Friday, Feb. 27th--7:45 pm

Greetings, below you will find a copy of the out of class essay assignment #2, which was distributed and discussed at length in class today.

English 5, Sections 5 & 19

Spring, 2015

Course Theme: The Significance of Home

Instructor: C. Fraga

Out of Class Essay Assignment #2 (worth 400 points total)

(Content & Organization=200 points; MLA Documentation=200 points)

Assigned: Friday, Feb. 27th

ROUGH DRAFT: (Optional) Due no later than Friday, March 13^th.

(The rough draft need not have in text citations or a Works Cited page. However, it does need to be fairly well developed in order for me to give helpful feedback.)

Final Draft Due: Wednesday, April 1st

·       Essay must follow MLA format exactly.

·      Thesis statement must be underlined.

·      Do not write a formulaic five paragraph essay.

·       Essay must have a minimum of five sources on the Works Cited page. You are welcome to use the Internet for sources, but at least one of your sources cannot be found on the Internet (for example, use a book, watch a film, conduct an interview, etc.)

·      You may certainly utilize the Wikipedia website to gain background information and to locate reference sites, but you may not use it as one of your primary, documented sources on the Works Cited page.

You must submit the essay in a large envelope, at least 8 ½” x 11”. On the outside of the envelope, please write your name and section number. In the envelope, you will place the following:

***Your final draft, stapled

***Your rough draft with my commentary, stapled, if you submitted one.

***Your note cards (4” x 6”), clipped together, in the order the information is documented in your essay

***Your bibliography cards (3” x 5”), clipped together, in the order the sources appear on your Works Cited page.

Essay Prompt:

• For this essay, you will first select a group of people from another culture/country that you are genuinely interested in finding out more about.

• You will then conduct research in order to discover and then write about at least four significant ways in which someone from this culture/country must adapt to life in the United States.

For example, imagine that you selected the adaptation of the Hmong once they arrive in the US. After conducting some research, you decide to present information on male and female roles in marriage, religious practices, clothing and diet as the four areas of adjustment you feel are most significant and would make the most interesting reading. You will support your assertion with supportive details/examples from your research

Your thesis might read something like the following:

Hundreds of Hmong people immigrate to the United States every year and face many difficult challenges, particularly in the areas of religious practices, clothing, changes in diet and male/female roles within a marriage.

There are several ways to approach this topic and make it your OWN.

 (An essay that asks you to address a topic such as this one would be difficult to complete in less than at least four to five pages.)

PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY--Wednesday, Feb. 18th--7:30 am

Good morning,
I truly apologize for such lateness. I just woke with the flu "bug" many students have had recently.
Obviously I will be canceling my classes for the day.
Please submit your optional rough draft in my dept. mailbox, located in Calaveras 103.
If the box is too full, please place it on the top shelf above all the mailboxes.
Again, I am so sorry for the late notice.

Thursday, February 12th--1:45 pm

Greetings,
below you will find the two handouts from yesterday's class:
1. Out of Class Essay Assignment #1
2. Viewing a Documentary Film

English 5, Spring 2015

Instructor: C. Fraga

Out of Class Essay Assignment #1--200 points possible

Assigned:  Wednesday, February 11

Rough Draft Due (optional) no later than: Wednesday, February 18 (typed, MLA format)

Final Draft Due: Friday, February 27

REMINDER: IF YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT A ROUGH DRAFT, THEN YOU MAY REVISE THE ESSAY ONCE YOU RECEIVE YOUR GRADE, AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH.

Reminders:

·      Please underline your thesis statement.

·      Please attach your rough draft to the back of your final draft when submitting.

·      This essay must follow MLA format for the set-up of your essay. No Works Cited page is required since you will not be conducting any outside research for this essay.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HOME

Essay Prompt: This essay asks you to employ your narrative, descriptive and analytical writing skills.

Consider your childhood and write about a place where you felt most comfortable, safe, happy and content. This place COULD be your actual house, or a room in your house, but it could be ANYWHERE. (your grandparents’ home; the school yard; the playground at a neighborhood park; Little League games; dance class; the tree house your dad built for you, etc.)

Your essay must include a detailed description of this place and the story of this place—what happened here? Why did this place bring a sense of comfort and safety and enjoyment to you? What did you do when you were at this place? And finally, why do you think it was so significant and memorable for you? Looking back, does this place in any way reflect or symbolize or help define who you are today? Why or why not? Be specific.

Your goal is for the reader to actually SEE this place and UNDERSTAND its importance and effect on you as a young child. Perhaps the reader will also get a sense of your personality, sensibility and passions.

FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS ESSAY ONLY, I AM ASKING YOU TO ORGANIZE IT IN A CERTAIN WAY—NARRATIVE FOLLOWED BY ANALYSIS. We will discuss this at length IN CLASS today. You will want to take notes during the discussion.

REQUIRED LENGTH:

I do not believe in giving my students a specific page length or word count requirement. Part of being a successful writer is knowing how to address a prompt accurately and fully and knowing when to stop writing. I WILL suggest that it would be challenging to complete this assignment in less than at least three pages. Not impossible, but challenging.

***

English 5

Prof. Fraga

In preparation for viewing and analyzing Daughter from Danang

Purpose:

Just as reading fiction, non-fiction and poetry can aid in the development of a discriminatory, critical mind—and lead to critical writing and analysis in ANY area or topic—the viewing of films can elicit the same result.

A documentary film is a form that purports to report on the world as it exists.  The documentary filmmaker uses various well-known techniques taken from the world of news reporting:

• reporting events as they happen,
• recording interviews with participants, and
• utilizing photographs and testimony of historical figures to portray past events.

Sometimes, the distinction between narrative and documentary has to be carefully drawn.

For example, occasionally actors are used to portray characters in historical documentaries such as Ken Burns’ Jazz, usually in voice-over.  On the other hand, narrative films will often borrow various documentary techniques:  Steve Soderberg in Traffic used hand-held cameras and a complicated interweaving of different stories to mimic a documentary “feel.”  Nevertheless, it is clear that Traffic is a narrative film, and Jazz is a documentary.

It is generally assumed that documentaries will not deliberately falsify a view of reality…however, it is true that inevitably the documentary will reflect the filmmaker’s point of view, resulting in some manipulation of the absolute truth.  The main way documentaries shape the story is through

• choosing the interview subjects,
• selecting certain shots and framing devices,
• and most importantly by editing the material to support their vision as filmmakers.

To be sure, the director of a documentary may often attempt to show a balanced point of view by posing questions regarding a problem or by advancing various solutions.

But often a documentary will abandon such an attempt and use powerful evidence to advance a certain ideological argument, as in the classic Harlan County, USA, about a miners’ strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1973.  Here, the miners’ side in the strike is presented through emotional interviews, songs, meetings, and events on the picket line, while what little we see of the owners’ point of view is presented in a negative light.  This kind of documentary that presents an argument is called a rhetorical form of documentary.

In evaluating a documentary it is important to understand what kind we are judging and thus what the filmmaker’s objectives are: 

• Is the filmmaker trying to put forth his or her own point of view or attempting to show a balanced point of view? 
• What techniques are being used to reveal the point of view? 
• What methods are used to gather data? 
• What are the criteria for choosing the people to be interviewed? 
• What kind of shots are used to portray the subjects, and how does editing contribute to the ideological and emotional effect of the film?

Wednesday, February 11th--7 pm

Greetings!

Good news.

The entire documentary, Daughter from Danang, is now available on youtube.
It seems to be available at times and then it disappears.
But it is now back on.
So feel free to view it this way.
The link is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AU_VUe2HX0

Tuesday, February 11th--2:45 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find the assignments for Packet 3 and Packet 4.

PACKET 3--(two short stories)

"A Small Good Thing" (a short story by Raymond Carver)
http://astoryeveryday.com/2011/10/13/raymond-carver-a-small-good-thing/

"Rope" (a short story by Katherine Anne Porter)

http://www.srs-pr.com/american-literature/amlit/porter-rope.pdf

(please note: when you open the link to Porter's story, her story, "Rope," begins on page 968 and ends at the top of page 973)

PACKET 4--(two stories)

"Clothes" (a short story by Chitra Divakaruni)
http://www.lhhsguild.com/LHHSGUILD.COM/AP_files/SYMBOLSM%20-%20DIVAKARUNI%20(Clothes).pdf

"The Chrysanthemums" (a short story by John Steinbeck)
http://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm

Sunday, February 8th--5 pm

Greetings,

Below you will find the questions regarding the documentary, Daughter from Danang, that I mentioned and explained their purpose for in class last Friday.

To repeat, you are not required to submit answers to these questions. They are to be used to guide you in further analysis of the film. If you answer each on your own, very fully and specifically, it will definitely help you when your write your In Class Essay 1 on the film.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS---THINGS TO THINK ABOUT--DURING AND/OR AFTER VIEWING DAUGHTER FROM DANANG

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, February 2--almost 7 pm

To My Most Understanding and Patient English 5 Students:   :)

Please accept my apology for creating such CONFUSION for you today in class!!!

For the last several semesters, my English 5 sections have been on a MW schedule.
So...I am very accustomed to discussing Packet One on the Monday of the second week.
Obviously, we are very often creatures of habit, yes?!

You were NOT to have completed Packet One today, even though I went about the class today THINKING it was due today. Again, I am so sorry for any confusion.

Follow the syllabus as is.
Wednesday, Packet One is due to be read.
Friday, Packet Two is due to be read, along with a Q & C due.

See you Wednesday!