Length: 2-3 pages

Due: Wednesday, September 21st by 12:00pm

Once you have completed your Pre-Write, please give your file the name: Your Name – Literacy Pre-Write and place it in this Google Doc Folder

Use this assignment as an opportunity to start gathering your thoughts and ideas for your upcoming Literacy Narrative.  This is not expected to be a tightly organized, focussed piece of work.  Instead, it is a chance to write freely, without fixed expectations, in an effort to excavate (dig up) some of your own literacy-related memories, family language stories, and thoughts and feelings about language, school, reading, and writing.  Don’t think of this as a draft of your formal Literacy Narrative; instead think of it as a way to get in touch of your own ideas and associations around this broad topic. Here are some questions you might want to use as entry points into this writing.  I would suggest choosing one as your starting point and then seeing where it takes you.  Of course, if none of these ideas speaks to you, you are free to move in your own direction, provided you stick to our theme of literacy, which we understand broadly as our relationship to language and learning.

For this Pre-Writing stage, don’t worry about polishing your language or sounding “academic”; concentrate on the ideas, memories, and experiences you are trying to evoke and explore and let your writing proceed as naturally and freely as you can. Use the list below to spark your thinking:

–What is your family’s “language story”?  How might you tell it?

–Describe a pivotal school experience.  How did it shape your sense of yourself as a student, a learner, a reader, a writer, a wielder of language, etc.  This could be a positive experience or it could be a painful or difficult experience.

–How has language defined you in relation to power? Can you think of a time when you were either empowered by language or disempowered?

–Tell a story about a parent or other person close to you that addresses our themes of language and literacy.  What does their story mean to you?

–Choose the reading that spoke to you most deeply.  Start crafting your own version of (or response to) that essay.  For example, maybe you were moved by Edward Jones’ story, so you choose to meditate on your own “first day” experience. Or maybe you were inspired by the parent-child relationship in “Mother Tongue” and want to think about your own mother tongue.

–What is a text (this could be written, or it could be something visual like a movie or television show) that is important to you and your personal history?  Describe its role in your development.

–How has your life required you to move between different languages? This could be literal bilingualism, or it could be simply shifting between various forms of English, as we move between family, friends, work, school, and our on-line communities.  What is at stake in these different linguistic spaces?  What does this shifting between languages mean to you?

–Who have the “gatekeepers” been in your literacy story?  Is there a person who looms large for you – either because he/she/they brought you closer to fulfilling your own identity as a wielder of language, or because he/she/they blocked your path and impeded your progress?

• Please read and annotate Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts”. You can find this assignment and the link to the essay on Perusall. Please add a minimum of three notes to Lamott’s essay. These could be reactions, questions, definitions, or alternate strategies.
• Also read George Dila, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft”, which you can find here on the blog, under the “Texts” tab above. In a comment on this post, please share your reactions to these two essays. Which approach more closely aligns with your own draft-writing style?How has that served you? Which essay did you find more convincing? Why? Your response should be 250-300 words and should be posted to the blog by 12:00 on Monday.

This article about what happens when non-English speakers call 911 made me think of our conversation about language and power on Monday. Curious to hear what you think….

You can find “Superman and Me” under the “Texts” tab above. Sherman Alexie’s short essay is both a very personal story about the author’s development as a reader and writer and a broader exploration of how race, class, and ethnic identity shape our experiences of education and our assumptions about ourselves and others. Please read the essay, and in a short (200-300 word) response, shared as a comment to this post, please address the following:

— How do you see race/class/ethnicity as forces in Alexie’s story? Include at least one quote from the story in formulating your response.

–Choose one moment or detail in Alexie’s essay that you personally could relate to, describe the element from “Superman and Me” and its significance, and share its relevance to your own story.

Please share your responses no later than 12pm on Wednesday, September 14th.

• 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 Friday, Sept. 2nd.
•  Using the information 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 Monday, Sept. 5th.
•  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 short story 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. Aug. 31st.  Bring a hard copy of the story with you to class..

Hello,

If you are reading these words, you have found your way to our course blog.  I can’t wait to welcome you to Baruch in person and to begin our work together.  Our first face-to-face class will take place on Monday, August 29th at 12:25 pm in VC 9-116 (room #116 on the 9th floor of the Vertical Campus).  Please leave yourself plenty of time to get to class; it may take a while as staff and students familiarize themselves with new routines and procedures. Our class on Monday should leave you with a good understanding of what you can expect from English 2100, but if you have any questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out – either in the comments below or by emailing me at [email protected].  Bookmark this site.  This is where you will find your weekly assignments from me, where you can go for information about course resources and policies, and where you will be sharing some of your own writing over the course of the semester.

See you soon!

Professor Sylvor

Pronouns: she/her/hers