Y'all finished up your first unit! Turned in your first 1,000 word essay! Created your own main characters out of thin air! Congratulations! And now we're going to buckle in and do it all over again. This blog post covers:
Let's Talk about SettingI think we all know a setting is: the place and time in which a story is set. In the state of Texas, the first time you are officially tested on your knowledge of setting is in the 4th grade. Of course, how we think about the setting of work of literature is different. In this Unit, I want us to use this question to shape how we learn and think about the setting of a work of literature: How does the cultural context of a work change our understanding of it? We are going to consider the setting present within each literary work we study, but we are also going to consider the cultural context in which the work itself was created. So what I'm telling you is that we have arrived to our first research unit! And I am very, very excited about this. Y'all, I truly love research. As I was working on my novel that I'm revising this past week, I realized there is a section about a quarter of the way through that needed more research. I was delighted. But I never realized that I loved research until I started doing it for myself to answer my own questions. (What the heck was it like to ride on an ocean liner in the 1950's?) So, I wasn't that big of a fan of research in high school. It was just something necessary that I had to do. There will be an element of student choice involved in every research project we do because I'm hoping that you will be able to enjoy research earlier than I did. We are reading three different short stories set in four different places written by four different authors. Each story represents a different research path, because your essay for this Unit will be comparing the cultural context of a work of literature to the setting and themes present within the story. Here are the three stories we will read and their contexts:
We are, of course, always limited by time. So, in order to expand your choices, you may also explore the context and setting of these two short stories we read from Unit 1, as long as you didn't write about them in your Character Analysis essay.
"The Allegory of the Cave" by PlatoAll three of the short stories from our first Unit were realistic literary fiction. Our two stories this week represent two different genres of writing. The "Allegory of the Cave," for example, is in fact an allegory. An allegory is the expression of truths or generalizations about human existence by means of symbolic fictional figures and their actions (Merriam-Webster). Although all literature on some level is engaged with understanding the world more deeply, allegories are specific tools that use story for the express purpose of trying to expand the readers' understanding of the world. If you are drawn to philosophy, this might be the story for you to write about. I first read it when I was in high school, and I've thought about it approximately 1 million times in the years since then. In a way, it is a story that engages the question that we will engage (how do our cultural contexts affect the way we perceive the world?), but it did so about 2,400 years ago. Here's a video that gives us an accessible entryway into "An Allegory of the Cave:" And here's a video that gives us a small taste of Ancient Greece: "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia MarquezAgain, the title of this story kind of gives away the new genre. Marquez is famous for writing magical realism, and we get a little taste of it in this story. Magical realism is related to fantasy and sci-fi because the events in the story diverge from reality. Old men don't have wings, for example. But otherwise, the setting remains generally realistic. The genre seems to explore the question: what if one strange otherworldly thing was introduced into our world? How would we react? What would we learn about ourselves? Magical realism draws heavily from myth. If you are interested in ways that myth and fantasy reflect our lives, this might be the story for you to research. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the second Nobel Prize recipient whose work we're looking at. Here's a video that gives us some information about Marquez's life filmed at the Harry Ransom Center right here in Austin: Here's an old travel film about Colombia from the 1940's: And here is a short film with footage of Colombia in the 1950's: Welcome to the last week of our first Unit! Also the first week where you will be doing some of your own creative work (I'm so excited!). This blog post covers:
Your Mini-Character BiosRemember how on the first day of class I said that we would be writing a short story together? Well, this week is the week that we begin. It will be a semester-long project, and this week you will begin creating your main character by filling out Mini-Bios that look like this: Mini-Bio for Key Characters Name: Age: Birthplace: Marital Status: Children and their ages: General Appearance: Living arrangements: Occupation, including name of employer/school if applicable: Degree of skill at occupation: Character's feelings about his occupation: Family background (whatever you think is important): The inspiration for your characters can come from all over—people in your life, other characters you've encountered in books and movies, and of course, that character we all know the best, ourselves. Pretty sure Hemingway based his main character in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" on himself. I might have already told you guys this, but I'm working on the second draft of a historical novel. As I've been revisiting and rewriting ALL 80,000 WORDS OF MY MANUSCRIPT (1,000 words doesn't seem so bad in comparison, right?), one of the things I've realized is that a very important supporting character is kind of flat. So I've been working on developing him. Here's an example of his mini-bio: My Example Mini-Bio: Name: Edward Connors Age and Birthday: 24 years old, born February 12, 1931 Birthplace: Leeds, England Marital Status: single (wink, wink) Children and their ages: No kids, but he has two older brothers who work in construction in Leeds General Appearance: Tall, dark hair, kind of lanky, pointy nose, always raising his eyes and wrinkling his forehead Living arrangements: During the archeological excavation season, Edward lives in the rooms at the British Archeological Society in Athens and travels to various dig sites throughout Greece. During the off-season, he lives back home in his parents' flat in Leeds and does drafting work for the local construction companies, especially the one that employs the rest of his family. Occupation, including name of employer/school if applicable: Edward graduated with a first-class degree in Architecture from Oxford University, with a specialization in ancient structures and historical engineering techniques. On the archeological digs in Greece, he works as a site architect to draft out and reconstruct ancient buildings from ruins left behind. Degree of skill at occupation: He's good, but he's gotten as far as he has mostly because of his charm and charisma. Character's feelings about his occupation: Edward wants to secure funding to run his own excavations. He's very ambitious for both money and prestige, and he feels unfairly trapped by the stigma associated with his lower class origins. He's got a chip on his shoulder. Family background (whatever you think is important): His whole family speaks in a heavy North England accent that Edward rinsed from his own speech at Oxford. Sometimes, when he's really angry or emotional, his vowels get elongated and his regional accent comes out. Edward really, really hates it when this happens. Strategies for Developing your First DraftsSo, you have the first drafts of your character analysis essays done and dusted. Now you just need to graft 500 more meaningful words onto the structure you've already built. Here are some of the ways you could go about doing this:
Expectations for Peer EditingThis week, we'll be working with our peer editors for the first time. Here are some guidelines and expectations for this:
Please remember: It is a privilege to be able to read another writer's work. In my experience, I learn at least as much from thinking about other people's work as I do when I think about my own work. You just might find the answer to a question you have in your classmate's essay. After all, it's really just another model text you can learn from. Also remember: The purpose of these editing sessions are to help build content and word count. As peer editors, we are mostly looking for opportunities for the writer to expand, as opposed to places where they forgot to put a comma or something. Here are some ways that editors can begin helpful conversations about the essay:
Rubric for the Final Draft of your Character Analysis EssaysYou are going to be assessed again on the same four elements from your first draft, which were:
This way, if you got dinged on one these areas, you will have an opportunity to look at your work again and strengthen it. You will also be assessed on one additional criteria, which is:
This is a really exciting week! Our major focus is going to shift from reading and thinking about literature to writing about it. More specifically, how to structure our writing about it. In this blog post, you will find:
A Bird's Eye View of our Writing ProcessAs you know from reading our syllabus, this course is designed around four units, and each unit culminates in an essay. Something we haven't completely discussed yet is how each of the units follows the writing process. Although it might not feel like it, we have already begun the writing process for our Character Analysis essays. Let's take a look at our process as a whole:
Reading the short stories, analyzing the short stories, writing the analytical paragraphs, making our dialectical journals—all this falls into Step 1 of the writing process. In other words, we've been prewriting and gathering information for this essay since the first day of class. This week we'll be tackling step 2 and 3 of the writing process. With these two steps, we are really going to focus in on the structural elements of your writing. This writing process will be the same in every Unit. If you like patterns and predictability (I do!), it might be satisfying to know that these steps of the writing process will be repeated three more times. So all the work you invest in honing your skills now in Unit 1 will pay off for the rest of the semester. About OutlinesLet's talk about structure. This week is all about structure. (Next week will be all about development of ideas.) Different modes of writing have different structural expectations. A story, for example, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This the structure of a narrative. Academic essays have a very detailed standardized structure. You have seen this before: Title Introduction Body Paragraph 1 Body Paragraph 2 Body Paragraph 3 Conclusion The blue text indicates the paragraphs that are more dependent on abstractions, and the red indicates the paragraphs that rely more on concrete evidence. (Here's a link to last week's post if you'd like to revisit the Ladder of Abstraction.) Also, as you will see below, each of your body paragraphs follows the same structure as the analysis paragraphs we wrote in class. If the paragraph structure at the end of last week's post was helpful to you, you can use it as a guide for all three body paragraphs for this essay. As far as I know, the five paragraph essay has been a classroom standard since the pioneer days. We aren't going to end here (because we have another draft), but we are going to use this structure as a jumping off point for all of your analytic essays. Here is a more detailed blueprint I'd like you to follow for your outlines: TITLE I. Introduction A. Hook: Start with an engaging sentence. B. Background Information: Brief context about the literary work (title, author, etc.). C. Thesis Statement: Your main argument or interpretation of the work. II. Body Paragraph 1 A. Topic Sentence: Main idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Brief context for the evidence. C. Evidence: Specific examples from the text. D. Analysis: Explanation of how the evidence supports your topic sentence and thesis. III. Body Paragraph 2 A. Topic Sentence: Another idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Context for this new evidence. C. Evidence: More textual evidence. D. Analysis: Analysis of how this evidence supports your topic sentence and thesis, focusing on a different aspect or literary element. IV. Body Paragraph 3 A. Topic Sentence: Final idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Context for the evidence. C. Evidence: Additional textual evidence. D. Analysis: Explanation of how this evidence ties back to your topic sentence and thesis, focusing on a unique aspect or literary element. V. Conclusion A. Restate Thesis: Rephrase your thesis statement. B. Summarize Key Points: Brief summary of main points from body paragraphs. C. Closing Thought: Final reflection on the literary work or the broader implications of your analysis. Thesis Creation WorkshopSo now you know that this first draft is all about structure. In my opinion, the thesis statement is the most important structural element of an essay. Everything else in the essay should be designed around the thesis—to support it, introduce, reestablish it, deepen it. My personal goal is for all of you is to walk out of Monday's class with a teacher-approved thesis statement worthy of designing an essay around. Ok so, how do we write one? Decide which story/poem from class you have the most thoughts about: "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway, "Puppy" by George Saunders, or "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. Then pick the character you are most interested in. Consider the following questions:
These are just jumping off points to help you form a strong thesis statement. Your thesis should not address all of these. After I thought about the first two points above, I came up with this thesis for "Viva La Vida": The narrator's satisfaction with his life increases as he learns to value simplicity over social power. First Draft of the Character Analysis EssayThe first draft of your essay will be at least 500 words. That means each of the paragraphs above will be about 100 words each. This is a true first draft because it will look substantially different from your last draft. You will basically just be putting the structural elements above into an essay.
This essay (and every future essay) will be assessed using a rubric. Each rubric will change a bit depending on what skills we've focused on over the course of the unit. For this draft, I'll be looking for the following 4 characteristics in your writing:
Welcome to our second week of class! This week we're going to cover a very important and exciting (for me at least:)) concept: S. I. Hayakawa's Ladder of Abstraction. This week's post will cover:
"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"I'm so curious to hear your thoughts about Hemingway's short story. Ernest Hemingway is a heavy-hitter of American literature. At the University where I studied in France, the American Literature classes generally featured him and his contemporary, F. Scott Fitzgerald. These guys lived in the generation that experienced both World Wars, and Hemingway's prose is famous for being sparse and very, very grounded in concrete details. I first experienced this story as a junior or senior in high school. It wasn't part of the curriculum—I just found it in a random magazine one day and read it. For whatever reason, this one story really did a number on me. I thought about every night when I worked the night shift at a Waffle House in Mississippi to help me pay for college. I thought about it when I mopped the floor of the bagel shop I worked later. The I thought about it in another way when I found my own clean well-lighted places to study in and read in when I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night. (Side note: In the same magazine, I read a translation of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." Stayed tuned for this story.) Debriefing Your First Literature ResponsesGuys, I was impressed. We are a class of critical thinkers. You guys are thinking about the world, and you are framing your thoughts in language. And that's what we want. Since writing is a skill, though, we can always get stronger. This goes for all of us, professor included. I think the next step for us is to look at ways to clarify and sharpen our relationship with the concrete and abstract dimensions of language. In order to that, you are going to learn about the ladder of abstraction. Then, for your Monday/Tuesday homework, you are going to immediately put this concept to use in your dialectical journal and analytical paragraph response to the short story "Puppy" by George Saunders and "Thank you, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. Saunders is a different kind of heavy hitting literary figure—he's still alive, for one thing. And he was born in Amarillo, for another. And Langston Hughes was an important writer (and one of my favorites) of the Harlem Renaissance. We'll speak a little more about each of them in class. Introducing the Ladder of AbstractionI loved my university library. I used to browse the different stories and gather different random books that happened to catch my eye. It was in just such a dusty book browsing sessions that I first came across S. I. Hayakawa's book Language in Thought and Action. Even if this book had been the only thing I took away from college, it alone would have made all the investment of money and time worthwhile. It changed the way I understood the world. Hayakawa talks about abstract and concrete in his chapter "How We Know What We Know." He presents a concept called the ladder of abstraction, because like so many other things in life, a thing is never simply "abstract" or "concrete:" it's a spectrum. Below is a page from Hayakawa's book depicting an example of the ladder of abstraction with Bessie the cow. On the right are pairs of words, abstract and concrete. Although, what we now know because of Hayakawa is that the concrete words are actually just more concrete than abstract words, and vice versa. Compared to a mile of land, the concept of "Texas" is abstract. All the levels of abstraction on the ladder are important. The ability to move up and down the ladder is the hallmark of meaningful language. On page 93, Hayakawa says, "A preacher, a professor, a journalist, or a politician whose high-level abstractions can systematically and surely be referred to lower-level abstractions is not only talking but saying something." Take a politician, for example, who is always talking about "freedom." The concept of freedom is a pretty high-level abstraction. The key between meaningful and meaningless language is whether the politician can move down the levels of abstraction successfully without contradicting reality. Maybe the politician moves down the ladder by defining freedom as the freedom to get help when you're sick, no matter what. Or maybe they define freedom as the freedom of a landowner to shoot someone who walks on their property. In my experience, politicians often never bother with the lower (more concrete) levels of abstraction at all. So, how does this help us? Well, for one thing, it gives us a shared vocabulary that we will be using for the rest of our class. While we are analyzing literature, our concrete will mostly take the form of quotes from the text, but not always. When you draw conclusions, make assertions, or write a thesis statement, you are abstracting. WEDNESDAY BONUS: Structure of an Analysis ParagraphLet's look a little more closely at how to turn the elements of your dialectical journal into a paragraph. For now, please adopt the paragraph skeleton below for this week's paragraphs and the body paragraphs of your first draft (due next week).
To help you figure out an abstract character attribute (stated below as ABSTRACTION OF THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTER), here is a link to a random, but hopefully helpful list of character attributes. Something that are true about a paragraph crafted from the sentence skeleton below:
BLUE: abstract conclusion RED: concrete evidence from the text In [NAME OF SHORT STORY], [CHARACTER NAME] [ABSTRACTION OF THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTER]. For example, when faced with [CONTEXT OF THE QUOTE YOU NOTICED], [CHARACTER NAME] [QUOTE]. Her [WORDS/ACTIONS/THOUGHTS] illustrate [SOMEHOW CONNECT THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTER FROM THE FIRST SENTENCE TO THE QUOTE]. Later, when [CONTEXT OF SECOND QUOTE], [CHARACTER NAME] [SAYS/DOES] [SECOND QUOTE]. Here, the [CHARACTER NAME] reveals [CONNECT THE SECOND QUOTE TO THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTER IN YOUR FIRST SENTENCE]. [ONE SENTENCE ELABORATING ON THE EFFECT OF THE CHARACTER'S ON THE STORY AS A WHOLE]. HHHIIIIIIIIII!!!! Welcome to your very first class blog :) In this blog, I will cover:
A Little About Me (And the Blog)I've been teaching in some form or another since 2009. I've taught ESL, English and writing at the middle school and high school levels, French 1, AP Lit, and AP Lang. My undergraduate degrees are in French and English, and my Masters of Fine Arts (or MFA) in is Creative Writing with a specialization in Nonfiction. I love reading all kinds of things: old science magazines, novels, Webtoons, cookbooks, Japanese murder mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, memoir, the list goes on. I read to learn, and I read to be entertained. I also like to write all kinds of things. I've written a food memoir, a young adult fantasy novel, and right now I'm revising and rewriting the second draft of a historical fiction novel called Thessalonika about a young college student who masquerades as her male friend so that she can participate in an archeological dig in 1950's Crete. If you're curious about my writing and background, you can find more info and links to my published work at my author website. So the blog. Blogging is a medium I feel really comfortable with. In a way, you could say that my writing journey began with a blog—a food blog that I wrote over the course of the 2010's called Cupboard Sundries. That food blog evolved as I evolved, and pieces of it eventually ended up in my 50,000 word thesis for my MFA. Over the course of my teaching career, I've used process blogs and guided students to create their own online portfolios. And then when Covid hit, I leaned hard into blogs to supplement my instruction. And I never really stopped. Tips for Success this SemesterI love beginnings. Both in writing, and in life, I find that the more time and thought I invest in beginnings, the more successful they are. So, here at the beginning of our class, let's spend a little bit of time thinking about what we can do to be as successful as possible. 1. Keep an agenda. You are both a college student and a high school student. You have deadlines and time commitments coming at you from every teacher, every club, every sport you are involved in. So the single most important tip I can give you is to get into the habit of structuring your time using some sort of agenda. Your agenda can be old school paper and pen like my extremely large and ridiculous agenda (I practice what I preach, as you will see in class.) It can be an app on your phone or it can be a calendar feature on your laptop. The important thing is to use it. Every week, I will share the weekly tasks you will be responsible in the Announcements section of our Blackboard class. I highly recommend you transfer these tasks onto an agenda. 2. Become best friends with the syllabus. That syllabus has all kinds of important stuff in it. We will talk about some of the highlights together, but you are still expected to read it through from beginning to end at least once. 3. Always read the blog posts. I put a lot of instructional material right here, on this page. I often cover in it class lectures and discussions as well, but you still need to read the blog posts. Even if it's a review, even if it's boring. If I publish something here, you need to know it. For my part, I'll try to keep the blogs as concise and clear as possible. 4. Email me. Never feel shy about sending me an email. If there is something happening that is affecting your school work, and you aren't able to tell me about it in class for some reason, please email me. If you are going to be absent, or if you have a question, or if you can't make an assignment deadline, or if you have a really good K-drama recommendation, send me an email. 5. Respect deadlines. Try your very hardest not to fall behind. Prioritize your work. When you fall behind in skills and assignments, the class keeps going on without you. There is often a snowballing effect, and it can be very difficult and sometimes even impossible to catch back up when you start missing deadlines. Our Very First ReadingsWe are going to kick off the course with an in-class analytical reading of the song "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, focusing primarily on characterization of the speaker. Your discussion response will be the same format as your homework reading. Before the next time I see you, you will also independently read the short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway and responding to the discussion thread in Blackboard for homework. As you read, look for concrete elements of the text that help build character. |
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