Collaborative Community
Working in small groups will be a core component of our class, and this is one of the first tasks of the semester: establishing our small groups. By learning to collaborate in small groups we will create the opportunity to listen to, learn from, and teach each other. However, working in small groups does not always come easy; we have to learn how to work together in order to make our small groups a success. The reward will be well worth the hard work: What we produce through our work in small groups will create the knowledge base for the course and will allow each student to shape the class and our learning community.
All assignments to be completed before class starts. Written assignments typed, double-spaced and stapled accepted to be handed in for credit IN CLASS only on day due.
Written Work
Useful Links
- Eavan Boland Interview
- Eavan Boland Essay on Poetry
- Interview with Alice Walker (audio)
- Bio of Alice Walker
- Essay 1
In the first part of the semester we will learn about key concepts in writing, concepts that have been written about since Plato and Aristotle. These concepts will foster an awareness of your own writing, will improve your critical reading skills, and will improve your ability to evaluate the writing of others. The first writing assignment, in fact, will ask you to evaluate one of two short pieces we will read in Week 3. This first writing project will be due Week 5.
- Blog Assignment
- Essay 2
- Personal Literacy Portfolio
- Interviewing
- Creating Good Interview Questions
In the second part of the semester, we will turn our attention to The Things They Carried. Analyzing and writing about this novel will give us the opportunity to apply the concepts we learned about in the first section and will also give us an opportunity to add to our growing understanding of writing. This project will be due in Week 10.
- Essay 3
- Portfolio Preface Prompt
Finally, in the last writing project, we will explore more closely our relationships with reading and writing, and we will also focus on how to successfully conduct and incorporate outside research into a paper. In this final project, think about what we have learned about reading and writing over the course of the semester as you reflect on your own literacy history and research the literacy histories of others. This project will be due week 14 right before the Thanksgiving Break.
At the end of the semester, you will put together a PORTFOLIO of your work which will be evaluated by other 098 instructors. Putting the portfolio together will allow you to see how the writing process – inventing, drafting, revising, editing – has been actualized in your own writing. You will see how you have responded to the needs of your audience by producing papers which provide clear introductions and sufficient detail. You will also see how your writing has grown from participating in your small group and the learning community we have created through the sharing of our knowledge and understandings. The preface you write for your portfolio will allow you to reflect on your growth over the course of the semester and examine the experiences that contributed to that growth.
Final Portfolio due on Monday Dec 3.
I encourage you to work hard revising your essays, using all that you have learned this semester, since if you don't pass the portfolio you don't pass the class. In addition, at the end of the semester, only if you have satisfactorily completed all of the classroom work, will you be allowed to submit a portfolio of your essays to a committee for evaluation.
For the Portfolio you are required to write a letter to the readers describing how your writing has changed this semester. You could describe the process you went through for your out-of-class essays. For instance you might describe which brainstorming techniques you used (clustering, the five w's, freewriting, etc.); tell how you came to settle on the particular subjects; describe how the essays changed as you worked through the different versions; and state how you feel about the final versions. What the readers are looking for is recognition by you that writing evolves, and that it isn't just "born," whole and perfect, in your word processor.
The letter should use the salutation "Dear Reader" and should be written in standard letter format. It should be no longer than a page. Sign the letter with your name.
Portfolio requirements consist of:
- Three out-of-class major essay packets. Each essay packet will consist of the essay prompt and a clean, revised "portfolio draft" of each essay, stapled to all rough drafts. (No workshop sheets.) Place each of the three essay packets in the right-hand pocket of your folder.
- One in-class essay with prompt attached. This must be just as you wrote it in class, or typed it at the online bulletin board no revisions, and no grade sheets. Place this in the left-hand pocket of your folder.
- A cover letter describing your writing process. (See above.) Place this in the left-hand pocket of your folder, in front of the in-class essay.
- An extra final copy of one essay for consideration for New Voices, with application. Hand this in to me.
- LATE OR INCOMPLETE PORTFOLIOS CANNOT BE ACCEPTED. NO EXCEPTIONS.