PAST DAILY ASSIGNMENTS

For Wednesday, 1/19:

  • There are assigned books for this class, but I’ve asked the bookstore not to post them until we’ve met. They’ll be available for you to purchase starting Wednesday.

  • See you on Wednesday in Bryan Hall 330!

In-Class on Wednesday:

For Friday, 1/21:

*The items below look more time-consuming than they actually are—you should be able to do all this in about 3 hours.
>>REMINDER: If you CAN’T finish in 3 hours, feel free to just stop and come as you are!<<
This is also more piecemeal than assignments will typically be, but the breadth of these first assignments give us important common foundational material to work from.

  • Please be sure you’ve completed this incoming survey.
    *Heads up: I’ll be posting the photos/bios on this web page as a gallery.

  • Submit to Drive (folder linked here): 

    • Brief memoir 

      • No particular rules—we want to capture your current sense of your self and your story of how you became the “you” of today.

      • Things that might help you:

        • Aim for just about 500-1000 words. 

        • If you want to include more but are “writing away,” try listing things in bullets rather than writing them out long-form.

        • Your audience is primarily just you. You will submit these, and I will read them (they will be available among the class unless you request otherwise), but you’re mostly writing for yourself. 

        • You will revisit these memoir exercises later in the term.

        • Keep in mind that a “memoir” is different than a “biography”—a biography typically starts around your birth and follows the important parts of your life in a linear way; a memoir tells a story about your life, usually focusing on one particular theme and therefore drawing on related threads throughout that story. One person may thus easily write multiple memoirs, though “competing” autobiographies would be odd. So just think about something you’d like to capture about yourself and write about how that thing has surfaced/developed through some key memories.

  • Read (or read through!):

  • Listen to “Who Am I?” from RadioLab

  • Watch "How language shapes the way we think,” Lera Boroditsky

  • Post to the Forum:
    *This initial post will require setting up an account; let me know if you have any trouble.

    • Key differences between oral and literate thinking, per Ong and Scribner/Cole

    • Key ways in LANGUAGE shapes our minds/perceptions (per Boroditsky)

    • Bringing it together: what overlaps are you seeing in terms of identity, literacy, and cognition so far? What are the 2-3 biggest questions YOU have currently about literacy and cognition?

  • Recommended NOT required:

For Monday, 1/24:

Please get started on Proust and the Squid—between now and Monday, you should have read Chapters 1-2, and 7.

  • As you read, please highlight (or write in a separate notebook, though I’m a big fan of marking up your books) any neurological terms you come across, whether you recognize them or not.
    *You’ll notice that sometimes she’s very precise, and other times she’s quite vague in referring to these features. Part of your challenge will be making a “map” of your own from the readings in this unit; your notes are there to help you.

In Class on Monday, 1/24:

For Wednesday, 1/26:

  • Continue reading Proust and the Squid—we’re racing through Part II for today:

    • BRIEFLY skim Ch. 4 (like, glance over it for 5-10 minutes; just get a feel for what she’s doing broadly there)

    • Read Chs. 5-6 as carefully as you can in a couple of hours (use the headings and diagrams to your advantage here)

    • Be prepared to discuss in class


In class on Wednesday, 1/26:

 
 

What’s In Your Play Doh Brain (and major functions of those structures)

Components of Reading / Stages of Reading Development

For Friday, 1/28:

As you’re reading/exploring for Friday, keep thinking about (a) themes you’re interested in for the first paper and (b) how discrete brain structures and collective brain function “works” in literacy and the development of the self.

  • Work through The Midnight Disease

    • SKIM the Introduction

    • SKIM Ch5 (“How We Write: The Cortex”)

      • As you skim, notice overlaps in structures with reading; how much the two activities use the same structures

      • Caveat: Consider that we have many examples of people who lose either the ability to read or write, but not the other; these two activities are distinct. I’m posting material on one such case study under Additional Sources shortly.

    • READ CH6 (“Why We Write: The Limbic System”)

  • Keep your Play Doh/clay—you’ll need it at home one more time.

  • Explore these resources to help you start to get more of a feel for the beautiful, complicated brain:

  • Bring your chosen notebook to class; we’ll complete Notebook Assignment #1 in class together. Physical notebook preferred; digital acceptable. Just keep everything in one place, so I can review your entries at mid-term and again before finals.

For Monday, 1/31:

  • Apologies for not doing the notebook assignment on Friday! Oops. We’ll make it up another day; don’t worry about it for now.

  • Glance through the “Additional Resources” page—I’ve posted a bunch of stuff that you may find helpful, based on the topics I’ve heard you referencing so far. Just see if there’s anything you want to read before you start drafting your early essay material.


For Wednesday, 2/1:

  • As noted in class, we’re extending the deadline for this final draft to Monday, 2/1. We’ll use both Wed. and Fri. for writing/workshopping time. With that in mind, before Wednesday:

  • Submit your first PARTIAL draft to this folder.

    • Include 2-3 questions to your peer reviewers at the top of the draft. [Examples: “I’m not sure I’m supporting X point well enough. Do you have any suggestions for more evidence, or how I could make my argument more effective?” / “Is my organization working, or are you getting confused anywhere? Do you have suggestions for better transitions?” / Etc.]

    • I recommend you aim to complete 1/3-1/2 of the paper for your Wednesday draft. I will not be grading based on length today, though; just do what you can.

    • Let it be messy. Feel free to use placeholders [i.e., I need to add a section here that does X].

    • Don’t put so much time into drafting that you don’t have any time/energy left to revise between drafts.

  • Notes/resources on creating your diagram(s):

    • If you can go ahead and include rough drafts of your diagram(s) for Wednesday, you can get helpful peer feedback on them! Sketch DRAFTS are required by Friday.

    • You should sketch your own brain diagram, based on what you’re trying to show. Feel free to trace or base your sketch on the basic (sagittal) models in Wolf’s book, or if you need a horizontal (transverse) cut, you might use the 3D brain to find the orientation/exposure you want and then sketch that. (This source might help with those terms, if you need a very quick lesson.)

    • You don’t need to include a tedious level of detail; just a basic sketch and arrows with labels to show the areas you’re referencing. These should be legible to your readers; they don’t need to look professional.

    • Underneath your diagram(s), include a caption:

      • Figure #. Title of figure. Description of figure. (Source citations as appropriate, to indicate where you retrieved data points, but not to cite the figure itself—you’re the author/copyright holder of your own image).

      • See the past paper examples for how others created their figures/citations.


For Friday, 2/3:

  • Continue working on your drafts.

    • If you’re overwhelmed with other classes, try just taking 30 minutes to work on ONE thing—a new paragraph, revising a section based on peer feedback from Wednesday, drawing/labeling your diagram, whatever.

    • You’ll have time to work all during Friday’s class period, but you’ll make more of the time if you give your brain a check-in with the project between classes. On Friday, I will give you some guidance for helping each other/checking your own drafts over for developmental and structural issues.


For Monday, 2/6:

  • Submit your final draft for Essay 1 here.

    • Add your cover memo.

      • This memo can be informal.

      • Please add the memo to the front page of your document, so I see it before reading the rest of your paper.

    • As a reminder, your 250–400 word cover memo should address the following: Details:

      • Who helped you with writing this essay? (Be sure to disclose any friends, family members, tutors, classmates, etc., who helped you, to avoid charges of collusion.)

      • What did you learn about literacy and cognition through this assignment?

      • What did you learn about essay writing through this assignment?

      • What changes did you make during the revision process and why?

      • What do you most want your reader to learn from your paper?

      • Optional: After you’ve answered all of the above, feel free to vent about things you hated about this assignment. :) Also, feel free to give your opinions about the issues involved. It’s often challenging to write an analysis without a chance to express your own ideas about the subject matter.

  • Complete this survey before coming to class.

    • So long as we have 100% participation, we can do these surveys anonymously. If people skip completing, I’ll add a line asking for your name to make sure you’re getting credit for portion of the course.

    • The data from all Unit 2 surveys will be shared with the whole class, anonymously, for your analysis and use in your Unit 2 essays.

  • Bring I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. That is our first read-in book. Print copies strongly preferred.

  • Meet at Clark Hall. I’m experimenting with format this week, so we’re going to try this:

    • Make sure you have a device to access audio/video—I’ll post 2 short video clips for you to watch before and after (in lieu of meeting together in a classroom). You’ll likely want headphones, but you could watch outside with the volume on if necessary.

    • I’ll wait for you on the front steps of Clark to hand you a snack bag. You’ll each get a bag with a small bottle of water, clementines, and a pastry.

    • You’ll find a place to settle in and read inside Clark for the hour. You’ll watch the first video before you read, and the second afterward.


In-Class on Monday, 2/7:

  • If you didn’t complete the Week One Pre-Survey (assigned over the weekend), be sure to do that first today.

  • Read and enjoy!

    • One trigger warning—the memoir is written from a 10-year-old’s perspective, but that 10 year old did go through some intense things. Just be aware that those are coming, and feel free to reach out to me if you need to.

  • At 11:45ish, take 5 minutes to jot down some initial reflections on your experience today.

  • At some point today, please watch this video, which now seems to be working at last. :)



For Wednesday, 2/9:

  • Continue reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Try to read for pleasure, at a pace that works for you.

    • Time to get out your field notebooks for real—take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

    • We may briefly discuss the book in class on Wednesday; I’ll try to keep us contained to Chs. 1-5, to avoid spoilers.

  • Wednesday’s class will primarily be low-stress, in-class writing exercises.

  • Optional: If you want to, feel free to start looking at the additional sources on memory and memoir.

    • I’ve posted a lot of sources you may find interesting; only 3 are required reading (as indicated by the ***required*** marker).

    • I’ll ask you to finish reading these before Friday’s class, for discussion before you take the post-week survey.


For Friday, 2/11:

  • Finish reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the memoir. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

  • Read the required “Additional” sources on memory and memoir (as indicated in that section by the ***required*** marker).

    • Optional: Read any of the other sources in that section that look interesting to you.

  • Come to class ready to discuss! See you then.


Friday follow-up:

  • If you are interested, I did find this video of Nujood Ali speaking in a collection of interviews, given around the time of the book’s publication.


For Monday, 2/14:

  • Take these surveys:

  • Bring The Vanishing Half with you for this week’s read-in.

  • I will be out of town during class time, but I’ve arranged to leave your snack bags in Clark library. So:

    • At class time, go to the front desk in Clark. On a shelf to the left (see picture below), you’ll see the snack bags with our class information; grab a bag, and go find a place to settle down!

  • Watch this video before you start reading.

  • Enjoy reading!


For Wednesday, 2/16:

  • Continue reading The Vanishing Half. We will discuss the book up to page 141 [so, Parts I and II (of IV)], and the rest of the book on Friday.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes. I’ve bolded here items that differ from last week:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?



In Class on Wednesday, 2/16:

Priming Round:

Free write for 8 minutes on either of the following prompts:

(a) Think about a time when you wanted to “pass” as somebody—when you wanted others to see you a certain way, and you weren’t sure if you could act the part. Maybe you were a kid in school trying to be seen as cooler or older; maybe you were hoping a date or a prospective employer would see you as—what? Bright, funny, sophisticated, full of promise? What do you remember about that experience?

(b) Think about a time you felt split in two, divided in yourself somehow. What do you remember?


Official Round 1:
(Take 15 minutes.)

Choose a character from one of our books so far. You can choose anyone from I Am Nujood or The Vanishing Half. You can choose a major character or a minor character; the minor characters are sometimes interesting because you haven’t been given as much detail already. So people like Adele Vignes (the twins’ mother) or Lonnie Goudeau or Sam Winston or Blake Sanders can offer a chance to write more “new” material. But taking on the main characters can give you a chance to explore parts of them you’re not understanding.

Try to make the character fully developed and believable. (I.e., we certainly don’t have to love Sam, but we don’t have to hate him, either—what kinds of things “explain” Sam, make him make sense as a person?

Choose a “time” in the character’s life. You might want to write about them before the book ever begins, or after they’ve left the story, or give us a different perspective on a scene we’ve already read.

Write a journal entry or inner monologue from this character’s perspective. What do you imagine them thinking about? Worrying over? Being afraid of? Wanting? Plotting for? What do you think they might have done the day you’re writing for them?


Official Round 2:

Make rough notes:

What else would you need to know about your character to keep writing? What biographical or character information, etc.? How would you go about gathering/constructing this information for a fictional character?

(~2 minutes)


Round 3:

Discuss:

  • Who did you choose, what was generative, and where did you find limitations to your own ability to “get in their head”?

  • More generally, how have you been experiencing the “empathy” element of reading so far this week?

  • How does it seem different to experience empathy in reading v. writing?


For Friday, 2/18:

  • Finish The Vanishing Half (or at least be prepared for us to discuss the full book in class—spoilers and all that)

  • Continue noting your observations in your field notebooks. Those directions again:

    • Observe yourself and record your reading experience with the novel. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? Which characters are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain characters? What are you not understanding? What is unsettling for you? What do you do to make sense of the intense or traumatic material? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

Just FYI—You can’t possibly have time to read any more before Friday, but I have posted additional articles under “On reading, writing, and empathy.” If this is an area that interests you, you might end up checking out more of those in this unit or the next.


In Class on Friday, 2/18:

Respond to today’s Forum prompt.


For Monday, 2/21:

  • Bring The Hidden Life of Trees with you.

  • Meet near the front steps of Clark library to claim your snack bag. I recommend dressing for being outside, so you can read under a tree if possible. (Feel free to bring a blanket or whatever you can carry.) You can also read inside if it rains or you just want to. :)

  • Take this Week 2 Post-Survey.

  • Take this Week 3 Pre-Survey.


In Class on Monday, 2/21:

  • Relax somewhere—outside or inside—and read the Hidden Life of Trees!

  • This is the first time I’ve assigned the illustrated edition. I’m curious about your experiences.

  • Slow down and just sit with the reading. Try not to read it like a textbook with material you need to memorize, or with anything you need to race through. Let the book slow you down, and try to savor what “feels good” to you.


For Wednesday, 2/23:

  • Continue reading The Hidden Life of Trees.

  • If possible, take your book outside and read for at least an hour among trees.

  • In your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the book. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) Are you feeling more attentive, meditative, etc., or more agitated, etc., than when you weren’t reading? What are you noticing in the book? What are you feeling as you read? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away? How do you notice yourself engaging the information in this book (versus the more narrative forms of our earlier books)?

    • Above, I bolded the sentences that are different this week, for quicker reference.

    • Also, if you’re having trouble with any of the concepts (whether factual or the way the author is presenting the information), please let’s talk about those on Wednesday, so I can pull material to help us figure things out.

  • Bring your notebooks to class on Wednesday for writing exercises. Also be prepared; there will be another “outdoor” component on Wednesday, weather permitting.

  • Optional—we’ll have some additional articles to look at for Friday. Feel free to go ahead and look at these two:


In class on Wednesday, 2/23:

Start with a body scan.

  • Take a few deep “belly” breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

  • Close your eyes. Now just take a few minutes to pay attention to your body from top to bottom—start with your head, your face, your neck, your shoulders . . . Pause at each location and just sort of check in—where are you relaxed and comfortable? What’s feeling tight? What’s aching? What’s heavy? What’s loose? Don’t try to change anything; just note what’s going on with your body. (2 minutes)

  • When you’re ready, open your eyes. Take a couple of minutes to jot down your observations in your journals.

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Writing Exercise 1:

  • Take a few minutes to closely observe the trees (and/or tree system) around you. When you’re ready, write down observations in as much detail as possible. What do you see, touch, smell, hear? Notice as many details as possible—the color and texture of the bark, any knots or interesting growths, the shape and patterns of the branches, the shape and colors and patterns of the leaves. Do you see any moss? Lichen? What else? Just pay attention, and write down what you observe with as much vivid detail as you can. Feel free to write long-form, or make bulleted notes, sketch things, whatever. Set a timer; take about 15-20 minutes to write, and try to really get sucked in to the task.

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*Note: If you have another class to attend and need to pick up the other exercises later, just take a few minutes now to repeat the body scan exercise from earlier:

  • Take a few deep “belly” breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

  • Close your eyes. Now just take a few minutes to pay attention to your body from top to bottom—start with your head, your face, your neck, your shoulders . . . Pause at each location and just sort of check in—where are you relaxed and comfortable? What’s feeling tight? What’s aching? What’s heavy? What’s loose? Don’t try to change anything; just note what’s going on with your body. (2 minutes)

  • When you’re ready, open your eyes. Take a couple of minutes to jot down your observations in your journals. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?

<<<When you’re ready for Writing Exercise #2, scroll down>>



Writing Exercise 2
(should be completed outside or “virtually outside”):

  • Repeat the body scan exercise.

  • Freewrite on anything you want—it can be something academic, but also you might want to write about something personal that’s important to you right now. Whatever you like. Take about 15 minutes.

  • Repeat the body scan exercise, including the journaling part. Has anything changed? What do you make of what has or hasn’t changed, in the context of your location/writing activities in these 2 exercises?





For Friday, 2/25:



For Monday, 2/28:

  • Bring How We Became Human with you.

  • Meet on the steps of Clark.

  • Watch this video before you begin reading.
    *Sorry—it ended up being about 9 minutes long, but I think it will help you with the reading.

  • Take this Week 3 Post-Survey.

  • Take this Week 4 Pre-Survey.

  • Also, consider taking half an hour or so to read C. S. Lewis’s “Learning in War-Time.”

    • Why you care—C.S. Lewis was a literature professor at Oxford during WWII. He’d fought as a solder in WWI (draft), but in 1939, he was on the faculty. He gives this sermon to students at Oxford to talk to them about how on earth people carry on with scholarship in the midst of pressing social crises around them.

    • Heads up: this is a sermon, and he gets quite theological in places. (Some of you will likely enjoy that; he’s a beloved theologian for many—he’s the Narnia guy, if you ever imagined finding a magical world through a wardrobe. Others of you may find some of the theology awkward or troubling in places. Feel free to wrestle with this element or skip it, as suits you. You might replace ideas of the Christian afterlife with ideas of what you believe has lasting meaning (love for your family and friends, for instance), and Lewis’s ideas of the sacred with what you hold sacred in your own life.

    • He’s also writing in 1939, and you may find you need to re-read a line every now and then to catch the rhythm of his prose.

    • If you’d like to, post a response to the Forum. This is optional, but I’d be interested in your thoughts. I’m thinking of all of you.


For Monday, 2/28:

  • Bring How We Became Human with you.

  • Meet on the steps of Clark.

  • Watch this video before you begin reading.
    *Sorry—it ended up being about 9 minutes long, but I think it will help you with the reading.

  • Take this Week 3 Post-Survey.

  • Take this Week 4 Pre-Survey.

  • Also, consider taking half an hour or so to read C. S. Lewis’s “Learning in War-Time.”

    • Why you care—C.S. Lewis was a literature professor at Oxford during WWII. He’d fought as a solder in WWI (draft), but in 1939, he was on the faculty. He gives this sermon to students at Oxford to talk to them about how on earth people carry on with scholarship in the midst of pressing social crises around them.

    • Heads up: this is a sermon, and he gets quite theological in places. (Some of you will likely enjoy that; he’s a beloved theologian for many—he’s the Narnia guy, if you ever imagined finding a magical world through a wardrobe. Others of you may find some of the theology awkward or troubling in places. Feel free to wrestle with this element or skip it, as suits you. You might replace ideas of the Christian afterlife with ideas of what you believe has lasting meaning (love for your family and friends, for instance), and Lewis’s ideas of the sacred with what you hold sacred in your own life.

    • He’s also writing in 1939, and you may find you need to re-read a line every now and then to catch the rhythm of his prose.

    • If you’d like to, post a response to the Forum. This is optional, but I’d be interested in your thoughts. I’m thinking of all of you.




For Wednesday, 3/2:

  • Bring your notebooks for writing exercises.

  • Continue reading How We Became Human. Read slowly; reread often; read out loud sometimes.

    • As per usual, in your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the poetry collection. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the individual poems? In the collection? Do you find yourself analyzing things like structure, form, function (e.g., how is this poem working?)? Do you find yourself focusing more on meaning? What do you notice upon reading a poem the first time through? The second? The third? The fourth . . .? Do you notice any patterns in your own attention or recognition, etc.? What are you feeling as you read? Which lines or images are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain poems or features? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

      • Above, I bolded the wording that is different this week, for quicker reference.

  • Watch this interpretive video with Curtia Torbert, an actress reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” verse 38, in different modes. (She’s so good.)

    • The point of watching the video is to help you “hear” poetry in different ways, so you can then go back to some of Harjo’s poems and similarly try to sort of turn them around, read them from different angles, see if you can discover more meaning(s) in them.

    • This video is part of a larger project inviting “regular people” to read verses from Whitman’s poem on camera. If you want to read more about the project (and additional videos), see https://whitmanalabama.com/about/.

  • Optional:

    • Read this explanation on “How to Read a Poem” from literary scholar E.D. Hirsch

      • Consider choosing say, 2 things from this essay about “how to read a poem” that you’d like to focus on as you go back and read or re-read a few of the poems. No need to achieve everything he’s saying here, but it could be helpful to expand your reading experience with a couple of these ideas.



In-Class on Wednesday, 3/2:

Round One: Choose any ONE of the words below. Freewrite about whatever comes to mind in relation to that word. You can write in any style, but you might have the best luck with a sort of prose-poem (think about the prose passages in Joy Harjo’s collection that interleave with the poems—they still read with a lot of poetics, but they’re prose-y). Think lyrical, but don’t stress too much if that’s not coming together for you. Just get down thoughts in relation to your chosen word. 8 minutes.

Shelf

Beige

Sprint

Grief

Tone

Fir

Kiwi

Cozy

Orbit

Tangible

Truck

Rough

Blue

Tropical

Shiver




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Round Two: Now go back to the word list. Choose a different word, unrelated to the first. Repeat the writing exercise, but this time if you can, lean more into a poetic form—you can try an actual (short) poem, or still prose but more abstract, implicit meaning, or whatever works for you. 5 minutes.

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Round Three: Attempt to create a collage piece. Re-read the two items you've just written. What common thread can you find between them? It might be an emotion, a certain vocabulary word or phrase that you repeated, a color or image, a hint of an idea. You're going to use that to write a third passage, in the genre of your choice, that sort of brings them together and hopefully reveals something new.

See example collage poem here: “I Keep a Jar of Clay Beside My Bed” (Joni Tevis)



For Friday, 3/4:

  • Finish reading How We Became Human and documenting your reading experience in your field notebooks.

  • As per usual, in your field notebooks, take rough notes—observe yourself and record your reading experience with the poetry collection. There are no “correct” ways to be reading; we just want to capture what we are doing as much as we’re able. So you might note things like, what do you find yourself thinking as you read? What are you doing? (i.e., getting lost in the reading; getting distracted by other thoughts; looking at your phone, whatever) What are you noticing in the individual poems? In the collection? Do you find yourself analyzing things like structure, form, function (e.g., how is this poem working?)? Do you find yourself focusing more on meaning? What do you notice upon reading a poem the first time through? The second? The third? The fourth . . .? Do you notice any patterns in your own attention or recognition, etc.? What are you feeling as you read? Which lines or images are you connecting with? What’s keeping you from connecting with certain poems or features? What are you not understanding? What thoughts and feelings linger after you’ve put the book away?

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.
Part One: Life

CXXVI

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.

*Reproduced from https://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html.


For Monday, 3/14:

  • If you didn’t take the Week 4 Post-survey, please do so before class time so we have a complete data set.

  • We will NOT meet live for class today. Instead:

    • Review your notes from our past 4 weeks of class—think about how you were processing the different reading and writing activities; get your head back in that sort of space.

    • Take time to read the collected reports from the past month.

    • Compare your peers’ responses to those surveys to your own notes.

  • Read the Unit 2 essay assignment prompt. Brainstorm a bit about what you’d like to write about. We’ll open Wednesday’s class with a Forum post asking you to share essay ideas.

  • (We’ll also go over the Unit 1 essays on Wednesday, and discuss any questions you have about the new essay assignment.)



In-Class on Wednesday, 3/16:

For Friday, 3/18:

  • Read these excerpts from Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

    • I’ve attached a PDF with highlights in it, to help you quickly identify main points. Don’t feel like you have to achieve mastery of every technique here, but try choosing one or two to work on in your revision and upcoming paper.

    • I do recommend this full book, although the newest edition is always expensive. As you can see, though, it’s been updated many times (you’re reading from the 12th edition); the older editions are usually very cheap online (as low as $5), and we have a few older copies in our libraries on Grounds. [The new copies DO have some useful updates, enough that I was willing to buy one; you can leaf through the various Introductions for a quick reference list of what changes took place between editions.]

  • Also skim over these two items:

  • Try to finish the Green and Yellow revisions on your first essays, and bring those drafts back to class with you, so you’re ready to dive into the Blue items on Friday.

  • Keep thinking toward plans for your second essays. My goal is to take some time in Friday’s class for you to talk to each other in small groups, so you can take some feedback into the weekend.

In-Class on Friday, 3/18:

For Monday, 3/21:

  • Optional: Go ahead and work on the “blue” revisions in your first essays, just to sort of lock in the Style: Part II lessons.

    • For those who finish revisions and want to go ahead and do a regrade ASAP to get the higher grades recorded, I will open up additional office hours next week. Sign-up sheet is here. (There will be more opportunities for these, if you can’t find a time or want to wait a little longer.)

    • By the way, these are the two additional apps I recommended on Friday, as style-checker options for your writing:

  • For Essay #2, bring an outline with a full introduction draft, including a thesis. We’ll spend much of Monday workshopping these in small peer groups, to help you think through your ideas before the partial-draft workshop on Wednesday.

    • Per class vote, I am extending your deadline for Essay #2 to Monday, 3/28.

In-Class on Monday, 3/21:

For Wednesday, 3/23:

  • Submit a partial draft to this folder.

    • Having pushed out the final deadline, feel free to keep this a shorter draft, but try to write at least say, 1.5 pages before Wednesday, so you can see where you’re going with the voice/tone/direction, and also maybe see where you’re going to struggle getting the ideas into words.

    • Heads up:

      • On Wednesday, we’ll be watching a video on finding your flow, and then you’ll have open time to write more on your draft.

      • On Friday, we’ll workshop drafts in peer groups again. I’d recommend you aim to have at least 2/3 of your paper drafted (very messy is fine) by Friday, to give you and your peers enough to work with (and put you in a good place to finish over the weekend).

For Friday, 3/25:

  • NEW: Please go ahead and sign up for a conference time for next week.
    *These conferences will replace our Wednesday/Friday classes on 3/30 and 4/1.

  • Respond to the most recent Forum prompt.

  • Update your current draft in this folder.

    • Do recall that process work is required to receive a grade—be sure to put a draft in the folder!

    • Aim to have at least 2/3 of your paper drafted (very messy is fine).

    • Be sure to add 2-3 questions at the top of your draft for your peer reviewers—where are you getting stuck? what do you want them to focus their feedback on?

  • Heads up: On Friday, we will

    • go over the Unit 3 assignment (in preparation for Monday’s library day)

    • take a library research survey

    • workshop your drafts in small groups.

  • I do still have some meeting times available on Thursday, if you want to come in for a regrade. I’ll make more extended hours available week-after-next, if you need a little more time.

For Monday, 3/28:

  • Meet in Clemons 407!!!
    *This room is on the ground floor—walk in and around to your left.

  • Take this pre-survey to help our librarians out! They do so much for all of us!

    • The official language to preface said survey:
      ”Ahead of our library instruction session next week, the librarians we will be working with have a short, 5-minute survey they are asking you to complete. Your survey responses will help the librarians tailor their instruction to your specific questions and needs. It is also part of a research study the librarians are conducting, and you will find more information about that at the survey link. You are not required to take the survey, but our librarians would really appreciate it!”

  • Submit your second essay to this folder.

  • Check out the Unit 3 assignment, including the proposal template you’ll be completing in advance of next week’s conferences—I’m hoping you’ll be able to use your library time on Monday to make real progress toward this proposal.

For Wednesday, 3/30-Friday, 4/1:

For Monday, 4/4:

  • Update: The weather looks beautiful for Monday. DON’T come to the classroom—DO go somewhere outside and work on your project. Post a picture of where you worked, and a note about what you’re doing to the Forum.

  • Be working on your Unit 3 projects, and bring your work in progress to class on Monday.

For Wednesday, 4/6:

For Friday, 4/8:

  • Continue working on your Unit 3 projects, and bring your work in progress to class on Friday.

  • Sign up for regrade meetings next week, if you want to get your Essay 1 regrades over with.

  • Keerthana and Keya, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

    • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Sophia and Zach, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Monday, 4/11.

For Monday, 4/11:

  • Sophia and Zach, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

    • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

    • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • William and Angela, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Wed., 4/13.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Keerthana’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Keya’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

  • !! Reminder as we begin Workshop—active responses to your peers (Doc comments+Google forms, supplemented by in-class discussion) make up your Peer Response grade for the course, which is 15% of your course grade. Don’t skip these!

For Wednesday, 4/13:

  • William and Angela, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Allie and Catherine, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Fri., 4/15.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Sophia’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Zach’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Friday, 4/15:

  • Allie and Catherine, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Madison and Eva, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Mon., 4/18.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read William’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Angela’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Monday, 4/18:

  • Madison and Eva, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Kellen and Aditi, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Wed., 4/20.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Allie’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Catherine’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Wednesday, 4/20:

  • Review your graded Essay 2 files and feel free to start on revisions as desired. (I’ll post a sign-up sheet for extended office hours by Wednesday, for NEXT week.)

  • Kellen and Aditi, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Pierce and Paxton, keep in mind that your submissions are due on Fri., 4/22.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Madison’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Eva’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Friday, 4/22:

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Tiffany, keep in mind that your submission is due on Mon., 4/25.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Kellen’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Aditi’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Monday, 4/25:

  • Tiffany, please drop your workshop materials to the folder linked above.

  • If you have lots of pieces, feel free to put them into a folder with your name on it, and add a note to help orient us.

  • Please add a note at the “front” of your submission somehow, letting us know what you’d like us to focus on as we read. We’ll all give general feedback anyway, but this is your chance to guide us so you get feedback that you find useful.

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Pierce’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

    • Read Paxton’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

For Wednesday, 4/27:

  • Everyone—reference the Workshop Drafts folder to:

    • Read Tiffany’s work in progress.

      • Make TWO comments on the Google doc. (Feel free to respond to other’s comments or to make new ones.

      • Fill out this Google form.

  • Everyone:

For Friday, 4/29:

  • We’ll meet at the Statue of Homer in front of Old Cabell, and then people can either go work on grassy areas or on the steps nearby; whatever works for you. Dogs very welcome but not required. :)

  • Be preparing your final submissions for Unit 4. Try to have near-final drafts ready by Friday, so you can:

  • Bring any final questions you have to class, and use the time for near-final clean-up work.

  • Come to your revision meetings as scheduled.

  • Vote here on our final exam location.

For Monday, 5/2:

  • We will be completing end-of-course surveys, so please come ready to give thoughtful feedback. :)

  • We will go over the final exam during class time.

  • Try to have your projects finalized by class time. We will probably have about 15-20 minutes available for final proofing with peers and last-minute questions for me.

  • Please check your grades in Collab to make sure that your records match my records.

  • Final projects are due by 5 p.m. You can drop them to this folder.

  • Please also round up final, revised copies of your first 2 essays and:

  • FYI: Enough people had travel conflicts that we will hold our final exam on Zoom.

In-Class on Monday, 5/2:

1. Please take time to complete the following TWO course evaluations in response to our class. I use these

  1. a) University Course Evaluation: https://in.virginia.edu/CourseXperience
    *The link above takes you to a list of ALL your courses. Select our course from your list.

    b) Dept.-equivalent Evaluation: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6KUI6myDTHOSaUu

2. Please complete this permission form, letting me know how I may or may not use your work in the future. No pressure on your answers; just please let me know!

3. Please fill out this form, to let me know if you’re comfortable with my sharing your final projects to the class gallery for your peers to see.

For Saturday, 5/7:

See you at the final exam!


https://virginia.zoom.us/j/4629103081