Welcome!

Welcome back, class of 2020! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer.

After reviewing our course criteria and writing our "manifesto", 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.

We will continue to use Google Classroom. Assignments that can be turned in digitally will be posted in our Google Classroom. Go there and enter this code: ruw2nf

Make sure that when you get your Chromebooks, you bring them to class EACH DAY.

For now, let's get started by going to one of the 3 "work sites" or "group discussion areas". In small groups of 4-5 please gather at 1 of the 3 labeled stations. We'll rotate from there to the next station about every 10 minutes. At your station, please complete the short assignment for that station.

• Station 1 is your course criteria. Information about the class and procedures can be found here. Please complete the following:
• Read the course criteria. If you have any questions about the course or its procedures, please jot down a yellow sticky note with your question. I will attempt to answer these.
• Sign up on the library sheet and check out a book. Our first book is The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. We'll get started reading this in a little while.
• Together, as a group, define Culture. What is culture? In your own words, describe this term. Share your response with your group. Come to an agreement and on the INDEX CARD write your group's definition. 
• Then in your own notes/journal, brainstorm some cultural groups you belong to. What cultural groups (hegemonies) do you belong to? While the traditional definition of hegemony is a political/social/or economic power a group uses to rule over another, it can also mean a "group that exerts influence within a society or cultural group." In this way a hegemony or cultural group might include gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, religion, political or economic power, and any group that has "influence" over you: clubs, teams, gangs, your parents, schools, institutions, etc. You will need this list a little later today. Brainstorming is the first step in the creative process. Brainstorm now!

• Station 2 is a "classroom contract" or writing "manifesto". Consider how you want this class to be run. What might make the course more helpful or useful to you with your education goals? Create a "manifesto" of writing goals for the year. Please turn this manifesto in by the end of class today for participation credit.
• Station 3 is a brainstorming site to collect contemporary world issues/themes and subjects you might wish to use for ideas about what to write. Please do the following:
• On the 11x17" paper list some contemporary world issues or universal themes that you can think of. Consider stories/novels you've read, other plays, films or TV programs you've seen (what were their themes/issues?) Ex. coming of age, betrayal, redemption, falling in love, being true to oneself, honesty, etc.
• Complete the curriculum survey posted on the assignments in Google Classroom (or the handout). We will use the survey to create a curricular "path" for this course. I'll report the results next class.

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 hegemonies, cultural groups, and cultural artifacts and ideas in relation to each other. We will use 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. It includes subcategories of social science, psychology, philosophy and political science, as well as gender studies and other "cultural material." Some of you may be interested in majoring in anthropology, political science, psychology, sociology, philosophy, women's studies, African American studies, Asian studies, or gender studies to name only a few. You can find more information about majoring in cultural studies here.

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. Your portfolio will be filled with the kind of writing you prefer. The portfolio will be collected at the end of each marking period. I'll provide more information on the portfolio later in the course.

Now that we've introduced you, let's begin.

Much of our class will use our reading to brainstorm ideas for stories, poems, plays, films, non-fiction, and other writing projects.

Let's get started on your reading of The Namesake. There will be several writing activity/assignments that go along with this book. Today, until we get Chromebooks, write in your notes/notebook/journal.

Open your books. Let's begin. Use the character sketch notes (handouts) when instructed. We will continue using the character sketch notes next class.

HOMEWORK: Please continue reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Complete the first chapter (pp. 1 - 21 of The Namesake) and complete your own character sketch (for a future story you will write). As you read, notice how the author introduces a character's ideology and culture as a frame for the theme of this book. What "foreign" cultural objects, nouns, names, or items are described or noted in the text? Make a list in your notes. We'll take a look at this "scrupulous meanness" next class.