Writing Across Cultures

This morning, please gather in one of the two groups and complete the discussion questions. During the second 1/2 of class, please return to the lab to investigate these crucial key terms. In your notes, please identify and define the following 10 terms: Pop Culture  Counter culture Subculture Trash culture Theory of progressive evolution High culture/low culture  Mass media Folklore Urban legend Fads After researching and defining these concepts/terms, go on to the following assignment: Please link to the website:  Pop Matters  (a popular culture on-line zine). During class: please peruse this site. Choose 3 articles in any of the following categories: television, movies/film, music, gaming, dvds, books, comics, multimedia, events or culture and read them. Afterward, see the homework section. HOMEWORK: To turn in for participation credit, please write a short 1-2 paragraph summary of each article. Make sure to include reference to title and autho...

In the novel The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson, the author uses a variety of allusions. The character's names, for example, are allusions to other literary works. For your own education look up the references to Billie (Billy), Crusoe, and Manfred, for example. Sometimes the allusion is a direct quotation from a famous poem or literary work. For example: THE SUN RISING b y John Donne             Busy old fool, unruly sun,              Why dost thou thus  Through windows and through curtains call on us?  Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?              Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide              Late schoolboys and sour prentices,        Go tell court huntsmen that the King will ride,        Call country ants to harvest offices;  Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,  N...

This morning in our lab, continue your cultural settings narrative. Review the last few class agendas for links, advice, and prompting questions that you may have ignored. When you get stuck in your narrative, go back to brainstorming and work your way out. We will be returning to the classroom for a little while, so copy your file, print it, etc. and finish it on your own time. It is not due until you turn in your marking period 1 portfolio (likely October 11). If you don't want to write this morning, read The Stone Gods . This Sunday at 3:00 is the BOA reading with Li Young Lee. Read some of his poetry as an introduction. More can be found here . If you are attending, please arrive by 2:45. During period 2, return to the classroom 238. We will conduct a discussion and analysis of the first part of The Stone Gods . Get into discussion groups, talk, and complete the analysis questions. Hand the notesheet in by the end of period 2. HOMEWORK: Please read The Stone Gods (par...

To begin class today, please gather your notes for your setting project and look through them. If you need to, share your notes with another willing writer and respond to each other's setting or ideas. Brainstorm possible stories that could take place in the setting you have created. As a partner, try to ask some questions that do not seem clear to you as a listener or reader. Then exchange places with your partner and share again. If you feel you are not yet ready for this step, look through your own notes alone. Spend the first half of the first period in this activity. After 15-20 minutes, begin fleshing out a story or narrative. Consider: Who will be my protagonist? What does my protagonist wish to accomplish? Name a few goals my protagonist might need to meet. What makes my protagonist unique or likable?  What flaws or mistakes or bad decisions has my protagonist made in the past? How have these mistakes or decisions affected his/her life in the present? Who or ...

This morning, after reading the article, please review the class's  Cultural Padlet . You may use any of these ideas as minor or major conflicts in any story or poem you write this marking period. Yes, you can even use this for your poetry class, if you are in need of a cultural conflict. This morning during 2nd period you will be taking the timed test on 1984 . During period 1, please begin brainstorming or fleshing out a plot, character list, or coming up with an idea for a story, play scene, poetry cycle, or script in which you use your cultural setting as a backdrop for the plot and character action. Refer to previous posts to flesh out your cultural setting. If you get stuck, go back to brainstorming and developing. Once you have an idea how to move forward, begin your project using the setting you created to complete a narrative draft. A few of you have asked about comic book scripts. Here's a helpful site to help you with that format.  And another one . We will b...

After our morning reflection/article, please attend to the following cooperative task. There are a variety of cultural problems that you can imbed into your stories, poems, or scripts (or essays) to build conflict. If we start with the basic types of conflict in literature, they include: Human versus Human Human versus Nature Human versus self Human versus the Divine Taken in a cultural context, gather in groups of 2-3 this morning and discuss the various ways in which conflict rises from culture. You may consider such broad areas as economics, health, religion, government, laws, taboos, education, art, entertainment, technology, geography, social institutions, trade and commerce, cuisine, or any other topic you think relevant. Make sure members of your group contribute to your list. Then create a graphic depiction of your brainstorming list. Use padlet as a way of gathering/presenting your ideas. The link is here: http://padlet.com/wall/wtt5hxsn33 Read the article: Diff...

Use the lab this morning to work on your original cultural setting. Your task, again, is to create an unique setting in which to set a story, much in the same manner as George Orwell or other science fiction/fantasy, historical fiction, etc. authors do. Keep your notes, not only for your story, but also to turn in with the completed project. Use your class notes to help you brainstorm ideas. Your setting will require you to consider key cultural aspects such as traditions, history, art or artifacts, religion, government, economics, cuisine, entertainment, language, and a whole host of other ideas. Apart from Patricia Wrede's world building questions , take some time in the lab to look for more ideas for world building, take a look at World Building from Television Tropes . For fantasy, this article may help ( Creating a Realistic Fantasy World ), and advice from writer Victoria Strauss . If you are having trouble coming up with an idea, try an alternate history . Here's...

This morning, please gather in the small groups where you share the same cultural topic on 1984. You will discuss your notes and examples, then wait for further instructions on how to share this information with the rest of the class. After our activity, we will be moving up to the lab to complete the following tasks: 1.  let's try some of our own planning to create our own culture.  Science Fiction and Fantasy writers often have to create a culture that is at once creative and original, and also cohesive. A reader of sci-fi/fantasy needs to feel as though the author has created a unique world in which to set a story. Even if you aren't interested in writing sci-fi/fantasy, other forms of writing demand this sort of skill. Historical fiction, magical realism, and satire, for example, are just a few popular choices. So, too, is the genre of horror and, or course, dystopian fiction. Even realist writers (any novelist really) needs to be able to balance a fictional world s...

This morning we will attend the Rights & Responsibilities assembly. If we have any time after this event, we will come back to the room and begin discussing 1984. HOMEWORK: Continue reading Part 2 of 1984. Pg. 104-179 for Friday. Complete the "note" section for your handout (1984, Cultural Elements)

Coming Attractions: Wednesday we will be attending a Rights/Responsibilities assembly. Please be on time. Class starts at 8:05. Bell Work: We will begin class reading a short article and responding to the essay in our journals. Throughout this course, we will encounter various texts and use a response technique such as brainstorming, freewriting, cave drawing, or mind mapping. Our goal is to strike something that causes us to create a written response in any genre of creative writing: a short story, a poem, a poem cycle, an essay, a memoir, a song, a film, a script, a comic, or any other written form. Let's cover some of the important culture vocabulary we missed Thursday. See post and handout below for details. What hegemonic groups can we use to our advantage when selecting an audience for our writing? Let's discuss. Group Work/Collaboration: After discussing and learning key vocabulary, each of you please take one of the 1984 questionnaire sheets. Spend 10-15 minute...

Let's define  culture . What is culture? In your own words, describe this term. Share your response with a partner. Now, let's read about "Cultural Studies." What sticks out for you as important or interesting in this article? Much of our class will use this technique to brainstorm ideas for stories, poems, plays, films, non-fiction and other writing projects. The fundamental idea of this course is to use our research and responses to a variety of topics to inspire our artistic impulses. Secondly, it is a course that urges the artist to depict him or herself in relation to or as the other. We will be examining power structures and hegemonic cultural groups in relation to each other, using this topic to reach a more universal and engaged POV about our own selves, our own cultures, and the world audience itself. This course is a literature course, a course in ideas, as well as a practice from which to write and capture authentic voices. You will be allowed in man...

Culture Scientists and Anthropologists define  culture  as learned behavior acquired by individuals as members of a social group. According to Edward Tyler in 1871: culture includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and other capabilities or habits acquired by a group. Culture is a learned behavior. Culture is also used to refer to a highly cultivated person versed in art, philosophy, etc. Culture includes insignificant behavior such as behavior traits, etiquette, food habits, as well as refined arts of a society. Culture can also be considered as the sum total of human knowledge and acquired behavior of humankind. Habits or behavior is generally transmitted from members to the young or outsiders until the outsider is also an insider, part of the group. Language : common way of communication. Language is a system of verbal and nonverbal symbols used to communicate ideas. The study of these symbols is what is known as  semiotics . Taboos : strict mo...

Welcome class of 2014 to our classroom blog. Check here each class period for agendas, deadlines, educational information, advice, and a whole lot of links to enhance your education. All you have to do is read and click. Any material and links or articles posted here are fair game when it comes to unit tests. You will be using this blog throughout this course. If you're absent or missed something in class, please check the blog to get caught up. As stated above, each new class period includes a new post. If you have a question about an assignment and are too embarrassed to speak to me in public (or you have a question that you think you will forget to ask), feel free to use the comment section. On our link page is a link to our  Creative Writing Forum . You will be expected to use the forum to discuss the major reading and thematic topics in this course. Electronic forums save paper. You are keeping the world green by posting responses and reflections there.