Portfolio Info + Exam Info

Our final exam will take place in K109 in the Writing Center. We will be meeting at 1pm that day. Please bring your annotated copy of The Boston Photographs.


You will need to include:

• Narrative essay
• Exemplification Essay
• Boston Photographs Essay
• Midterm Exam 
• Revision of Midterm Exam

Your portfolio is due MAY 7th in class. If you require an extra day, you may hand deliver it to me at the Writing Center in K 115 on Friday, May 8th. NO EMAILED PORTFOLIOS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Portfolios that are not submitted by May 8th will result in a failing grade for the class. 

Intro: Exam Re-do

Write a well-developed essay of between one-and-one-half to three pages that draws on the different perspectives of the two readings listed above to respond to the following: Explain how bell hooks complicates or challenges Richard Rodriguez’s ideas about the relationship between academic success and family background.  Use this explanation to support your own argument about academic success and family background. Support your ideas with analysis of textual evidence, such as quotes or paraphrases, from both texts.



For most students, there is no one they want to be prouder of their accomplishments than their parents. From artwork taped to the refrigerator door to parent-teacher conferences, parents are the most important people to support the educational endeavors of children. But what if one’s parents do not support a child’s education? In Achievement of Desire, Richard Rodriquez describes the difficulty of growing up in a working class family and balancing it with the pursuit of his academic dreams. Rodriguez chose to handle this dilemma by isolating himself from his family. In keeping close to home: class and education, bell hooks discusses the importance of maintaining a balance between family and academic success despite their ambivalent support of her pursuits. Because family support has such a great impact on students performance, every student must decide for herself how much involvement family should have in her education. There is an important balance between family and education, although if family connections hinder your education, then those connections should be severed.

Midterm Exam Details

Hello, everyone,

Just a reminder that we have our midterm exam tomorrow. We will be meeting in a computer lab in K427 for the duration of the exam. Please check back for details.

Remember, I will not see you on Tuesday (March 31). You will be meeting in K109/K115 (The Writing Center) for 2 workshops. Attendance will be taken before each session, so please plan to be in attendance for both.

AZ

REVISED ESSAY 2

Hello all,

There was some confusion about the writing prompt you are working on. Based on our discussion on Tuesday, I modified it to apply to others as well. You have the liberty of discussing either your own experience or your observations of others' behaviors. 

Remember, this essay is based on Staples's essay, so use his experience and his text to reflect on your own (or others') lives and experience. How does he prove his thesis using examples? What language and techniques does he use to be successful in establishing his point?

Feel free to email me with questions, but leave time for me to respond.

Discuss ways in which you (or others) modify your behavior based on others' expectations of you.


Your essay should include:

• An engaging intro
• A clear thesis statement
• At least 3 body points that use EXAMPLES to establish your evidence
• A conclusion that provides a sense of closure to your essay
• Please write from 1st or 3rd person. No 2nd person (you) statements!

DUE THURSDAY

Announcement

Hello, all,

Sorry to disappoint, but I am canceling our class this afternoon.

I made some updates to our assignment schedule and those can be found on our blog at the tab above entitled "Assignment Schedule Updates".

Please arrive to our next class up to date with your reading assignments and with the first draft of your second essay in hand. You will give and receive feedback from your peers, so be prepared to share your work.

I will be checking my email periodically, so feel free to email with questions but leave time for a reply.

Enjoy your spring break!
AZ

Assignments due for next class

Hello, everybody,

Both for those who attended today and for those who were absent, I wanted to clarify the assignments due for our next class. You should arrive having read and prepared the following texts for discussion:

• Just Walk on By-- Brent Staples
• The High of an Illiterate Society- Jonathan Kozol 
• Introduction to Exemplification 
• In addition, you should arrive with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd drafts of your narrative essay for submission. 

I encourage you to make an appointment at the Writing Center in K-115 to meet with a tutor to discuss and review your latest draft, even if you are not struggling with it. It will help you become a better writer! The link for the center is on the right-hand side of this page.

Commas

• Interactive Quiz Here
• Comma Slideshow 1 Here
• 4 Common Grammar Mistakes Here

Narrative Essay Assignment and Supplementary Material

Here is the slideshow we viewed and discussed in class on Tuesday. The intro to the chapter on the narrative form and the examples in the text are a resource you should be consulting on your assignment and revisions.

Here is a copy of the narrative essay assignment in case you were absent and are catching up or need to consult it.

• Please remember to bring in both the draft copy and the revised copy of your essay for submission on Tuesday, and to prepare the readings, Pink Floyd Night School and The Storm, for Tuesday as well. 

• I will be collecting your TSRs from Only Daughter and Finishing School on Tuesday, so please bring them. There are no TSR journals for Tuesday's readings, but you will be assigned a task in class which will earn a grade, so be sure to read the texts fully and actively.

Moving from Topic to Thesis

Here is the PowerPoint presentation that we viewed and discussed in class on February 5th.

Readings for Feb 10

"Only Daughter"-- Sandra Cisernos

"Finishing School"-- Maya Angelou

5 Paragraph Essay Prezi

This week we will be reviewing the essentials of the essay form. During the course of discussing select topics from our textbook reading, we will be viewing the following Prezi slideshow. It can be found below if you would like to view it independently.

"Welcome to the World of the 5 Paragraph Essay"

Home

Dear students:

Welcome to Spring 2015. We will be using our blog as a forum for written communication and as resource for course-related information. You will find information such as a general outline of what is taking place in class/what will be due in the upcoming weeks, PDFs and links of select handouts and extra materials of interest to you, as well as the course syllabus, should you lose it.

I recommend the following:

• A Gmail account to make it easier for you to interact with and sign on to our blog, which is powered by Google.
• That you save your log in and password somewhere accessible so you are not delayed when assignments are given if you forget your information.
• That you "follow" the blog. It will make it easier for you to find the link.That you write the web address accurately in your notebook for use at home. (Note: http:// without the "www")
• Students have sometimes run into glitches and lost their carefully thought out responses. Copy, cut and paste information from Word into the comment field of our blog just in case there is a problem in the posting process.
• That you read your comments for coherence, spelling and logic, making sure it applies to the questions asked.

Wishing all you a successful semester,

Angela Zeitz