Full Circle

Our last assignment for this semester will be a response to the end of your Morrison novel. Keep in mind that this is in fact a course about language and rhetoric; as such, you might want to consider Morrison’s aims in writing these novels. What is her objective?

Making Connections

You can either write or record a blog entry for next class regarding our Morrison novels. Be sure to link the novel to the play "A Huey P. Newton Story". How might Huey P.'s story relate to the protagonists of your novels? What sorts of agendas do the protagonists of these novels seem to have?

Neat Sheets

Some of you may be looking for last minute advice to study for the exam Friday.

I recommend using transitional phrases in all of your essays. Maybe choose a few you feel comfortable with and insert them in old blog posts for practice.

Also on strategies for DBQs as applied to the synthetic essay read this article.

If you'd like to quiz yourself, try this page.

Complimentary Texts

For this week I think I have some non-fiction texts that can aid your reading of the Morrison novels.In your blog entries this week please make connections between the  texts.

For those reading The Bluest Eye listen to this song by The Trinikas and "What Did I Do" by Louis Armstrong and "Astronomy" by Black Star.

For those reading Songs of Solomon read this speech by Booker T. Washington.

That will mean two blog entries for Friday, in addition to a video blog entry for next Monday.

The Tempest Has Been Rescheduled

Due to student requests our performance has been rescheduled for next Tuesday at 3:30.

In preparation for Thursday´s class, read this blog entry from the NYT style manual editor (style in this case referring to grammar and mechanics). In a response on your blog explain a dangling modifier. Have you used these before?

Also, Thursday think about a blog entry you´d like to present to the class as to open a discussion about the Toni Morrison novels.

For class next Monday, I´d like two more blogs about your Toni Morrison novel. In addition please respond to two classmates´ blogs.

Tempest Drizzle

As we continue to conference about your blogs this week, make sure you complete two more for next week. Try making personal connections with these texts - as the cultural context is different from our own.

On another note, I can’t get the rubric that we decided on to post correctly, so here’s a sort of garbled version.

Clarity of rhetorical objective    

The audience clearly understands the actor’s intent.    

The audience understands some of the actor’s intent.          

The audience understands a bit of the actor’s intent.   

The audience understands little or none the actor’s intent.

Understanding of text  

The actor delivers her/his lines fluently, as thought they were her/his own words.       

The actor delivers most of her/his lines well.        

The actor delivers some of her/his lines well.    

The actor delivers a few of her/his lines well.

Use of theatrical tone  

The actor colors her/his character with costumes and props.    

The actor colors her/his character with costumes and props to some extent.         

The actor colors her/his character with few appropriate costumes and props.                

The actor colors her/his character with no costumes and props.

Our performances will take place April 25th at 3:30pm in the ampitheater in front of the HS Office.

A New Focus in the Home Stretch

Please excuse the idiomatic allusion to baseball. Ahem. This week I need you to write three reading blogs for your Toni Morrison books by Monday. By Thursday I need to see at least one. We'll discuss them in class.

Also, don't forget our "The Tempest" performances are for April 18th, in the afternoon. Remember it will be outdoors.

The Tempest Is Here!

Yes, by pure chance (or because of relevance), ¨The Tempest¨ has come to Bogotá. Here´s an opportunity to enjoy the show as it is meant to be enjoyed. Such extracurricular efforts should be rewarded.

Performances and Exams and Wizardry

Okay - not wizardry, per se, but this week we'll be having an exam (question 2 modified from Reality Hunger) and a brief multiple choice passage (block 8 on Wednesday, everyone else on Friday).

In addition, we have tentatively scheduled our afterschool performance for April 18th. I'll present you with a rubric next week, but essentially I'll be looking for a clear rhetorical objective. Much like the play within a play in Hamlet, or even that of A Midsummer Night's Dream, you must have a purpose for your performance. We'll be talking more about this specifically this week.

Test

No, this is just a test. That is a test in the other sense of the word. Let´s test our test skills.

Try this.

Reality Bites

This Wednesday bring to class a draft of your reality project - in whatever form that may be.

For Friday read chapters K,M and N. Focus on memoir and essay - both generally short genres we've discussed. Then take a look at this article published in The Guardian. Connect them to each other.


By Tuesday have read Chapter O,P and Q. Give three examples of antithetical statements. Consider this: how is the nature of "reality" paradoxical?

The Reality Project

Make something real. It's that simple. Make something with text that is real. We have to believe that you did this, or someone else did, or that this really happened or could happen.

Here's the catch: it can't be real. You have to use other texts - that is nothing that is your own - to make it happen.

Topics will be assigned at random. You will then have to convince us of this topic. Make it real. No specified length, no format, no restrictions. Just make us believe.

This reality-based project will be due in class March 21st. 

Copy, Cats

This week I'd like you first, to listen to the audio commentary I left and respond to it on your blog.

Read Chapters G, H and I. Choose one fragment from each chapter that you strongly agree with. Interpret it and then explain why you believe it's true. Afterwards respond to a classmate that you disagree with about a fragment. Do this by Thursday.

Read Chapter L and make a visual collage with the words from the chapter and images. You may either post this on your blog, or bring it in. Try to actually change Shields' intentions.

In addition, you'll want to begin rehearsing or practicing your scenes from The Tempest.

Reality Bites

By March 5th I'd like you to read Chapter "C' and "D". Choose one thing that Shields alludes to and investigate it. For example, in Chapter "A" Shields discusses "Delete City". If that grabbed my attention (which it does) I might investigate it (watch it, etc.). Then write a blog entry in which you discuss the role of this other work in Reality Hunger. How does it relate to Shields' objective?

And remember you have to wait until after midnight tonight or tomorrow morning. I think that´s why you haven´t been able to upload.

Class Number

I think in addition to a name you need a number.

The ID number is 6157435. The password rhetoric. If anything else should fail, we can work things out tomorrow.

Turning It In

Thursday please upload your research papers to turnitin.com. The password is rhetoric. Okay, not very original, but who wants to turn in a research paper that's not in this class?

Manifestos

Read the Futurist Manifesto and the first chapter of Reality Hunger. Compare their versions of manifestos on your blog. What is a manifesto based on these two documents?

Note: If you've already used the Cartagena Manifesto that is fine. I changed this because I thought it was easier and shorter. 

How to End a Paper

Here are the tips!

Investigative Papers

Please don't forget to bring in your papers (digital or print) this Wednesday.

Try interpreting this cartoon:

Race is clearly not universal. Many new immigrant groups bring new forms of viewing ethnic groups with them: the mung of Vietnam, the paisas of Colombia, and the garifuna of Honduras. Junot Diaz in his short story “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie)” reveals a new vision of ethnicity via a pidgin language spoken amongst his peers in the north eastern United States. A mix of Dominican Spanish, AAVE, and Standard English are used by the speaker in order to recreate a Dominican version of race.

While some other racial categories have existed, the English system of ethnic categorization was a dichotomy: white and black. As such, African-American literature has long polemicized the role of the “multatto”[1]. We find this nominalist issue in Diaz’s depiction of race. As the title reveals there are both white and black “girls”; however, there are others that do not fit the speaker’s Dominican more complex understanding of race. In the Dominican Republic in fact several racial categories exist, beyond the dichotomous “black-white” of the United States (Candelario).

---

[1] See “Multatto” by Langston Hughes, originally co-authored with Zora Neale Hurston.

Sources

Don´t forget to bring in your sources to tomorrow´s Writers Workshop. We´ll begin our papers in class.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090701095636_747.pdf

Inkhorn and Lexicology

Change of plans new documentary series, The Adventure of English.

Over this weekend watch episode 6 and respond to each thinker/writer mentioned (Locke, Johnson, Austen etc.). What problems do you see in their theories? How do we view language differently today?

Also, choose some sort of text to investigate linguistically. If you are interested in a particular dialect I can help you select the text. Have an idea of what interests you.

Finally by Friday watch episode 7 on the role of empire and language. While responding in a blog entry think about the relationship between language and power.

What is palenquero?

This is palenquero according to Wikipedia.

Right On

So this week we´ll continue your understanding of The Story of English - as a kind of standard explanation of English. We will eventually be able to compare it to David Crystal´s vision as we read it in class.

(can u believe this meme i found????? wat a prescriptivist? And so condescending - not to mention belligerent!!!!)


By Wednesday watch and write about Episode 4. Try connectin' it tae other texts yoo´ve reid. Also, translate your entry using this site. 

By Friday watch and write about Episode 5. Try to incorporate what some people have commented on youtube.

For Monday, have watched Episode 6 (yay, America!). Try linking this to your use of American English. Note: some rocking songs in this one.

For next Writers Workshop, have the television series you will study chosen and a general approach to its use of English.

Listening to Language

For Monday, watch The Story of English Episode One and Episode Two in their entirety. For each episode write one blog entry. You must use MLA citation for the videos and cite from them in these entries.