Monday, September 24, 2012

Course Recap for Monday, September 24, 2012

What Makes A Good Story Part 2
In class today we talked about character, dialogue, and how to write a scene.  We talked about how Engkent was able to give us a good picture of his mother not only by providing us information or her background but also by showing her en scene.  Hearing her dialogue and seeing her reactions to various situations helped to characterize her better than any expository paragraph could. The same thing happened in Sedaris's piece.  We were able to see how obnoxious the teacher is by observing her interactions with students throughout the narrative instead of simply reading a paragraph that says she's obnoxious. When you're writing your literacy narratives, you should have characters and you want to try and find ways to show us how a person is instead of telling us.  

Make sure when you're writing your narrative to not forget about the most important character of all, yourself.  Sedaris's voice and tone help us to realize that he's a funny and sarcastic person.  Try to find ways to use voice and tone to characterize yourself.  Make sure that we leave the piece knowing who you are as person.

I also had you rewrite your Where I'm From Narratives.  Your task is to tell the story of a specific moment and to write a good scene.  Scenes are moments of action in a narrative where the reader is given a chance to see an event exactly as it is occurring or exactly how it occurred.  It's more detailed, often includes dialogue and is basically the slowing down of a moment.  The moment is usually something significant, something extremely important to the story line.  It can be the beginning of something or the end of it.  The moment when something changed or the moment when something could change but instead ended up staying the same.  Your literacy narrative should include scenes.

Homework
  • Come to class with a good idea of what your literacy narrative's going to be about. (Due Wed. 9/26)
  • Finish Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks pgs 1-86 (Due Wed 9/26)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Course Recap for Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pop Culture and it's Influence on Language
We started class with everyone coming up with words and phrases that were unique to our favorite TV shows, movies, video games, music artists, books, etc.  We were looking for words and phrases that only fans of the piece would know.  Then we wrote them on the board to see how many of the terms and phrases we all knew.  For example, I wrote Apparate and Inferius (from Harry Potter) and smizing and go-sees (from America's Next Top Model).  The one phrase the entire class knew was Hakuna Matata (from The Lion King)

We learned that there are some phrases that are a common part of our everyday discourse that originated from some form of entertainment and we also learn that there are some phrases that can be unique to any community including the fans of specific franchises.
This woman is fist-pumping.  A commonly used phrase that became popular on the reality show, Jersey Shore.

Elaine Richardson "Ill-Literacy Narrative"

We broke up into groups and discussed Richardson's piece.  Our discussions ranged from the definition of sexual consent to the ways that people can be judged simply by whom they associate with.  We examined the different ways that our backgrounds affect the way we interpret different situations. We talked about the different interpretations of the phrase "Hey Baby/Girl/Sexy" and how some men see it as a charming way to approach the opposite sex while a lot of women find it demeaning and uncomfortable.  It suggests the man is more familiar with the woman than he is and there are a lot of sexual connotations to the phrase.

We gave other examples of when having different backgrounds caused us to have misunderstandings with others.  One of our classmates talked about how he once got in fight with a kid because he asked him "What's good?"  In his neighborhood that phrase is a threat, but in the other kid's neighborhood it's a greeting.  The two of them simply misunderstood each other because they have different backgrounds. 

As you think of topics for your narratives, try and think of the ways that your backgrounds affect the way you interact with the world. Or you can examine how your interactions with people that are different from you have either improved or hindered your ability to communicate with others.

Homework
  • Read "Why My Mother Can't Speak English" by Garry Engkent, pgs 32-39 in the Mercury Reader and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, pgs 64-68 in the Mercury Reader (Both due by Monday, Sept. 24)
  • Read Part One of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, pgs. 1-86. Make sure you read A Few Words About This Book and The Prologue.   (Due Wednesday, Sept. 26)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Course Recap for Monday, September 17, 2012

Poems
You looked over your classmates poems and pointed out lines that stood out to you and lines that presented a strong image or feeling.

Three of you read your poems aloud and at least two of you centered your poems around specific events (Brandon's a snow day in his hometown and CeCe the financial crisis that plagued Saginaw).  You were asked to circle any lines in your poem that centered around a specific event.  You will use these as potential inspiration when you write a narrative about where you're from.

What Makes A Good Story
We compared and contrasted our feelings about the two readings from this weekend, Decoded by Jay-Z and Chapter 2 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  We talked about the things we liked in each piece and the things we didn't.  The biggest thing we didn't like about the chapter we read from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is that the chapter felt a little bit like a list of events one after the other which made it a little monotonous versus the excerpt from Decoded where we actually had scenes.  From this we can conclude that a good element of storytelling is to show what happened rather than tell.

Homework
  • Write a narrative about Where You're From using your poem for inspiration.  It should be one-page single-spaced (two pages double spaced).  Do not go over this page limit. (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)
  • Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Course Recap for Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Details, Details, Details
We looked at two poems about the authors' hometowns, "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyons and "Courageous Dream's Concern" by Jack White (See Class Links).

We examined how each poem used very specific details to paint a picture of the place they are from.

Homework
  • Write a one page poem about where you're from. (Due Monday, Sept 17)
  • Read Decoded by Jay-Z pgs 20-25, see Class Links (Due Monday, Sept 17)
  • Read Chapter 2: Clover from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, pgs 18-26 (Due Monday, Sept 17) *You need to have all of Part One of the novel read by Wednesday, Sept 26th*
  • First Blog Post due Sunday Sept 16th (This is your last blog post reminder.  Remember blogs are due every Sunday and Thursday from this point forward until the end of the semester.)
  • Read "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl, in the Hood" by Elaine Richardson, pgs 48-60 in The Mercury Reader (Due Wednesday, Sept 19)





Possible Blog Post Topics (choose one) 1. Tell me a brief story about where you're from. Use your brainstorms from class Wednesday as a starting point if you don't know what to write about. 2.Have you written in a genre lately that was unfamiliar to you? What was that process like? How did you determine the correct way to complete this genre? Was it hard or easy? Why?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Course Recap for Monday, September 10, 2012

What Makes A Good Blog?
Today we examined your favorite blog by examining the different aspects of the rhetorical situation that we talked about in class on Wednesday.  We determined the blog's audience, purpose, context, mood, voice, etc.  Then we used this information to come up with a list of things that make a good.

Most of the blogs we looked at were:
  1. Visually appealing (most used pictures)
  2. Well organized
  3. Had a fairly consistent audience, purpose, tone, and voice for most of the blog posts.
  4. Simple and easy to understand
  5. The subjects of the blog were on things that would obviously interest the audience.
You will use these common elements to guide you when writing your own blog posts. (See Blog Assignment Sheet under Class Documents.)

We created your blogs in class. You wrote your first blog posts where you briefly introduced yourselves and then you learned how to add gadgets to your blog pages.  You created a Blog List gadget where you listed the class blog and the blogs you found over the weekend.

NOTES ABOUT BLOG CONTENT: We had a discussion in class about the use of graphic language and images.  I do not want to censor you, but  I will implore you to use discretion when writing your blog posts.  You have to take into consideration the context of your blogs and the potential audience.  Although, this blog is a personal blog, it is also a class assignment and anything you write will not only reflect on you, it will reflect on the class, me as the instructor, and WMU.  Although your primary audience is me and your classmates, other potential readers include other instructors and students of English 1050 or anybody curious about what Western is teaching in their classrooms.  

Again I do not want to censor you, I just want you to be mindful of the context and the audience of your blog. Profanity for profanity's sake is usually a sign of bad writing anyway. If you are going to use profanity make sure it's doing more than potentially offending readers of your blog.  If you have doubts about whether or not something is appropriate take the safe route and don't post it.  You can always start your own personal blog if you feel compelled to write about things that are NSFW (Not Safe for Work-we'll talk more about Internet lingo in the coming weeks).

Homework
  • Add a picture to your Introduction post (Due Wed, 9/12)
  • Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Part One (Due Mon 9/24)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Welcome to English 1050 + Course Recap for Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Welcome to English 1050!
I am Micealaya (Mickey) Moses, your instructor.  Please take time to save this blog into your favorites/bookmarks folder as I will provide weekly updates, course recaps, and all course documents through this site. I am excited to work with all of you this semester! Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.  My e-mail is m5moses@wmich.edu.  I am also available for to meet with you an hour right after every class and by appointment.  In this class you will learn how to think like a writer, a skill you already possess in some capacity.  We will read and discuss various texts and you will hopefully leave this class with the ability to write in both academic and "real world" settings.


Course Syllabus and Course Expectations
We read through the syllabus in class and talked about the things you would have to do to succeed in this course. Please be sure to review the entire syllabus (posted on the right side of the blog) on your own, but here a few of the finer points, the things that are essential to your success in this class:

  • Attendance and participation are extremely important. You are expected to be in class on-time on a regular basis and to participate in all class activities and discussions.
  • Late work is highly discouraged.  Please get in the habit now of turning things in when they are due.
  • I am here to help you but I can't do anything for you if I don't know something is wrong. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if you are confused.  Again I can meet with you during office hours or by appointment to discuss things you may be struggling with.  Also please inform me in a timely matter if you're going to miss class.
  • Please be courteous.  Disruptive behavior is distracting and counterproductive to our class.

Writing Sample
After reading over the syllabus you all submitted a writing sample to me.   You wrote about your relationship with writing.  You talked about what you liked and didn't like about writing, what you hoped to learn in the class, and the last piece of writing you created.


Rhetorical Situations
We discussed in class rhetorical situations defining it as any moment you attempt to use language to communicate a message.  We discussed the various factors that help us decide how we will act in a given rhetorical situation.  These included:
  • genre (kind of writing)
  • audience
  • purpose
  • tone (attitude)
  • voice (sound)
  • context (outside influences, environment, time, place)
  • media (print, electronic, spoken)
  • design (look)

Afterwards we analyzed several common forms of writing that we perform in our daily lives such as text messages, Facebook comments, and notes to self.



Homework

  • Buy books and copy card (Due Monday 9/10)
  • Think of a title for our class blog (Due Monday 9/10)
  • Bring in a link to a blog that interests you (Due Monday 9/10)
  • Start reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack. Part One is due Monday 9/24