This is a light week since classes are not in session on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday!  Check this space again on Friday, September 10th for your Week #4 assignments.  Here are your tasks for the coming week.  Take good care of yourselves, and enjoy the long weekend:

• Catch up on all of the assignments for Week #2.. If you missed our first class on Wed, August 25th, you need to complete the writing assignment we did that day and submit it to me ASAP.
• As a follow-up to our class session on Wednesday, please prepare a written account of your reading of Richard Rodriguez.  This could be either a list of the three quotations you chose from Rodriguez’s essay together with a paragraph about each of them explaining the quotation’s importance or a written summary of item #4 on the list of instructions your group received on Wednesday in which you were asked to identify your group’s top three “takeaways” from the reading and explain how your group responded to Rodriguez.  Once you have completed this assignment, please place your document in a shared Google Docs folder I have created for this class.  HERE is the link to the folder.  If you have difficulty with this step, create a Google doc and simply share it with me at [email protected].  Please do this by Wed, September 8th.
• Please read all of the introductions your classmates have posted to our class blog and leave comments on at least three of them.  Please do this by Friday, September 10th.
• In your e-book for this course,  Join the Conversation, please read Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue”.  Please post a response to this reading on the blog by Friday, September 10th.  Some questions you might want to consider are:  What is the relationship between language and identity?  What do you make of the term “mother tongue”? Why does Tan use it as her title?  What moments in this essay stood out to you as a reader?  How might you connect this essay to your own life experience?  Your response should be at least 250 words in order to receive credit.

My name is Yerica Duran. My pronouns are she/her. I used to be a very quiet and shy person before this summer. However, my job allowed me to get out of my comfort zone, which I’m very thankful for. I feel like I can be myself without caring about people’s judgments or opinions. I would also like to share that I wasn’t born in the U.S. I was born in Honduras, I moved to N.Y when I was only a year and a half. Ever since I’ve lived in Brooklyn. Although I did not get to grow up in Honduras I still love my culture dearly. I’m proud to be Honduran and will always cherish my roots. My favorite food is Baleadas. It is a traditional Honduran food, in my opinion, my mom’s version of Baleadas is the best because she makes everything from scratch. For the picture above, I chose Squidward sitting in a chair drinking tea because I’m a very chill and laid-back person. On top of that, I really do enjoy drinking tea. Some stuff I like to do during my free time is listening to music, watch movies, anime, and shopping. One of my favorite artists is Conan Gray. Music is my way of healing and coping with myself. This is why Conan Gray is one of my favorite artists, he writes music that I can relate to. If I had to pick a favorite movie it would be Avatar and The Avengers because of all the action that is happening in the movies. Plus I’d say Action movies are my favorite genre of movies. I like shopping a lot because that way I can spend time by myself while doing something I enjoy doing. I’m very excited for this year, I’m hoping to make as many connections as I can.

As I explained in class on Wednesday and on the syllabus, each Friday I will be posting the work for the coming week.   Friday’s posts will included information about the assignments that you will need to complete virtually as well as the preparation you’ll need to do for our in-person Wednesday classes.  Please reach out to me if you run into any difficulties or need any further explanation.

• Create an introductory post on our class blog. In approximately 300-400 words, describe yourself.   It’s up to you to decide what you’d like to share; please also let us know what name you’d like us to use to address you in the classroom and on the blog and what pronouns you’d prefer.   Include an image that represents or captures you in some way, and explain why you chose it.  This could be a photograph of you, or it could be an image of something else that speak to you and reflects some aspect of your identity.  Please post your introduction by Tuesday, August 31st.
•  Using the link I provided on the syllabus, please purchase the electronic textbook we will be using this semester, Join the Conversation.  Once you have access to the book, please look through the table of contents, introduction, and any other part of the book that captures your interest.  In a comment on this post, please share one observation about Join the Conversation.  This could be a general observation about the text, or a specific article that caught your eye. Please do this by Friday, Sept. 3rd.
•  Replace your “Bearcat” icon with a picture of yourself in your blogs@baruch account.
• Read Edward P. Jones, “The First Day”.  You can find the link to the essay under the “Texts” tab at the top of our blog.  In a short blog post (150-200 words), share your reactions and observations about the text.  What details from the text made a strong impression on you?  What do you make of the author’s description of her entrance into school? Could you identify with any elements of this narrative?  Please share your response before our class on Wed. Sept. 1st.  Bring a hard copy of the essay with you to class.
• Read Richard Rodriguez, “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” (available under the “Texts” tab on the blog).  Please identify three passages from the essay that seem to you to be particularly worthy of closer attention and analysis.  This could be a single sentence or a longer passage.  Come to class on Wednesday, 9/1  with a hard copy of the essay, prepared to share and discuss the passages you’ve selected.
• If you were absent on Wednesday, August 25th and missed our first class, you will need to complete the writing we did in class.  You can find the instructions HERE.  Please compose your response as a Word document or Google Doc and send it to [email protected] by Monday, August 30th.