Writing Across Cultures

LAB: The deadline for signing up for dual enrollment is tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 5. If you do not sign up for dual enrollment by that time, you will not be able to sign up for the course and will not receive college credit. Those of you who have signed up for dual enrollment, will gain access to MCC's facilities throughout the course. More information for you will be forthcoming. In either case, you will need to submit a portfolio for your marking period grade. Please work on your portfolio. Make sure you have completed and printed your summary for The Hoober Bloob Highway . We will meet in small groups to examine our summaries during period 2. Portfolio Assignments/Creative Drafts: Complete or revise your "How it Feels to be Me" essay draft  Complete or revise your "identity poem" draft  Complete or revise any creative piece based on discussions, journal exercises, etc. Complete or revise your story draft where you use multiple based on the stru...

Complete The Hoober Bloob Highway . Then off we go to the lab for the rest of the period. We will return during 2nd period. Try T-RG-TS (or TARGETS): T : Trivia (remove trivial or unimportant material) R : Redundancies (remove redundant or repetitive material) G : Generalize (replace specifics of lists with general terms and phrases) TS : Topic Sentences (identify the main ideas & the topics that create the main ideas) A. Watch the following short animated film directed by  Chuck Jones   B. Take notes on the key or main points of the film. Add details. [consider using Cornell notes for this activity, but you can use any note-taking system you prefer...] We'll stop during the "commercials" to summarize and/or organize notes.  You will need your notes for our summary activity next class.' Addendum:  The film was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprise ; Fritz Freleng's animation production company. REMEMBER: You are writing a summary, not an analysi...

This morning, Ms. Wilkie will be here to speak to the class about the dual enrollment opportunity for this class. If you haven't signed up yet for dual enrollment, you only have a week left to do so. After that, you will still have to complete the college course, but you will only receive high school credit for it. If you are interested in signing up for dual enrollment, please check out this link and fill in the appropriate forms. You will need your personal data. MCC Dual Enrollment application . Summarize: Like any skill, the more you practice the better you become at that skill. Kathy Wilson: "Dude Looks Like a Lady" Try T-RG-TS (or TARGETS): T : Trivia (remove trivial or unimportant material) R : Redundancies (remove redundant or repetitive material) G : Generalize (replace specifics of lists with general terms and phrases) TS : Topic Sentences (identify the main ideas & the topics that create the main ideas) We are all different. In Psychology we...

I have jury duty today, so I will not be in attendance. Please follow the instructions I left with the substitute teacher. We will be reading two articles on Identity this morning. With time remaining in the classroom, please complete any of the following activities: Examine the text of the Namesake . Find examples of how the characters culturally identify themselves. Make a list for your notes/discussion of this novel. Complete chapter reviews of  the Namesake .  Complete or revise your "How it Feels to be Me" essay draft  Complete or revise your "identity poem" draft  Write any creative piece based on discussions, journal exercises, etc. Complete a story draft where you use multiple perspective, switching between 2 characters like  The Namesake . To do this, create and flesh out 2 protagonists with details. Use various techniques you have learned to inspire you. Use present tense. Start your story through the 3rd person limited viewpoint of your f...

LAB: (7:30 - 8:00 only) Please watch the following two videos and react to ideas within them in your writing: The Great American Melting Pot Who Am I? Then work on the following: Complete chapter reviews of  the Namesake .  Complete, revise or print out your "How it Feels to be Me" essay draft  Complete, revise, or print out your "identity poem" draft  Write any creative piece based on discussions, journal exercises, etc. Continue to write a story where you use multiple perspective, switching between 2 characters like  The Namesake . To do this, create and flesh out 2 protagonists with details. Use various techniques you have learned to inspire you. Use present tense. Start your story through the 3rd person limited viewpoint of your first protagonist. Stay close to this character as you describe a common conflict--such as having a baby, or losing a job, or dealing with the diagnosis of a sickness or disease, etc. As you describe the character's da...

This morning, Ms. Wilkie, our MCC liaison for Dual Enrollment has cancelled her visit due to an illness. We will hear from her soon. In the meantime, if you have any specific questions about the course, please write them down and I will send them to her to answer. If you are interested in Janice Harrington's reading at BOA, 3:00 is a workshop, 4:00 reading, and a dinner at Good Luck. If you are interested, please see Ms. Gamzon by Thursday to reserve a space/ticket. Extra credit, etc. LAB: Please review your summary of chapters 1-3 (or more) of the Namesake . Review what advice and comments you received from your workshop last class. Use this feedback and advice to plan how you might improve your summary writing. As you continue reading this book, please briefly summarize each chapter. You will use these notes to create your novel summary paper project--a required assignment that will be due when we finish the book. In the lab today, after your summary work, please work on...

Lab: Registration for MCC is now open. This morning, if you are going to sign up for MCC's Dual Enrollment program, you may go to the following website: MCC Dual Enrollment . Select: Dual Enrollment Registration . Please read and check the appropriate boxes about key points of the program. This is a timed page. You must read the appropriate information before the system will allow you to move on. From the drop down menu, select RCSD - School of the Arts. Choose MCC College Writing, taught by Bradley Craddock, College Composition WR (ENG 101-04p). The first course is worth 3 college credits and costs $210. This fee will be waived for students who get free and reduced lunch . Fill in the basic information. Please be accurate, as this information will be used to create your official transcript.  You will need to provide your Social Security #. You do not currently have an MCC ID. If you are eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch you must select YES. Otherwise, you will not b...

During period one: This morning write a poem about an aspect of your culture or a ritual or observation from one of your hegemonic groups. Your speaker should be the mouthpiece for your experiences. Don't feel like you need to grasp at the giant ideas--what does the experience you chose to write about mean? In a single "cultural" moment what does it mean to be you ? Or part of your group or clan or tribe or gang ? Or what might it mean to recognize your place in the world? What you'll need is a strong setting. How is your room (or a room in your house) a reflection of who you are and what your family values, for example? How is the setting significant to the speaker of your poem? If you can't answer this, make the setting significant. TIPS/RULES/GUIDELINES: Allow your speaker to witness a single significant action, tradition, or cultural moment that is unique to you, your family or family members, your group, your "homies" or your own personal...

One of the first skills you need to master for college is the summary. Here's an introduction to summary writing. There are a few videos below this material on the topic for those of you needing visuals.  From: Sandra Jamieson, Drew University Online Resources for Writers : Summary skills in college The ability to write an effective summary might be the most important writing skill a college student can possess. You need to be able to summarize before you can be successful at most of the other kinds of writing that will be demanded of you in college, and it is an important part of note taking, too.  Summary skills in daily life To answer questions such as “what was the movie about?” “how did the game go?” and “what did I miss in class today?” you must be able to summarize. Your questioner doesn't want to know every line and action in the movie, every play in the game, or every word from class;  the question asks you to select the important details and su...

LAB: Please read the very famous essay: "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston in class (or you completed it as homework as requested). I would suggest not starting your writing until you have read this essay. Creative Writing Task (for your quarter portfolio): Write a personal creative non-fiction essay on an aspect of you. Write an essay about your experience within a specific hegemonic group or culture that you identify with (one, perhaps, that you listed last time in class). This can be an examination of your gender, your "race" or "class", your heritage, your identity or involvement in a sub-group or minority, your religion, a family tradition, etc. Consider how you identify yourself. Consider what "mask" you put on or what group you define yourself by and think about where this mask initially comes from or why you are part of a particular "group". What part of your personality/tradition/culture is unique to...

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! Now, let's read. I'll ask you to respond to what you're reading throughout this course. What sticks out for you as important or interesting in this article? Take 2 minutes and respond (in writing) to the 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 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 powe...

Welcome back! Writing Across Cultures - Course Criteria Teacher: Mr. Craddock Course Length: Periods 1/2, 40 Weeks  Blog address: writingxculture.blogspot.com Course Description:  This course introduces students to the field of cultural studies. Through research, reading and writing students will discuss and respond to works by noted writers from a variety of cultures around the world. These works will serve as a source of inspiration, style, and technique for the student in crafting his or her own writing, and as a source of themes and issues to be explored. Students will approach writing through the practice of research while analyzing different cultures, cultural ideas and philosophies.  This course also fulfills dual enrollment credit for MCC’s ENG 101 and ENG 105 courses. Enrollment in and successful completion of this course may provide students with either 3 or 6 real college credits. These credits are separate from the credit high school students ...

Stephen Colbert graduation speech Steven Spielberg graduation speech Harvard graduation speech (spoken word) Obama (his last commencement speech...) Graduation poem And another... And another... Etc. It's been fun. Enjoy your life! Go and do brilliant things! HOMEWORK: None!

There's a lot of countries out there that we missed. Find them and learn about them. Use this link to help you get started: http://online.seterra.net/en/ That is all. HOMEWORK: Portfolios are due next class.

An article on Russia before we jump to Japan: Japanese News Traditional Japanese "Noh" Theater Hiroshi Kawasaki  (poet) Japanese Pop Music Sumo: cultural pastime Japanese literature and history is divided into various periods (based largely on who was controlling the country): Nara Period  (710-794 A.D. or C.E.) Japanese literature traces its beginnings from an oral tradition that later used a writing system introduced from China. Most of this literature from the eighth century was created as governmental projects. The  Kojiki  ( Record of Ancient Matters ) and  Nihon shoki  (Chronicle of Japan) are really an anthology of myths, legends, stories, and history (much like the Western Bible, but without the religious significance). The most brilliant literary product of this period was the  Man'yoshu  (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), an anthology of 4,500 poems written by a variety of people ranging from peasants and commoners to e...

Russia (basic information) : the US Department of State has information on World countries with statistics. This can be helpful for social studies courses. Compare US information with a site in the UK.  Russian Culture Russian Top 10 Strange Things Russian Revolution Russian Poets Rasputin Soviet National Anthem News articles Architecture Sports Russian recipes Rap Battles: Rasputin vs. Stalin  (strong language warning!) By far, the most influential film maker of early Russian film was  Sergei Eisenstein . Please read this article on the  state of contemporary Russian Film . Anton Chekhov  is considered to be one of the greatest short story writers the world has ever known. We have read  The Sea Gull , and some of you may have read other Chekhov plays ( Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sister, The Bear (or The Boar), The Marriage Proposal, Ivanov,  etc.)  Consider the elements of a fine fiction story. In normal fiction, a ...

Today, a smorgasbord of culture. For those of you who are not completely exhausted from learning, you may find these resources here helpful in setting your fiction, poetry, plays, and essays in a European setting. Since we are running out of time to cover the entire world in this course, we will only briefly glimpse at a very rich and extensive culture. For your benefit click on these links and learn about these cultures. Some of their literature can be found in the packets of reading as well. Czeslaw Milosz is one of Poland's best loved poets.  His poems can be found here. Forget by Czeslaw Milosz Forget the suffering You caused others. Forget the suffering Others caused you. The waters run and run, Springs sparkle and are done, You walk the earth you are forgetting. Sometimes you hear a distant refrain. What does it mean, you ask, who is singing? A childlike sun grows warm. A grandson and a great-grandson are born. You are led by the hand once again. Th...

This morning a short story from Italy, some Italian poets, and Mathilda will speak to us about her homeland. Then, it's off to the lab to work on your portfolio and to uncover some Norse literary treasures as we examine Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Norway. Today, a smorgasbord of Norse and Eastern European culture: Finland , but seriously:  Finland's Education System Explained , and a  comparison to U.S. Education here . Informative article about  Finish writers can be found here  and a link to some  poetry samples . Iceland  and some writers from Iceland: Halldor Laxness  won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955 and since we're studying mysteries and crime fiction, here's a little icelandic culture and music ... A page devoted to  Icelandic Crime Writers  and an article about  Icelandic Poetry . Click on their links and learn about them on your own time.  Our focus will briefly be on: Norwegian Culture Dan...