Course Recap for Thursday, October 22, 2015

Homework

• For the short stories you were suppose to read last week, have a one sentence thesis statement written for each story.  Check the sample outline for an example of a thesis statement.  Basically you 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.  I will look at the statements you come up with and narrow down which ones are strong 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 Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Sonny's Blues Questions

1. What does darkness mean in this piece?
2. Darkness is one common theme in this piece.  What are some other themes you see present in the piece?  Pay particular attention to words, concepts, and images that keep repeating themselves.
3. Pick a scene that happens between two or more characters.  (Sonny and the narrator, the narrator and his mother, the narrator and the boy near the subway, etc).  What is the significance of these exchanges?  What do we learn about the characters?  The plot?  The conflict?  The world of the piece?

As you're reading the other two pieces, All Girl Football-Team and Virgins, take notes on the themes you see present there.  We will discuss them in class Thursday.

Course Recap for Thursday October 15, 2015

Homework

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

Course Recap for Tuesday, October 6, 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?

Movie Day

We watched the movie Carrie and will discuss it further in next class.

 

Homework

• Read "Cult Movie Review: Carrie (1976)" by John Kenneth Muir (Don't read the last section of the review if you want to avoid spoilers.)

 

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