Author: Theadora Siranian

Hi Folks,

It looks like I’ll be teaching ENG 1121: Composition II next semester, on Mondays & Wednesdays from 4:00-5:15 PM. The course code is ENG 1121-D490, for those who are interested and able.

See you Saturday! Remember the exam begins promptly at 9 AM and runs until 10:15.

Best.

Theadora

1). Final research papers due in single hardcopy! Don’t forget your Works Cited/Reference Page!

2). Come on time and fully prepared for panel discussion! If you were absent last class, it’s your responsibility to apprise yourself of the panel guidelines and groups on Open Lab!

3). Reread Martin Espada poem from last class and & Ta-Nehisi Coates essay from two weeks ago, and be prepared for discussion!

For Espada’s poem “Return”:

–Create context for this poem: Where are we? When is this taking place initially? When in time is the speaker located in the final stanza? What can we infer about the wars the speaker mentions, given the two time periods?

 –Underline any imagery you come across (anything that evokes one or more of the senses)

 –There are two similes (a figure of speech in which things are compared using “like” or “as”) in this poem–what are they?

–If you have to summarize this poem’s intent, what would you say? How is the speaker feeling about themselves? About the world around them?

For Coates:

–Who is Coates addressing in this essay?

 –How does Coates view the experience of growing up a black male in America?

 –What strategies and/or communities did Coates discover to help him navigate through these perils?

  –Find one passage you find particularly evocative or even provocative and analyze Coates’s message before explaining why this is meaningful to you. Practice sentence-level clarity, transitions, and metacommentary. It doesn’t need to be typed, but be prepared to read this passage aloud.

THERE IS NO CLASS ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH! PLEASE HAVE A WONDERFUL BREAK!

1). Full draft of Research Paper due in triplicate for Peer Review Saturday, December 1^st!

 2). Print, read, and annotate The Atlantic Monthly excerpt of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me

–Who is Coates addressing in this essay?

–How does Coates view the experience of growing up a black male in America?

 –What strategies and/or communities did Coates discover to help him navigate through these perils?

–Find one passage you find particularly evocative or even provocative and analyze Coates’s message before explaining why this is meaningful to you. Practice sentence-level clarity, transitions, and metacommentary. It doesn’t need to be typed, but be prepared to read this passage aloud.

1). Outline Due in hardcopy for group workshop! 

This is your only major homework for next week! In order to create a fantastic outline (i.e. plan) for your paper, which we will spend a large portion of next class drafting, you must find credible sources, read them carefully, and spend time considering your topic and your approach to an argument for it. 

This outline will be peer reviewed during our next class, before our writing lab, and not having this will greatly limit your ability to make productive use of that time.

2). Also please print out the following texts for in-class reading and discussion: Edwidge Danticat’s “New York Was Our City on the Hill” and  Martín Espada’s “Blessed Be the Truth-Tellers” (accompanying audio) & “Litany at the Tomb of Frederick Douglass”

1). Response Paper #5 & Library Visit Sheet Due

Staple your inquiry question sheet to this, as well!

2). Read & annotate your three articles (on the page); also use Double-Entry Journal Method for two of them!

3). Read & annotate Mark Naison’s “From Doo Wop To Hip Hop” (handout)

–How did the tenants of the Patterson houses in the 1950s view their new residences?

–How were children treated as this time? What resources were available to them? What role did adults play in their lives?

–What was the economy like for working class families in the 50s? How did that begin to change and lead to job loss, destruction of families, etc.?

1). Read over research paper guidelines & research paper ideas and choose topic for library visit! I will be checking your topics during library session.

Any volunteers to email me their topics early?

2). Print, read & annotate Research Packet!

3). Visit Coalition For The Homeless website: Identify one instance each of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

 4). Print, read, and annotate Carey Dunne’s “Margaret Morton’s Humanizing Photographs of New York City’s Homeless Population”

We will be in the library from 10:00-12:00 next week!

1). Final draft of Essay #2 Due

2). Print, read, and annotate “Who Said It Was Simple” & Audre Lorde Bio

–Annotations for poem: underline any evocative images & put question marks at lines/words that are confusing?

–You MUST have a printed, annotated copy of this poem for class, as we will be spending time on group work with it!

Essay #2 

Full rough draft of Essay #2 due in triplicate

To prepare your draft you need to to do the following:

Annotation Lab

1). Read and annotate your two articles for key elements presented by author; what do they say was notable about your event that you can use as evidence for your claim?

 2). As you read: Write E, L, or P in the margin when you come across appeals to Ethos, Logos, or  Pathos

 3). Double Entry Journal Method:

 Left: Choose two direct quotes from each article & practice writing a sentence where you create signal phrase, proper integration, and metacommentary afterwards.

 Right: Summarize the quote & provide metacommentary about why/how it’s important.

 Remember Claims, Reasons, Evidence page from Building Arguments

 Writing Lab

1). When you’re finished reading both articles, return to your working thesis and revise.

2). Outlining: Using the Classical Argument Essay Template, create an outline for your essay.

 3). Drafting: When your outline is complete, begin drafting the essay!

Reading Homework

Print, read, and annotate Prologue to Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man (handout), Clint Smith’s “Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” As A Parable Of Our Time”

            –For both: What type of writing is this? Who is speaker?

            –For Ellison:

            1). What sort of reaction to invisibility is E. speaking of at bottom of paragraph 2?

            2). What does he mean about sleepwalkers?

            3). Why does narrator need the light, love the light?

            4). What is paradox narrator has about invisibility, i.e. what does he infer at end of prologue about his aliveness?

            –For Smith: What do you make of how Smith relates the Ellison text to today’s existence?

1). Response Paper #4 Due

2). Read Essay #2 Guidelines

–Choose Topic

–Get access to New York Times and find and print an article on your event: https://library.citytech.cuny.edu/help/how/nytimes.php

—Find and print 2^nd article on your event from Academic Search Complete

–Fill out Thesis Statement Worksheet

3). Visit Excelsior OWL’s “Using Quotations” and follow through “Time To Write”

4). Read and annotate “Selected Writing of Langston Hughes” & Ralph Ellison’s “New York, 1936” (handouts); practice the same methods we’ve been using:

            1). “Key Elements” i.e. prevalent themes author presents?

            2). Things you find interesting or can synthesize w/ other things we’ve discussed?