Tuesday, August 5th--5:25 pm

Hello, below is a copy of the oral presentation assignment. You should also have notes from the day I assigned it.

Also, reminder:

remember to bring your grade sheet and all your graded work tomorrow to class

English 5, College Composition I

SUMMER BRIDGE ACADEMY--2014

Instructor:  Catherine Fraga

Oral Presentation Assignment

The Significance of Home

Assigned:  Second week of semester

Due: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6TH

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.

Sunday, August 3, 2014--6 pm

Greetings,

I hope all of you have had a wonderful and safe weekend.
This is just a friendly reminder about the oral presentation assignment due on Wednesday, the last day o class.

See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014--7:15 pm

Greetings!

Below you will find the following:
1. a copy of the handout distributed Wednesday on how to critically read an essay.
2. assignments for Packets 7 and 8 for next week.

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

English 5—Summer Bridge Academy--2014

C. Fraga

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 you 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.

************ 

PACKET 7
"A Place to Call Home: What Immigrants Say Now"
http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/immigrants


PACKET 8 (Q & C #4 due for this packet)
(this TED Talk focuses on the devastating topic of human trafficking)

http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia.html

Monday, July 21st, 2014--SECOND POSTING FOR TODAY--8:30 pm

Hello again,

just a quick note.

I will be returning your graded out of class essay #2 tomorrow. If you submitted a revision of out of class essay #1 today, I will be returning that to you tomorrow as well.

If you choose to revise out of class essay #2, the first revision is due no later than next Tuesday, July 29th.

Remember to follow the instructions on how to submit a revision which can be found on your syllabus. 

(for essay #2, if you revise, you need not submit all the peer evaluations--just the original with my commentary is needed.)

Monday, July 21st, 2014--3 pm

Hello,

Below you will find the link to the Q & C with the filmmakers of Daughter from Danang, as well as the choice of prompts for the in class essay tomorrow.

http://www.daughterfromdanang.com/about/qa.html


Think about and prepare to respond to one of the three prompts below:

1. Why did Heidi have the experience she did when she returned to Vietnam? Is there any way her experience could have been prevented? Be specific

2. A documentary film is usually considered successful if it sparks the viewer's interest and emotions. Do you think this film is successful or not? Explain specifically.

3.  Our definition of home is usually based on our experiences. What do you think Heidi's defintion of home was before her trip to Vietnam? Why? Upon her return, how do you think Heidi would now define her home? Why?

2nd posting for Tuesday, July 15th, 2014--6 pm

Hello again,

below you will find:

1. a short synopsis of the film we will view in class on Thursday this week.

2. discussion questions to help guide you as you view the film in class. You will not be answering these questions as an assignment to submit; however, you will want to become familiar with them before you view the film. And while you are viewing the film, you will want to jot down possible answers. These will be very helpful when you write your in class next week.

Daughter from Danang--brief synopsis of film

In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of "Operation Babylift." Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war's end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee - a married woman with kids - had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance. Unlike most reunion stories that climax with a cliché happy ending, Daughter from Danang is a real-life drama. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee and back to Vietnam, Daughter from Danang tensely unfolds as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll in a riveting film about longing and the personal legacy of war.

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?

Tuesday, July 14th, 2014--5:45 pm

Hello,

A quick note to let you know about a change I am making to the syllabus.

I have decided to give you more time to complete out of class essay #2.

I will be returning your rough drafts tomorrow, but I am moving the due date for the final draft of out of class essay #2 from this Thursday, July 17th, to MONDAY, JULY 21ST.

USE THIS EXTRA TIME WISELY. :)

Monday, July 14, 2014--8:45 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find a few reminders as well as the assignments for Packet # 5 and Packet #6.

REMINDER:
Please bring four copies of your rough draft of Essay #2 to class tomorrow, collated and stapled.

SPECIAL REQUEST:
Attention:  SYLVIA, KIANA, ELI, MARIA:  If these four students read this blog entry in time, could you please bring FIVE copies of your rough draft, instead of four? If you do not read this in time, we will figure something else out. Thanks! (This request is JUST for the four students listed above.)


PACKET #5--(3 items)--Q & C #3 due for this Packet.
"Female Vets Navigate Post-War Stress, Home Duties"
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/30/140038335/female-vets-navigate-post-war-stress-home-duties

"Boots to Books: The Rough Road from Combat to College"
(This is an approximately 14 minute video and a short article)
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8c310eacfeb08aba2e7f1e29411543e9

"For Many Returning Veterans, Home is Where the Trouble is"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/opinion/03mon4.html


PACKET #6
"The Magic of the Family Meal" by Nancy Gibbs
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200760,00.html

Tuesday, July 8, 2014--9 pm

Good evening,

A few things:

1. There is a change in the syllabus schedule for Friday this week, July 11th. I will be assigning out of class essay #2 on Thursday, not Friday. Your out of class essay is still due on Friday. Instead of meeting in our usual classroom on Friday, we are meeting in the library instead--Room 2024. It is on the second floor, near the computer lab.

2.  For Packet 3, one of the readings is a short story, "A Small Good Thing," by Raymond Carver.
Two students have informed me that the link I provided in a previous blog entry did not "work."
If this is the case for anyone else, I am including another link to the story below. Please let me know if you have any trouble. (Reminder:  Packet 3 is due to be read by Thursday, and there is a Q & C due for the packet.)

http://www.essayservice.org/read/a-small-good-thing-christ-church-little-rock-865666/

Sunday, July 6th, 2014--11:45 am

Greetings!

I hope you are thoroughly enjoying the last hours of your weekend! :)

Reminders:
1. rough draft of essay #1 due tomorrow
2. bring your stapler to class (and in fact, you will want to have it with you in class for the rest of the semester)

PACKET #4 ASSIGNMENT (due on Monday, July 14)--(3 items total)

"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/

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

Second Posting for Tuesday, July 1, 2014--7 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find the following:
1. Packet #2 (due next week, Wednesday, July 9th.)
2. Packet #3 (due next week, Thursday, July 10th. A Q & C is also due with this packet)

PACKET #2 (two items)
"Arturo" by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

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

     ************************

“Flies” (a prose poem)
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.

PACKET #3 (two items)
"A Family" (a short story by Guy de Maupassant)
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/Afamily.html

"A Small Good Thing" (a short story by Raymond Carver)
http://astoryeveryday.com/2011/10/13/raymond-carver-a-small-good-thing/

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Greetings!

And congratulations! If you are reading this, it means you have located the class blog successfully!
Below you will find the following:

1. a copy of the syllabus, distributed today in class.
2. a copy of the Grade Sheet, distributed today in class.
3. a copy of the Unacceptable Errors handout, distributed in class today.
4. Packet #1 assignment. It is due to be read by Thursday. Also, remember that a Q & C is also due for this Packet. There are four poems in the Packet. You will write a question and comment for EACH of the four poems, as discussed in class.

*****

SUMMER BRIDGE ACADEMY--2014, CSU SACRAMENTO

COURSE:  English 5:  College Composition I –Section 70

July 1-August 6

Sequoia Hall, Room 450; 1:00 pm – 2:35 pm M through F

INSTRUCTOR:  Catherine Fraga

E-mail:  sacto1954@gmail.com

Office Hours:  Calaveras 149

July 1 – July 11 – 2:45 pm – 3:15 pm, or by appointment

July 14 – August 6 – 12 noon – 12:50 pm, or by appointment

CLASS BLOG: http://SummerBridge2014.blogspot.com

.

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

REQUIRED TEXTS & MATERIALS

(ALL READING MATERIAL WILL CONSIST OF HANDOUTS AND READINGS FOUND ON THE INTERNET)

• 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. (Remember, all Summer Bridge Academy students have 200 copies free on their One Card.)

• 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 5 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. Summer Bridge Academy is a very intense course—a 15 week course in only six weeks.  

2.     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.

3.    You will complete a question and comment assignment for four of the reading assignments, BUT NOT FOR ALL READING ASSIGNMENTS. The course outline indicates clearly when a question and comment response is due for a particular reading. 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.)

4.    No late work is accepted. This is a fairness issue. However, you MAY submit any of the three out of class essay assignments late, but there is a penalty. For every day it is late, 10 points will be taken off your final earned score. And, you may not earn back points due to lateness if you choose to revise.

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

6.     Quizzes:  There will be four unannounced, unscheduled quizzes during the semester. If you come prepared to class, the quizzes should present no problems for you. Quizzes cannot be made up.

7.    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. 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 95 minutes long and I plan to give you my full attention for 95 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!)

8.     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.

9.    English 5 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 one film (possibly two) 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 and MLA DOCUMENTATION GUIDELINES.

Week One (July 1 – 3—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

·      Introduction to the Course (course theme explained)-TUES.

·      Course Outline Distributed (handout)  & Class Blog explained-TUES.

·      Question/Comment Homework Explained (handout)-TUES.

·      Unacceptable Errors (handout)-TUES.

·      Packet 1 assigned (see blog for assignment)-TUES.

·      How to Read a Poem—lecture/discussion-TUES.

·      Discuss theme of home-WED.

·      Out of Class Essay #1 assigned-WED.

·      Packet 1 due to be read today. Q & C # 1 due-THURS.

·      Critical Thinking--Group Work #1-THURS.

Week Two (July 7 – 11—Monday through Friday

·      Stapler check…25 points! MON.

·      Oral Presentation Assigned (for last week of class) MON.

·      Rough Draft due for Out of Class Essay #1 MON.

·      In class Demonstration/Discussion on the Writing Process MON.

·      Rough Draft of Out of Class Essay #1 returned to students TUES.

·      Discussion: Reading and Evaluating Short Fiction TUES.

·      Read Packet 2 WED.

·      In class Journal #1 WED.

·      Read Packet 3 - Q & C #2 due today -THURS.

·      Final Draft due for Out of Class Essay #1 FRI.

·      Out of Class Essay #2 assigned-FRI.

Week Three (July 14 – 17—Monday through Thursday)

·      Read Packet 4 –MON.

·      In class Journal #2-MON.

·      Rough Draft due for Out of Class Essay #2 –TUES.

---bring four (4) copies of your rough draft to class

·      Group Work #2 (Peer Editing)-TUES.

·      Discussion: How to Evaluate a Documentary Film-WED.

·      Out of Class Essay #2 due today THURS.

·      View documentary film in class-THURS.

Week Four (July 21 – July 24—Monday through Thursday)

·      Discuss film viewed last week in preparation for In Class Essay #1-MON.

·      Assign Out of Class Essay #3 MON.

·      In Class Essay #1-TUES.—Remember blue or green book.

·      Read Packet 5 -- Q & C #3 due today WED.

·      In Class Journal #3 THURS.

·      Read Packet 6 THURS.

·      Rough draft due for Out of Class Essay #3 THURS.

Week Five (July 28 – July 31—Monday through Thursday)

·      Rough Drafts of Out of Class Essay 3 returned to students MON.

·      Read Packet 7 MON.

·      In Class Journal #4 MON.

·      Read Packet 8 –Q & C #4 due today TUES.

·      Group Work #3—TUES.

·      Editing & Proofreading Review Workshop—WED.

·      Out of Class Essay #3 due today THURS.

Week Six (August 4 – 6—Monday through Wednesday)

·      Discussion: Are you a Committed Learner? MON.

·      How well do you know CSUS campus? TUES.

·      Oral Presentations today WED.

·      Last day of classes—Grade Worksheet Check & Celebration! WED.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7^TH—Summer Bridge Crossing Ceremony

Alumni Center. 11 am – 4 pm.

***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 both out of class essay 1 and 2. You will not have time to revise out of class essay 3. The decision to revise is purely optional. If you choose to revise an essay, you must submit the revision,  along with the original, 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.

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English 5, Summer 2014, Prof. Fraga

GRADE WORKSHEET-----1675 POINTS POSSIBLE

Stapler Check (25 pts.)

Monday, July 7—stapler in your possession!______(25)

Oral Presentation=(100 pts.)

Oral Pres._____(100)

Out of Class Essays (600 points—200 points each)

Out of Class Essay 1_____(200 pts.)  Out of Class Essay 2_____(200 pts.)  Out of Class Essay 3_____(200 pts.)

Unannounced Quizzes (200 pts. --50 points each)

Quiz 1____Quiz 2_____Quiz 3_____Quiz 4_____

Journals=(100 pts.--25 points each)

Journal 1 (25) _____Journal 2 (25)_____Journal 3 (25)_____Journal 4 (25)_____

Homework=(400 pts.)

Q and C #1 (100)_____Q and C #2 (100)_____Q and C #3 (100)_____Q and C #4 (100)_____

In Class Group Work (150 pts.--50 points each)

Group Work 1 _____Group Work 2 _____Group Work 3 _____

In Class Essay (100 pts.)

In class essay #1 (100)_____

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How to assess your grade earned: Divide the points you earn by 1675 to find the percentage. Then see chart below.

100-94=A                         63-60=C-                                    Example: 1505 pts. earned=91.4%=A-

93-90=A-                        59-54=D                                    Example: 1444 pts. earned=86.2%=B+

89-84=B+                         53-0=F                                                Example: 1376 pts. earned=82.1%=B+

83-80=B                                                                         Example: 1189 pts. earned=70.9%=C+

79-74=B-

73-70=C+

69-64=C

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UNACCEPTABLE ERRORS

In English 5, 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

or In society today            This phrase is grossly overused and very cliché. 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.

16. woman/women            woman is used when you are referring to ONE female lady.

                                                            women is the plural of woman, meaning MORE THAN ONE lady

                                                            There are many women at the nail salon, but only one woman is shopping at the market next door.

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An accumulation of the following errors will affect your grade, but not 10 points off for EACH error.  My evaluation of your work 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 5 if you cannot write an intelligent sentence in correct English.

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 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.

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“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.

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

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