–Updated March 3–

UNIT ONE: INTELLECTUAL HOME (EDUCATION NARRATIVE)

In this unit, I will assign several small writing assignments and one major essay that ask students to discuss their educational journeys and goals.

We’ll look at the genre of Education Narratives to learn:

1) What genre means,

2) How people craft them, and

3) What our own narrative can reveal to us and to others.

 

Unit One consists of:

  • Two Coffeehouse Posts
  • One Quiz
  • Two informal writing assignments
  • Four Freewriting assignments
  • One Major Essay (All of the above smaller writing assignments are designed to lead students toward the major essay. In short, they are part of the process of writing the major essay)

(In general, I will announce the smaller assignments on Monday, and students will have until Sunday night to complete them)

 

 

Essay 1: My Intellectual Home

 

This essay asks students to practice these writing skills: description, comparison, quotation, and weaving. First, define and describe your home and your intellectual home. Second, choose one or two of your favorite readings from class, briefly summarize them (1-2 sentences), and explain the authors’ home/intellectual home. Third, compare homes/intellectual homes among the readings in terms of your own; is your intellectual home different from or similar to the authors’ intellectual homes? Do they share important characteristics? Fourth, provide a brief personal narrative of an educational experience that has influenced your intellectual home. Fifth, explore a way to build or revise your intellectual home in order to get the most out of City Tech. Simply put, this essay is meant to help students construct and put into action an academic philosophy for success at City Tech by thinking deeply about the importance of home.

We will use the term “intellectual home” to help us explore the goal of how to make education more meaningful to you through the concepts of people, place, and process. Our basic definition of intellectual home: what person, place, or process helps you to do your best academic work? For example, is your intellectual home your two best friends or the City Tech library or recopying your notes using your favorite mechanical pencil—or some combination of these three? By using the term intellectual home, we will analyze how these writers work to convince you that some aspect of education may be more important than another.

 

Article Authors (a tentative list)

 

Sherman Alexie

Salvatore Scibona

Malcom X

Hellen Keller

Bilal Rahmani

Howard Gardner

Esmeralda Santiago

 

The following questions may be helpful:

  • What is your actual home like? What is your intellectual home? What is your ideal intellectual home? How does your intellectual home connect to your actual home?
  • What exactly makes the articles that you like so good? Simply put, why are they your favorites.
  • What academic experience stands out in terms of guiding you toward a career or a class or an interest?

 

Rubric: Your essay will be graded in terms of FOUR major features:

  1. First Page: A clear introduction, title, thesis, and method (25 points)
  2. Formal Writing: Concrete nouns, well-structured sentences, and clear paragraphs (25 points)
  3. Articles: Clear exploration of the articles; correct weaving of at least four quotations from the articles (25 points)
  4. Personal Experiences and terms: Clear personal educational experiences: reflections of home, intellectual home (25 points)

 

Details: This essay must be at least 900 words long. It must be typed, double-spaced, and use standard margins, font, and paragraphs. Please use spell-check and grammar-check. See our Standard Journal/Essay Format, which is modified MLA style (see the Purdue OWL on our OpenLab website for guidance).

 

Due Dates for the Intellectual Home Essay:

March 1: First Draft due before class. Two typed pages minimum. See peer review directions on our homepage or the first post in the Category “Essay 1 Draft”

March 8: Final Draft Due. Submit through Blackboard by Monday at 10am: Click on “Content” and follow the directions for “Essay 1 Final Draft.” EXTRA CREDIT WILL BE AWARDED FOR TURNING IT IN ON TIME!!

**Extended due date for Intellectual Home Essay: Wed. March 10.