Monday, May 7, 2012

Greetings...
1. a special thank you to all students who were NOT presenting today but attended class to be supportive of those who did present.
2. to those who presented today, thank you!
3. Wednesday, May 9th is our last class session for the semester. Please bring your Grade Worksheet and all graded work to class.
4. If you have not revised an out of class essay yet, and you wish to revise out of class essay 3...OR...if you are working on a second or third revision of out of class essay 1 or 2...THE DEADLINE FOR THOSE REVISIONS IS FRIDAY, MAY 18th. NO EXCEPTIONS.
5.  HOW TO SUBMIT A REVISION:
a. follow the procedures on how to submit a revision that are in the course outline.
b. turn in revision to my faculty mailbox in the English Dept, in Calaveras.
c. once you have turned in the revision please email me and let me know that it is there.

Tuesday, May 1st

Hello,
just a quick change of plans...
we will be completing a course evaluation tomorrow in class, along with a few other activities. We will be able to complete everything I want to tomorrow, so no class this Friday, May 4th. Oral presentations next Monday and Wednesday, and then Friday will be our last class session (May 11th). On this day, you will bring all your graded course work and your completed Grade Worksheet to class.

Also, you will be receiving your out of class essay #3 back tomorrow. If you choose to revise this essay (if you have not already revised essay 1 or 2), the revision will be due on Wednesday May 9th.

Sunday, April 29th, 930 am

Good morning,

Most of you already know that I made an error on the course outline by indicating Journal 4 would be tomorrow. However, we have already completed Journal 4. :)
I apologize for any confusion.
Since I did not realize that error when I was originally putting the outline together, I do not have anything else planned for tomorrow. So please use the time to complete the take home on The Unwanted. I will see all of you on Wednesday. No class tomorrow.

P.S. Just a "heads up"...you will not be able to revise the take home exam on The Unwanted, so please edit and proofread carefully. I have spent the weekend reading your marriage essays and there have been FAR too many sentence level errors as well as unacceptable errors present in the essays.

In addition, a reminder that you will also not be able to revise your oral presentation paper. Again, proofread carefully.

Saturday, 130 pm, April 28th

English 1A, Spring 2012, Professor Fraga

TAKE HOME TEST ON THE UNWANTED (200 POINTS)

DIRECTIONS:  Please respond to the following questions in essay format. All questions must be numbered and typed, double-spaced. There is no minimum length requirement. As usual, please address each question fully and thoughtfully. This test is due on Wednesday, May 2.

1.  SELECT A ‘CHARACTER’ FROM THE MEMOIR, THE UNWANTED. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT CHARACTERISTICS (at least two) ACCURATELY DESCRIBE THIS PERSON? FOR EVERY ASSERTION YOU MAKE ABOUT THIS PERSON, YOU MUST SUPPORT IT WITH AT LEAST THREE VERY SPECIFIC SUPPORTS FROM THE BOOK. THIS RESPONSE WILL BE EVALUATED ON YOUR ABILITY TO MAKE AN ASSERTION AND SUPPORT IT LOGICALLY AND ARTICULATELY. (100 POINTS)

2.  WHICH SCENE IN THE BOOK AFFECTED YOU MOST DEEPLY?  EXPLAIN HOW IT AFFECTED YOU AND WHY. (40 POINTS)

3.  THIS MEMOIR REFLECTS A WEALTH OF VARIOUS THEMES/TOPICS, INCLUDING OUR SEMESTER-LONG THEME OF HOME. SELECT ONE THEME THAT THE MEMOIR SUGGESTS TO YOU AND OFFER EXAMPLES FROM THE BOOK TO SUPPORT YOUR ASSERTION. (6O POINTS)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Hello,
a quick note to let you know about a change to the course outline for this week.
We will be discussing The Unwanted tomorrow as well as completing Group Work #4.
There will be no class on Friday.
I will post the take home on The Unwanted right on the blog on Friday.
See you tomorrow!

Sunday, April 22, 2010--3 pm

Greetings,
I hope you have been able to enjoy this amazing spring weather weekend.
A few things:
1. Below is an updated Grade Worksheet Form. You will note that points possible has been changed from 1975 to 2025. This is due to another quiz being added. You will want to print out this newest Grade Worksheet Form.
2. Sign ups for the Oral Presentations on May 7 and 9 will take place tomorrow in class. If you are absent, it is your responsibility, as usual, for everything that occurs in class, whether you are present or not.
3. If you have not re-visited the Oral Presentation assignment, you may want to do that soon. For your convenience, I am including a copy of that assignment below. You should have a hard copy as well. It was assigned the first week of classes.


English 1A, Spring 2012, Prof. Fraga
GRADE WORKSHEET-----2025 POINTS POSSIBLE

Stapler Check (25 pts.)
Monday, January 30—stapler in your possession!______

Oral Presentation=(100 pts.)

Oral Pres._____(100)

Out of Class Essays (400 points)
Out of Class Essay 1_____(100 pts.) Out of Class Essay 2_____(200 pts.) Out of Class Essay 3_____(100 pts.)

Rules of Thumb Quizzes (300 points)
Pgs. 1-60 (100)_____ Pgs. 112-134 (100)_____ Pgs 136-147 (100)_____

Unannounced Quizzes (300) (50 points each)
Quiz 1____Quiz 2_____Quiz 3_____Quiz 4_____Quiz 5_____Quiz 6_______

Journals=(100 pts.)
Journal 1 (25) _____Journal 2 (25)_____Journal 3 (25)_____Journal 4 (25)_____

Homework=(200 pts.)
Q and C #1 (50)_____Q and C #2 (50)_____Q and C #3 (50)_____Q and C #4 (50)_____

In Class Group Work (200 pts.)
Group Work 1 (50 pts)_____Group Work 2 (50 pts)_____Group Work 3 (50 pts)_____Group Work 4 (50 pts)_____

In Class Essays (200 pts.)
In class essay #1 (100)_____In class essay #2 (100) _____

Take home essay on The Unwanted (200)_____
**************************************************************************************
How to assess your grade earned: Divide the points you earn by 2025 to find the percentage. Then see chart below.

100-94=A 63-60=C-
93-90=A- 59-54=D
89-84=B+ 53-0=F
83-80=B
79-74=B-
73-70=C+
69-64=C
********************************

English 1A, College Composition I
Spring 2012
Instructor: Catherine Fraga

Oral Presentation Assignment

The Significance of Home
Assigned: First week of semester

Due: May 7 or 9 (Monday or Wednesday)

For this assignment, please select an article, observation, photograph, painting, collage, film, song, poem, essay or anything else that offers some message or reflection on the theme of home. It could have a personal meaning for you, but it does not have to.
After you have selected your “item,” write a minimum of one page about the item. Include a brief description of the item and a detailed explanation of why you chose this item; include a thoughtful commentary. Proofread carefully for unacceptable errors as well as other proofreading mistakes.
On the day of presentations, please do not read your essay to the class, but simply summarize the main points aloud to the class. The presentation usually takes only a few moments. You will submit a copy of the essay only to me.
As the semester progresses, you may get ideas for your presentation from our readings, the films we will be viewing, or from class discussions.
Remember that you will not receive this short essay back nor will you receive any credit for the assignment if there are ANY unacceptable errors present.
Please do not take this assignment lightly. It is worth 100 points.

Thursday evening, April 19, 2012, 820 pm

Greetings,
just a quick note to remind you that there is no class tomorrow, Friday, April 20th. That is the day that I promised you off from class when I first explained the course outline. I do believe most if not all of you are fully aware of this...:-)....but I did have a student email me and ask me what "A Reading Day" meant...so then I became concerned. Have a wonderful weekend, enjoy this lovely spring weather, and I will see you on Monday.

Tuesday, April 17th, 230 pm

Greetings,
just a very quick reminder...
cell phone usage during class has become a recent problem.
GENTLE REMINDER:
please refrain from texting in class. I do not want to embarrass anyone, but it is becoming very clear that several students are ignoring my request for dedicating 50 minutes of time, three days a week, to focus only on English 1A.
Thank you!

Wednesday evening, April 11

Greetings...

A few reminders...

1. Remember to bring a green or blue book to class on Friday for In Class Essay #2 on the film, Arranged.

2. Due to technical difficulties on Monday, section 9 was unable to view the last few moments of the film. I informed both sections in class today that the film could be viewed on line via youtube. And it used to be available! I did just check and unfortunately it is not available anymore; there are just excerpts to view. I do know that if you have a Netflix account, you can view it immediately. Just so you know, the only things you missed in the last few moments are both women getting married and then later sitting together in the park with their first born children.

3. Packet 7 Assignment (two readings):

"The Magic of the Family Meal"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200760,00.html

"The Good Marriage" (this is an introduction to a full length book)
http://www.ofspirit.com/tw-thegoodmarriage.htm

Tuesday afternoon, April 3, 2012

Greetings,
below you will find a copy of the Out of Class Essay Assignment #3 that was assigned in class on Monday. You will also find the sample paragraphs we read and discussed regarding Essay 3. See you tomorrow.


English 1A, Spring 2012
C. Fraga, Instructor
Course Theme: The Significance of Home

Out of Class Essay Assignment #3

Assigned: Monday, April 2
Rough Draft due (optional) no later than Wednesday, April 18
Due: Wednesday, April 25

TOPIC: What are the ‘ingredients’ for a successful marriage?


A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. (Mignon Mclaughlin)

Marriage is not just spiritual communion, it is also remembering to take out the trash. (Joyce Brothers)

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong admit it;
Whenever you're right shut up. (Ogden Nash)

Assignment: Even with the current high divorce rate in the United States, couples continue to choose marriage as a way of life. Most couples marry with the intention and confidence that their marriage will be successful and will last forever.

Write an essay in which you explore the ingredients (or elements) required for a marriage to be successful and long lasting. Focus on a minimum of four ingredients/elements.

Conduct research and talk/interview those who you feel might have some helpful, interesting and relevant opinions and experience with this topic.

The most important thing to remember about this essay is that you will need to be very SPECIFIC. Avoid rambling and using mostly vague terms. Your essay will benefit from specific examples from professionals as well as interviewees.

Suggestions for people to interview: your parents; your grandparents; relatives; siblings; teachers; neighbors; marriage counselors, etc.

Information/opinions about what constitutes a successful marriage is quite simple to locate. I spent only 20 minutes doing a cursory search on the Internet and found many intriguing articles.

Your Game Plan:
1. Research and read read read as much as you can about the topic.
2. Interview at least three people about this topic.
3. From your research, reading and interviews select the four elements YOU feel are the MOST ideal and necessary ingredients for a successful, lasting marriage.
4. Write your thesis statement—an assertion based on your findings.
5. Plan the organization of your essay.
6. Write your essay.
7. Proofread and edit very carefully and thoroughly.


Reminders:
• Follow MLA format.
• Double space entire essay.
• Must have in text citations and a Works Cited page.
• Use 12 pt., Times New Roman
• Use at LEAST three outside resources and at LEAST information from three interviews. In other words, these six minimum resources will be found on your Works Cited page as well as cited within your essay.


**************************************

English 1A
C. Fraga

Sample introduction paragraph based on the prompt for Out of Class Essay #3


My Uncle Bill was a very formidable man with a rather booming voice and a lust for life. The thing I remember most about him is the way he acted whenever he was near his wife, my Aunt Vangie. Although I was only a child, I could still see how much he adored her; everyone noticed it. When he told a joke, he always looked at her first to be sure she was laughing. He brought her a glass of lemonade before he served anyone else. He complimented her about what she wore and he held her hand when they walked together. When my oldest sister got married, Uncle Bill toasted the couple at the wedding reception and announced that the key to a lasting and happy marriage entailed just being nice to each other.
Although my Uncle Bill’s seemingly simple advice might appear too obvious, many couples today might benefit from his instructive words. Currently, nearly half the marriages in the United States end in divorce (Donaldson 2). Marriage counselors, TV talk show hosts, married couples, divorced couples and religious leaders all seem to have an opinion about what constitutes a successful marriage. After researching the apparent secret to a successful marriage, four main ingredients, or elements, seemed the most logical and sensible. The most important elements of a lasting marriage are: respect, kindness, communication, and devotion.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Greetings...

I hope you are enjoying the Friday holiday and enjoy a wonderful and safe weekend as well.
A few students have asked about class next Friday, the 6th. Although there is not a specific item listed for Friday on the course outline, we do indeed have class on Friday. The course outline's preface reads: "...other class exercises and lectures may not be noted specifically." :)

However, while we are on the subject, you DO still have Friday, April 20th, off from class.

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Greetings....
just one more reminder....
remember that you need to make a copy of the paper I attached to the front of your out of class essay 1 assignment when I returned it to you--the paper that summarizes the errors and things to work on. The copy of this needs to go into the envelope when submitting out of class essay 2 on Wednesday. See you then!

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Greetings.

I do hope you are thoroughly enjoying the spring recess.

As you already know, there is no class on Monday, March 26th.

This class cancellation means that out of class essay #2 is not due until Wednesday, March 28th.

BE SURE TO REVIEW YOUR NOTES ABOUT HOW TO SUBMIT THE ESSAY.

The assignment for Packet #6 is below. Remember, your last Q & C is due for this assignment. Due date is the same as on the course outline, Wednesday, the 28th.

PACKET #6: (two items)

"Becky Blanton: The Year I was Homeless"
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless.html
(this is a video which is a little over seven minutes)

"Homelessness and Hungry with No Excuses" by Rich Linberg
http://www.cdobs.com/archive/syndicated/homelessness-and-hungry-with-no-excuses/

Thursday March 15, 2012--6 pm

Greetings,

A few things to make note of:

1. I will post the reading assignment for Packet #6 tomorrow evening, Friday, the 16th. Refer to your course outline for when that is due to be read. Also notice that a Q & C is due for Packet 6.

2. I assigned out of class essay 2 on Friday the 24th of February and the due date for the optional rough draft was yesterday, Wednesday, March 14. You have had over two weeks and three full weekends to get a rough draft together and submitted to me. I received only one rough draft out of my 50 students!? I realize it is optional, but it does cause me some concern since this has never happened before. I usually get a pretty huge "turn out" of rough drafts, especially for this essay, as it is worth 200 points.

3. I have a very important family issue I need to take care of on Monday, March 26th, the day we return to campus after Spring Break. Consequently, there will be no class held on March 26th. I truly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. This means that the due date for Out of Class Essay 2 is now moved to Wednesday, March 28th.

See you tomorrow, Friday, March 16th.

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

Greetings,

Below is the link to Reading Packet #5, due to be read by Friday. Please note on your course outline that there is a Q & C due for this packet.

"Down & Out in Fresno and San Francisco"
http://www.esquire.com/features/down-and-out-0709

REMINDERS...
1. Be sure to bring your book, Made for You and Me, on Monday. In fact, please carry it with you to class until we are finished with reading and discussing it.

2. Below you will find a handout that you need to PRINT OUT and bring to class on Wednesday.



How to Critically Read an Essay

Educated adults exist in a delusional state, thinking we can read.

In a most basic sense, we can.

However, odds are, some of us cannot read, at least not as well as we would like.

Too many college students are capable of only some types of reading and that becomes painfully clear when they read a difficult text and must respond critically about it.

Intelligence and a keen memory are excellent traits and most students have learned to read in a certain way that is only useful for extracting information. Thus, students are often fairly well skilled in providing summary.

However, the act of reading to extract information and to read critically are vastly different!

The current educational system in American primary schools (and many colleges) heavily emphasizes the first type of reading and de-emphasizes the latter.

In many ways, THIS MAKES SENSE.

Reading to extract information allows a student to absorb the raw materials of factual information as quickly as possible. It is a type of reading we all must engage in frequently. However, each type of reading calls for different mental habits. If we do not learn to adjust from one type of reading to another when necessary, we cripple our intellectual abilities to read critically.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN READING TO EXTRACT INFORMATION AND READING CRITICALLY.

1. They have different goals. When students read to extract information, usually they seek facts and presume the source is accurate. No argument is required. On the other hand, when students read critically, they try to determine the quality of the argument. The reader must be open-minded and skeptical all at once, constantly adjusting the degree of personal belief in relation to the quality of the essay’s argument.
2. They require different types of discipline. If students read to learn raw data, the most efficient way to learn is repetition. If students read critically, the most effective technique may be to break the essay up into logical subdivisions and analyze each section’s argument, to restate the argument in other words, and then to expand upon or question the findings.
3. They require different mental activity. If a student reads to gain information, a certain degree of absorption, memorization and passivity is necessary. If a student is engaged in reading critically, that student must be active!!! He or she must be prepared to pre-read the essay, then read it closely for content, and re-read it if it isn’t clear how the author is reaching the conclusion in the argument.
4. They create different results. Passive reading to absorb information can create a student who (if not precisely well read) has read a great many books. It creates what many call “book-smarts.” However, critical reading involves original, innovative thinking.
5. They differ in the degree of understanding they require. Reading for information is more basic, and reading critically is the more advanced of the two because only critical reading equates with full understanding.

ULTIMATELY, WHAT WE WANT IS THE CONSCIOUS CONTROL OF OUR READING SKILLS, SO WE CAN MOVE BACK AND FORTH AMIDST THE VARIOUS TYPES OF READING.

FIVE GENERAL STAGES OF READING

1. Pre-Reading—examining the text and preparing to read it effectively (5 minutes)




2. Interpretive Reading—understanding what the author argues, what the author concludes, and exactly how he or she reached that conclusion.




3. Critical Reading—questioning, examining and expanding upon what the author says with your own arguments. Skeptical reading does not mean doubting everything your read.



4. Synoptic Reading—putting the author’s argument in a larger context by considering a synopsis of that reading or argument in conjunction with synopses of other readings or arguments.



5. Post-Reading—ensuring that you won’t forget your new insights.


*************************

Friday, March 2, 2012

Greetings,
below you will find copies of two handouts from this week's classes.

1. From Source to Essay
2. Sample paragraph with in text citations
*************************
English 1A
FROM SOURCE TO ESSAY

Topic: Joining a Girl Gang as a Rite of Passage

Thesis Statement: In the past, as a rite of passage, young girls joined gangs in order to develop self-esteem; however, most girl gangs today are less friendly and more competitive among members.

Bibliography Card (3”x5”):

Vida, Vendela. Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations.

New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Print.

Note Card (4”x6”):

Vida 89

Initiation into the Bentral Valley Bloods(B.V.B.), a girl gang in Central Valley of CA:
initiate gets “jumped in”
• has to walk down a line with sixteen girls on each side of her, beating her
• has to sleep with a male gang member

In Text Citation

In the Central Valley of California, there are several girl gangs, including the Bentral Valley Bloods (B.V.B.). In order to become a member, each initiate must be “jumped in.” This rite of passage initiation requires the girl to walk down a line with sixteen girls on each side of her, who beat her continuously. She must also sleep with a male gang member (Vida 89).

*******************************

MLA In-text citations

Sample paragraph from an English 1A research essay:

The history of the debutante ball and a young girl’s coming out to society dates back as far as the early 1800s (McCormick 18). Daughters of very wealthy parents who were between the ages of sixteen and eighteen were introduced into the world of dating when their parents planned a party focused just on their daughter. It was a way to inform everyone in their circle of socially ‘acceptable’ people that their daughters were eligible to be courted (Samson 21-22). Daughters had no choice; they were obligated to go along with their parents’ wishes for a coming out party, even if they had no interest or desire (McCormick 42). According to a journal entry published in the book, The Journals of Emily St. Clare, 1875 – 1899, and edited by Rosemary Sparks, many girls begged their parents not to put them through such a social ordeal: “For weeks, I pleaded with father not to spend the time or money on such a frivolous event. I would much rather he spent more money on books for my personal library” (64). Certainly the ritual of coming out has a long tradition, yet in the past as well as currently, some young women gravitate towards the celebration and some despise it.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Greetings,

a few reminders...

1. You may only revise ONE of your three out of class essays. If you plan to revise out of class essay 1, the first revision is due on Monday, March 5.

2. Please come prepared to take the 3rd quiz on Rules of Thumb on Monday, the 5th. Bring your text! I will be giving you details about what to expect on the quiz in class tomorrow, Friday, March 2.

Friday, Feb. 24th, 2012

Greetings:

Below you will find three major items:
1. Out of class essay assignment #2, which was assigned in class today, Friday, the 24th of February. If you happened to be absent today, you will need to consult a fellow student for notes. There is a lot of important information that was discussed that is NOT on the prompt.

2. Handout on Notecards and Bibliography Cards, which was distributed and discussed in class today, Feb. 24th. Again, if you were absent today, you will need to consult a fellow student as to how to fill out the blank spaces.

3. Packet #4 (due to be read by Wednesday, Feb. 29)

*********************************************
English 1A, Sections 7 & 9
Spring 2012
Course Theme: The Significance of Home
Instructor: C. Fraga

Out of Class Essay Assignment #2 (worth 200 points total)

Assigned: Friday, Feb. 24th
ROUGH DRAFT: If you wish to have me review a rough draft of this assignment, please submit it to me NO LATER than Wednesday, March 14
Due: Monday, March 26
(YOU HAVE FOUR WEEKS TO CONDUCT RESEARCH AND WRITE YOUR ESSAY…PLAN YOUR TIME ACCORDINGLY)

• Essay must follow MLA format exactly.
• Essay must be typed and double spaced.
• Thesis statement must be underlined.
• Do not write a formulaic five paragraph essay.
• Essay must have a minimum of five sources on the Works Cited page. You are welcome to use the Internet for sources, but at least one of your sources cannot be found on the Internet (for example, use a book, watch a film, conduct an interview, etc.)
• You may certainly utilize the Wikipedia website to gain background information and to locate reference sites, but you may not use it as one of your documented sources on the Works Cited page.
• You must submit the essay as instructed in class—please record the requirements during the discussion.


Essay Prompt:

• For this essay, you will first select a group of people from another culture/country that you are genuinely interested in finding out more about.
• You will then conduct research in order to discover and then write about at least three significant ways in which someone from this culture/country must adapt to life in the United States.
• You will then begin by writing a thesis that is assertive and debatable.

For example, imagine that you selected the adaptation of the Hmong once they arrive in the US. After conducting some research, you decide to present information on male and female roles in marriage, religious practices and diet as the three areas of adjustment you feel are most significant and would make the most interesting reading.

Your thesis might read something like the following:

Hundreds of Hmong people immigrate to the United States every year and face many difficult challenges, particularly in the areas of religious practices, changes in diet and male/female roles within a marriage.

There are several ways to approach this topic and make it your OWN. The prompt can be interpreted in various different ways, as we discussed at length today in class.
(An essay that asks you to address a topic such as this one would be difficult to complete in less than five or six pages, approximately.)
************************************************************

MLA Research Documentation—English 1A—Prof. Fraga

Bibliography Cards: 3 x 5
Note Cards: 4 x 6

Sample Bibliography Card:
1. Record reference exactly as it would appear on your Works Cited page.
2. Remember, these cards are for your use; write legibly. This will save you so much time later when you are ready to type your Works Cited page.









Sample Note Card:
1. A note card without a source line is useless.
2. You need not record anything at the top except for the info. that will go in the in-text citation.
3. One idea or fact per card.
4. To further help you organize your essay, you may want to note the section in the essay where the information may appear. Put this in the upper right hand corner of the note card.







********************************************************

PACKET #4

1. "War Revisited"
by Nick Miller and Kel Munger
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/war-revisited/content?oid=928683

2. "Boots to Books: The Rough Road from Combat to College" (this is a video approx. 14 minutes in length)
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8c310eacfeb08aba2e7f1e29411543e9

Saturday, February 18th, noon

Hello,
just a quick note to remind those students who submitted a rough draft to me on Friday that I will have those back to you with my comments on Monday. ALSO, please attach the rough draft with my comments to the back of your final draft when you submit on Wednesday. Thanks so much!

Wednesday, February 15, 9 pm

Greetings:

If you wish to watch Daughter from Danang again before the in-class essay on Monday, it is available on YouTube.

FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH
Print out the discussion questions below and bring to class. You need not write out answers, but come to class prepared to discuss these questions. If you have specific and logically supported responses to each of these questions, the in class essay on Monday should go well for you.

DAUGHTER FROM DANANG--DISCUSSION QUESTIONS---THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. One reviewer describes the film as a “gut-wrenching examination of the way cultural differences and emotional expectations collide.” Would you agree this is an accurate description? Why or why not? Explain specifically.

2. Were there parts of the film that made you feel uncomfortable? If so, what were those parts and can you articulate why they made you feel uncomfortable?

3. Heidi acutely feels that she has been rejected by two mothers: her birth mother who gave her up and her Tennessee mother, whose cold, untouching demeanor drove a wedge between them. How does this fact impact Heidi and what she ultimately experiences when she returns to Vietnam?

4. The film is considered a very powerful one by many other small filmmakers as well as many reviewers. In your opinion, what makes this an effective or ineffective film?

5. What preconceived ideas about home are proven inaccurate after viewing the film?

6. In an interview with the filmmakers, they admit that when they decided to film Heidi’s return to Vietnam, they assumed that the reunion would be a healing story, a kind of full circle coming home. The war in Vietnam was long over and they felt they could create a film that would ease the collective pain that is still connected to the war. Instead, what they did discover?

7. Some viewers have condemned Heidi for representing an aspect of American culture that they believe is selfish and individualized. What do you think and feel about Heidi’s reaction for the family’s request for money?
*******************************
REMINDER FOR MONDAY--remember to bring a blue or green book. Size does not matter--small or large--either is acceptable.

*****************************
Below you will find Packet #3, due on Wednesday February 22nd. Remember! A Q & C is due for this packet.

PACKET #3 (two short stories to read)

1. "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck
http://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm

2. "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver
http://christchurchlr.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/A-Small-Good-Thing.pdf

Wednesday, late evening, February 8, 2012

Greetings...
As promised, below you will find a copy of the Out of Class Essay #1 Assignment AND a copy of the handout from today's class regarding documentary and narrative film viewing.
See you Friday!


English 1A, Sections 7 & 9 – Spring 2012
Instructor: C. Fraga

Out of Class Essay Assignment #1
100 points possible

Assigned: Wednesday, Feb. 8
Rough Draft Due (optional): no later than Friday, Feb 17
Final Draft Due: Wednesday, Feb. 22

This essay must follow MLA format for the set-up of your essay. No Works Cited page is required since you will not be conducting any outside research for this essay.
Your essay must be double-spaced and in Times New Roman font.

You have two weeks to brainstorm, plan, write, revise and proofread/edit this essay. Your essay will be evaluated in part based on the length of time you have to complete this assignment.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME
Essay Prompt: This essay asks you to employ your narrative, descriptive and analytical writing skills.

Consider your childhood and write about a place where you felt most comfortable, safe, happy and content. This place COULD be your actual house, or a room in your house, but it could be ANYWHERE. (your grandparents’ home; the school yard; the playground at a neighborhood park; Little League games; dance class; the tree house your dad built for you, etc.)

Your essay must include a detailed description of this place and the story of this place—what happened here? Why did this place bring a sense of comfort and safety and enjoyment to you? What did you do when you were at this place? And finally, why do you think it was so significant and memorable for you? Looking back, does this place in any way reflect or symbolize or help define who you are today? Why or why not? Be specific.

Your goal is for the reader to actually SEE this place and UNDERSTAND its importance and effect on you as a young child. Perhaps the reader will also get a sense of your personality and sensibility and passions.

REQUIRED LENGTH:

I do not believe in giving my students a specific page length requirement or word count requirement. Part of being a successful writer is knowing how to address a prompt accurately and fully and knowing when to stop writing. I WILL suggest that it would be challenging to complete this assignment in less than at least three to four pages. Not impossible, but challenging.

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English 1A
Prof. Fraga

In preparation for viewing the second film for the semester
and for viewing a documentary next week.

Purpose:
Just as reading fiction, non-fiction and poetry can aid in the development of a discriminatory, critical mind—and lead to critical writing and analysis in ANY area or topic—the viewing of films can elicit the same result.

A narrative film is a work of fiction.

A documentary film is a form that purports to report on the world as it exists. The documentary filmmaker uses various well-known techniques taken from the world of news reporting:

• reporting events as they happen,
• recording interviews with participants, and
• utilizing photographs and testimony of historical figures to portray past events.

Sometimes, the distinction between narrative and documentary has to be carefully drawn.

For example, occasionally actors are used to portray characters in historical documentaries such as Ken Burns’ Jazz, usually in voice-over. On the other hand, narrative films will often borrow various documentary techniques: Steve Soderberg in Traffic used hand-held cameras and a complicated interweaving of different stories to mimic a documentary “feel.” Nevertheless, it is clear that Traffic is a narrative film, and Jazz is a documentary.

It is generally assumed that documentaries will not deliberately falsify a view of reality…however, it is true that inevitably the documentary will reflect the filmmaker’s point of view, resulting in some manipulation of the absolute truth. The main way documentaries shape the story is through

• choosing the interview subjects,
• selecting certain shots and framing devices,
• and most importantly by editing the material to support their vision as filmmakers.

To be sure, the director of a documentary may often attempt to show a balanced point of view by posing questions regarding a problem or by advancing various solutions.

But often a documentary will abandon such an attempt and use powerful evidence to advance a certain ideological argument, as in the classic Harlan County, USA, about a miners’ strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1973. Here, the miners’ side in the strike is presented through emotional interviews, songs, meetings, and events on the picket line, while what little we see of the owners’ point of view is presented in a negative light. This kind of documentary that presents an argument is called a rhetorical form of documentary.

In evaluating a documentary it is important to understand what kind we are judging and thus what the filmmaker’s objectives are:

• Is the filmmaker trying to put forth his or her own point of view or attempting to show a balanced point of view?
• What techniques are being used to reveal the point of view?
• What methods are used to gather data?
• What are the criteria for choosing the people to be interviewed?
• What kind of shots are used to portray the subjects, and how does editing contribute to the ideological and emotional effect of the film?

THE NARRATIVE FILM—how to evaluate

In evaluating whether a film is “good” or not, it is important to consider a few main points that will aid in discussion and in writing a critical response.

1. Do the most important filmic elements such as photography, acting, editing and design support and complement each other? Is this unified style supportive of a strong theme? Does the film fit into a certain genre? Does it imaginatively add something to the traditions of that genre or does it merely copy them in a clichéd manner?
2. Do events flow naturally, and in this flow of action are there surprises and twists that engage an audience’s interest? Is there a strong climax and resolution? If the structure is nonlinear, do these varied elements build to some powerful emotional and/or intellectual effect? Does the dialogue seem appropriate to the style and environment of the film? If it is meant to be a realistic film, is the dialogue natural and spontaneous?
3. Do the characters and relationships seem specific and real? Do we identify with their goals and problems? Do the actors seem convincing? Do the actors present well-observed character details? Is there emotional truth in the playing? Is the acting style appropriate for the specific film genre?
4. Finally, looking at the film as a WHOLE…Common sense issues are very relevant. For example, does the film hold our interest throughout? Do we care about what happens on the screen? After the film, does it have a powerful effect on us? The answer to this last question separates the great films from the merely good ones.

Friday evening, January 27th, 2012

Below you will find the two poems that comprise Packet 2. Remember, your first set of Q & C's are due for this Packet on Friday, Feb. 3. All out of class work must be typed and double spaced and in MLA format. Refer to your class notes, your course outline, and sample Q & C homework handout. And...remember to bring a print out of the poems to class on the day they are due to be read.

The second poem, "Flies," is considered a prose poem. You may not be familiar with prose poems but they are interesting because they do not follow the same format as free verse or rhyming poems. They read more like a very short short story and even though there are stanzas, each stanza is prose that runs from the left to the right margin, as all prose does.

As we discussed in class...
about question and comment homework...
you must write a separate question (optional) and comment (mandatory) for EACH of the readings in the packet.
For example,
for Packet 2, there are two readings, so you will have TWO separate question and comments to submit.

PACKET 2

"Arturo" by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

http://www.pccc.edu/home/cultural-affairs/poetry-center/maria-mazziotti-gillans-poems2




“Flies”
By: Donald Hall

A fly sleeps on the field of a green curtain. I sit by my grandmother’s side, and rub her head as if I could comfort her. Ninety-seven years. Her eyes stay closed, her mouth open, and she gasps in her blue nightgown—pale blue, washed a thousand times. Now her face goes white, and her breath slows until I think it has stopped; then she gasps again, and pink returns to her face.

Between the roof of her mouth and her tongue, strands of spittle waver as she breathes. Now a nurse shakes her head over my grandmother’s sore mouth, and goes to get a glass of water, a spoon, and a flyswatter. My grandmother chokes on a spoonful of water and the nurse swats a fly


In the Connecticut suburbs where I grew up, and in Ann Arbor, there were houses with small leaded panes, where Formica shone in the kitchens, and hardwood in closets under paired leather boots. Carpets lay thick underfoot in every bedroom, bright, clean with no dust or hair in them. Nothing looked used, in these houses. Forty dollars’ worth of cut flowers leaned from Waterford vases for the Saturday dinner party.

Even in houses like these, the housefly wandered and paused—and I listened for the buzz of its wings and its tiny feet, as it struggled among cut flowers and bumped into leaded panes


In the afternoon my mother takes over at my grandmother’s side in the Peabody Home, while I go back to the farm. I nap in the room my mother and my grandmother were born in.

At night we assemble beside her. Her shallow, rapid breath rasps, and her eyes jerk, and the nurse can find no pulse, as her small strength concentrated wholly on half an inch of lung space, and she coughs faintly—quick coughs like fingertips on a ledge. Her daughters stand by the bed, solemn in the slow evening, in the shallows of after-supper—Caroline, Nan, and Lucy, her eldest daughter, seventy-two, who holds her hand to help her die, as twenty years past she did the same thing for my father.

Then her breath slows again, as it has done all day. Pink vanishes from cheeks w3e have kissed so often, and her nostrils quiver. She breathes one more quick breath. Her mouth twitches sharply, as if she speaks a word we cannot hear. Her face is fixed, white, her eyes half closed, and the next breath never comes.


She lies in a casket covered with gray linen, which my mother and her sisters picked. This is Chadwick’s Funeral Parlor in New London, on the ground floor under the I.O.O.F. Her fine hair lies combed on the pillow. Her teeth in, her mouth closed, she looks the way she used to, except that her face is tinted, tanned as if she worked in the fields.

This air is so still it has bars. Because I have been thinking about flies, I realize that there are no flies in this room. I imagine a fly wandering in, through these dark-curtained windows, to land on my grandmother’s nose.

At the Andover graveyard, Astroturf covers the dirt next to the shaft dug for her. Mr. Jones says a prayer beside the open hole. He preached at the South Danbury Church when my grandmother still played the organ. He raises his narrow voice, which gives itself over to August and blue air, and tells us that Kate in heaven “will keep on growing . . . and growing . . . and growing”—and he stops abruptly, as if the sky had abandoned him, and chose to speak elsewhere through someone else.


After the burial I walk by myself in the barn where I spent summers next to my grandfather. I think of them talking in heaven. Her first word is the word her mouth was making when she died.

In this tie-up chaff of flies roiled in the leather air, as my grandfather milked his Holsteins morning and night, his bald head pressed sweating into their sides, fat female Harlequins, while their black and white tails swept back and forth, stirring the flies up. His voice spoke pieces he learned for the lyceum, and I listened crouched on a three-legged stool, as his hands kept time strp strp with alternate streams of hot milk, the sound softer as milk foamed to the pail’s top. In the tie-up the spiders feasted like emperors. Each April he broomed the webs out and whitewashed the wood, but spiders and flies came back, generation on generation—like the cattle, mothers and daughters, for a hundred and fifty years, until my grandfather’s heart flapped in his chest. One by one the slow Holsteins climbed the ramp into a cattle truck.


In the kitchen with its bare hardwood floor, my grandmother stood by the clock’s mirror to braid her hair every morning. She looked out the window toward Kearsarge, and said, “Mountain’s pretty today,” or, “Can’t see the mountain too good today.”

She fought the flies all summer. She shut the screen door quickly, but flies gathered on canisters, on the clockface, on the range when the fire was out, on set-tubs, tables, curtains, chairs. Flies buzzed on cooling lard, when my grandmother made doughnuts. Flies lit on a drip of jam before she could wipe it up. Flies whirled over simmering beans, in the steam of maple syrup.

My grandmother fretted, and took good aim with a flyswatter, and hung strips of flypaper behind the range where nobody would tangle her hair in it.

She gave me a penny for every ten I killed. All day with my mesh flyswatter I patrolled kitchen and dining room, living room, even the dead air of the parlor. Though I killed every fly in the house by bedtime, when my grandmother washed the hardwood floor, by morning their sons and cousins assembled I the kitchen, like the woodchucks my grandfather shot in the vegetable garden which doubled and returned; or like the deer that watched for a hundred and fifty years from the brush on ragged mountain, and when my grandfather died stalked down the mountainside to graze among peas and corn.


We live in their house with our books and pictures, writing poems under Ragged Mountain, gazing each morning at blue Kearsarge.

We live in the house left behind; we sleep in the bed where they whispered together at night. One morning I wake hearing a voice from sleep: “The blow of the axe resides in the acorn.”

I get out of bed and drink cold water in the dark morning from the sink’s dipper at the window under the sparse oak, and fly wakes buzzing beside me, cold, and sweeps over set-tubs and range, one of the hundred-thousandth generation.

I planned long ago I would live here, somebody’s grandfather.

Wednesday evening, Jan. 25, 2012 (2nd posting for today)

Hello, below you will find Reading Packet #1, due to be read by Wednesday, Feb.1st. There are four poems to read. Two of them are provided in full text below and the other two are to be found on the Internet. Print out all four poems and bring to class on the 1st, the day they are due to be read. You will also note that NO question and comment homework is due for this packet.


POETRY READING PACKET #1 (four poems)

“Taking my Son to School”
by Eamon Grennan

(do a google search of the above poem exactly as it is written above. The first posting will be a commencement speech give by Mr. Grennan. Open this and you will see the poem right at the beginning of the speech. Focus only on the poem, not the speech)
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"One Home”
By William Stafford

Mine was a Midwest home—you can keep your world.
Plain black hats rode the thoughts that made our code.
We sang hymns in the house; the roof was near God.

The light bulb that hung in the pantry made a wan light,
but we could read by it the names of preserves—
outside, the buffalo grass, and the wind in the night.

A wildcat sprang at Grandpa on the Fourth of July
when he was cutting plum bushes for fuel,
before Indians pulled the West over the edge of the sky.

To anyone who looked at us we said, “My friend”;
liking the cut of a thought, we could say “Hello.”
(But plain black hats rode the thoughts that made our code.)

The sun was over our town; it was like a blade.
Kicking cottonwood leaves we ran toward storms.
Wherever we looked the land would hold us up.

*************************************************************

“Where Children Live”
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Homes where children live exude a pleasant rumpledness,
like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons.
To be a child again one would need to shed details
till the heart found itself dressed in the coat with a hood.
Now the heart has taken on gloves and mufflers,
the heart never goes outside to find something to do.
And the house takes on a new face, dignified.
No lost shoes blooming under bushes.
No chipped trucks in the drive.
Grown-ups like swings, leafy plants, slow-motion back and forth.
While the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses
of bottle-rockets and whistles,
anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short-lived.
Trees in children's yards speak in clearer tongues.
Ants have more hope. Squirrels dance as well as hide.
The fence has a reason to be there, so children can go in and out.
Even when the children are at school, the yards glow
with the leftovers of their affection,
the roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another
like secret smiles.

**********************************************************************
“To a Daughter Leaving Home”
by Linda Pastan
(please google the poem and you will find it on PoemHunter.com)

Wednesday afternoon, January 25, 2012

Hello,

Below you will find a copy of the handout on unacceptable errors that was discussed and distributed in class today.
You will also find a sample copy of a Question and Comment assignment as distributed in class today.

PLEASE NOTE: For the question comment homework, you are required to submit a commentary on EACH reading assigned. For example, a packet may have more than one reading. You must write a commentary for each individual writing, 8 sentences minimum.

UNACCEPTABLE ERRORS
In English 1A, students should already be very proficient in word usage. We do not have time for grammar lessons. (I will, however, provide short ‘mini’ lessons when I feel they are warranted.) The following errors that are commonly made on student papers are considered unacceptable.

For out of class essays, each unacceptable error takes ten points off your final earned grade. You may correct unacceptable errors and receive the points back if you choose to revise. In class essays that have unacceptable errors CAN always be corrected to earn back the points lost.
1. there – place Put it over there.
2. their – possessive pronoun That is their car.
3. they’re – contraction of they are They’re going with us.
4. your – possessive pronoun Your dinner is ready.
5. you’re – contraction of you are You’re not ready.
6. it’s – contraction of it is It’s a sunny day.
7. its – possessive pronoun The dog wagged its tail.
8. a lot – always two words I liked it a lot.
9. to – a preposition or part of an
infinitive I like to proofread my essays carefully.
10. too – an intensifier, or also That is too much. I will go too.
11. two – a number Give me two folders.
12. In today’s society Instead use “Today” or “In America” or “Now” etc
13. right(s)/write(s)/rite(s) rights are a set of beliefs or values in which a person feels entitled: His rights were read to him before he was arrested for stalking Dave Matthews. Writes is a verb indicating action taken with a pen, pencil or computers to convey a message: Michelle writes love letters to Dave Matthews in her sleep. Rites are a series of steps or events which lead an individual from one phase in life to the next, or a series of traditions that should be followed: The initiate began his rite of passage ceremony at the age of thirteen.
14. definitely/defiantly This error USUALLY occurs when a writer relies solely on spell-check. You really must learn to become the final editor of your work. Definitely is an adverb and it means without a doubt. Mary will definitely miss the Dave Matthews Band concert. Defiantly means to show defiance. She was in a defiant mood. It is an adjective. Or it could be used as an adverb. She was defiantly rude and sullen towards the professor.
15. On your Works Cited page: you MUST center and type at the top the heading just as it is here: Works Cited. NOT ALL CAPS, NOT BOLDED, NOT UNDERLINED, NOT MISSPELLED, NOT IN A DIFFERENT SIZED FONT, ETC.
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An accumulation of the following errors can affect your grade, but not one error, ten points down. The number depends on how serious the error is, and how often you make it. Some do not slow up the reader as much as others.
• Misuse of the word “you”. You must actually mean the reader when you use the word “you”.

• Avoid use of contractions in formal expository writing. (can’t, shouldn’t, didn’t, etc.)

• Agreement of subject and verb. Both must be either singular or plural.

• Fragmented sentences, comma splices and run-ons. Be sure to proofread your papers carefully before turning them in.

You will not pass English 1A if you cannot write an intelligent sentence in correct English.

********************************************
SAMPLE QUESTION AND COMMENT HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
(although the sample here displays an error in spacing, please remember that all work is double spaced.) :)

Dave Matthews

Professor Fraga

English 1A, 1

2 February 2012

“Traveling through the Dark”

by William Stafford

Q: I have no question.

C: During a very brief event on a dark country road, poet William Stafford chronicles a very somber and difficult decision the

speaker has to make; Stafford has written a very universal poem. Even if the reader has never been in a similar situation, almost

everyone has had to weigh the pros and cons of a challenging decision. By the end of the second stanza, when we learn that the

dead deer is pregnant and her fawn is alive, we are drawn into the dilemma the speaker and his friends face.

This poem reminds me of what makes life so exciting and yet so frustrating at the same time. Whenever we make a decision,

we are never completely guaranteed we have made the “right” decision; we just make the best decision we can based on the

information we have.

The last two lines of the poem are especially effective and very visual. The sadness seeps through the words: “I thought hard

for us all…and then pushed her over the edge into the river.” In fact, Stafford’s careful word choice throughout the poem keeps

the reader focused and tense. Sometimes living is very much like “traveling through the dark” without any signs for direction.

January 22, 2012, Sunday afternoon

Welcome to English 1A, Spring 2012.

This blog is exclusively for my two sections of 1A, Sections 7 and 9.

Below you will find a copy of the course outline and grade worksheet. In case you misplace the hard copy distributed to you in class on the first day, you will always be able to access a copy here on the blog.


SPRING 2012, CSU SACRAMENTO
COURSE: English 1A: College Composition I
Section 7, MWF, 10-10:50 AM (Douglass Hall 206)
Section 9, MWF, 11-11:50 AM (Douglass Hall 206)
INSTRUCTOR: Catherine Fraga
E-mail: sacto1954@gmail.com
Office Hours: CLV 149, MWF 12-1:00 PM or by appointment

CLASS BLOG: http://English1ASpring2012Fraga.blogspot.com

Prerequisites: Placement by examination OR successful completion of English 1 or its equivalent.
************************************************************************
REQUIRED TEXTS & MATERIALS
• Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home—A Memoir
By Caitlin Shetterly
Publisher: Voice

• The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
by Kien Nguyen
Publisher: Bay Back Books

• Rules of Thumb: A Guide for Writers—8th Edition
by Jay Silverman, Elaine Hughes, Diana Roberts Wienbroer
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

• 8 1/2” x 11” lined notebook paper (paper that is torn out of a notebook without a straight edge will not be accepted).

• Stapler

• Reliable access to a computer and a printer.

• Two (2) Blue (or Green) Books for the two in-class essays
(these can be found in the university’s bookstore or at the Student Union store—they are available in two different sizes—either size is acceptable)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
English 1A is a freshman writing course that offers students the opportunity to learn and develop the reading and writing skills that will be most useful to them during a four-year college program. The course is designed to help students improve their ability to understand and critically judge reading material and to write an essay which has a single controlling idea and which is coherently developed using idiomatically and grammatically correct English.

The heart of the course is readings that require a range of narrative, analytical, reflective and research writing skills.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Attendance and punctuality are required. I have designed this course so that it depends on your presence and participation. If you’re absent, you are still responsible for finding out what you’ve missed (including lecture notes, handouts, changes in due dates, etc.) Refer to your class phone list.

2. Having more than three absences will seriously alter your final grade. This is not because I do not consider you mature enough to make a commitment to a class; it is because if you do miss more than 3 classes, you miss group work, or in class writing, or a journal assignment, or a quiz, or an in class essay assignment, and/or a bevy of other possible events, all of which affect the grade you earn. Please communicate with me. I am very understanding and reasonable.

If you must miss a class on a day an assignment is due, you are still responsible for getting the assignment to me on time. Again, use the phone list, call your mother, or??? This is merely a fairness issue; we all have life situations that are often difficult and unexpected, and if others manage to still get their work in on time, I cannot give special exceptions to just a few.

3. There will be numerous reading and writing assignments in this course. I expect you to complete them on time and come prepared to class. We may not get an opportunity to discuss everything we read for class, but that is inevitable in any college course.

4. You will complete a question and comment assignment for several of the reading assignments. The question is optional, but the commentary is not. Your commentary must be a minimum of eight sentences in length. (I know ALL the shortcuts students may try. Be assured that if you write eight very short, simple sentences you will not receive credit for the assignment. A thorough explanation of what is required for these question and comment assignments and a sample will be provided.) No late homework will be accepted.

5. Out of class essays may be handed in late, but there is a stiff penalty. For every day your essay is late, the grade for that essay will drop a full ten points. This includes weekends. Points subtracted for lateness cannot be made up during the revision process.

6. Journal writing assignments are assigned and completed in class and are not allowed to be made up.

7. Quizzes: There will be three scheduled quizzes on the Handbook and five unannounced, unscheduled quizzes during the semester. If you come prepared to class the quizzes should present no problems for you.

8. A note on classroom etiquette:
If you feel you cannot survive each class session without the use of your cell phone, iPod, iPad, laptop computer or other similar devices, please do not enroll in this class. (I own three of these devices, and value each of them, but I do not plan on using them during my classroom time with you. Simply, it is the highest degree of rudeness and disrespect.) If I see you busy texting, etc. I will not hesitate to ask you to leave. (IF THERE IS A COMPELLING REASON THAT YOU MUST KEEP YOUR PHONE ON VIBRATE FOR AN EMERGENCY PHONE CALL THAT MAY OCCUR DURING CLASS HOURS, PLEASE INFORM ME BEORE CLASS.) Each cIass session is a mere 50 minutes long and plan to give you my full attention for 50 minutes and I expect the same from all my students. (Of course, if you have documented paperwork from the university indicating the need for a computer in the classroom, that is perfectly fine!)

9. HOW YOUR GRADE IS EARNED:
See attached grade roster. At no time should you wonder how you are “doing” in the course. The grade worksheet makes it very easy to keep track. Simply record your scores as you receive back your graded work. Do not discard any assignments that are graded and returned to you until the semester is over.

10. English 1A is graded A, B, C, D, or F. Do not assume that because you have not submitted an out of class essay assignment, you will still be able to pass the course. Even though you have missed the due date, and have an automatic “F” for that assignment, YOU STILL MUST WRITE AND SUBMIT ALL THREE OUT OF CLASS ESSAYS TO PASS THE COURSE, as well as earning passing scores on your other work.

Theme: The Significance of Home

• We will consider home as our course-long theme. The significance of home – as a place of beginnings, as a starting point, as a place of comfort, regret, anguish, joy, personal growth, and loss – fuels a meaningful, intriguing collection of themes. Home is a base from which all of us emerge.

• Most of us have pre-conceived notions of home as a place of love, comfort, security. For millions of children, however, these definitions do not fit their reality of home as a place to escape: escape from cycles of poverty, mistrust, abuse.

• The course will explore not only home as a safety net, but also the illusions we have of home perpetuated by Madison Avenue advertising agencies.

• What are our expectations of home? Again, does our “real” home live up to the expectations society has created? How do different cultural values and priorities play a role in determining what home should and should not be? Attempting to answer these questions is the task I have set for us during this semester.

• What does it mean to leave home for the first time? What does it mean to be rootless, without a home?

• Finally, how can we reconnect to the earth as home, knowing full well that the lives we have created for ourselves impact the finite planet all of us call home?

• We view at least two films which explore the theme of home. These films will allow us to observe and witness concepts we have read about and discussed.

COURSE OUTLINE
(Please note: Bring this outline to class each session; changes could occur at a moment’s notice. Also, most reading and writing assignments are noted -- other class exercises and lectures may not be noted specifically)

ALL OUT OF CLASS ASSIGNMENTS (HOMEWORK, ESSAYS, ETC) MUST BE TYPED AND DOUBLE SPACED UNLESS INSTRUCTED OTHERWISE. PLEASE USE TIMES NEW ROMAN, 12 POINT FONT.

Week One (January 23-27)
• Introduction to the Course (course theme explained)
• Course Outline Distributed (handout)
• Question/Comment Homework Explained
• Unacceptable Errors (handout)
• Oral Presentation Assigned (for last week of class)
• Discussion: Reading and Evaluating Poetry

Week Two (January 30-Feb. 3)
STAPLER CHECK ON MONDAY--BE SURE YOU HAVE IT IN YOUR POSSESSION TODAY AND FROM NOW ON...:-)
• In class Demonstration/Discussion on the Writing Process
• Read Packet 1 (Wednesday)
• In class Journal #1 (Wednesday)
• Read Packet 2 (Friday) Q & C #1 due today
• Group Work #1 (Friday)

Week Three (Feb. 6-10)
• Quiz based on pgs. 2-60 in Rules of Thumb (Monday)
• Discussion: How to Evaluate a Documentary Film (Wednesday)
• Out of Class Essay #1 assigned today (Wednesday)
• Discussion: Reading and Evaluating Short Fiction (Friday)

Week Four (Feb 13-17)
• View 1st half of film in class (Monday)
• View 2nd half of film in class (Wednesday)
• Preparation for in-class writing next week (Friday)
• IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY, I RECOMMEND THAT YOU START READING MADE FOR YOU AND ME. THE FIRST 65 PAGES IS DUE TO BE READ BY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7TH.

Week Five (Feb. 20-24)
• In-class Essay #1 (Monday)
• Out of Class Essay #1 due today (Wed.)
• Read Packet #3 (Wed.) Q & C #2 due today
• Out of Class Essay #2 assigned today (Friday)
• Discuss MLA Documentation in class (Friday)

Week Six (Feb. 27-March 2)
• Read pgs. 112-134 in Rules of Thumb (Monday)
• Quiz on pgs. 112-134 (see above) (Monday)
• Read Packet #4 (Wednesday)
• Group Work #2 (Friday)

Week Seven (March 5-9)
• Read pages 136-149 in Rules of Thumb (Monday)
• Quiz on pages 136-149 (see above) (Monday)
• Read pages 1-65 in Made for You and Me (Wed.)
• In class Journal #2 (Wed.)
• Group Work #3 (Friday)

Week Eight (March 12-16)
• Read pages 66-152 in Made for You and Me (Monday)
• Discussion: How to Read and Evaluate Essays (Wed.)
• Read Packet #5 --Q & C #3 due today (Friday)
• Review all Sentence Level Errors (Friday)

MARCH 19-23—SPRING RECESS…CAMPUS CLOSED

Week Nine: (March 26-30)
• Read pages 152 through to the end of the book Made for You and Me (Monday)
• In class Journal #3 (Wednesday)
• Read Packet #6--Q & C #4 due today (Wednesday)
• FRIDAY, MARCH 30, CESAR CHAVEZ BIRTHDAY…CAMPUS CLOSED

Week Ten: (April 2-6)
• If you have not already, begin reading The Unwanted. Please have pages 5-136 read by Wednesday of this week.
• Out of class essay #3 assigned (Monday)
• Discuss The Unwanted, pages 5-136 (Wednesday)

Week Eleven: (April 9-13)
• View film in class (Monday)
• Complete viewing of film in class (Wednesday)
• In class essay #2 on film viewed this week (Friday)

Week Twelve: (April 16-20)
• Read Packet #7 (Monday)
• In class Journal #4 (Wednesday)
• A Reading Day (Friday)

Week Thirteen: (April 23-27)
• By today you will have read the entire memoir, The Unwanted (Monday)
• Out of class essay #3 due today (Wed.)
• Discuss The Unwanted in class (Wed.)
• Group Work #4 (Fri.)
• Take home test on The Unwanted distributed today (Friday)

Week Fourteen(April 30-May 4)
• In class Journal #4 (Monday)
• Take home test on The Unwanted due today (Wednesday)
• Complete my specially designed evaluation for this course (Friday)

Week Fifteen (May 7-11) LAST WEEK OF CLASSES
• Oral Presentations (Monday and Wednesday)
• Grade Worksheet Check and last day of class (Friday)

Week Sixteen (May 12-18) FINALS WEEK
There is no scheduled final exam for this class.

***A NOTE ABOUT REVISIONS***
Since this is a composition course, where the goal is to become a better writer and a more sophisticated thinker, you are invited to revise one of the three out of class essays. If you choose to revise an essay, the revision along with the original, is due no later than one week after you receive the graded essay back. You MUST highlight all changes and additions you make on your revised essay.

***A NOTE ABOUT HOW TO SUBMIT OUT OF CLASS ESSAYS #2 AND #3***
Please read these instructions carefully because I will not accept out of class essay 2 or 3 unless these instructions are followed. You do not want to end up submitting an essay late.

When submitting out of class essays 2 and 3, you must MAKE A COPY of the editing reminders I attached to your previous out of class essay and attach it to the one you are submitting.

This is to assure that you have READ and EDITED the current essay based on errors from your previous essay. I will not accept out of class essays 2 or 3 without it. Your grade on the submitted essay will obviously be evaluated partially based on your improvements in editing and proofreading from your previous essay.



English 1A, Spring 2012, Prof. Fraga
GRADE WORKSHEET-----1975 POINTS POSSIBLE

Stapler Check (25 pts.)
Monday, January 30—stapler in your possession!______

Oral Presentation=(100 pts.)

Oral Pres._____(100)

Out of Class Essays (400 points)
Out of Class Essay 1_____(100 pts.) Out of Class Essay 2_____(200 pts.) Out of Class Essay 3_____(100 pts.)

Rules of Thumb Quizzes (300 points)
Pgs. 1-60 (100)_____ Pgs. 112-134 (100)_____ Pgs 136-147 (100)_____

Unannounced Quizzes (250) (50 points each)
Quiz 1____Quiz 2_____Quiz 3_____Quiz 4_____Quiz 5_____

Journals=(100 pts.)
Journal 1 (25) _____Journal 2 (25)_____Journal 3 (25)_____Journal 4 (25)_____

Homework=(200 pts.)
Q and C #1 (50)_____Q and C #2 (50)_____Q and C #3 (50)_____Q and C #4 (50)_____

In Class Group Work (200 pts.)
Group Work 1 (50 pts)_____Group Work 2 (50 pts)_____Group Work 3 (50 pts)_____Group Work 4 (50 pts)_____

In Class Essays (200 pts.)
In class essay #1 (100)_____In class essay #2 (100) _____

Take home essay on The Unwanted (200)_____
**************************************************************************************
How to assess your grade earned: Divide the points you earn by 1975 to find the percentage. Then see chart below.

100-94=A 63-60=C-
93-90=A- 59-54=D
89-84=B+ 53-0=F
83-80=B
79-74=B-
73-70=C+
69-64=C