Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Blog Assignment Two: Explaining Contradiction

Due Date: see syllabus (all blogs and blog comments are always due Sunday night)

Contradictions are statements that assert claims that cannot really be true. We could also think of contradictions as statements or arguments that seem inconsistent. For example, the Declaration of Independence said "all men are created equal," but the Constitution only gave voting priveleges to white men. We could then say that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence contradict one another. Contradiction is a form of saying one thing and doing another. We could also think of contradiction as a form of conflict. When one thing disagrees with another thing, they contradict.

For this blog, students should find a contradiction in a text from the course. They should then compose a blog that 1) names the contradiction, 2) explains the contradiction, and 3) investigates what they think the contradiction means. Students shouldn't feel the need to take a side, but rather to identify the conflict from a neutral position.

In the above example, the contradiction between the two documents points to the racist heart of the early United States. We can see from this seemingly simple contradiction the Civil War of the future. We could think about race, racism, the need for cheap labor, the lust for money, and the extreme violence that this contradiction made possible. We could observe these phenomena from afar, from our neutral position, without actually saying, slavery is wrong, slavery is evil, slavery is immoral. Instead, we can use our neutral position to connect important ideas about slavery through this contradiction.

The contradiction will probably appear in one or more places in the text, or in a couple texts. Students can focus on whatever passage or moment they want to focus on. Students should quote and cite examples in their blog.

It will be up to each student to choose whatever contradiction he or she concentrates on. They should introduce their contradiction by giving it a specific name. They should remember to introduce any course texts to outside readers.

In this blog, students will practice: summary, direct quotation, citation, and analysis.

Grading Grid for Blogs, Blog Comments, and Twitter

ENG 101 Language of Human Rights Grading Grid: Blog, Blog Comment, Twitter
Name
1.  Blog meets assignment criteria; blog contains effective topic sentences, correct direct quotation and citation (25%)
1              5              6              7              8              9              10

2. Blog provides reader with context, textual introduction, and directions (25%)
1              5              6              7              8              9              10

3. Blog comment addresses writing strategies discussed in class (25%)
1              5              6              7              8              9              10

4. Blog comment offers specific suggestions for revision (25%)
1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Total:

Tweets (out of 2)
                /2

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Critical Thinking: Showing Relationships, Making Connections

Critical thinking tends to become most visible in essays in the second half of supporting, body paragraphs. After students have paraphrased their direct quote for readers, they then must turn to the important task of interpreting that quote, or saying what it means. This usually gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their creative intellectual powers.

Students should think of the critical thinking section as a location for multiple meanings. It is fine to offer two or more perspectives on the meaning of a quote.

* Connect the quoted material and passage back to your overall thesis statement. Highlight, perhaps, one of the big ideas from the thesis statement.

* Just after the paraphrase is usually an occasion for "close-reading," or the special practice of explaining what specific words from the quote mean.

* Introduce a keyword. Define the keyword. This will spur students to explain relationships between one idea and another. Students can then connect one idea from the text to another.

* Connect the material to another passage from the book. Find a "theme" that can shows up in the quoted material and one that appears, perhaps in another form, in another moment of the text.

* Refer the reader to another text altogether, or information from outside the text. Connect the paragraph to an idea from another course, or from another text in the same course.

Class This Week: Assignments

1. Everyone please follow me on Twitter: jrcamerights. Also, check out your classmates on Twitter. Everyone should be following everyone else.

2. When you Tweet assignments, you're tweeting the page number from the assigned text, and some intial reation you had to reading it.

3. I'm going to post a couple things to keep in mind for the paper due Monday.

4. I'm going to post your blog assignment for the week tomorrow.

5. I'm going to be on campus tomorrow (Wednesday) if you want to make appointments to see me.

6. Remember to staple your peer review comment sheets (should be one sheet per person) to the bottom of your final drafts.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

My Twitter ID: Jrcamerights

If you haven't started Tweeting, start now!

If you haven't searched for your classmates to follow them, start now!

Their Twitter ID's are on their blogs.

I should now be following everyone that posted their IDs.

Survey: Take It!

If you have not taken this survey yet, take it!!!!!!!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Community2-0_StudentPreSurvey_Fall2011

Blog Posting Pairs: For Comments This Week/end

Dani-Michelle
Elyce-Arsenio
Rashid-Donte
Ana-Melina
Rajiv-Mohammad
Moreen-Richard
Juana-Joseph
Adnan-Rudy
Cesia-Moshe
Kathy-Matthew
Brian-Lauren
Joel-Theresa

Reading Quiz Three: When I Was a Slave

In the oral autobiographies of Anthony Dawson, Millie Evans, and Mrs. M.S. Fayman, among others, we learn about the different types of labor performed on plantations. Some of this labor had nothing to do with the commercial crops of tabacco and cotton. What work was done on the plantations besides commercial planting? What does that say about life on the plantations? (4-5 sentences)

Students should answer in their own words, practicing the skill of summary. Open note and open-text, if students can show annotations.

Peer Review Guidelines and Response

You will always need three copies of your essay brought to class for peer review.
Peer Review is a necessary part of revising writing assignments in stages. It’s beneficial to writers to always be writing for an audience. It’s beneficial for student readers to see how other students approach similar writing tasks. It’s also important that writers write in communities. Socializing the experience of writing helps develop ideas and accelerate thinking.
The actual experience of peer review can be a strange adjustment for those who have no experience with it. It’s important to remember the following rules:
1.       No matter how attached you feel to a piece of writing, it isn’t you. It’s something you made that has an existence of its own. Comments and criticisms about this piece reflect it, not you.
2.       No matter how unattached you are to a piece of writing, peer review can help you become more attached. Remember that someone else will take pleasure in reading your words and ideas.
3.       When discussing someone else’s writing, it’s generally a good idea to say something positive about the piece first.
4.       When you make a criticism, always make a specific suggestion for how to revise the part of the essay you’re criticizing.
5.       Always begin with “higher-order” concerns first. Higher order concerns involve the essay as a whole: the coherency of paragraphs (how unified and organized they are), whether or not the essay fulfills the assignment, and the general meaning of the piece. Look at the big picture. DO not spend time discussing grammar unless it impedes your ability to understand the piece. You may mark grammar issues on the page by circling them, but do not spend time discussing them unless you cannot understand an idea.
6.       Do not go easy on someone because it’s a strange and unfamiliar thing to do. The more critical you are of an essay the better grade someone will get. You will help another writer by honestly telling them what you think can be improved, and how you think they can improve it.

Grading Grid: Assignment One: Slave Emotions: Peer Review

Grading Grid Assignment One: Corporate Food and Labor
ENG 101: Slave Emotional Knowledge

Name:   

1. Thesis Statement: asserts and defines most important emotional experience of slaves; two-three sentence thesis statement expands upon that definition; introduction provides context (text(s), author(s)); opening anecdote (20%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

2. Body Paragraphs: topic sentences refer to thesis statement; summarizes relevant moments from text; provides analysis of relevant evidence (30%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

3. Direct Quote and Citation: correct citation; paraphrase follows quotes; analysis extends arguments; (20%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

4. Conclusion: Introduces new aspect of essay for reader’s consideration; provides memorable concluding statement (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

5. Sentence Structure: Sentences are free from distracting errors; they contain obvious polish; there’s evidence they were read out loud (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

6. Context and Audience: Texts contain proper introduction; chapters contain proper introduction; key words are explained; (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

 Key Suggestions:

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Reading Quiz Two: When I Was a Slave

While some testimony from When I Was a Slave recounts the emotions of slaves returning to their plantations after the Civil War, other testimony makes it clear that some slaves sought freedom, too. We see this in both the account of Mary Armstrong and Boston Blackwell. In this quiz, summarize in your own words how Armstrong and Blackwell described their intital experiences of freedom during and after the Civil War. (5-6 sentences)

This quiz is open note and open text if students can show annotations.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Blogging the In-Class Assignment

A couple big things and a couple little things:

1. The paragraph you're writing now should, in the end, resemble the basic structure of body paragraph essays. This means that it should begin with a topic sentence. After the topic sentence, you can then move into the context.

2. The topic sentence will shift around depending on what it is you say. The topic sentence should always refer back to your thesis statement, and yet also tell your reader what about the paragraph it's beginning.

3. You should consider changing your thesis if you find yourself writing about something new that interests you. A complicated thesis statement is a positive thing: after all, it shows you're able to think in complex ways.

Little things:

1. The titles of books are always italicized, like this: The Title of the Book.

2. You don't have to refer to page numbers in the sentence, like, "I found this on page 3," or, "On page 10 the author says." Just refer to the page number in the citation.

In Class Assignment: Selecting Passages for Evidence and Analysis

Directions for in-class assignment:

First, students will locate and discuss a relevant passage for class discussion assigned by the professor.

Second, students will individually locate another passage from the reading that connects to their first essay assignment, or that they found interesting. The passage should be one-two sentences in length. They will note the page number and take notes on what they believe to be the main points of the passage. They should also make note of the "context" for the passage they select. (The context is anything important for a reader to know about the text they're working from, and from the "moment" of the text they've found). They will also write down (in note form) what they believe the passage "means," and/or why it's important.

In small groups, students will then share the passage they found. Students should at least take notes on the page numbers of the texts the other student's chose, and any other relevant information. After students share each other's passages, other students should offer the student another possibility about what the text means, or why it's important.

Finally, students will compose a paragraph that reflects their passage. This paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that is also a claim (a claim is a smaller, supporting argument that supports a thesis statement). The paragraph should then alert the reader to context for the passage they will describe. Students should then quote the passage using direct quotes, with the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence (page number). After the quote, students should paraphrase the quote. Then they should explain why it's important, what it shows, what it means, and/or what a reader should learn after reading it.

Students should then post the assignment to their blog.

NOTE:

Students should avoid the pronoun "you."
Students should read their sentences out loud.
Students should write the paragraph to an audience of LaGuardia students and professors who are not taking this course.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Blog Assignment ONE: Bannaker and Equiano

In Benjamin Banneker's letter to former US president Thomas Jefferson, he argues that humans are equal because a "Father" has "afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties." Yet we see in Equanio's text various encounters with African and European slave-traders that suggest human beings are not, somehow, equal: after all, how can we explain the horrors that Equiano witnessed on the slave ship? If humans all felt the "same sensations," then wouldn't the slave-traders have been incapable of practing slavery, and enforcing it through such lethal methods?

For their blogs, students should tentatively offer answers to these questions. First, students will introduce and summarize the main claims made by Banneker in his letter to Jefferson. Then, students will introduce and summarize Equiano's experiences on the slave ship. After they have adequetely summarized both texts, students will begin a new paragraph. In this paragraph, they will share with readers their thoughts to the questions above.

The blog should be addressed to LaGuarida students and faculty who are not members of this class. Blogs should be between 250-400 words.

Reading Quiz ONE: Banneker's Letter

In his letter to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker writes that there exist "rights of human nature." It seems these rights of human nature are somewhat different than what we mean by human rights. The "human nature" in question here comes from "laws" that Bennaker believes makes every human being equal. So what for Bennaker makes human beings equal to one another? Where does that equality come from?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Blogging the Diagnostic: Extending your argument

Several of you are moving further along in your introductions. Some of you are even initiating your second paragraphs.

One of the biggest things to remember when you begin writing the introduction is this: the first sentence of your second paragraph (the topic sentence) should refer back to your thesis statement.

Here is an example of a thesis statement, and then how to connect it to a topic sentence:

[thesis statement from introduction] The dominant emotional experience felt by slaves was a back and forth movement from hopelessness to determination. In Equiano's text, he determines to run away and succeeds; however, once he runs away he begins to feel hopelessness, fear, and despair.

[topic sentence of second, supporting paragraph]: Equiano has run away because of a determination to be free. In the passage we're reading, we find him at first successfully hiding from his masters. [And so on]

Blogging the Diagnostic: Framing your argument

Answers to your questions that might be relevant to others:

One question from several students arose about Equiano and "fear." So I know that several of you are basically saying, "we should pay attention to Equiano's feelings of fear," or something like this. Remember, the next sentence of your thesis statement should explain why fear was important, or how fear was important, or what its effects were or are. In other words, saying what emotion matters most here is one way to start arguing. The step of your argument must explain to your reader why fear mattered so much, or how it worked.

Another of you, it should be noted, has chosen "hope."

Student Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Community2-0_StudentPreSurvey_Fall2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Diagnostic Essay Directions

ENG 101: The Language and Human Rights: Diagnostic Draft

Directions:

This in-class diagnostic asks students to consider the passage below and to use it as support for an argumentative essay. The argument students will develop should reflect what they’ve been asked to consider for their first assignment: they are to name and explain what they believe is the most important emotional knowledge that slaves articulated about living in a regime of forced labor.  For more details, students should refer back to the Assignment One hand out. Students should aim to draft at least ONE type-written, double-spaced page. Essays should at least reach the last line of the first page.

Students should also organize paragraphs to support this argument. These paragraphs will begin with an introduction containing a thesis statement (see above paragraph). They should also be able to write at least one supporting paragraphs that expand from the thesis statement. This paragraph should contain a topic sentence that supports the thesis statement. This topic sentence should also contain the main idea of the paragraph.

For the purposes of this assignment, students should accept that the text in question here is representative of slave experiences and not exceptional.

            SAMPLE STRUCTURE

            Introduction
Thesis Statement: I believe____[the most important emotional knowledge communicated by slaves is]_______. I believe this because_________[reasons this emotional knowledge is important]_____________. [Imagine a third sentence here referring to and introducing Equiano’s text as the authoritative basis for your thesis statement].
                        Supporting Paragraph
Topic Sentence: [Claim: This sentence is a smaller argument (usually one sentence) that announces the topic of the paragraph and refer to one of the ideas in the thesis statement (one of the reasons you believe what you believe). [The rest of the paragraph explains this idea in more detail, and further refers to the text in question to help that explanation.]
Passage:

I expected every moment, when I heard a rustling among the trees, to be found out, and punished by my master. But they never discovered me, though they often were so near that I even heard their conjectures, as they were looking about for me; and now I learned from them, that any attempt to return home would be hopeless…When I heard this I was seized with a violent panic, and abandoned myself to despair. Night too began to approach, and aggravated all my fears. I had before entertained hopes of getting home and had determined when it should be dark to make the attempt; but I was not convinced it was fruitless, and considered that, if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind; and that, now knowing the way, I must perish in the woods. Thus was I like the hunted deer:
           
                        Ev’ry leaf, and ev’ry whisp’ring breath
                        Convey’d a foe, and ev’ry foe a death.
           
I heard frequent rustlings among the leaves…This increased my anguish, and the horror of my situation became now quite insupportable. I at length quitted the thicket, very faint and hungry, for I had not eaten nor drunk any thing all day.
           
From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (11)

Drafting Assignment One: Considering Arguments

Students should consider framing an argument from a range of possibilities: (a) actually advocating that one emotion dominated the slave emotional experience due to frequency and repetition; (b) contending that slaves experienced a range of emotions, with a couple dominant extremes; (c) asserting that one emotional extreme, while rare, actually signals a crucially important moment of slavery; or (d) some other variation of this argument. If students do plan to accept one of these possible argumentative frameworks, they should be careful to use their own words, and specify in as much detail as possible the specific emotions they’re writing about (hope, joy, excitement, wonder, sadness, depression, terror, fear, agony, shame, humiliation, sorrow, anger, etc).