WEEKLY FOLDER FOR MARCH 23 – 27 AND VIRTUAL COFFEEHOUSE

WEEKLY FOLDER FOR MARCH 23 – 27

Hi Class,

 

OVERVIEW:

1-Introduction

2-Journal #5 (homework due Friday)

3-Poetry Explication (homework due Friday)

4-Virtual Coffeehouse (homework due Friday)

5-Zoom; office hours

6-On the horizon

 

 

1–INTRODUCTION:

 

I truly hope that you are all well and hanging in there. I’m sorry that I didn’t finish this earlier—I was feeling a little overwhelmed and kept second-guessing myself as to what sort of ideas I should try. I hope the length of this message does not seem overwhelming. If it does, then try to read it in sections. Honestly, I find that everything I do is taking longer than normal.

We are in the midst of a global crisis. We can’t pretend that this is not affecting us all–faculty and students–deeply. Social distancing will be very hard for many us. Social isolation amps up anxiety, depression, and loneliness. And, all that is unknown and uncertain can bring fear. We can also anticipate that all of our circumstances are changing. With schools closing, kids home, and more people working remotely, chances are our home situations will be chaotic. And for those who will still “go in” to work, we can expect there’s anxiety there, as well.

Rather than pretend nothing is different, then, I redesigned the second half of the semester to let us better, more honestly, and more directly share our concerns. Our goal, then, is as much about creating the conditions of support and engagement with each other, as it is about “getting through” the semester.

Yes, this class is still about writing. It’s about writing as a powerful means of personal and collective expression. It’s about the role language plays in naming, defining, and understanding experience. And, it’s about how writing can help us find some sense of control and purpose in the midst of chaos.

My goal is to post the new Weekly Folder in a new menu tab titled  “Weekly Folder” each Monday at noon.

Thank you for reading this and for helping each other (including me) figure things out.

[Sidenote: I hope that this week’s homework does not take more than 2-3 hours.]

 

 

2–JOURNAL 5:

This journal is now a little old, but I want to give you credit for doing it. Several of you have already turned this in—thank you!

Homework: Journal 5: 300 words in which you select three favorite poems from the ones we have read so far (either in our book or in the handouts); briefly state why these three are your favorite and be sure to use at least three of our poetry terms (underline them). My advice is to think about selecting a poem that you will use for your explication.

Due by Friday, March 27, at 5pm.  Please email it to me in whatever form is easiest for you: MS Word, Google Doc, Open Office, or in the body of the email.

 

 

3–POETRY EXPLICATION ESSAY:

Important note: I’ve posted the literature section of our book in the Readings menu tab, so all the poems are there—this is a pre-publication PDF, so it might have a few typos. I’ve also posted the two poems by Walt Whitman.

 

Timeline:

-This week: we will read, review, and work on denotation/connotation

-Next week (March 30 – April 3): we will draft the essay

-Next next week (March 6 – 10) Final draft due by 5pm on Friday, April 10

Overview:

We have done a lot of work learning new tools for working on poems, and we have read a broad range of poems, too. The explication essay itself is not very long, but it needs to be detailed, and so I want to review some of the things that we have learned so far. This week, I will ask you to reread some poems and to write about them in informal ways—which I will explain below.

Step 1: How to Read and Analyze Poetry: Please review this handout, which is in the Readings menu tab.

Step 2: Terms: Please review the poetry terms that we have learned so far and note the three new ones:

1. 1. Stanza
   2. Metaphor
   3. Tenor (related to metaphor)
   4. Vehicle (related to metaphor)
   5. Simile
   6. Personification
   7. Symbol
   8. Enjambment
   9. Irony
   10. Paradox
   11. Alliteration
   12. Assonance
   13. Consonance
   14. Explication
   15. Allusion
   16. Denotation
   17. Connotation
   18. Free Verse = a poem that does not rhyme or have a metrical pattern (example: Walt Whitman’s “Manahatta” is free verse
   19. Formal Verse = a poem that contains rhymes and/or a repeated metrical pattern or rhythm (example: Robert Frost’s two poems: “Fire and Ice” and “The Road Not Taken”)
   20. Blank Verse = a poem that has a repeated rhythm/meter but no rhyme (example: Amy Lowell’s “The Taxi”)

Step 3: Explication Examples:

Reread the Poetry Explication Details (in Assignments menu tab if you can’t find it). Then read the two explication examples — in the Readings menu tab. One is a brief explication of “Dulce et Decorum Est” and the other one is an actual student example from my class last year. Please read these documents carefully. My goal is to make a short video that explains what is happening in them, and why they are successful examples.

Step 4: Homework for Explication:

Reread/skim our poems and decide which poem you want to use for your explication (you may have already done this two weeks ago!). Then decide which two lines you want to explicate. Give some thought to which two lines you select—they should be suitably complex enough to make for an interesting explication, and you should select lines that are important to understanding the poem as a whole. Make sure to select two lines that are next to each other. Lastly, look up the denotation and connotation for four of the most important words in these two lines. Type the title of the poem, the poet, the date of publication, the two lines and the denotations and connotations (This is not the whole essay, merely a listing of the denotations and connotations for four words). Email this document to me by 5pm on Friday, March 27.

 

 

4–VIRTUAL COFFEEHOUSE:

Sidenote: In the future, I will put the Weekly Folder in the new menu tab titled Weekly Folder.

The Virtual Coffeehouse is a new idea that I’ve learned about from several colleagues. The idea is to have a meeting place for us to share our thoughts, reflections, and ideas.  Each week I will offer a prompt, yet I also want to allow students to provide a prompt. I will count your Coffeehouse writing as Participation and Homework points. Please review your writing in this space (it is technically a blog post) and try to avoid spelling/grammar errors. That said, I will not grade writing mistakes as this is a safe space to share, vent, complain, and practice writing. More specifics:

 

Here’s How It Will Work:

Every Sunday (except this week), I’ll post a question to start the conversation.

Then, between Monday and Friday: you all pop into the Virtual Coffeehouse and write a few paragraphs responding to the question–please sign your name (200 words or so). When you arrive, take some time to read what others have said, so you can truly join the conversation. As you write your post, feel free to reference your colleagues if you’d like. And, of course, If my question doesn’t speak to you, you can simply change the subject. That’s how conversations go, right? So, people who arrive in the coffeehouse later, can participate by pursuing the new thoughts that are emerging or the old thoughts inspired by the starting question.

 Get it?

At the end of the week, you might find it interesting to revisit that week’s coffeehouse exchange to see where the conversation went after you left. You are welcome to write replies to people, too. I think that makes the conversation more real and it keeps us more connected in this time of weird distance learning and living.

Homework:

Please write one post by 5pm on Friday, March 27.

Select one or both of these prompts: What are some of the challenges you’re facing in “doing school” right now? What are some of the challenges you’re facing in “doing life” right now? One or two paragraphs—about 200 words.

How To:

Please review the directions for posting to our site: Posting work on a Site in a Course, Project, Club, or Portfolio

Important tip: you must be logging in to post.

 

 

5–OFFICE HOURS AND ZOOM:

I want to try out Zoom for office hours and for recording brief videos. I know that not everybody has the same schedule and that our daily routines have changed dramatically. Students might not be able to “meet” on Zoom at my usual office hours or during our old class time. My idea is to hold office hours at different times. Here is what I want to try out this week:

 

–Tuesdays: 10 – 10:30 am. I will send a Zoom meeting link to join and I will be there to listen and talk about the class.

–Wednesdays: 11 – 11:30 am. Same as Tuesday—only at a later time.

–Depending on how this week goes, I will adjust as needed.

 

 

6–ON THE HORIZON

 

1. I want to begin making short videos this week on explication and on writing better sentences.
2. I plan to send each student a grade report that details where they are up to this point. In that email, I will also send a scan of their Journal 4 and the extra credit quiz.
3. I will put up helpful links under the Helpful Links menu tab related to distance learning.

 

Thanks for reading!

Don’t hesitate to contact me by text, phone, or email.

-Sean