters and an ex-husband (smile). I also have a lovely granddaughter who is now seven. This weekend we celebrated my birthday at the first concert in the free Stern Grove Festival series. Angelique Kidjo was the headliner, along with Lamine Fellah and his band. Lamine is Algerian and the Algerians are competing tomorrow in the World Cup—exciting!
The concerts and the artists were superb. A lot of my friends showed up to wish me well—even my mother and brother, nieces and nephew. My mother came up on the train from LA.
Before I went to the concert, I got up at 4:30 AM to go to the protest at the Port of Oakland against the Israeli freight ship scheduled to dock that morning. I was kind of nervous—Port of Oakland police don’t mess around. They have been known to shoot protestors. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a martyred.
Turn the other cheek is a concept I had never practiced. One does have to rehearse these things—yes?
I had to be at work the next day—what might you have thought if I hadn’t showed (smile).
The police were out, but they must have expected us, ‘cause they were cool. No guns drawn, just a gentle reminder to stay in the prescribed places. So were chanted carried signs support Turkey and Palestine. Then a brass band showed up. I think they were the same group that played at a big Oscar Grant rally in downtown Oakland last year. They were good.
We are so civilized. At times I wonder what civility accomplishes. In this case a lot. Our objective was met.
There were hundreds of us there that morning and the ILWU sent the workers home, as the picket lines posed a threat to their health. I don’t know if the ship has since docked, the delay was costly to the shippers, the message—Israel cannot kill and threaten volunteers who just want to deliver humanitarian aide to the Palestinians. The Israeli government has lifted the embargo since the worldwide outcry. It reminds me of the antiapartheid movement, which I was a part of for ten years up to Mandela’s release. I sang with an antiapartheid choir, Vukani Mawethu. I was on stage when Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie Mandela came to Oakland to the then, Oakland Coliseum. I remember getting up at 5 AM to watch the two of them walk hand in hand when Mandela was released from Robben Island.
The reason why I need money this summer is to fund my return trip to Haiti between semesters. I went over during Spring Break for six days and I want to go back for two weeks and take money to the organizations I visited there then: schools, after school programs, orphanages, as well as survey areas I wasn’t able to get to during my first trip and visit friends there. I started a French class last week and my car was towed that afternoon. I misread the sign—Thursday, June 17, 2010 is a day I do not want to relive ever again. Have you ever gone to the corner where you left your car and it’s gone? And the number of the pole where the “Tow-a-way” sign you missed is now lit in neon, is wrong—as in, WRONG number. I was like huh? Then when I called one operator told me I have one hour to get my car before the price went from $330 to $500 and when I called back another attendant told me three hours.
This was helpful, since I left my license at home in Oakland. I was lucky to have four dollars for BART fare. My brother met me when I got back to San Francisco with ten minutes to spare and gave me a ride to the San Francisco County Courthouse where the tow away yard it located.
I enjoy what I do, teach people to write. I am very good at what I do. All students need to do is invest the time and good results are guaranteed. Seriously, writing is magical, but the skill is not magic—anyone can learn to be a good writer.
I have had a few careers: property management for HUD subsidized properties, family daycare owner, preschool teacher, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, site director for YMCA after school program, AIDS prevention educator and volunteer recruiter, housewife (smile), mother, and now college professor. I currently serve on just one board: California Coalition for Women Prisoners. My hobbies are: writing and poetry, dancing, camping, cycling and travel.
What else? I have an Internet Radio show and an on-line journal www.wandaspicks.com, www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks I am also a contributor to the Women’s Magazine program on KPFA 94.1 FM I write for a community newspaper, the San Francisco Bay View, where I am arts editor. I have been a journalist for about 20 years now. Publications I have written for are: the Oakland Tribune (Good News), the San Francisco Chronicle (Pink section), the Examiner (Arts), the Montclarion, The Berkeley Voice, Black Issues in Higher Education, the Berkeley Daily Planet.
If students aren't too busy this summer, perhaps we can attend a play together. I highly recommend Don Reed's E-14th Street at the Marsh in Berkeley.
Peace and Blessings,
Professor Wanda Sabir
PS I noticed some dates students might want to take notice of, the last day to get a refund July 6, last day to drop without a W July 1, and the last day to withdraw from the course July 21.
Dear Students:
Well summer is here and with it English 5/211. I normally do not teach in the summer, it makes the fall semester too long and I feel like toast by December, but I needed the money so here I am (smile).
I love rhetoric or the art of argumentation. I think the mastery of critical thinking and argumentation is an invaluable skill which translates into every aspect of one’s life. I used to teach argument in my developmental courses. We analyzed arguments, practiced drawing Venn diagrams, and became quite adept at identifying deductive and inductive arguments and noting whether they were claims of fact, policy, or value.
Audience is key when preparing a brief and we learned how to both identify our audiences and figure out how to address them, that is, identify concepts we both agree on. Agreement is a good place to start when dealing with controversy—which is another name for argument.
We learned that there were no absolutes and to think so was alienating to one’s audience who might be that exception one excludes.
I guess this is the attorney/lawyer wannabe talking. I actually took LSAT and applied to Stanford and to New School many years ago. I even got letters back from both, but decided to go to the University of San Francisco and get my masters in writing instead, a choice I do not regret.
Funny it was in a Teaching Writing course that I learned about thesis sentences and how to structure an argument. This was back in 1995-’97. Another reason why I wanted to go to USF was sentimental. My dad used to work there when I was a child. He’d tell me stories about drunken priests—too much communion wine and how much he liked working there. I think the Jesuits liked my dad too.
I grew up in San Francisco at a time when BART was an idea whose tracks were laid when I was admitted into UC Berkeley under Affirmative Action, and MUNI was on strike. I used to walk past San Francisco City College to the Geneva Station. We lived on Holloway at Granada Avenue (a street we lived on as well).
Prior to this, my family lived in Visitation Valley –we're from New Orleans. When my father was released from Angola State Prison, he sent a bus ticket to the welfare office which kicked my mother off aide and so my young mother, baby brother and I caught the Greyhound bus to Northern California where we lived first in San Francisco's Fillmore District in a rooming house—the bathroom and kitchen were shared.
Then we moved to the projects on Brookdale. I attended John McLaren Elementary School. My mother would comb my hair while I slept, breakfast set on the table before she left. My job was to get my bad brother up—he was five, feed him and get the two of us to class each morning. After school I’d go to the lower yard and grab his hand and we’d walk home. Our deaf neighbor Kathy would watch us for Mama. I remember her dog and her bright red hair. On paydays, my mother would treat us to warm cashews from Sears or Woolsworths. She also bring home fruit candy slices and around Thanksgiving and Christmas, fruit cake which she’d soak in rum. I have really delicious memories of that time. On New Year's Eve she'd let us smell the bubbles in her champagne. They tasted like tickles.
My mother worked at the Naval Shipyard in Hunter’s Point. She was a keypunch operator. Later she was transferred to Mare Island and to Treasure Island. (Treasure Island was beautiful.) My dad was unemployed a lot and absent the rest of the time. But when he was employed he worked as counselor at Bayview Mental Health Agency and as a house painter and a custodian for the San Francisco public school system.
My mom and dad had an on again, off again relationship—more off than on, and then more on than off.
Yes, it was kind of dysfunctional, but I have had therapy around co-dependence and trust issues developed in my formative years and I think I am getting better, even if not completely well yet (smile), let’s just say, I’m functional (smile).
No seriously, I had a great childhood as childhoods go. I had art classes at the deYoung Museum. I went to symphonies, the opera and dance performances at the Opera House.
My mother took us to see Michael Jackson and James Brown. I sculpted and drew and dreamed of being an artist or an architect or a medical illustrator. What I really wanted to do was paint signs over the freeway, but my mentor told me girls couldn’t paint those kinds of signs. I didn't know the word sexist then.
I came of age during at the height and demise of the Nation of Islam and at the same time, the Black Panther Party. Black Power was swirling overhead and I think the magic dust settled within me, because those movements have shaped a world view, which for a few tweaks and tucks I still hold today.
I have always loved to write. I remember having a poem: Life is Nature, Nature is Life, published in the sixth grade journal. Writing was my entree into the gifted and talented courses in junior high where I wrote original plays which my classmates performed for the school. I attended Visitation Valley Jr. High until I transferred to Muhammad University of Islam where I graduated at fifteen and a half class valedictorian.
I was a young mother, 20, though not as young as my mother, 15. I have two daughters and an ex-husband (smile). I also have a lovely granddaughter who is now seven. This weekend we celebrated my birthday at the first concert in the free Stern Grove Festival series. Angelique Kidjo was the headliner, along with Lamine Fellah and his band. Lamine is Algerian and the Algerians are competing tomorrow in the World Cup—exciting!
The concerts and the artists were superb. A lot of my friends showed up to wish me well—even my mother and brother, nieces and nephew. My mother came up on the train from LA.
Before I went to the concert, I got up at 4:30 AM to go to the protest at the Port of Oakland against the Israeli freight ship scheduled to dock that morning. I was kind of nervous—Port of Oakland police don’t mess around. They have been known to shoot protestors. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a martyred.
Turn the other cheek is a concept I had never practiced. One does have to rehearse these things—yes?
I had to be at work the next day—what might you have thought if I hadn’t showed (smile).
The police were out, but they must have expected us, ‘cause they were cool. No guns drawn, just a gentle reminder to stay in the prescribed places. So were chanted carried signs support Turkey and Palestine. Then a brass band showed up. I think they were the same group that played at a big Oscar Grant rally in downtown Oakland last year. They were good.
We are so civilized. At times I wonder what civility accomplishes. In this case a lot. Our objective was met.
There were hundreds of us there that morning and the ILWU sent the workers home, as the picket lines posed a threat to their health. I don’t know if the ship has since docked, the delay was costly to the shippers, the message—Israel cannot kill and threaten volunteers who just want to deliver humanitarian aide to the Palestinians. The Israeli government has lifted the embargo since the worldwide outcry. It reminds me of the antiapartheid movement, which I was a part of for ten years up to Mandela’s release. I sang with an antiapartheid choir, Vukani Mawethu. I was on stage when Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie Mandela came to Oakland to the then, Oakland Coliseum. I remember getting up at 5 AM to watch the two of them walk hand in hand when Mandela was released from Robben Island.
The reason why I need money this summer is to fund my return trip to Haiti between semesters. I went over during Spring Break for six days and I want to go back for two weeks and take money to the organizations I visited there then: schools, after school programs, orphanages, as well as survey areas I wasn’t able to get to during my first trip and visit friends there. I started a French class last week and my car was towed that afternoon. I misread the sign—Thursday, June 17, 2010 is a day I do not want to relive ever again. Have you ever gone to the corner where you left your car and it’s gone? And the number of the pole where the “Tow-a-way” sign you missed is now lit in neon, is wrong—as in, WRONG number. I was like huh? Then when I called one operator told me I have one hour to get my car before the price went from $330 to $500 and when I called back another attendant told me three hours.
This was helpful, since I left my license at home in Oakland. I was lucky to have four dollars for BART fare. My brother met me when I got back to San Francisco with ten minutes to spare and gave me a ride to the San Francisco County Courthouse where the tow away yard it located.
I enjoy what I do, teach people to write. I am very good at what I do. All students need to do is invest the time and good results are guaranteed. Seriously, writing is magical, but the skill is not magic—anyone can learn to be a good writer.
I have had a few careers: property management for HUD subsidized properties, family daycare owner, preschool teacher, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, site director for YMCA after school program, AIDS prevention educator and volunteer recruiter, housewife (smile), mother, and now college professor. I currently serve on just one board: California Coalition for Women Prisoners. My hobbies are: writing and poetry, dancing, camping, cycling and travel.
What else? I have an Internet Radio show and an on-line journal www.wandaspicks.com, www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks I am also a contributor to the Women’s Magazine program on KPFA 94.1 FM I write for a community newspaper, the San Francisco Bay View, where I am arts editor. I have been a journalist for about 20 years now. Publications I have written for are: the Oakland Tribune (Good News), the San Francisco Chronicle (Pink section), the Examiner (Arts), the Montclarion, The Berkeley Voice, Black Issues in Higher Education, the Berkeley Daily Planet.
If students aren't too busy this summer, perhaps we can attend a play together. I highly recommend Don Reed's E-14th Street at the Marsh in Berkeley.
Peace and Blessings,
Professor Wanda Sabir
PS I noticed some dates students might want to take notice of, the last day to get a refund July 6, last day to drop without a W July 1, and the last day to withdraw from the course July 21.
Day 2
We began with what I thought a simple task, review of paraphrasing. Students didn't understand how to complete a literal paraphase and then shift to a free paraphrase, so we practiced paraphrasing a sentence together--all the text was from the Tim Wise book. We'll work on more paraphasing tomorrow. I have workbooks we can use to practice the skill, that and summarizing.
Homework is to read up to page 61 in the Wise book and to read the first chapter in Writing Logically Thinking Critically. I handed out photocopies of the first three chapters. Homework is to complete two exercises. One is to email me and introduce yourself (1C). The second is to "Scrutinize the Media" (1B). Bring the second assignent in tomorrow to share with classmates. Please annotate the text and jot down any questions.
I usually write students a letter of introduction, so I will do that presently and post it separately since you will be sending me an email by tomorrow. I usually have students respond to my letter, so I know it was read (smile). We'll make that optional this time.
Students needed clarifying re: responding to student posts. No, your response does not need to be 250 words. Just respond to something specific in the student post you are commenting on.
Regarding your personal blogs, this is a place to keep your work. Post your assignment here and then post it with the assignment on your own blog.
We got a few new students today, and lost others, unless they were absent. I hope not. The summer session is so short, students should not miss any class. I appreciate everyone's promptness. Students who missed the first day and the film, can make arrangements to see it during my office hours which are not going to be in the afternoon, rather Wednesday morning, 9-10 and Mondays, 9-10. Let me know if you plan to come by. We can also try to make arrangements for other times, but that might be difficult.
Use my mobile number. I really don't mind.
Homework is to read up to page 61 in the Wise book and to read the first chapter in Writing Logically Thinking Critically. I handed out photocopies of the first three chapters. Homework is to complete two exercises. One is to email me and introduce yourself (1C). The second is to "Scrutinize the Media" (1B). Bring the second assignent in tomorrow to share with classmates. Please annotate the text and jot down any questions.
I usually write students a letter of introduction, so I will do that presently and post it separately since you will be sending me an email by tomorrow. I usually have students respond to my letter, so I know it was read (smile). We'll make that optional this time.
Students needed clarifying re: responding to student posts. No, your response does not need to be 250 words. Just respond to something specific in the student post you are commenting on.
Regarding your personal blogs, this is a place to keep your work. Post your assignment here and then post it with the assignment on your own blog.
We got a few new students today, and lost others, unless they were absent. I hope not. The summer session is so short, students should not miss any class. I appreciate everyone's promptness. Students who missed the first day and the film, can make arrangements to see it during my office hours which are not going to be in the afternoon, rather Wednesday morning, 9-10 and Mondays, 9-10. Let me know if you plan to come by. We can also try to make arrangements for other times, but that might be difficult.
Use my mobile number. I really don't mind.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Class Notes
Today in class I reviewed the syllabus. We took an Aptitude Test(smile) and corrected it. Students also did a freewrite: Define Critical Thinking. We concluded the class with the film: Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible.
I gave students my mobile number, we talked about homework, which is to start reading and doing the exercises in Writing Logically, Thinking Critically (page 1-17). Also students are to begin reading the Tim Wise book, up to page 40 top of page is good. Remember keep notes, along with a vocabulary log. Notes help you remember key ideas or points. Also, annotate the text.
We'll map out the rest of the week Tuesday. Again, if you have any questions, call me.
I gave students my mobile number, we talked about homework, which is to start reading and doing the exercises in Writing Logically, Thinking Critically (page 1-17). Also students are to begin reading the Tim Wise book, up to page 40 top of page is good. Remember keep notes, along with a vocabulary log. Notes help you remember key ideas or points. Also, annotate the text.
We'll map out the rest of the week Tuesday. Again, if you have any questions, call me.
"Mirror's of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible" Cyber-Assignment
What is Shakti Butler's film about? Give a brief synopsis in about 50 words. How did watching the film make you feel? What is it about this shared testimony that makes many Americans and non-Americans feel uncomfortable?
What issues are raised in Shakti’s film? What arguments does she raise? Talk about her subjects and the range of their experiences. How does this prove or support her argument?
What is privilege based on the film?
What words used in the film were new to you? What definitions did you agree or disagree with, such as the definition of racism, bigotry, etc.? Were you familiar with most or all of the terms used in the film: the words connotations and denotations?
A definition with strong emotional meaning is called a connotation, the dictionary meaning is called denotation.
Visit http://world-trust.org/films/
This weekend Dr. Butler is hosting a seminar and fundraiser for her next project. If you go and write about the experience, you can have extra credit.
World Trust: Dr. Shakti Butler
Join Us June 27th for “A 21st Century Conversation about Race”
http://world-trust.org/2010/05/event/
On Sunday, June 27th, World Trust will hold the benefit event Cracking the Codes: A 21st Century Conversation about Race in Oakland, CA. Using preview clips of the World Trust’s latest film in production as a catalyst, Shakti Butler, PhD will facilitate a conversation about the internal and external components of racism. Confused or frustrated by racial divide? Come find out how Oakland nonprofit World Trust is working to re-frame the national conversation — and participate in it yourself. It will be an afternoon of dialogue, community building, and insight for positive change.
Cracking the Codes: A 21st Century Conversation about Race
Sunday, June 27th
3:00-5:00 pm
Fontaine Auditorium
Samuel Merritt University
400 Hawthorne Avenue
Oakland, California 94609
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
What issues are raised in Shakti’s film? What arguments does she raise? Talk about her subjects and the range of their experiences. How does this prove or support her argument?
What is privilege based on the film?
What words used in the film were new to you? What definitions did you agree or disagree with, such as the definition of racism, bigotry, etc.? Were you familiar with most or all of the terms used in the film: the words connotations and denotations?
A definition with strong emotional meaning is called a connotation, the dictionary meaning is called denotation.
Visit http://world-trust.org/films/
This weekend Dr. Butler is hosting a seminar and fundraiser for her next project. If you go and write about the experience, you can have extra credit.
World Trust: Dr. Shakti Butler
Join Us June 27th for “A 21st Century Conversation about Race”
http://world-trust.org/2010/05/event/
On Sunday, June 27th, World Trust will hold the benefit event Cracking the Codes: A 21st Century Conversation about Race in Oakland, CA. Using preview clips of the World Trust’s latest film in production as a catalyst, Shakti Butler, PhD will facilitate a conversation about the internal and external components of racism. Confused or frustrated by racial divide? Come find out how Oakland nonprofit World Trust is working to re-frame the national conversation — and participate in it yourself. It will be an afternoon of dialogue, community building, and insight for positive change.
Cracking the Codes: A 21st Century Conversation about Race
Sunday, June 27th
3:00-5:00 pm
Fontaine Auditorium
Samuel Merritt University
400 Hawthorne Avenue
Oakland, California 94609
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
Cyber-Assignment 1
Respond to syllabus. Post at syllabus link, not here. Let me know what you think. Due by June 22, 2010 8 AM. Your response let's me know you read it. Each evening expect about two-three hours of homework, this includes reading and writing.
Class Syllabus for Summer 2010
Professor Wanda Sabir Course Code 30008/30013
Class Meetings: June 21-July 29, MTWTh Room D-205, 10 AM-12:15 PM Independence Day Holiday Observance: July 5
Syllabus for English 5/211: Critical Thinking in Reading and Writing
English 5/211 develops the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas. Critical thinking looks at the relationship between language and logic, introduces rhetoric or persuasive writing and tools students can use to evaluate information based on facts, perceptions, assumptions, evidence, reasons, inferences, judgments, induction, deduction and conclusions. Vocabulary is introduced so that students have the proper tools to discuss faulty thinking or flaws in the reasoning process and name the more common fallacies.
This level composition assumes competency in prose writing and reading ability so that more attention can be devoted to ideas rather than to grammar and mechanics. Because this is an accelerated course, the student who will most likely succeed in this course passed English 1A with a “B” or better.
We will look at the role of language and semantics in critical thinking, social communications and propaganda. Students will also look at the fundamentals of problem solving, including considering and evaluating alternative solutions and perspectives. We will write a series of four (4) – 3-4 page essays which are 1. analytical, 2. argumentative and 3. comparative evaluative essays on pertinent topics around the theme: privilege.
Topics will come from our texts, films, and discussions, current event topics, or historical issues with current relevance. Each essay will utilize one of the text books: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise; Black Like Me by John Howard; The Known World by Edward P. Jones; and From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King. Required in these essays will be inclusion of at least one scholarly article on the topic and a works cited page which is not counted as part of the 3-4 pages.
While there are no women writers selected for this semester's reading, the female voice is included here and for student essays, certainly students are encouraged to address the women's participation or absence of participation in the discourse on privilege.
Essays
We will start all the essays in class and have peer reviews; however, I expect the first draft to receive a passing grade. If this is not the case, I suggest said student in list the support and assistance of a competent tutor.
If any paper does not receive a passing grade, said student will have to write an essay wherein he or she discusses in third person how the writer can correct the errors, and revise or rewrite the essay. These essays are due the following day.
Readings
We will read a book every week or two, beginning with White Like Me: June 21-24. Essay started June 24. Final draft due: June 28 for peer review. Turn in June 29.
The Known World: June 28-July 6. In-class essay writing assignment: July 7.
The Known World debate: Monday, July 8. Summary arguments and self-reflective essay on the process due: July 8-9 (cyber-assignment).
An important question here is: How do we know what we know given the flawed process in coming up with the answer to this question? How do Jones’s characters illustrate this reasoning process? What do you think about the idea of a world view given the events of the novel? How do people think outside their narrow windows; why do several characters prefer the familiar to the challenging and shifting terrain around foregone conclusions? Use the novel to support all answers.
July 12-15: From the Bottom of the Heap. Question: Is predestination or fate a socially prescribed outcome? Compare Wilkerson’s life to Wise’s.
In class essay: July 15, 2010
July 19-22: Black Like Me. How is this dress rehearsal useful? To whom? How is it not? In class essay or a series of short skits: July 22
Revisions: July 26-28
Students will take 1 of the 4 essays and expand it for the final presentation: July 26-28. The group presentations are also due this week.
Finals: Portfolio Due: July 29 via Internet
We will work on this 7/29/2010 in class.
I like to use films as teaching aides. If there are any films, we will watch them on Mondays. The film assignment will be a cyber-assignment we will most likely start in class. Cyber-assignments are turned in on-line and are about a 250 word fast draft. Each student needs to respond to two other posts. Be respectful in your comments.
We’ll write in-class essays (2-3 pages) on Thursdays; class presentations will be on Wednesday. Students will present each week. There will be one group project and presentation on logical fallacies (both inductive and deductive reasoning - one each) inspired by the texts (indicate the passages) or taken from the field of commercial art or politics.
The Plan
We will use the textbook: Writing Logically Thinking Critically, Sixth Edition, by Sheila Cooper and Rosemary Patton. It will give students theoretical basis to talk about the argument process. The book has exercises which we will complete in and outside of class meetings. Students are encouraged to develop study groups.
We will run the book chronologically:
Week 1: A Quick Guide to Integrating Research into Your Own Writing 210-214. Practice pp: 210-214
Week 1: Chapters 1-2
Week 2: Chapters 2-3-4
Week 3: Chapters 4
Week 4: Chapters 5-6
Week 5: Chapters 7-8
I will add the Elements of Style readings later and give to students as a separate handout.
Grading
The essay based on readings are a fourth of your grade, the daily essays and/or homework are another fourth, your midterm and final are another fourth and your portfolio is the final fourth. (Save all of your work.) You can average the grades to see how to weigh the various components. Participation is included in the daily exercises and homework portion of the grade, so if your attendance is exemplary, yet you say nothing the entire six weeks, you lose percentage points.
You will also need to spend four-six hours in the Writing Lab (L-234), or as needed this summer, and have a teacher or tutor sign off on your assignments. If you are having trouble with grammar, then work on that. If you trouble is the essay writing process itself, work on that.
Have a tutor of teacher sign off on your essays before you turn them in; if you have a “R,” which means revision necessary for a grade or “NC-” which means “no credit,” you have to go to the lab and revise the essay with a tutor or teacher before you return both the graded original and the revision (with signature) to me. Also due is the essay about the essay which identifies the errors and how to correct them. Use a grammar/style book such as Diana Hacker Rules for Writers. Revise does not mean “rewrite,” it means to “see again.”
The summer intensive composition courses offer invigorating discourse or dialogue for those students who love a challenge, and approach the task eager, prepared and ready for what the course requires: 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.
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 is easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.
Audience
This is not the class for the student who is not comfortable with writing essays, or whose handle on grammar is shaky or loose, and whose reading skills - interpretation, critical analysis, comprehension and vocabulary, are limited. Obviously, in six weeks you cannot become an expert on anything, however, the hope is that when you leave the course, you will be a stronger writer than when you arrived, and understand clearly what you need to do next.
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily an honest response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students 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 goal.
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I am available for consultation on Wednesday afternoons, 12-2 p.m. by appointment in L-236. Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me. My office number is (510) 748-2131, e-mail coasabirenglish5@gmail.com. The class blog is: I do not keep regular office hours in the summer.
I also don’t check my e-mail on weekends so I’d advise you to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently. Study groups are also suggested, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator. Keep a vocabulary log for the term per book and for the textbook. Also keep a reading log for each book. 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 these logs in with your portfolio.
Students are expected to complete their work on time. If any work comes in late after week one, the assignment is marked down one grade each day it’s late. 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, with an analysis essay, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or lose 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.
Textbooks
We will travel through our five textbooks concurrently: Cooper, Sheila and Rosemary Patton. Writing Logically, Thinking Critically. Sixth Edition. New York: Longman, 2010; Wise, Tim. White Like Me. New York: Skull Press, 2005; Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Sixth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008; The Elements of Style. Any edition. Strunk, William Jr. and E.B. White.
Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.
Along with a dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, a travel drive to save writing, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.
Week 1: Warm-ups and stretches
Writing Logically, Thinking Critically: Introduction, Chapter 1: Thinking and Writing
Day 1: In-class assignment: Aptitude Test; freewrite: Define Critical Thinking; film: Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, director: Shakti Butler
Homework: Begin reading chapter 1. Complete exercises. You can write in the book. Note questions. Post freewrite on class blog.
Chapter 2: Inference—Critical ThoughtAssignments: p.17 due Wednesday, June 22, 2010
The writing assignments from the text (some) will be cyber-assignments (turned in or posted on-line at the class blog). Keep a copy for yourself. Exercises: 2J, 3, 4, or 2K. Extra Credit: 2L due June 25.
Week 1: A Quick Guide to Integrating Research into Your Own Writing 210-214. Practice pp: 210-214
Readings
White Like Me: June 21-24. Essay started June 24. Final draft due: June 28 for peer review. Turn in June 29.
Review: Rules for Writers (Hacker):
The Writing Process (2)
Document Design (60)
The Basics (530)
Week 2: Establish routine
Chapter 3: The Structure of Argument (53)
In class exercises: 3B (58-59), 3C. Homework Exercise 3E (cyber-assignment).
Chapter 4: Written Argument (77)
Cyber-assignment: Writing Assignment 7 (98-99), Writing Assignment 8 (102). Posted by July 2.
Hacker
Argument (358)
Conducting Research (381)
Clarity (79)
The Known World: June 28-July 6. In-class essay writing assignment: July 7.
The Known World debate: Monday, July 8. Summary arguments and self-reflective essay on the process due: July 8-9 (cyber-assignment).
An important question here is: How do we know what we know given the flawed process in coming up with the answer to this question? How do Jones’s characters illustrate this reasoning process? What do you think about the idea of a world view given the events of the novel? How do people think outside their narrow windows; why do several characters prefer the familiar to the challenging and shifting terrain around foregone conclusions? Use the novel to support all answers.
Week 3: Fitness testing
Chapter 4 con’t. Review
Chapter 5: The Language of Argument—Definition (104)
Cyber-Assignments: Exercise 5A (110-111), Writing Assignment 10 (124)
Hacker:
Grammar (148)
Punctuation (269)
Mechanics (317)
Readings and Midterm
July 12-15: From the Bottom of the Heap. Question: Is predestination or fate a socially prescribed outcome? Compare Wilkerson’s life to Wise’s.
In class essay: July 15, 2010 (midterm)
Week 4: The race
Chapter 5 review
Chapter 6: Fallacious Arguments (131)
Cyber-assignments based on in-class assignment (145); Exercise 6B
Test
Readings
July 19-22: Black Like Me. How is this dress rehearsal useful? To whom? How is it not?
In class essay or a series of short skits: July 22
Week 5: Learning curves
Chapter 7: Deductive and Inductive Argument (157)
Cyber-assignments Exercises 7G (180) or 7H (181)
Cyber-assignment (Writing Assignment 13 (196)
Students will take 1 of the 4 essays and expand it for the final presentation: July 28-29
Week 6: Finish Line
Review and quiz
Essays presentations given (M-W)
Last date of class: Wednesday, July 28.
Portfolios due: Thursday, July 29, via Internet
Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
This syllabus is subject to change based on instructor assessment of class progress.
Class Meetings: June 21-July 29, MTWTh Room D-205, 10 AM-12:15 PM Independence Day Holiday Observance: July 5
Syllabus for English 5/211: Critical Thinking in Reading and Writing
English 5/211 develops the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas. Critical thinking looks at the relationship between language and logic, introduces rhetoric or persuasive writing and tools students can use to evaluate information based on facts, perceptions, assumptions, evidence, reasons, inferences, judgments, induction, deduction and conclusions. Vocabulary is introduced so that students have the proper tools to discuss faulty thinking or flaws in the reasoning process and name the more common fallacies.
This level composition assumes competency in prose writing and reading ability so that more attention can be devoted to ideas rather than to grammar and mechanics. Because this is an accelerated course, the student who will most likely succeed in this course passed English 1A with a “B” or better.
We will look at the role of language and semantics in critical thinking, social communications and propaganda. Students will also look at the fundamentals of problem solving, including considering and evaluating alternative solutions and perspectives. We will write a series of four (4) – 3-4 page essays which are 1. analytical, 2. argumentative and 3. comparative evaluative essays on pertinent topics around the theme: privilege.
Topics will come from our texts, films, and discussions, current event topics, or historical issues with current relevance. Each essay will utilize one of the text books: White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise; Black Like Me by John Howard; The Known World by Edward P. Jones; and From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King. Required in these essays will be inclusion of at least one scholarly article on the topic and a works cited page which is not counted as part of the 3-4 pages.
While there are no women writers selected for this semester's reading, the female voice is included here and for student essays, certainly students are encouraged to address the women's participation or absence of participation in the discourse on privilege.
Essays
We will start all the essays in class and have peer reviews; however, I expect the first draft to receive a passing grade. If this is not the case, I suggest said student in list the support and assistance of a competent tutor.
If any paper does not receive a passing grade, said student will have to write an essay wherein he or she discusses in third person how the writer can correct the errors, and revise or rewrite the essay. These essays are due the following day.
Readings
We will read a book every week or two, beginning with White Like Me: June 21-24. Essay started June 24. Final draft due: June 28 for peer review. Turn in June 29.
The Known World: June 28-July 6. In-class essay writing assignment: July 7.
The Known World debate: Monday, July 8. Summary arguments and self-reflective essay on the process due: July 8-9 (cyber-assignment).
An important question here is: How do we know what we know given the flawed process in coming up with the answer to this question? How do Jones’s characters illustrate this reasoning process? What do you think about the idea of a world view given the events of the novel? How do people think outside their narrow windows; why do several characters prefer the familiar to the challenging and shifting terrain around foregone conclusions? Use the novel to support all answers.
July 12-15: From the Bottom of the Heap. Question: Is predestination or fate a socially prescribed outcome? Compare Wilkerson’s life to Wise’s.
In class essay: July 15, 2010
July 19-22: Black Like Me. How is this dress rehearsal useful? To whom? How is it not? In class essay or a series of short skits: July 22
Revisions: July 26-28
Students will take 1 of the 4 essays and expand it for the final presentation: July 26-28. The group presentations are also due this week.
Finals: Portfolio Due: July 29 via Internet
We will work on this 7/29/2010 in class.
I like to use films as teaching aides. If there are any films, we will watch them on Mondays. The film assignment will be a cyber-assignment we will most likely start in class. Cyber-assignments are turned in on-line and are about a 250 word fast draft. Each student needs to respond to two other posts. Be respectful in your comments.
We’ll write in-class essays (2-3 pages) on Thursdays; class presentations will be on Wednesday. Students will present each week. There will be one group project and presentation on logical fallacies (both inductive and deductive reasoning - one each) inspired by the texts (indicate the passages) or taken from the field of commercial art or politics.
The Plan
We will use the textbook: Writing Logically Thinking Critically, Sixth Edition, by Sheila Cooper and Rosemary Patton. It will give students theoretical basis to talk about the argument process. The book has exercises which we will complete in and outside of class meetings. Students are encouraged to develop study groups.
We will run the book chronologically:
Week 1: A Quick Guide to Integrating Research into Your Own Writing 210-214. Practice pp: 210-214
Week 1: Chapters 1-2
Week 2: Chapters 2-3-4
Week 3: Chapters 4
Week 4: Chapters 5-6
Week 5: Chapters 7-8
I will add the Elements of Style readings later and give to students as a separate handout.
Grading
The essay based on readings are a fourth of your grade, the daily essays and/or homework are another fourth, your midterm and final are another fourth and your portfolio is the final fourth. (Save all of your work.) You can average the grades to see how to weigh the various components. Participation is included in the daily exercises and homework portion of the grade, so if your attendance is exemplary, yet you say nothing the entire six weeks, you lose percentage points.
You will also need to spend four-six hours in the Writing Lab (L-234), or as needed this summer, and have a teacher or tutor sign off on your assignments. If you are having trouble with grammar, then work on that. If you trouble is the essay writing process itself, work on that.
Have a tutor of teacher sign off on your essays before you turn them in; if you have a “R,” which means revision necessary for a grade or “NC-” which means “no credit,” you have to go to the lab and revise the essay with a tutor or teacher before you return both the graded original and the revision (with signature) to me. Also due is the essay about the essay which identifies the errors and how to correct them. Use a grammar/style book such as Diana Hacker Rules for Writers. Revise does not mean “rewrite,” it means to “see again.”
The summer intensive composition courses offer invigorating discourse or dialogue for those students who love a challenge, and approach the task eager, prepared and ready for what the course requires: 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.
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 is easier to go with tradition than toss it, and create a new, more just, alternative protocol.
Audience
This is not the class for the student who is not comfortable with writing essays, or whose handle on grammar is shaky or loose, and whose reading skills - interpretation, critical analysis, comprehension and vocabulary, are limited. Obviously, in six weeks you cannot become an expert on anything, however, the hope is that when you leave the course, you will be a stronger writer than when you arrived, and understand clearly what you need to do next.
We will be honest with one another. Grades are not necessarily an honest response to work; grades do not take into consideration the effort or time spent, only whether or not students 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 goal.
I’d like to wish everyone good luck. I am available for consultation on Wednesday afternoons, 12-2 p.m. by appointment in L-236. Let me know the day before, if possible, when you’d like to meet with me. My office number is (510) 748-2131, e-mail coasabirenglish5@gmail.com. The class blog is: I do not keep regular office hours in the summer.
I also don’t check my e-mail on weekends so I’d advise you to exchange phone numbers with classmates (2), so if you have a concern, it can be addressed more expediently. Study groups are also suggested, especially for those students finding the readings difficult; don’t forget, you can also discuss the readings as a group in the Lab with a teacher or tutor acting as facilitator. Keep a vocabulary log for the term per book and for the textbook. Also keep a reading log for each book. 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 these logs in with your portfolio.
Students are expected to complete their work on time. If any work comes in late after week one, the assignment is marked down one grade each day it’s late. 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, with an analysis essay, I cannot compare what changed. If you accidentally toss out or lose 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.
Textbooks
We will travel through our five textbooks concurrently: Cooper, Sheila and Rosemary Patton. Writing Logically, Thinking Critically. Sixth Edition. New York: Longman, 2010; Wise, Tim. White Like Me. New York: Skull Press, 2005; Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. Sixth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008; The Elements of Style. Any edition. Strunk, William Jr. and E.B. White.
Students also need a dictionary. I recommend: The American Heritage Dictionary. Fourth Edition.
Along with a dictionary, the prepared student needs pens with blue or black ink, along with a pencil for annotating texts, paper, a stapler or paper clips, a travel drive to save writing, a notebook, three hole punch, a folder for work-in-progress, and a divided binder to keep materials together.
Week 1: Warm-ups and stretches
Writing Logically, Thinking Critically: Introduction, Chapter 1: Thinking and Writing
Day 1: In-class assignment: Aptitude Test; freewrite: Define Critical Thinking; film: Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, director: Shakti Butler
Homework: Begin reading chapter 1. Complete exercises. You can write in the book. Note questions. Post freewrite on class blog.
Chapter 2: Inference—Critical ThoughtAssignments: p.17 due Wednesday, June 22, 2010
The writing assignments from the text (some) will be cyber-assignments (turned in or posted on-line at the class blog). Keep a copy for yourself. Exercises: 2J, 3, 4, or 2K. Extra Credit: 2L due June 25.
Week 1: A Quick Guide to Integrating Research into Your Own Writing 210-214. Practice pp: 210-214
Readings
White Like Me: June 21-24. Essay started June 24. Final draft due: June 28 for peer review. Turn in June 29.
Review: Rules for Writers (Hacker):
The Writing Process (2)
Document Design (60)
The Basics (530)
Week 2: Establish routine
Chapter 3: The Structure of Argument (53)
In class exercises: 3B (58-59), 3C. Homework Exercise 3E (cyber-assignment).
Chapter 4: Written Argument (77)
Cyber-assignment: Writing Assignment 7 (98-99), Writing Assignment 8 (102). Posted by July 2.
Hacker
Argument (358)
Conducting Research (381)
Clarity (79)
The Known World: June 28-July 6. In-class essay writing assignment: July 7.
The Known World debate: Monday, July 8. Summary arguments and self-reflective essay on the process due: July 8-9 (cyber-assignment).
An important question here is: How do we know what we know given the flawed process in coming up with the answer to this question? How do Jones’s characters illustrate this reasoning process? What do you think about the idea of a world view given the events of the novel? How do people think outside their narrow windows; why do several characters prefer the familiar to the challenging and shifting terrain around foregone conclusions? Use the novel to support all answers.
Week 3: Fitness testing
Chapter 4 con’t. Review
Chapter 5: The Language of Argument—Definition (104)
Cyber-Assignments: Exercise 5A (110-111), Writing Assignment 10 (124)
Hacker:
Grammar (148)
Punctuation (269)
Mechanics (317)
Readings and Midterm
July 12-15: From the Bottom of the Heap. Question: Is predestination or fate a socially prescribed outcome? Compare Wilkerson’s life to Wise’s.
In class essay: July 15, 2010 (midterm)
Week 4: The race
Chapter 5 review
Chapter 6: Fallacious Arguments (131)
Cyber-assignments based on in-class assignment (145); Exercise 6B
Test
Readings
July 19-22: Black Like Me. How is this dress rehearsal useful? To whom? How is it not?
In class essay or a series of short skits: July 22
Week 5: Learning curves
Chapter 7: Deductive and Inductive Argument (157)
Cyber-assignments Exercises 7G (180) or 7H (181)
Cyber-assignment (Writing Assignment 13 (196)
Students will take 1 of the 4 essays and expand it for the final presentation: July 28-29
Week 6: Finish Line
Review and quiz
Essays presentations given (M-W)
Last date of class: Wednesday, July 28.
Portfolios due: Thursday, July 29, via Internet
Jot down briefly what your goals are this semester. List them in order of importance.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
This syllabus is subject to change based on instructor assessment of class progress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)