English 1A, Sec 84, Fall 2010: August 2010

Hello, here is a copy of the course outline I distributed in class today. If you happen to misplace it at any time, it will always be here on the blog.

FALL 2010, CSU SACRAMENTO
COURSE: English 1A: College Composition I
Section 84, MWF, 9-9:50 AM—A FRESHMAN LEARNING COMMUNITY CLASS!
INSTRUCTOR: Catherine Fraga
E-mail: sacto1954@gmail.com
Office Hours: CLV 149, MWF 11-11:50 AM or by appointment

Peer Mentor: Jessica Castellon
Contact Information: Jc994@saclink.csus.edu
916-239-8462

CLASS BLOG: www.english1A84.blogspot.com

Prerequisites: Placement by examination OR successful completion of English 1 or its equivalent.
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REQUIRED TEXTS & MATERIALS
• Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience
Edited by Chandra Prasad
Publisher: W. W. Norton

• The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
by Kien Nguyen
Publisher: Bay Back Books

• Rules of Thumb: A Guide for Writers—8th Edition
by Jay Silverman, Elaine Hughes, Diana Roberts Wienbroer
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

• 8 1/2” x 11” lined notebook paper (paper that is torn out of a notebook without a straight edge will not be accepted).

• Stapler

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
English 1A is a freshman writing course that offers students the opportunity to learn and develop the reading and writing skills that will be most useful to them during a four-year college program. The course is designed to help students improve their ability to understand and critically judge reading material and to write an essay which has a single controlling idea and which is coherently developed using idiomatically and grammatically correct English.

The heart of the course is readings that require a range of narrative, analytical, reflective and research writing skills.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Attendance and punctuality are required. I have designed this course so that it depends on your presence and participation. If you’re absent, you are still responsible for finding out what you’ve missed (including lecture notes, handouts, changes in due dates, etc.) Refer to your class phone list.

2. Having more than three absences will seriously alter your final grade. This is not because I do not consider you mature enough to make a commitment to a class; it is because if you do miss more than 3 classes, you miss group work, or in class writing, or a journal assignment, or a quiz, or an in class essay assignment, and/or a bevy of other possible events, all of which affect the grade you earn (see #8 below). Please communicate with me. I am very understanding and reasonable.

3. If you must miss a class on a day an assignment is due, you are still responsible for getting the assignment to me on time. Again, use the phone list, call your mother, or??? This is merely a fairness issue; we all have life situations that are often difficult and unexpected, and if others manage to still get their work in on time, I cannot give special exceptions to just a few. If you miss class and would like to e-mail me your work, you must first contact me for permission. Again, this is a fairness issue.

4. There will be numerous reading and writing assignments in this course. Weekly reading assignments will be given, and I expect you to complete them on time and come prepared to class. We may not get an opportunity to discuss everything we read in class, but that is inevitable in any college course.

5. You will complete a question and comment assignment for several of the reading assignments. The question is optional, but the commentary is not. Your commentary must be a minimum of six sentences in length. (I know ALL the shortcuts students may try. Be assured that if you write six very short, simple sentences you will not receive credit for the assignment. A thorough explanation of what is required for these question and comment assignments and a sample will be provided.) No late homework will be accepted.

6. An out of class essay may be handed in late, but there is a stiff penalty. For every day your essay is late, the grade for that essay will drop a full ten points. This includes weekends. Points subtracted for lateness cannot be made up during the revision process.

7. Journal writing assignments are assigned and completed in class and are not allowed to be made up.

8. English 1A is graded A, B, C, D, or F. Do not assume that because you have not submitted a particular essay assignment, you will still be able to pass the course. Even though you have missed the due date, and have an automatic “F” for that assignment, YOU STILL MUST WRITE AND SUBMIT THAT ESSAY TO PASS THE COURSE.

Theme: The Significance of Home

• We will consider home as our course-long theme. The significance of home – as a place of beginnings, as a starting point, as a place of comfort, regret, anguish, joy, personal growth, and loss – fuels a meaningful, intriguing collection of themes. Home is a base from which all of us emerge.

• Most of us have pre-conceived notions of home as a place of love, comfort, security. For millions of children, however, these definitions do not fit their reality of home as a place to escape: escape from cycles of poverty, mistrust, abuse.

• The course will explore not only home as a safety net, but also the illusions we have of home perpetuated by Madison Avenue advertising agencies.

• What are our expectations of home? Again, does our “real” home live up to the expectations society has created? How do different cultural values and priorities play a role in determining what home should and should not be? Attempting to answer these questions is the task I have set for us during this semester.

• What does it mean to leave home for the first time? What does it mean to be rootless, without a home?

• Finally, how can we reconnect to the earth as home, knowing full well that the lives we have created for ourselves impact the finite planet all of us call home?

• We view at least two films which explore the theme of home. These films will allow us to observe and witness concepts we have read about and discussed.

COURSE OUTLINE
(Please note: Bring this outline to class each session; changes could occur at a moment’s notice. Also, most reading and writing assignments are noted -- other class exercises and lectures may not be noted specifically)

ALL OUT OF CLASS ASSIGNMENTS (HOMEWORK, ESSAYS, ETC) MUST BE TYPED AND DOUBLE SPACED UNLESS INSTRUCTED OTHERWISE. PLEASE USE TIMES NEW ROMAN, 12 POINT FONT.

Week One (August 30-Sept. 3)
• Introduction to the Course (course theme explained)
• Course Outline Distributed (handout)
• Question/Comment Homework Explained
• Unacceptable Errors (handout)
• Discussion: Reading and Evaluating Poetry

Week Two (Sept. 6-10)
• MONDAY, SEPT. 6, NO CLASS, LABOR DAY, CAMPUS WIDE HOLIDAY
• Read Poetry Packet 1 (Wednesday)
• In class Journal #1 (Wednesday)
• Read Poetry Packet 2 (Friday) Q & C #1 due today

Week Three (13-17)
• Quiz based on pgs. 2-60 in Rules of Thumb (Monday)
• Out of Class Essay #1 assigned today (Wednesday)
• Discussion: Reading and Evaluating the Short Story (Wednesday)
• Read: Introduction (pgs. 13-18) & “Footnote” (83-96) & “Gift Giving” (119-131) in Mixed (Friday)

Week Four (Sept. 20-24)
• Read: “Bing-Chen” (287-295) and “Caste System” (183-201) in Mixed (Monday) Q & C #2 due today
• Group Exercise #1 (Monday)
• Discussion: How to Evaluate a Documentary Film (Wednesday)
• Read: “The Non-Babylonians” (231-251) in Mixed (Friday)

Week Five (Sept. 27-Oct. 1)
• View 1st half of film in class (Monday)
• View 2nd half of film in class (Wednesday)
• Preparation for in-class writing next week (Friday)

Week Six (Oct 4-8)
• In class essay #1 (please bring a blue book to class, 8 ½” x 11”) (Monday)
• Read: “Unacknowledged” (157-182) in Mixed (Wednesday)
• Out of Class Essay 1 due today (Fri.)
• Group Exercise #2 (Friday)

Week Seven (Oct.11-15)
• Out of class #2 assigned today (Monday)
• Read pgs. 112-134 in Rules of Thumb (Monday)
• Quiz on pgs. 112-134 (see above) (Monday)
• Discuss MLA Documentation in class (Wed.)
• Read pages 136-149 in Rules of Thumb (Wed.)
• Quiz on pages 136-149 (see above) (Friday)

Week Eight (Oct. 18-22)
• Read: “Human Mathematics” (271-286) & “Falling Sky” (223-229) in Mixed (Monday)
• In class Journal #2 (Monday)
• Read: “My Elizabeth” (97-117) in Mixed Q & C #3 due (Wednesday)
• Read: “Wayward” (203-222) & “The Lost Sparrow” (297-308) in Mixed (Friday)
• Group Exercise #3 (Friday)

Week Nine (Oct. 25-29)
• Discussion: How to Read and Evaluate Essays (Monday)
• Read Essay Packet #1 (Wednesday)
• Read Essay Packet #2 (Friday)
• In class Journal #3 (Friday)

Week Ten: (Nov.1-5 )
• Read Essay Packet #3 (Monday)
• Read Essay Packet #4 (Wed.)
• Read Essay Packet #5--Q & C #4 due today (Friday)
• Group Exercise #4 today (Friday)

Week Eleven: (Nov.8-12
• If you have not already, begin reading The Unwanted. Please have pages 5-136 read by Friday of this week.
• Out of class essay #2 due today (Monday)
• Out of class essay #3 assigned (Wednesday)
• Discuss The Unwanted, pages 5-136 (Friday)

Week Twelve: (Nov.15-19)
• View film in class (Monday)
• Complete viewing of film in class (Wednesday)
• In class essay #2 on film viewed this week (Friday)

Week Thirteen: (Nov.22-26)
• Thanksgiving Holiday, Nov. 22 and 23, no classes

Week Fourteen: (Nov. 29-Dec. 3)
• By today you will have read the entire memoir, The Unwanted (Monday)
• Out of class essay #3 due today (Wed.)
• Discuss The Unwanted in class (Wed.)
• Group Exercise #4 (Wed.)
• Discuss The Unwanted in class (Fri.)
• Journal #4 in class (Fri.)

Week Fifteen (Dec.6-10) LAST WEEK OF INSTRUCTION
• Take home test on The Unwanted distributed today (Monday)
• Take home test on The Unwanted due today (Wednesday)
• Grade Sheet Check (Wed.)
• Oral presentations (Friday)
• Last class day (Friday)

Week Sixteen (Dec. 12-17) FINALS WEEK)
• (there is no final exam in this class)

***A NOTE ABOUT REVISIONS***
Since this is a composition course, where the goal is to become a better writer and a more sophisticated thinker, you are invited to revise one of your three out of class essays. If you choose to revise an essay, the revision along with the original, is due no later than one week after you receive the graded essay back.

English 1A, Sec 84, Fall 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010--2nd post for the day

Monday, August 30, 2010

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010