Thursday, September 30th

Hello!
Here are the study questions for Daughter from Danang. Please print them out, read them over and consider articulate replies for each, and bring it along to class on Friday. See you then!


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS---THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. One reviewer describes the film as a “gut-wrenching examination of the way cultural differences and emotional expectations collide.” Would you agree this is an accurate description? Why or why not? Explain specifically.

2. Were there parts of the film that made you feel uncomfortable? If so, what were those parts and can you articulate why they made you feel uncomfortable?

3. Heidi acutely feels that she has been rejected by two mothers: her birth mother who gave her up and her Tennessee mother, whose cold, untouching demeanor drove a wedge between them. How does this fact impact Heidi and what she ultimately experiences when she returns to Vietnam?

4. The film is considered a very powerful one by many other small filmmakers as well as many reviewers. In your opinion, what makes this an effective or ineffective film?

5. What preconceived ideas about home are proven inaccurate after viewing the film?

6. In an interview with the filmmakers, they admit that when they decided to film Heidi’s return to Vietnam, they assumed that the reunion would be a healing story, a kind of full circle coming home. The war in Vietnam was long over and they felt they could create a film that would ease the collective pain that is still connected to the war. Instead, what they did discover?

7. Some viewers have condemned Heidi for representing an aspect of American culture that they believe is selfish and individualized. What do you think and feel about Heidi’s reaction for the family’s request for money?

Monday, Sept. 27th

Hello, I am posting the synopsis for "Daughter from Danang" just in case you misplace it. See you Wednesday for the second half of the film.

English 1A, C. Fraga----About the Film--Daughter from Danang (2002)
This documentary often upsets the viewers’ expectations of happily-ever-afters. It is a riveting emotional drama of longing for home, grappling with identity issues, and witnessing the personal legacy of war.
To all outward appearances, Heidi is the proverbial “all-American girl”, hailing from small town Pulaski, Tenn. But her birth name was Mai Thi Hiep. Born in Danang, Vietnam in 1968, she’s the mixed-race daughter of an American serviceman and a Vietnamese woman. Fearing for her daughter’s safety at the war’s end, Hiep’s mother sent her to the U.S. on “Operation Babylift”, a Ford administration plan to relocate orphans and mixed-race children to the U.S. for adoption before they fell victim to a frighteningly uncertain future in Vietnam after the Americans pulled out.
Mother and daughter would know nothing about each other for 22 years.
Now, as if by a miracle, they are reunited in Danang. But what seems like the cure for a happy ending is anything but. Heidi and her Vietnamese relatives find themselves caught in a confusing clash of cultures and at the mercy of conflicting emotions that will change their lives and their definition of home forever. Through intimate and sometimes excruciating moments, Daughter from Danang profoundly shows how wide the chasms of cultural difference and how deep the wounds of war can run--even within one family.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Tuesday, Sept 21st

Hi, and happy last "official" day of summer--tomorrow is the first day of autumn!

A couple of things:
1. Reminder, no class Friday this week.
2. Since I will not be holding class on Friday to collect any rough drafts there may be, it is absolutely fine to email me your rough draft so I can review it over the weekend.

See you in class tomorrow. Be sure to bring the sample student essay I handed out on Monday.

Thursday, September 16

Hello!
Below you will find a copy of the out of class essay assignment #1 that at distributed in class yesterday.
Also, remember to bring your text, Mixed, to class tomorrow. See you then.

Eng. 1A, Sections 3 & 84, Fall 2010, Instructor: C. Fraga

ASSIGNMENT: OUT OF CLASS ESSAY #1
• Assigned: Wednesday, Sept. 15
• Rough Draft due, typed & dbl. spaced (optional): no later than Monday, October 4
• Due: Friday, October 8

Please select one of the prompts below and write an interesting, informative, well
supported analysis response.
Requirements:
• Must be typed and double-spaced and have a title.
• Must follow MLA format (I will explain what my expectations are for this paper)

Since the purpose of this course is to strengthen your exploratory, expository and analytical writing with an emphasis on utilizing research and reading skills…AND because the theme for this course is the significance of home…I offer you a selection of three different essay prompts that each require you to carefully and deeply examine the theme of home in a particular genre. It is my intention that you will be drawn to one of the three enough so that you are motivated and even excited to conduct your research and write the essay.

Prompt #1:
For this essay you will research the theme of home as it is found in children’s picture books. After perusing several picture books, you will select a minimum of six to discuss, analyze and review for their success (or failure) in presenting the theme of home, through both words and illustrations. In your analysis, be sure to consider the intended audience.

Prompt #2:
For this essay you will research the theme of home as it is found in song lyrics. After perusing and studying many song lyrics, you will select a minimum of six songs to discuss, analyze and review for their success (or failure) in presenting the theme of home.
In your analysis, be sure to consider the intended audience.

Songs/Lyrics you may NOT analyze (please)! ☺:
“Home” (Chris Daughtry)
“Sweet Home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
“Home” (Michael Buble)
“Can’t Take me Home” (Pink)





Prompt #3:
For this essay you will research the theme of home as it is found in three different films (OR at least three episodes from a television series). You will discuss, analyze and review each film (or episode) for its success (or failure) in presenting the theme of home. In your analysis, be sure to consider the intended audience.
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IN ORDER TO ADDRESS ANY OF THESE THREE PROMPTS FULLY AND ADEQUATELY, YOUR ESSAY SHOULD BE AT LEAST 5 PAGES IN LENGTH (approximately)

Phrases you may NOT use in your title or anywhere in your essay:

There’s no place like home.
Home sweet home.
Home is where the heart is.
Home means different things to different people.

Sunday, September 12th

Hello, hope your weekend was an enjoyable one!
As you know, there is a quiz tomorrow. Just a reminder to bring your Rules of Thumb textbook to class since it is an open book quiz.
See you tomorrow!

Tuesday, Sept. 7th

Hello!
Poetry Packet #2 consists of two prose poems.
We will discuss the definition of a prose poem in class on Wednesday.
There is a question and comment due for these two poems. Remember, this means a Q & C for EACH poem.

"Flies" by Donald Hall
(if you google the above just as it is written, you will find the complete poem in the second posting.)

"Leaving Yuba City" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
(I will provide a copy of this for you in class on Wednesday, Sept. 8)

Thursday evening, September 2nd

Hello, below you will find Poetry Packet #1. There are four poems to read for next Wednesday, September 8th. Two of them are provided in full text below and the other two are to be found on the Internet. Print out all four poems and bring to class.



POETRY READING PACKET #1 (four poems)

“Taking my Son to School” by Eamon Grennan
(do a google search of the above poem exactly as it is written above. The first posting will be a commencement speech give by Mr. Grennan. Open this and you will see the poem right at the beginning of the speech. Focus only on the poem, not the speech)
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"One Home”
By William Stafford
Mine was a Midwest home—you can keep your world.
Plain black hats rode the thoughts that made our code.
We sang hymns in the house; the roof was near God.

The light bulb that hung in the pantry made a wan light,
but we could read by it the names of preserves—
outside, the buffalo grass, and the wind in the night.

A wildcat sprang at Grandpa on the Fourth of July
when he was cutting plum bushes for fuel,
before Indians pulled the West over the edge of the sky.

To anyone who looked at us we said, “My friend”;
liking the cut of a thought, we could say “Hello.”
(But plain black hats rode the thoughts that made our code.)

The sun was over our town; it was like a blade.
Kicking cottonwood leaves we ran toward storms.
Wherever we looked the land would hold us up.

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“Where Children Live”
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Homes where children live exude a pleasant rumpledness,
like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons.
To be a child again one would need to shed details
till the heart found itself dressed in the coat with a hood.
Now the heart has taken on gloves and mufflers,
the heart never goes outside to find something to do.
And the house takes on a new face, dignified.
No lost shoes blooming under bushes.
No chipped trucks in the drive.
Grown-ups like swings, leafy plants, slow-motion back and forth.
While the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses
of bottle-rockets and whistles,
anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short-lived.
Trees in children's yards speak in clearer tongues.
Ants have more hope. Squirrels dance as well as hide.
The fence has a reason to be there, so children can go in and out.
Even when the children are at school, the yards glow
with the leftovers of their affection,
the roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another
like secret smiles.

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“To a Daughter Leaving Home”
by Linda Pastan
(please google the poem and you will find it on PoemHunter.com)

Wednesday, September 1

Hello, below you will find a copy of two handouts from today's class: Unacceptable Errors and the Oral Presentation.

UNACCEPTABLE ERRORS


In English 1A, students should already be very proficient in word usage. We do not have time for grammar lessons. (I will, however, provide short ‘mini’ lessons when I feel they are warranted.) The following errors that are commonly made on student papers are considered unacceptable.

For homework assignments, any unacceptable errors will result in no credit for that assignment. Please proofread and edit carefully. You will be unable to revise a homework assignment.

For out of class essays, each unacceptable error takes ten points off your final earned grade. You may correct unacceptable errors and receive the points back if you choose to revise. In class essays that have unacceptable errors CAN always be corrected to earn back the points lost.

1. there – place Put it over there.
2. their – possessive pronoun That is their car.
3. they’re – contraction of they are They’re going with us.
4. your – possessive pronoun Your dinner is ready.
5. you’re – contraction of you are You’re not ready.
6. it’s – contraction of it is It’s a sunny day.
7. its – possessive pronoun The dog wagged its tail.
8. a lot – always two words I liked it a lot.
9. to – a preposition or part of an
infinitive I like to proofread my essays carefully.
10. too – an intensifier, or also That is too much. I will go too.
11. two – a number Give me two folders.
12. In today’s society Instead use “Today” or “In America” or “Now” etc
13. right(s)/write(s)/rite(s) rights are a set of beliefs or values in which a person feels entitled: His rights were read to him before he was arrested for stalking Dave Matthews. Writes is a verb indicating action taken with a pen, pencil or computers to convey a message: Michelle writes love letters to Dave Matthews in her sleep. Rites are a series of steps or events which lead an individual from one phase in life to the next, or a series of traditions that should be followed: The initiate began his rite of passage ceremony at the age of thirteen.
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An accumulation of the following errors can affect your grade, but not one error, ten points down. The number depends on how serious the error is, and how often you make it. Some do not slow up the reader as much as others.

• Misuse of the word “you”. You must actually mean the reader when you use the word “you”.

• Avoid use of contractions in formal expository writing. (can’t, shouldn’t, didn’t, etc.)

• Agreement of subject and verb. Both must be either singular or plural.

• Fragmented sentences, comma splices and run-ons. Be sure to proofread your papers carefully before turning them in.

You will not pass English 1A if you cannot write an intelligent sentence in correct English.

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English 1A—Sections 3 and 84
Fall 2010
Instructor: Catherine Fraga

Oral Presentation Assignment

The Significance of Home
Assigned: First week of semester

Due: The last day of course, Friday, December 10th

For this assignment, please select an article, observation, photograph, painting, collage, film, song, poem, essay or anything else that offers some message or reflection on the theme of home. It could have a personal meaning for you, but it does not have to.
After you have selected your “item,” write a minimum of one page about the item. Include a brief description of the item and a detailed explanation of why you chose this item; include a thoughtful commentary. Proofread carefully for unacceptable errors as well as other proofreading mistakes.
On the day of presentations, please do not read your essay to the class, but simply summarize the main points aloud to the class. The presentation usually takes only a few moments. You will submit a copy of the essay only to me.
As the semester progresses, you may get ideas for your presentation from our readings, the films we will be viewing, or from class discussions.
Remember that you will not receive this short essay back nor will you receive any credit for the assignment if there are ANY unacceptable errors present.
Please do not take this assignment lightly. It is worth 100 points.