Syllabus for week 4, September 16 2013

Monday, September 16

Watching two scenes from the film version of This Boy's Life, Jack heading to Concrete to stay with Dwight, and the fight scene between Jack and Arthur. HW: Read Work on college essay. Draft due in two weeks. 

Tuesday, September 17

Writer's Notebook entry: If Jack Wolff were a sea-creature, what would he be? Today we will finish discussing "Citizenship in the School," and will also discuss, "The Summer Wind" from Short Takes. HW: Read "The Lie" by Kurt Vonnegut. Here's a link.

Wednesday, September 18

Writer's Notebook entry: Write about a place that has (shared) importance. Today we will discuss "Amen!" as well as "The Lie." by Vonnegut.  HW: Read the introduction to Inventing the Truth  by Zinsser.

Thursday, September 19

Finishing our discussion of "The Bridge," reviewing the stylistic notes on Summer and Bridge on our essay board. Selecting a memoir to read independently. HW: Work on your college essay.  

Friday, September 20

Meeting in computer lab 224 for work on college essay. HW: Reminder, no class on Monday. 

A grand interview about college admissions...

Last week, This American Life featured the college admission process, and as a part of the story, interviewed an admissions counselor from Georgia about the current climate of college admission: 

For those without Short Takes

Here's a scan of both the preface and the first chapter of our text. Please print this out to use for the time being, until you obtain a copy of the text.  

PDF of the Preface and Chapter 1

Syllabus for Week 3, September 9 2013

Monday, September 9

Notebook entry: Describe a hope for your future. Lecture on the college essay, reviewing handout. Beginning our discussion of "Citizenship in the Home" with descriptive detail. HW: Read "Preface" and "Freeze Frame: Reading & Writing" in 10th ed. of Short Takes (up to page 14).

Tuesday, September 10

Reviewing the difference between the writer and the editor: "Love to write, but don't be in love with what you've written." We will cover the introduction to chapter one of ST, "On Using Description."  HW: Read the posted college essay questions.

Wednesday, September 11

Writer's Notebook entry: What's your personal top ten list? We'll finish the introduction to descriptive detail in ST. Continuing to discuss descriptive detail in the Christmas scene, the balance between detail and larger, abstract observations (see p. 151).  If we have time, we will talk about Champion and Jack's relationship. HW: Read "Summer Wind" by Verlyn Klinkenborg on pages 23-4, and answer Organization & Ideas, and Technique & Style questions on 24. Typed, to turn in. 

Thursday, September 12

Meeting in computer lab 224 for work on college essay. HW: Work on first draft of this essay.

Friday, September 13

Meeting in computer lab 224 for work on college essay. HW: Read Jason Holland's "The Bridge" and complete the O/I and T/S questions on pages 27-8.

Writer's Notebook Assignment Sheet

Don't forget to complete this weekly assignment! Date these entries by the FIRST date of the week (Monday, Tuesday....whatever it is).

The assignment is here.

Syllabus for Week 2, September 3, 2013

Monday, August 26

No school for Labor Day.

Tuesday, August 27

Beginning today with our first Writer's Notebook entry: recall and write about a sensory experience from the long weekend. Discussion of This Boy's Life, part one

Wednesday, August 28

Discussion of written paragraphs. We'll have 3-4 individuals read their work, and we will discuss some of what they've observed about the story. We will then break into groups of 4-5 and being discussing the style and technique questions at the end of the essay. HW: None. Well, none but reading all those questions on This Boy's Life. But none other than that.

Thursday, August 29

No school for Rosh Hashanah

Friday, August 30

Writer's Notebook entry: Is thedancematch.com a good idea? Discussion of images in "Uncool," and "A Whole New Deal." HW: Complete your writer's notebook assignments. Make sure you have read the handout on college essays. 

College Essays

You will also want to post the question or prompt on which you will write your college essay. Kindly include first name and last initial in your comment. If you do not have a specific on you are currently working on, elect one of the common application essay questions that follow. Please delete any reference to the school that generated the prompt.

2014-15 Common Application Essay Prompts

The Common Application will retain the current set of first-year essay prompts for 2014-15, without any edits or additions. The essay length will continue to be capped at 650 words. The feedback received from member colleges and school counselors has been positive. The essay prompts will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they continue to serve students and member colleges well.

The essay prompts are as follows:

• Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?
• Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
• Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
• Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

here

Read this.

Oh Punctuation, My Punctuation!

Post comments here that indicate interesting and fun sources of learning that are related to punctuation rules...E. 

Punctuation Guide: Read on 8/29

So this is a selection from my undergrad English Simplified, 5th ed., by Blanche Ellsworth, which was published in 1985. It has a nice, concise overview of "how to" rules with punctuation that served me well as a go-to guide, mainly because of the RIGHT and WRONG examples that they give.  

Read this for class on Friday, prior to watching the Standard Deviant videos. 

Punctuation Guide Link

Syllabus for Week 1, August 28, 2013

Monday, August 26

Shortened day. Introduction of Flavius Stan's "A Night of Oranges." HW: Why do we learn about the narrator in this story that is not explicitly stated within the story? One paragraph. Typed. Bring in two copies.

Tuesday, August 27

Review of course expectaitons, and lecture on the class format. Beginning to discuss the essay read in class yesterday, and distribute copies of text.  HW: No, really. Type those answers to the question, and bring in two copies, one for me and one for you. Finish reading the novel This Boys Life.

Wednesday, August 28

Discussion of written paragraphs. We'll have 3-4 individuals read their work, and we will discuss some of what they've observed about the story. We will then break into groups of 4-5 and being discussing the style and technique questions at the end of the essay. HW: None. Well, none but reading all those questions on This Boy's Life. But none other than that.

Thursday, August 29

Post-it note observations about Stan's technique, and introduction to the Writer's Notebook. You will want to add some of Stan's stylistic moves to your list of things that all good writers do. HW: Review the punctuation sections of the handout.

Friday, August 30

Our review of punctuation rules will begin. Prepare for notes. Bring what you need...pen, paper, tablet, coffee, toothpicks for eyelids. Whatever. HW: Review the videos on punctuation rules. If you haven't finished This Boy's Life, do that.

Course Expectations

You can find the link to the course expectations here:

Course Expectations

Locating Short Takes, 10th Edition

This ISBN number for locating the 10th edition of Penfield's Short Takes is 9780205725472. That's the 13 digit ISBN number. When I last checked, the lowest price I had found was around $6.99, shipping included. If you find a site that has a low price, please add that information here via the comment feature.