Final Exam Reflection

PLEASE compose in Microsoft Word, then print, and then post to your blog.

FINAL In-Class Writing ENG 101: LANGUAGE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

In our class we have examined the work of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ideas about non-violence in great detail. This final blog entry asks you to connect what you have learned about King to the other classes in this cluster. To complete the blog, first explain to your reader what ideas you’d like to concentrate on. Next, explain what other major ideas from the cluster you’d like to connect them with. Then spend the remaining time on paragraphs organized around critical thinking between the three cluster. In the back of your mind, always try to frame your writing around the following questions: how does the language of human rights work? How is it effective? What are its limits?

Check Twitter Now!

Update about today's workshop. Tell others.

Blogging the Final Week Workshop

Citing Citizen King

The main information you'll need for citation is Citizen King / PBS Home Video / American Experience / Produce, Directed, and Written by Orlando Bagwell and W. Noland Walker / WGBH Educational Foundation and ROJA Productions, INC / 2004

For the correct citation format, see the link below in the next section.

Citing YouTube Videos


How Long, Not Long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYITODNvlM

Final Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVBWGC2VnBo

Cite these videos in your bibliography using the MLA citation format for videos.You can find it here.


In-text Citations


Cite these videos within your paragraphs using the format here (for videos without an author, which I assume fits the definition of our videos). 




For situations where the essay does have a known author (such as academic articles), I believe the practice of in-text citation matches what you see with texts with authors (last name page number). For example, here.

Reading Quiz: Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Write down something of significance from the essay -- be as specific as possible.

Blogging the Third Essay Writing Workshop

What does it sound like to begin this essay?

Here is an updated version of a template to use in your own words:

This essay is about non-violent theory and practice. The main elements of Dr. King's non-violent theory are_______[1]  [2] [3] [etc]_____[keywords]__________________________________.  Define keywords. In practice, these elements of non-violent theory worked at different moments in Dr. King's civil rights struggle. They worked because ____________________[Invent your keywords? Define them.] Give an introduction (context) to your reader (they haven't read the essays, perhaps you could briefly introduce here the ones you're working from. We can see this in Birmingham, for example, when _____________. We can see this in the Montgomery Bus Boycott when _________________, or in the Poor People's Campaign, when ____________________.

Consider matching up an element of non-violent theory with an event where we can 'see it' in action. Then, in your critical thinking for those paragraphs, consider introducing your own keywords.

How Much Research is Necessary? How much context for the events do students need?

Students should be able to answer the following questions for the context of Montgomery, Birmingham, and the Poor People's Campaign (and, if you choose, Selma):

When did the event take place?
Who was involved?
What happened?
What element of non-violence can we see 'in action' there?
What was Dr. King's involvement, if any?

Student Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/c20_post_FA2011

In-Class Workshop: Revising, Drafting Essays 1-3

Revising: for students who have not completed essays one and two with grades of 60 or higher. 

All students must turn in essays with grades of 60 or higher to pass this course. For students seeking to revise essays one or two by choice or by demand, the deadline of Dec. 1 still operates. These students should use the first hour of class today to discuss on-going or planned revisions with the professor.


Drafting ENG 103: for students who have completed essays one and two, turn to the ENG 103 research supplement. 

Students that have completed essays one and two should turn their focus to the ENG 103 research supplement revision of either their first or second essays. First, students should decide what essay to revise. Then, they should begin the process of locating sources to add to the essay. Next, they should plan out two additional claims to craft into new paragraphs for the essay. They should locate passages from the text and then add them to the essay. They should incorporate critical thinking. Afterward, they should revise their conclusions to the essay. Finally, they should revise the rest of the essay by focusing on two key areas: the thesis statement, and the critical thinking sections of earlier paragraphs. Students should also revise any outstanding issues with the essay (citations, paraphrase, context). These essays will be graded as a whole.

Planning: Discussing Essay Three


Students will discuss the reading from the past weekend and how it may help essays.


Tomorrow: Bibliographies...and more drafting!

Essay Two Grades

Email jrcqueens@yahoo.com

Subject: Essay Two
Message: [your name]

Grading Grid Assignment Three

Grading Grid Assignment Three: LHR: King’s Speeches in Historical Context
Name: 

1. Thesis Statement: Describes main elements of non-violent theory and explains how non-violent theory worked in practice; minimum three examples: Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, Poor People’s Campaign; (20%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Comment:

2. Paragraphs and Critical Thinking: Topic sentences refer to thesis; critical thinking strategies present in paragraphs; keywords named and defined (30%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Comment:

3. Research Context; Quotation and Citation: Signal phrases; short and long quotes; correct citation; bibliography; proper context for audience (30%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Comment:

4. Sentence Structure: Obvious polish; doesn’t detract from meaning or intention (10%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Comment:

5. Conclusion: Extends ideas of essays; new speculations; (10%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Comment:

Grade:

Critical Thinking Notes on King Essays

Critical thinknig

Agape - P 88

Agape and non-violence are not the same. Agape is used in non-violence in order to make it successful.

Faith/moral dilemma – p89

King critiques the ministers because of their Christian hypocrisy. Like the ministers, he also fears that it is the silent people who are a larger threat to the movement than the KKK. We can return to King’s ideas of “maladjustment,” since the silent ones are either too scared or too ‘adjusted’ to take charge of an issue for themselves. It could be related to what psychologists call “diffusion of responsibility,” where people assume that a conflict is the responsibility of someone else, not them.

Burning truth – 94

Lost the fear: Birmingham.

When they’re not afraid anymore, there’s nothing the police can do to stop them.

The police use of weapons is meant to inspire fear in bodies that are not afraid of the police.

Research Activity: Creating a Bibliography

Bibliography

A bibliography is an alphabetized list of sources that you place at the end of essays that cite sources. It generally goes on a separate sheet of paper, though in my courses I allow students to place the list of sources on the last page beneath the final paragraph.

So far in this course have only cited books. For our third assignment, your research will require you to cite many different kinds of sources, including videos, articles, and websites. For instructions how to cite these sources within your essay, see pages 426-435 in the HACKER. For instructions on how to list these sources in your bibliography, see pages 435-469 in the HACKER.

Google "MLA Works Cited"

For those without HACKER, google that phrase (HERE).

Research Activity

In class Monday students found at least one source that they could use in their essays. For this activity, students will work on a NING blog. They will introduce their source to the class and explain why they chose it. They will then correctly enter a bibliographical citation for their source as it would appear in a works cited page at the end of their essay.

If students finish this task, they can select a quote from their source and practice successfully integrating it into a sentence and citing it.
 

Essay Three Workshop: Research!

Directions

For today's class, students will find research materials for their third essays using the LAGCC library website, the internet, and other search engines. Students should bring the information about their sources to class Wednesday so that we can model our bibliographies using the HACKER textbook.

Academic Sources

Academic sources are sources that cite other sources. They contain bibliographies.

Tracking and Archiving Sources

Write down ALL information you find about your source so that we can make bibliographies and figure out in-text citations for Wednesday.


Midterm

Students should email the professor at jrcqueens@yahoo.com to get their midterm grade. Subject: Midterm. Message: student's name.

Ning

While students work on research, the professor is going to send them invites to join the class "NING" website. We will then see if it's any good together, as a class, for the rest of the semester (yes, we will still mostly use Twitter and Blogger). 


Become friends with me on NING by clicking HERE.

Mini-Draft-Workshop Conversation Points

1. Explain to your partner the status of your draft: how much do you have written? In what form? Do you have a working thesis statement? What is it? How much more research do you need to do?

2. Your parnter and you will create a working plan for how you're going to acheive a Peer Review draft for next Monday. What needs to happen?

3. What are some of the keywords you're working with right now? What would you like to develop some keywords about?

4. Is there anything about the assignment that you don't understand?

Post the Contents of Your Conversation on Ning!

Blog Five: Speech Power

Directions

For their fifth blogs, students will post their in-class writing from class on Thursday. They will address the question: what made Dr. King's speeches so effective? What did the speeches say that allowed his listeners to feel new feelings? How did the speeches work? What is the connection between non-violent practice and speech power?

King Footage

How Long?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYITODNvlM

Last Speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98k-pjN6nl0&feature=related

Blogging the Third Essay Workshop: Non-violent Theory and Practice

What does it sound like to begin this essay?

Consider using the following template in your own words:

This essay is about non-violent theory and practice. The main elements of Dr. King's non-violent theory are______________________________________________. Name keywords. Define keywords. Give an introduction (context) to your reader (they haven't read the essays, perhaps you could briefly introduce here the ones you're working from. In practice, the main reason these elements of non-violent theory worked was because _______________________________________. Invent your keywords? Define them. Connect them back to the previuos ones.

We can see the non-violent element of ___________________ working in Birmingham in April 1963. Introduce PBS documentary Citizen King and summarize what you saw for those that didn't see it. Retell the story of Birmingham. Then describe the non-violent element you're talking about and how it connects to the practice of non-violence. Explore critical thinking connections that explain to the reader why all of this is so important, and how it connects to other ideas.

More Structure

The key ideas of non-violence are [idea 1], [idea 2], and [idea 3]. Define them. The most important way these ideas become expressed in real situations are [your idea a], [idea b], and [idea c].

paragraph = idea 1 (from text) and idea a (your idea)
paragraph = idea 2 (from text) and idea b (your idea)
paragraph = idea 3 (from text) and idea c (your idea)

example paragraph = idea of agape and your idea of bodily sacrifice

Tweets

The class Tweets contain a wealth of ideas. Explore them and consider bringing them into your arguments and your critical thinking.

In-class Research

Some of you are doing background reading on the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Birmingham march on sites like Wikipedia, while others of you are doing research on religion and psychology. This is fine, but remember that Wikipedia can't be one of your sources. Can that site link to your sources that you can use or find in the library? Do you have ideas about how you can bring in some of the 'general knowledge' you find on sites like this to help your context sentences in your essay (both in the introduction and in the paragraphs)?

In-Class Activity and Workshop: Non-Violent Theory and the Birmingham March

Directions

Review

In class today, we will continue to compose paragraphs for our third essay. We will carry our discussion from Monday's class forward by reviewing through student blogs what we learned about the main elements of non-violent theory. All students will re-read their blogs to refresh themselves. We will then turn two or three of these blogs to begin expanding our individual definitions of Dr. King's non-violent theory. We will create a short list of these elements.

Non-Violent Practice: Dr. King in Birmingham

We will then turn to some visual historical evidence of the 1963 Birmingham de-segregation march from the PBS documentary Citizen King. While we view a segment of the film on the march, we will pause to take notes and describe what we see and how it connects back to our definitions of non-violent theory, and possibly other course themes. 

Organizing Thoughts: Tweeting Connections

After the film segment, student will to spend a few moments organizing their notes, and looking for at least one connection between the film’s footage of non-violence in action and elements of non-violent theory. Students will then “Tweet” this connection to the class. 

Discussion and Ideas for Drafting

 

We will use the class Twitter feed to establish the connections the class has made, and use those connections as a springboard for discussion. Afterward, students will turn to their blogs or to Microsoft Word in order to continue composing their notes and discussion into a paragraph for their essay.   

Friday Forum: Graduate Center: Priscilla Wald - 4pm

Some of you wanted to attend the Priscilla Wald lecture tomorrow on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's at the CUNY Graduate Center at 4 pm; 34th and 5th Avenue, room 4406. Show your ID at the security desk, sign-in, and take the elevator upstairs.

http://sciencestudies.gc.cuny.edu/priscilla-wald-cells-genes-and-stories/

http://www.amazon.com/Contagious-Cultures-Carriers-Outbreak-Narrative/dp/0822341530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320374521&sr=8-1

Videos: Ida B Wells & Tulsa Riot

Ida B Wells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXZFdGhhMnk&feature=related
Tulsa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nssa5B79784&feature=related

Grading Grid Midterm

Thesis Statement: midterm essay contains 2-3 sentence thesis statement; key words from thesis statement are defined in introduction (20%)
1  5  6  7 8  9 10

Evidence and Texts: essay utilizes evidence from main course texts; keywords from each text appear and are defined; key examples from each text appear within basic context; student adeptly uses technique of summary (40%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10

Structure: topic sentences refer to the thesis statement; paragraphs are unified and coherent; essay contains conclusion; main texts are introduced at the beginning (20%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10

Critical Thinking: essay connects key ideas from one text to another; essay develops original key words wherever possible, and defines them; essay employs critical thinking strategies (20%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10

Last-Minute Peer Review, Midterm Review, Blog workshop

Ten Seconds to Deadline Peer Review

To begin class, all students will workshop their essays with a partner. They will use the grading grid for the second essay assignment. Any essays that do not receive an "A" must be revised and turned in Thursday. All essays that receive an "A" may be turned in today for a grade. An "A" is an essay that receives an average score of 9 on all criteria.

Midterm Review

After the Last-Minute Peer Review, students will combine into groups of four in order to review for the midterm exam. Students should be able to account for:

- review notes for the major slave memoirs from When I Was a Slave
- review notes for the major themes from Southern Horrors

Midterm Structure


Students will read the directions. The directions will describe writing a 600-word essay. Students will select one question to answer from three choices. They will answer in the form of a thesis statement, and use course texts to defend that thesis statement. More points will be awarded depending on how many examples the students incorporate. No excellent grades will be awarded to essays that fail to meet the minimum word requirement.

Blog Workshop

Students that desire to post a blog late for some credit can use this time to complete blog four. Students that have not had the opportunity to revise previous blogs based on reader comments can do so. Some students have not left comments for the Ethics of Food class. To receive full credit, those students should do so. For students that are satisfied with their blogs and left the correct comments, they can provide comments on a peer blog with instruction from the professor.

Assignment Three: King's Speeches in Historical Context

Due Date:  See syllabus

Assignment Goal

For this essay students will create an essay that explains Martin Luther King, Jr's theory of non-violence. Students will explain what they believe were the main elements of the theory, and describe how that theory worked in practice. To describe how it worked, students will research three of King's most famous Civil Rights campaigns: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham march, and the Poor People's campaign. These marches will provide students with their critical examples of King's theory.

Assignment Description

King had an evolving sense of his non-violence theory of civil disobedience. He discussed his theory in the context of voter registration, civil rights, human rights, acts of white terrorism, the Christian religion, Vietnam, capitalism, and many other topics. Some of his theory grew of Gandhi and Thoreau; students should note any references in the reading these topics and figures.

For the essay, students will be expected to identify keywords and themes in his speeches, to trace themes across speeches, and to be able to connect those themes to the marches mentioned above. Each paragraph might refer to how one of King's major themes appeared in one of those marches. Each theme might thus be expressed in different ways during different marches.

In their critical thinking, students are strongly encouraged to find links between King's ideas, what took place in the marches, and the previous texts we've looked at in class (When I Was a Slave, Southern Horrors).

Students will discover how to research these campaigns during the library visit on October 27. 

Blog Four: Cluster Reflection

Directions

For this blog, students should meditate on the following questions and answer using specific examples from courses texts (whenever possible).

What common themes have appeared throughout the courses in the cluster?

Have any of these themes appeared in your coursework for the cluster? How, and in what ways?

How do the different disciplines (political science, linguistics, English/American studies) differ in how they approach subjects and materials?

How have the social elements of the cluster affected the cluster experience? What is like to learn in such a diverse classroom, as a multicultural community?

How does your integrated activity in LIB 110 connect with any of the specific themes from the courses? Which themes? How?

What kinds of connections would you like the cluster to make across courses going forward?

Blogging the Essay Two Workshop

Revising Essay Two

As students contemplate revising their draft, they should consider incorporating suggestions from the Peer Review, and also consider turning to their Twitter feed for critical thinking ideas and strategies.

How much evidence is needed?

A student approached me wondering how many slave memoirs were needed as evidence for the section on pre-war work culture. I replied anywhere from one to three, depending on how many texts the student felt were necessary. More importantly, however, I explained that students should be able to tell the reader whether or not a particular example from a particular slave memoir was "representative" of the memoirs or exceptional, and therefore not-representative.

Representative = an example that stands for many other examples
Exceptional = an example that is unique

Thesis?

Remember this blog from the Peer Review?

In-Class Workshop: Drafting Essay Two (Conclusions)

Various students are at different stages with their second essay drafts. In today's class, we will spend one hour incorporating comments from peer review, drafting conclusion paragraphs, and refining the use of critical thinking. All students working on the essay should be attentive to one of those three goals.

Conclusions

Generally, first-year students tend to approach conclusions as a space to rehearse their arguments and evidence. Practically speaking, however, this can lead to stale reformulations of information that the student has already articulated.

Students should use the space of the conclusion to do other things than summarize what they've already said. They should use the conclusion as a time to introduce a new connection to the discussion, or to introduce a new text. They can use the conclusion to express a personal story that connects to the issue. They could also use the conclusion to draw attention to a connection between their subject matter and current event.

As with other paragraphs that support the thesis, the conclusion will have to be specific if it's any good. Any claims or arguments that the student makes should be supported with concrete examples. If a new text is introduced, the main ideas and context should appear as usual. If a personal story appears, the story should also contain context. They might also retell a critical story from a text in their own words, as if in that one story the entire argument could shine.

Finally, conclusions should end with sentences that hit the reader hard, even emotionally. As always, students should avoid cliches and vague language at all costs. The ideas and language in the conclusion should be polished, but should leave the reader with a burning last impression. Students should take this opportunity to experiment with the possibilities of thought, idea, and words. They should get radical, dream big, and write sentences that cut directly to the heart of the matter at hand. Readers should leave conclusions unable to forget how simply and emotionally the student made them remember why their essay and its subject mattered.  

Blog Comment: Human Rights Meet Ethics of Food!

Directions


The link below the student's name will connect him or her with the blog he or she will review. Students will be able to recognize the third blog assignment by looking for blogs about the text The End of Overeating by David Kessler. If they cannot find the third blog assignment, students should direct themselves to the second blog assignment. Some students will leave comments on the same blog; don't worry about it.

In addition to commenting upon how the essay is written (directions, context, paragraph structure, keywords, quotation and citation, and critical thinking), please leave a couple sentences for the student about what is interesting about the blog ("This blog is interesting because...").




Names and Links

Theresa - Glenn's Blog

http://glennd1990.blogspot.com/

Dani - Christina's Blog

http://www.christinaeblog.blogspot.com/

Rashid - Krysatlee's Blog

http://kayjay27.blogspot.com/

Ana - Christopher's Blog

http://www.cbecerrafood.blogspot.com/

Elyce - Kadeshia's Blog

http://binadevelopment.blogspot.com/

Rajiv - Liz's Blog

http://echoray.blogspot.com/

Moreen - Javed's Blog

http://javednajhafeez-myfirstblog.blogspot.com/

Juana - Lily's Blog

http://lili-lozano.blogspot.com/

Adnan - Camille's Blog

http://cdavis11-ethicsoffood.blogspot.com/

Cesia - Jessica's Blog [you will have to enter your email to leave a comment; do it, it's safe]

http://jessicabarthelemy.blog.com/

Kathy - Jennifer's Blog

http://jenny11692.blogspot.com/

Moshe - Danny B.'s Blog

http://danielbfood.blogspot.com/

Rudy - Evelyn's Blog

http://evesfoodstuff.blogspot.com/

Joseph - Amanda's Blog

http://www.armccants.blogspot.com/

Mohammad - Jana's Blog

http://janatellez09.blogspot.com/

Melina - Danny K.'s Blog

http://dankneesblog.blogspot.com/

Donte - Gregory's Blog

http://foodethics-grequena.blogspot.com/

Arensio - Glenn's Blog

http://glennd1990.blogspot.com/

Michelle - Carol's Blog

http://cmenakhoury.blogspot.com/

Matthew - Dionne's Blog

http://collegegrl93.blogspot.com/

Brian - Christina's Blog

http://www.christinaeblog.blogspot.com/

Lauren - Krystalee's Blog

http://kayjay27.blogspot.com/

Joel - Christopher's Blog

http://www.cbecerrafood.blogspot.com/

Blogging the Peer Review

Thesis Statements

The thesis statement for this essay will probably be three for four sentences. One or two sentences will explain how African-American workers transformed before and after the Civil War. One or two sentences will explain how white supremacist violence transformed before and after the Civil War. A transition between the two "halves" of the thesis statement might say, "at the same time," or, "simultaneously."

For example:

African American workers transformed from ___________ to ____________ before and after the Civil War. At the same time (simultaneously), white supremacist violence also transformed from _____ to _______. These two transformations help us understand ____________________________.

Peer Review Grading Grid; Essay Two

Grading Grid Assignment Two: Language and Human Rights

1. Thesis Statement: Identifies the transformation of African-American work culture(s) and white supremacist violence before and after the Civil War; crucial keywords named and defined (20%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

2. Paragraphs and Critical Thinking: Topic sentences refer to thesis; critical thinking strategies present in paragraphs; keywords named and defined (40%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

3. Context and Quotation and Citation: Signal phrases; short and long quotes; correct citation; bibliography; proper context for audience  (20%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

4. Sentence Structure: Obvious polish; doesn’t detract from meaning or intention (10%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

5. Conclusion: Extends ideas of essays; new speculations; (10%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Blogging In-Class Writing: Comparing and Contrasting Violence in the American South

from Southern Horrors

In class, we just looked at the incredible passage "Burned at the Stake." In it, Wells recounts the kerosene lit crucifixion of Henry Smith. We discussed how the lynching exceeded our definitions of hate and even terrorism, in part because the "curiosity seekers" carried away souvenirs of the "memorable event" (95). The pleasure white southerners seemed to take in the violence was labeled sadistic by a few of you; sadism refers to the pleasure one can feel from inflicting pain on others. Another said that the event was a project for making the white southerners feel "better" or superior than African-Americans. In this way, the lynching was a machine (not a technological machine, but a social, collective, participatory machine) for creating who could be human and who could not.

Context?

Several of you have already asked me about incorporating context into this paragraph. What I would say is this: practice comparison and contrast in this paragraph, not context. IF and WHEN this becomes part of your second essay, you will probably have already introduced When I Was a Slave and Southern Horrors. You probably won't have to do it again here, unless you're introducing the specific context (a little bit about Mary Reynolds, a little bit about the passage from A Red Record).

Quotation

For this paragraph, I'd consider practicing "short quotation." Short quotation is the quotation of a word or phrase rather than entire sentence. Then you can pick up one or a few words you really want to concentrate on, define, and analyze. This might be a good time to produce or refer to a keyword.

Summary

Since the violent events in these passages are so crucial to our analysis, it is probably going to be worthwhile for you to describe and summarize them in a few sentences for your reader.

Listing

I already see you making different kinds of lists: what the violence has in common, what the violence doesn't have in common. Or: what motivations persisted through time, and what changed.

Citation and Reference

When you refer to an event from the text Southern Horrors edited by Royster, you can refer to the specific pamphlet, such as A Red Record  and Lynch Law in all its Phases in your sentences. But in your citations, you need to refer to the overall text edited by Royster, such as "(Royster 94)."

Comparison and Contrast: White Supremacist Violence Before and After Slavery

Directions

Read the passage below. Summarize the events. Establish the purpose and function of the violence directed against Mary Reynolds. Explain Mary Reynold's response.  

Passage from When I Was a Slave:

"Seems like after I got bigger, I remember more and more niggers run away. They's most always catched. Master used to hire out his niggers for wage hands. One time he hired me and a nigger boy, Turner, to work for some ornery white trash name of Kidd. One day Turner goes off and don't come back. Old man Kidd say I knowed about it, and he tied my wrists together and stripped me. He hanged me by the wrists from a limb on a tree and spraddled my legs round the trunk and tied my feet together. Then he beat me. He beat me worser than I ever been beat before, and I faints dead away. When I come to I'm in bed. I didn't care so much if I died" (109). -Mary Reynolds

Next, locate a passage from "Lynch Law in All its Phases" or "A Red Record" that describes violence against an African-American. Summarize it. Establish the purpose and the function of the violence.

In one paragraph, compare and contrast the role, purpose, and effect of violence against African-Americans before and after the Civil War. What's different? What's the same? Answer these questions in your paragraph.

Library Visit Information

Our ENG 101 class will meet in the Library Classroom, E101-B, on Thursday 10/27 from 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM. Be sure to come to that class!

Essay One Comments: Letter to Professor

After today's class activity, students can check their emails and read their first essay comments. Please observe the following rules as you read the comments:

- keep comments, conversation, and reactions to an absolute minimum. Students should refrain from sharing grades or comments while they're in class. I strongly discourage students from sharing grades and comments, unless it for a specific purpose. Otherwise, it is always borderline unprofessional to do so.

When you have completed reading your Grading Grid and comments, please respond to the following questions either on notebook paper or by email:

1. Do you understand the comments? If not, what don't you understand?

2. Do you plan to revise the essay for a higher grade? What will your revision prioritize? If you do plan to revise, be aware that the deadline is Dec 1st.

3. What have you learned from this Grading Grid and comments that you can use for your second essay?

Finding Main Ideas: A Red Record

Finding Main Ideas

In their first essays, most students had difficulty introducing the main ideas of a full text before discussing it and using quotation. To improve upon this skill, students will practice locating, defining, and summarizing the main ideas (so far) from A Red Record. One dependable strategy is finding the author's keywords, defining them, and writing down why they're important to the text.

On their own, students will find (or create) one keyword from the reading this past weekend. When they have found it, students should note the page number, the keyword, and a brief definition. When this task is complete, students will Tweet that information in ONLY 140 characters.

After the entire class has Tweeted, students will observe what other students Tweeted and note each unique keyword that the class posts. Students should remember to write down the page numbers associated with those keywords.

When they have concluded this step, students will compose a "main ideas" context paragraph that introduces the text and its main ideas. They will then post this paragraph to their blog, and Tweet their blog to their fellow students.

Reading Quiz 8 and Class Activity: Twitter Into Keywords

Directions

Go to your Twitter homepage. Read some of your classmates Tweets about the past weekend's reading for a couple minutes. Select one that interests you, and locate the passage in the text A Red Record (from Southern Horrors). First, paraphrase the passage in question. Next, create a "keyword" that fits the the passage. Define the keyword, and then use the keyword to explain something else from the reading (open book).

For examples of keywords, refer to the class activity this past Thursday.


Keywords

Keywords are important words or phrases. They can appear in the text or they can be terms that you create to describe something important in the text.  To be a keyword, the important word or phrase must be defined in two ways. It must defined first for how it makes meaning in the specific passage from the text, but also it must be defined as a "big idea" that we can transfer to other passages and other texts. As a "big idea," the keyword becomes very valuable becomes it helps us define more than one thing (more than one situation, more than one event, more than one text, more than one conflict, more than one issue).

Essay One Comments

When students complete this "quiz," they should email the professor at jrcqueens@yahoo.com

SUBJECT: ESSAY ONE COMMENT
MESSAGE: [STUDENT NAME] 

Blog Three: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Assignment

For their third blog, students will turn to Southern Horrors and their notes on "Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Keeping in mind that the blog will be read by an outside audience, students will introduce the text and summarize the main ideas from it (context). They will then focus on a specific passage that they believe is especially important (quotation and citation). They will finish as they would in a typical paragraph: after they have remembered to set the immediate context for their readers around the specific passage), they will correctly quote and cite the key passage, paraphrase it, and then explain the meaning of the passage using a combination of critical thinking strategies.

Directions: Students should remember to GIVE DIRECTIONS to their reader, as well as USE their critical thinking strategies in the critical thinking section.

Twitter: Students should consider Tweeting by pressing the "T" button at the bottom of their blog (near the +1 symbol).

In Class Activity: Finding/Creating Keywords and Critical Thinking

In selected pairs, students will accomplish both of the following steps:

1. DEFINE or CREATE KEYWORD: Students will either define a keyword given to them by the professor, or create one based on a key passage from the reading. In their definitions, students should a) write down the keyword; b) write down it's immediate definition(s) in the text; c) paraphrase it; d) be able to teach the term to another student using the passage from the text as an example.

2. CRITICAL THINKING: NEXT, the pair of students will each share one of their Tweets about a passage with one another. Using their notes on critical thinking from a previous class, the students will practice critical thinking strategies to interpret the meaning of the passage. Students without a Tweet can use a passage from the keyword exercise to practice their critical thinking.

By the end of the activity, each student will have: a) at least one keyword, and b) at least two passages that reflect brainstorms about critical thinking.

Reading Quiz 7

Reading Quiz 7

Reflect on one of your Tweets from the reading last night. Paraphrase the passage and, now that you have more space, interpret it (explain what it means) from two perspectives (come to two different points). (3-4 sentences)

Blogging the Writing Workshop

Giving Context: History of Lynching, etc

Many of the quizzes I returned to students today about the Black Codes, the Jim Crow laws, and Ida B. Well's ideas about lynching will help guide the context sections of the second essay. Remember that the texts as a whole have to be (re-)introduced to your audience (When I Was a Slave, Southern Horrors). These introductions mean stating the main ideas of the overall texts before you start quoting and citing from them. Also, recall that as you select specific passages from Southern Horrors to concentrate on, you should be able to summarize the main ideas of the specific section around the passage you've selected for quotation.

Introductions: To Be Revised!

I've noticed that some of you are forging ahead with introductions. Please remember that this is the paragraph that may change the most as your argument develops. In the first essays there were some serious misconnections between the introductions -- particularly the thesis statements -- and the topic sentences and supporting paragraphs that followed. It really is best to practice building your essay from the middle outwards. Please consider approaching your draft with this strategy in mind.

Remember: REVISE INTRODUCTIONS LAST!

How to Organize and Structure Paragraphs

There was a good question about how to organize certain ideas into paragraphs. For example, there is a slave memoir from When I Was a Slave that speaks about pre and post Civil War Afro-Am work culture.

Should all the pre-war work culture passages from multiple slave memoirs go into one paragraph?

Or should one paragraph contain only individual accounts of both pre and post-war passages?

The answer is: there is no right answer. Each of you will find a method of organization that works for your essay.

Solution: Draft the essay now and ask your classamates if the organization works during next week's Peer Review! Just keep writing!

In Class Workshop: Essay Two

Directions

1. For this workshop, students should return to one of the passages from class discussion this past Thursday.

2. They should then begin developing a paragraph of their own writing around this paragraph. With their notes and/or the text When I Was a Slave, they should consider:

- Does the passage work as evidence for pre-Civil War African-American work culture?
- Does the passage work as evidence for post-Civil War African-American work culture?
- Does the passage work as evidence for pre-Civil War white supremacist culture?
- Does the passage work as evidence for post-Civil War white supremacist culture?

3. After assessing what kind of evidence they have, students should work to select a specific part of the passage for quotation and citation. They should then build a paragraph around that citation.

- They should give the reader context
- They should properly quote and cite the text
- They should paraphrase
- They should practice critical thinking.

4. As students practice critical thinking, they should think of what word, phrase, or idea best captures the passage in question. They should then use this word, phrase, or idea in a (new) topic sentence for the essay.

5. They should then examine this topic sentence and how the idea in the topic sentence could fit into a thesis statement. They should then consider how they could repeat this exercise for each of the main themes of the assignment (from step two), and therefore how they could generate a thesis statement after considering the evidence, rather than starting from a thesis statement and then searching for the evidence.

Blog Comments, Twitter, Office Hours

Students were assigned each other's blogs in class. If you did not get assigned another student's blog, please EMAIL me ASAP or leave a COMMENT to this message.

Please remember to post your Tweets. I see that some of you went ahead and posted four Tweets. Congratulations. You will have six by the end of next week. We're going to use some of the Tweets for class activities soon, so let's get in the habit of this. Some of you may be able to download the Twitter APP for your phones.

Some of you also expressed an interest in seeing my during my office hours this coming week. Wednesday morning (9-11.30am) and afternoon (3-4) could work, as well as Thursday (3.15-4.30). Please contact me if you'd like to set something up.

Reading Quiz Four: Ida B Wells and Post-Reconstruction

Answer one of the following two questions.

1. What were the similarities between the Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws, and how did some African-American leaders attempt to combat them?

2. What was the myth around lynching, and what did Ida B. Wells argue to contradict it?

Critical Passages: When I Was a Slave

1. Evans: 33-4

2. Fayman: 37-8

3. Finnely: 39-40

4. Finnely: 41-42

5. Glenn: 49-51

6. Gudger: 69

7. Moore: 90-1, 93

8. Patterson: 102-3

9. Reynolds: 106-7

10. Robinson: 116

CHECK TWITTER!!!!

Reading Quiz Three: The Violence

Choose one slave testimony from the reading from this past week (88-93, 101-110, 115-126, 146-149), and summarize the circumstances surrounding a violent encounter and what happened as consequence.

Essay Assignment Two: Work and Violence Pre and Post Civil War

English 101: Language and Human Rights: Assignment Two

Dr. Justin Rogers-Cooper

 Title: The Plantation and After: Work Cultures in American Death Economies

Due Date: See syllabus

Assignment Goal

Using course texts, students will create 4-5 page, thesis-driven essay that explains the relationship between African American labor and white supremacist violence both during slavery and afterwards. Students will describe how African-American work cultures changed before and after the Civil War by arguing what African-Americans did, but also why they it. They will also account for the work of white terrorist violence before and after slavery, and why they did it.

Assignment Description

In When I Was a Slave, there are various slave testimonies about the connections between the labor of the slaves and the violence that regulated that labor. We also learn that there were two different kinds of work: the commercial planting of cotton and tobacco for export, and the jobs that allowed the plantations to be nearly self-sustaining organic farms and, in some cases, small factories. From many of the accounts told by slaves, there were definite “work cultures,” or local cultures of workers, that grew on the plantations and remained there after slavery.

Students should first make note of at least two or three slaves testimonies that relate “before and after” stories about such work, and pay careful attention to what motivations were important to the decisions that slaves made. Students will develop the first part of their thesis statement based on what they discover about who worked, why they worked, and how that work did or did not change after the war.

In Southern Horrors, we learn from Ida B. Wells that the terrorism of lynching by white southerners played a large role in regulating African-American work cultures after the war. Just as torture, whipping, rape, and sadistic punishment worked to regulate plantation work before the war, lynching worked to enforce political and economic divisions after it.

For the second half of their thesis statement and the second half of their essay, however, students should explain the difference in how this violence worked. African-American workers in the south used to work as slaves, and violence was directed against them as bodies “owned” white slave-holders. African-Americans were not “owned” by anyone after the war, but whites justified terrorist violence against them nevertheless. In their essays, students should be able to summarize what this violence was, how it worked, but explain also why it happened.

In the end, the student will have a complex thesis statement that explains African-American work culture before and after the Civil War, but will also explain how the white terrorist cultures interacted with African American workers before and after the war.

Steps for Assignment

1. Note-take on African-American work cultures in When I Was a Slave. Pay attention to what work happened on plantations before and after the war, whether or not plantation life was regulated by violence, and what happened after the war.

2. Note-take on what Ida B. Wells argues in Southern Horrors. What facts does she give about lynching? What reasons does she give for explaining it?

3. Create a thesis that meets the goal of the assignment. Overall, students are trying to keep track of two communities before and after the war: African-American workers and white terrorists.

4. Continue to draft and revise the essay  in time for the Peer Review.