Class #4: ASSIGNMENTS, Wednesday, February 3, 2016

READ: And by read...I mean read & annotate, of course...

READ article, "How to Mark a Book" by Mortimer Adler

WRITE: 

Writing a Personal Narrative

A narrative is a story. In writing a narrative essay, you share with the reader some personal experience of your own in order to make a point or convey a larger message. A great narrative, for example might be how your grandfather influenced your desire to become an orthodontist, or perhaps you’ll relate the story of the time you didn’t make the cut for the basketball team. Whatever the story, a good narrative relays a higher purpose or meaning.

Narrative effect is the main point of your story—the moral, the message, the insight you offer. Without a specific narrative effect, your essay is merely a series of unconnected events. If you are unsure what your main point is, you might ask yourself, “Why am I telling this story? Why should someone else be interested in reading about my experience?” In addition, you must decide whether to reveal your point explicitly (stated directly) or implicitly (suggested but not stated).

Formal Essay #2: The Descriptive Narrative: Your narrative will be a story that evinces LOVE...not necessarily the LOVE of a human being. It could be the love of an item (your favorite chair) or an activity (knitting, spelunking, 40 man squash tournaments, full-contact origami). The catch is that the narrative must provide its description through the telling of a specific story. So you can't simply DESCRIBE your chair, you must tell me the story of how you got it, or a time when it provided you solace. You can't tell me about your boyfriend, you have to tell me about a particular memorable date. 

The narrative MUST tell a story, and the story must illustrate the love you feel for the thing. 

You may NOT write about: your family, a sport you played in high school or Disney World! Sorry, just plain tired of reading those.  

Two pages double spaced, default or 1" margins. DRAFT ONE, DUE MONDAY. February 8th. 

Class #4: February 3, 2016: ASSIGNMENTS: Informal Writing #1

Informal #1: Examine the "alternative" forms of narrative presented in class today. You can read "Fun Home" by Allison Bechdel. Or, you can listen to episode one of Serial right here.

Please read/listen to both pieces. 

After experiences both pieces, please respond in writing to one of them. Your Informal #1 writing piece (a page and a half typed) will discuss each in terms of the "narrative." By that, I mean how do they succeed in telling the story. Your analysis can be as easy as answering:

1. What do you like about the piece?
2. What intrigued you? Why?

You can also use the writing assignment to make sense of the piece. What does it mean? Why do the very different stories explored here NEED to be told?

Also, rewrite Informal #1 based on today's assignment.

Mr. Costal vs. The Accuplacer Computer

Mr. Costal's MUST DO for Writeplacer: 

1. TIME: it's on your side. Edit. Edit. Edit. 

And if you don't believe that makes a difference...what if the computer is designed to consider the time it takes you to complete the essay into your final score?

2. STRUCTURE: At least four paragraphs, each one MUST have at least five sentences. 

DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT UNDER 500 words. 

Except intro, keep intro short. 

Use a quotation instead of rhetorical question?

Play the TWO QUOTATIONS game. 

3. THESIS: Use this: 

While _______ (other side of argument), _______________ (your side of argument)

EX: While luck is nice, my family's background and American history has taught me that true financial and emotional success can only come from hard work. 

Let's try this theory out. 

4. USE SIGNALS: "First" to open second paragraph. 

"Next" to open third paragraph

Write at least one sentence that does this:  "People spend a lot of time and money trying to build luck; however they would be better served by organizing a strategy for working toward their desires." 

5. USE THE ADJECTIVE CHEAT. 

What do I do....cause I forgot as soon as I left B101

1. Send informals (#1 - #7) TO JCOSTAL@GEHRHSD.NET in ONE document BY Dec14th 11:59pm MINUS FREE ONE = SIX

2. Place my final paper in my e-portfolio at stockton.digication.com (I will place it in the "tab thing" called Communication - Writing Skills)

3. IN the e-portfolio, I will check other tab things to make sure I did what was due waaaaaaaaay before right now. I should write a reflection in the Teamwork Collaboration tab thing. And, I should write about myself in the Welcome page. Costal said it should be approx 350 words. Questions for this are on the November 30th blog post.

4. Happy Holidays to me!

5. Build a snowman.

6. Kiss my parents or guardians.

7. Write nice things about Costal on secret Stockton Crushes Twitter feed.

Class #23A NOTE: Monday, November 30: Class held in D27

I'd like to have the literary analysis papers emailed to me at jcostal@gehrhsd.net by 11:59pm, Monday, November 30th.

It's IDEA time, I will providing the first  ten or so minutes of class to allow you time to fill out the IDEA for the course.

6pm students link here. 

8pm students link here. 

Goals for tonight's class: 

1. Answer questions about Skube paper from those of you who already received my feedback.

2. Discuss questions/issues with literary analysis paper, now that you have had some extra time to submit.

Class #22: Monday, November 23, 2016: Lit Analysis Paper & Plagarism activity

*If possible, bring a copy of A Good Man... to class. 

You will be given a 5 minute story review and prep prior to today's lecture. The idea is to maximize the effectiveness of my lecture in preparing you to write your paper over this week/weekend.

1. What might become the thesis of your LA paper? 
2. What basic components of the story or key concepts does your paper plan to explore? 
3. Write down two or three quotations from the story that your family has annotated. Why? Could you use this for your paper? Why or why not? 
4. Do a quick resource review. In other words, what 3rd party sources or research do you plan (or have you) used to write this paper? 

Formal Writing #7: Lit Analysis on "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Three to five pages. APA formatted sources. ALL CREDIBLE SOURCES/TRY to have ALL academic sources. Put writing number in the header. Due next Monday.

LECTURE NOTES: 

The overall goals of O'Connor's work:

1. To define the grotesque both as a literary device and a way to emphasize a spirituality vision; to recognize how the grotesque relates to realism, even humor. 

2. To develop genre known as "Southern Gothic,"  in order to explore its dark history and "grotesqueness" of old customs.


3. To juxtapose and parallel her characters and situations until a thematic importance surfaces.  

4. To challenge, even interrogate, Christianity in search of the idea of grace. "In my stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of turning 

Notes from class can be found here. 

And don't forget about that literary thesis writing handout from a while back. 

Class #21: CLASS CANCELED TODAY: NOVEMBER 18, 2015

That hearty cough I had Monday night has turned into full-on illin' for me.

No class tonight....BUT...please email me your final Skube papers to jcostal@gehrhsd.net by 11:59pm this evening.

Why not take your new-found "time" to edit that bad boy one more time?

Also, I have mapped out the remainder of class, and will be adding it as a sidebar on the blog shortly. Thanks for your attention. See you Monday.

Class #20: Monday, November 16, 2015

CLASS WILL MEET IN D18! YOU NEED ONLY HAVE A DIGITAL COPY OF SKUBE LETTER PAPER.

Class #17: NOTE: WEDNESDAY CLASS MOVED TO F222

Mini-Lesson: Thesis Work: 

The Beatles are the best rock and roll band of all time.

The Beatles are the greatest rock and roll band of all time because they wrote great songs, produced great albums and defined 60s culture.

Despite the cultural relevance of "Beatlemania," the band's importance in the canon of rock and roll grows as a result of their classic song-writing and transcendent album production.

IN-CLASS FAMILY ASSIGNMENT: 

1. Gather up ye' olde families.

2. Trade papers and do a contextual read.

3. One family member should open a Google Doc and share it with my email (jcostal@gehrhsd.net) and the email of their counterpart family. Be sure to also put the names of each family member present in class on the doc.

4. Under each thesis, add a credible piece of evidence (from a 3rd party source) that supports the thesis. Be sure to attribute the evidence (one to three sentences).

5. Feel free to edit one another's submissions.

6. After you have shared your sheet, open the sheet of your counterparts. If it's done, take out the thesis rubric I gave you. Apply each of your partner family's theses to the rubrics. Give each thesis a score based on the number of "Y"s it receives from the rubric.

7. We will come together as a class to discuss these, and I do not plan on doing the talking. The family is responsible for assessing one another's these.

8. You will receive a grade for the your family's theses quality. You will receive a grade for your analysis and presentation as well.

ASSIGNMENTS

RESOURCE: The most comprehensive website for everything about formatting anything in APA style can be found here. 

READ: Read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. Annotate the story. Do a solid read focusing on level two and three. You will be writing your literary analysis paper on this piece, so the more thoroughly you work now, the better off you will be later. I am interested in your analysis of how O'Connor uses specific devices and concepts. If you're stuck, specifically consider terms of character development.

REMEMBER the annotation should show how the article effectively (or ineffectively) ties EVIDENCE to the CLAIM. 

Use the same claim, reason and questions posed above for this assignment.

Class #16: NOTE: Class in Monday in D18

Be sure to have with you...digital copy of essay due today. 

We will do some peer editing. The link to the presentation is on Twitter.

We are struggling with abstraction. Let's start here. 

Attribution vs. Citation discussion continues here.