Homework for Thursday, Sept. 27th

Hi Class,

For Thursday, the 27th, read the following in our textbook:

Colson Whitehead

E.B. White

Langston Hughes (the poem that we read in class, page 15)

Ralph Ellison

Ian Frazier

Then, after reading these articles and one poem carefully, write Journal #2: Choose a quote from one of these five on a subway experience and then reflect on it for at least one page (typed and double-spaced). Yes, you may go over one page, since this assignment will directly help us start Essay #2.

Cheers,

Prof. Scanlan

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New Parla Painting in Brooklyn

Hi Class,

I went to the opening of Jose Parla’s BAM opening and took a pic of his newest piece. it’s 37 feet long! You can walk to it from City Tech–on Flatbush just before Atlantic Terminal.

And check out the video of him painting:

http://www.bam.org/#VisualArt

Cheers,

Prof. Scanlan

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Reminders for next Thursday, Sept. 20

Hi Class,

Two homework assignments for Thursday:

1. Send me an email. For the body, tell me about one place that you like in NYC.

2. Finish writing Essay 1, and make sure to edit and proofread it. Bring these four documents to class in a folder: Assignment Details, Draft 1, Peer Review Sheet, Final Draft.

Tips to improve Essay 1:

-Have a classmate or friend read your essay (buy them a cup of coffee, perhaps. Or, offer to read their essay).

-Use spell and grammar check. Make sure to set up your software to check spelling, grammar, and style.

-Read your essay backwards…sentence by sentence. You can catch a lot of mistakes this way.

-Read your essay out loud…this is a tried and tested method by professional writers.

-Email me or come by my office hours on Wednesday (not Tuesday, as school is closed).

Cheers,

Prof. Scanlan

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Updated Assignment Details — now up

Hi Class,

I’ve updated the assignment details for Essay 1–look in the Assignments menu tab. Please print out a new copy with the new due dates.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

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English Book

Hey guys, does anyone still needs the book?

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Revised Weekly Schedule

Hi Class,

Due to the changes to our schedule, I updated both the Weekly Schedule and the Assignment Details for Essay 1 on Favorites.

Please print out new copies and bring them to class.

Don’t forget, we will have a quiz over the readings on Tuesday. Please review the rhetorical tools as well.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

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Book Information and Readings Update

Hi Class,

After today’s class, several teachers and students let me know that the bookstore was out of Dwell books. I contacted the publisher and the bookstore representatives right away and have news that more books are scheduled to be in by Thursday, the 6th of September. But that does not help everybody.

So, below, please find the two readings from chapter 3.

Howard Gardner: Five Minds for the Future:

Gardner–Five Minds

Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe: How to Bring Our Schools into the 21st Century:

Wallis and Steptoe–21Century Schools

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Prof.  Scanlan

 

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Lesson Plan for September 4th

Hi Class,

I hope that your Labor Day was fun and productive–or lazy and relaxing (to each their own).

Please bring your new books to class. Read Willie Perdomo’s poem “Where I’m From.” And be ready to finish discussing the Asimov article.

Among other things, we will discuss the idea of rhetorical success and the four modes of rhetoric:

Pathos: emotion

Ethos: background or authority

Logos: logic

Mythos: myth

This poster will help us to understand how these ideas work:

billboardsLitter_Rhetoric

 

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Welcome Students

Hello Students of section 5359!

This site will grow and develop during the semester, just like you will grow and develop as critical readers and writers.

If you have any questions, please let me know via email:

sscanlan@citytech.cuny.edu

The course policy and syllabus are located in the Policy menu bar. Take some time to look around our course site; we will refer to it often.

Below are some interesting and informative posts from last semester. I think that they are still relevant.

Best wishes,

Prof. Scanlan

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“when I work to learn something, I remember it.”

Here is a reflection from one of the best-selling novelists of all time:

From The Writer’s Almanac, April 28, 2012

 

It’s the birthday of novelist Harper Lee (books by this author), born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama (1926). She has written just one novel, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), but it has sold more than 30 million copies. She hates interviews and speeches, and prefers to live quietly in Monroeville, where she is known as Miss Nelle.

She wrote: “I arrived in the first grade, literate, with a curious cultural assimilation of American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The Mobile Press. Early signs of genius? Far from it. Reading was an accomplishment I shared with several local contemporaries. Why this endemic precocity? Because in my hometown, a remote village in the early 1930s, youngsters had little to do but read. A movie? Not often — movies weren’t for small children. A park for games? Not a hope. We’re talking unpaved streets here, and the Depression. […] Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it.”

 

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

 

What do you think of this quotation?

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The Research Essay and the Argument Thesis:

Research Thesis and Argument

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