Class #9

Hand in your Remembering papers.

We discuss writing about readings.

We read "Teach Diversity -- with a Smile" by Barbara Ehrenreich, page 158.

You write about this article.

Grammar exercise.

Homework

1. Use pages 162-164 to help you write a paragraph of response to "Teach Diversity" in your journal.

2. Read in Reid pages 361-367, an essay by Debra Tannen called "How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently."

3. Look at the article choices below for your next writing assignment, the Summary/Response paper. You must choose which article you will write about; if you want me to print out a copy of an online article, you must send me an email before class Tuesday with you request. Otherwise, you will need to make the copy to work with. Read your article over the weekend and be prepared to discuss it with others.

4. Finish the punctuation handout.

5. Two vocabulary words.

THE ARTICLE CHOICES:

In Reid, "The Homeless and Their Children" by J. Kozol, pages 304 to 311.

In Reid, "Miss Clairol's Does She or Doesn't She?: How to Market a Dangerous Product" by J. Twitchell, pages 245-250.

Link to "What Helen Keller Saw" by Cynthia Ozick.

Link to "Most Likely to Succeed" by Malcolm Gladwell. (Hiring teachers)

Link to "The Bell Curve" by Atul Gawande. (Medical care and quality)

Link to "Home and Away" by Peter Hessler. (About Yao Ming)

Link to "Hellhole" by Atul Gawande. (Solitary confinement)

Link to "Troublemakers" by Malcolm Gladwell. (Pit bulls and more)

Class # 8

Have you noticed I can't decide what tense to use for my blogs?

So, I return your journals and papers. You must use the Everyday Writer "Top Twenty" (laminated handout or Section 1) to figure out your editing problems; then make a list in your journal with a count of each error.

We go over grammar handouts.

Groups discuss Alice Walker's piece, share beginnings and compare Ex. 24.2.

Peer review.

Homework

1. Read in Reid "The Red Chevy" pages 145-148.

2. Create the final version of the Remembering paper.
Edit carefully, with special attention to fragments, c.s. and run-ons.

3. In your journal write out a completely different beginning for your Remembering essay. Try to think of
a totally new way to begin.

4. Make sure that in your journal you finish the work from class: listing the editing error count from the Observation paper and listing the beginnings you brought to class.

5. Two vocabulary words.

Class #7

First off, I talked about Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggars. If you want to read that book, try to get the paperback edition because he changed it between editions.

We discuss "Lives on the Boundaries."

Grammar practice: coordination and subordination, again.

Peer Review of draft #1 of the Remembering Essay.

Beginnings: examples of hooks famous, infamous, good and bad. Here are some by Mitchell Melville , Dickens, and the man himself, Bulwer-Lytten. And then there is Solzhenitsyn.

Homework

1. Read Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" pages 117-124 in Reid.

2. Write Draft #2 of your Remembering Essay. Now is the time to focus in on your dominant idea and make sure that you are having the effect you desire.

3. Bring examples of three different beginnings of books or articles to class. They can be either effective or ineffective hooks, in your estimation. When you have your journal back, you will list what these are in your journal.

4. Complete the punctuation handout.

5. Two vocabulary words (to add to your journal when you have it back).