Course Recap for Friday, October 30, 2015

Homework

• Outline analyzing one of the 3 short stories (Virgins, All-Girl Football Team or Sonny's Blues) Due Monday November 2
• Between your three outlines (your movie, song, and short story) choose 2 of them to develop into a full paper and submit your first drafts Friday November 6

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Course Recap for Friday, October 23, 2015

Class was cancelled.  Here's your homework for the week.

Homework

• The outlines that were due today.  If you haven't typed them, I need you to do so.  Remember the outline is just that.  An outline for the paper.  You don't have to write the full paper.  I received a full paper which is fine but it was not required for this part of the assignment.  The easy way to do this is to click on the Analysis Outline link on the blog.  Go to File and then select Make a Copy.  This will allow you to go ahead and edit the document right in Google Docs and then you just have to share it with me when you're done.  The Sample Analysis Outline that I gave out last Friday is also on the blog if you want an idea of what I'm looking for.  Have this to me by Monday.  If you do so, I will give you feedback on your outline to let you know if you're on the right track.  I will not accept any outlines I don't receive by Monday.  This assignment was technically due today so all you should have to do is type it up.  You were basically given an extension so I won't accept any that are late.
•  If you haven't read the short stories, please do so and come to class Friday with a one sentence thesis statement written for each story. From each story, what is a message you received from it.  Again check the sample outline for an example of a thesis statement.  You'll pick a major theme from the piece, for instance, the theme of addiction is prevalent in Sonny's Blues and then tell me what you think the piece is saying about addiction.  We will look at the statements you come up with and narrow down which ones are good and which ones are not and talk about the ways you could go about defending those statements.  It's an easy assignment considering the reading should already be done.  One sentence thesis statement for each story. 

Course Recap for Friday, October 16, 2015

Analyzing a Piece of Art
In class, you answered several questions about aspects of your movie such as the characters, the setting, the conflict/resolution, the key scenes, etc.  You were also give background questions to answer about your movie such as who's the director, how does your piece fit into the specific genre of movie you're looking at, etc.  All of these questions were asked to help you to decide on a potential thesis statement for your analysis paper.  Your thesis for your analysis is a message that you feel the film sends through it's characters, plot points, visuals, etc. 

Once you determine what that message is you will have to gather evidence from the piece to support it.  You will be completing an outline for a movie and song of your choice, where you identify a potential thesis statement and then provide me with the evidence you would use to defend that thesis.

Some of the same questions you ask yourself when analyzing a movie, apply to the song.  How would you characterize the speaker?  What is the story of the song?  What is the conflict?  How does the music influence the song lyrics?  What do you know about the performer that could influence how you feel about the song? etc.  Remember that there is no right or wrong interpretation.  Your interpretation of the message is right as long as you have sufficient evidence to back it up.  Your goal is to show me that you know how to present a strong argument.


Homework (all due Next Friday Oct 23)

• Outline for your analysis of a song AND movie of your choice
• Read Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin 
• Read The All-Girl Football Team by Lewis Nordan 
• Read Virgins by Danielle Evans

Course Recap for Friday, October 9, 2015

Reflection Paper

When you turn in the final drafts of your narratives, they should be accompanied by a 500 word Reflection paper, reflecting on your writing process. In this paper you are going to answer the following questions.

1. What significant changes did you make between your first draft and your final and why? Be sure to include any classmate or instructor feedback you received or anything you may have learned from reading your classmates drafts (think back to the questions you answered on peer review day).

2. Compare and contrast writing the fictional narrative and the personal narrative? Which was easier for you? How did you approach each? Which of the two did you like the most?

3. What are you most proud of in each of your narratives (include at least one quoted passage)? If you still had time (or was forced to revise this paper yet again), what would you change? What could you do better? You must answer both parts of this question.

4. What did you take away from this project? What did you learn?

Final Drafts and Reflection Paper Due Monday by midnight via Google Docs (my gmail is micealaya.moses@gmail.com)

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Course Recap for Friday, October 2, 2015

Homework

• Narrative #2 (Due Monday, October 5 via ELI and Google Docs)
• Review of Narrative #2 (Due Friday, October 9 via ELI)

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