Welcome!

Welcome back, class of 2019! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer.

After reviewing our course criteria, we will get started with some reading, a required writing activity, and start on a couple of assignments to begin this course. By the end of class today, we'll get our locker assignments.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Check this blog 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. You are responsible for reading and interacting with the material I post on the blog. It is a useful resource for the course (since we don't have a specific textbook)--so please use it. You can even see it on your cell phones (which you shouldn't have with you during class...)

New this year is my use of a Google Classroom. Assignments that can be turned in digitally (no printing!) will be posted in the Google Classroom. Go there now and enter this code: ruw2nf

Make sure that when you are in class using a Chromebook that you do the following EACH DAY:

• Log in. 
• Open a TAB and go to our classroom BLOG: scriptssota.blogspot.com
• Open a SECOND TAB and go to GOOGLE CLASSROOM: classroom.google, etc.
• Keep both TABS open during class or as instructed. It's also a good idea to open a THIRD TAB in Google to take class notes (or write class notes by hand if you prefer...) 
• When using headphones (only as instructed please!) please make sure you have only one ear bud in your ear at any time. Lower volume so that only you can hear what is being played. 
• Cell phones should be put away at 7:30. If you need to use them for a class assignment, I will instruct you. Otherwise, put them away. Just a reminder that the hallway is not the place to use your cell phone either. Only use the pass for emergencies, please.
• After each class period, please plug your Chromebooks back into the cabinet. Make sure the Chrome symbol is at the top of the slot and plug in your laptop. Do NOT leave computers on your desk or in elsewhere in the room. You may not take them home either. They remain in the classroom for all scheduled classes to use. 

1. Complete the curriculum survey posted on the assignments in Google Classroom before Monday. See homework for a reminder.

If you're absent or missed something in class, please check the blog to get caught up. As indicated above, each new class period usually 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. It is, however, your responsibility to talk to me about your needs. This is your education. Make it worthwhile.

On our link page and in Google Classroom, you will also find some useful tools for this course. 

Today, after reading about the course, let's begin with a baseline writing exercise.

Let's define culture. What is culture? In your own words, describe this term. Share your response with a partner. In your notes/journal, brainstorm some cultural groups you belong to. What cultural groups (hegemonies) do you belong to? You will need this list a little later today. Brainstorming is the first step in the creative process. Brainstorm now!

Much of our class will use our reading to brainstorm ideas for stories, poems, plays, films, non-fiction and other writing projects. Let's try that with a famous article by Zora Neale Hurston. After reading, respond to the article in writing.

• A few ideas might be: think about your own educational experience. How multicultural has your experience been? 
• Is there value in having a common culture (for example stressing the idea that we are all 'Americans' over fragmenting our culture)? 
• Choose a side and argue for or against it. Who is right in your opinion? 
• Does this idea need updating? 
• Is this issue still important--and, if so, why? Etc.

You will need a Chromebook. Log on and sign up for our Google Classroom. The assignment is available there. Open it and begin writing. In order to begin thinking about this, consider how you identify yourself. What part of your personality/tradition/culture is unique to you. Focus on this idea in your creative essay. Remember:

• Non-fiction is creative--remember to use poetic/literary devices (imagery, metaphor, detail, tone, character, etc.)
• Non-fiction tells an interesting story--show us the scenes, paint them with imagery, remember to use your writing skills and make your audience appreciate your story. 
• Non-fiction includes dialogue, description of a setting, and can include teaching new ideas to your audience
• Non-fiction includes a reflection on the subject matter

Length and style is up to you, but you should develop and tell a good story. Drafts are due next Friday.

Also, get started on your reading of The Namesake. There is a writing activity/assignment that goes along with this book too. It is also due Friday. Use your time in the class to write. Complete writing by next Friday.

The fundamental idea of this course is to use our research and responses to a variety of topics to inspire our artistic and academic 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. All students will be creating a writing portfolio. You will be allowed in many cases to make your own path as you build a writing portfolio for this course. The idea is that you should feel free to create the Art you like to create. You know how to write plays, make films, write essays and short stories, create poems, write blogs, create podcasts, work with technology, perform, and many other writing tasks.

HOMEWORK: Please begin reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Complete the first chapter (pp. 1 - 21 Namesake). As you read, notice how the author introduces a character's ideology and culture as a frame for the theme of this book. Continue writing your draft(s) and complete the curriculum survey by Monday.