Author Archives: JSylvor

Hi Everyone,

The Reader Response Site that you contributed work to is up and running.  I am told that they are still uploading works to the site, so it’s possible that your work is not yet there, but I took a quick peek at the site and saw lots of work I recognized, so congratulations to all of you!

We have been invited to a Zoom call this Thursday, May 21st at 11:30 a.m. which will introduce the site and demonstrate how it works. I have pasted the information below, but in the meantime, you can check out the site and look for your work here:

blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/readgreatworks

I will be on the call, so perhaps I will see some of you there.  I am busy reading your final papers and excitedly awaiting your final exams!!!

Be well,

Professor Sylvor

English 2850 KMWC

Professor Jennifer Sylvor

Spring 2020

FINAL EXAM

Please compose your response to this exam as a Word document and upload it to turnitin.com. Your exam must be uploaded by Tuesday, May 19^th at 5pm. Late submissions will receive no credit.

 Read the instructions in their entirety before you begin to work on this final exam. You are welcome to consult your notes from the course and all the texts we’ve read, but you are NOT allowed to do any internet research while completing this project. Use of outside sources will result in a grade of F on the exam.

 Plan to spend 2-3 hours on this exam (including thinking time). Be sure to proofread your work carefully before uploading it to turnitin.com. If you have questions about any part of this exam, please email me at [email protected].

Final Exam: Propose a Mini-Course

Your task is as follows:

Drawing on the list of works we’ve read this semester (available on your syllabus), please design and propose a “Mini-Course”.   This mini-course will bring together a selection of readings from our syllabus, but will focus on a particular topic or theme that is of interest to you. Coming up with your theme will be the key step in completing this assignment. You will need to identify some component or issue that you have encountered at several different points in your reading for this course and construct your proposal around this idea. [Your idea might be a particular element you’ve noticed in your reading (i.e. railroad travel) or a persistent question (i.e. what happens when we die?) I have deliberately chosen examples that wouldn’t work for our particular reading list because I don’t want to render any ideas off-limits, but I hope you get the idea!]  Your course proposal must contain the following components:

–Course Title: Your course title should be creative and inviting and should let us know what the focus of your course is.

–Course Description: In this one paragraph course description, articulate the subject that your mini-course will explore and lay out the central questions that you will be exploring in the course.

–Annotated Reading List: Select 5 texts from the semester as the reading for your mini-course. Write a short paragraph for each text in which you explain your rationale for including this text, offer a quotation from the text that illustrates how the text is connected to the topic of your mini-course, and provide three discussion questions you might ask about the text in the context of your course. List your texts in the order you think they should be read for your course. You don’t have to follow our chronological organization.

–Wild Card: Add a 6^th text of your choosing to your reading list. This text should NOT come from our syllabus. It should be a text that you have encountered elsewhere that you think would work with your theme and be a good addition to your reading list. This text could be a written text or it could be a film, a tv show, a song, a painting, a photograph, a meme…. This is totally up to you. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Compose a paragraph in which you describe your wild card text and explain how it is connected to the subject of your mini-course.

–The Pitch: In the final paragraph of your course proposal, make a “pitch” for your course. What would you say to convince a fellow student to convince him or her take this course?

Hi Friends,

My apologies to those of you who had difficulty logging on to our call this afternoon.  There was a problem with my link, and I didn’t realize it until I logged on at 3pm.  In any case, here is the recording of the call:

https://baruch.zoom.us/rec/share/1-Ncf6ja72dIZ6vV-kyGXf4DHJbbeaa8hCZM_6ANzkzyO48SvKePXKpaztzfo1XL Password: 5s^5rC8&

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns as we complete the last few assignments of the semester.

Best,

Professor Sylvor

SORRY FOR THE DIFFICULTY CONNECTING.  USE THE INFORMATION BELOW TO ACCESS OUR CALL:

Jennifer Sylvor is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: ENG2850 – May 13, 2020
Time: May 13, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://baruch.zoom.us/j/7078160027

Meeting ID: 707 816 0027
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Find your local number: https://baruch.zoom.us/u/acOKBiWv9o

Of course, I had no idea when I included this story about a natural disaster in Colombia on our syllabus that we would be reading Allende’s text against the backdrop of a global pandemic.  In a brief (250-300 word) response, connect your reading of “And of Clay are We Created” to  your experience of our current reality.  Some questions worth pursuing might be:  How do we connect or respond to suffering – whether nearby or far away?  What role do screens play in our experience of this pandemic?  What do they make possible, and what do they obstruct?  What role do politicians and government have in managing this disaster? How have you personally responded to this national disaster?  What issues or anxieties has it brought up for you?  What role do the media play in this unfolding story?

Be sure your responses are posted to our blog by Friday, May 15th.

Please respond to the following two questions about Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif.”  Your responses should be posted to the blog by Wednesday, May 13th.

1.  Choose a moment in “Recitatif” in which you see the issue of race enter into Twyla and Roberta’s story.  Describe the moment, and explain what you think seems to be going on.  What issues seem to divide the two characters?  Can you identify their racial identities? How?
2. Toni Morrison’s story explores the challenges of navigating racial/cultural/and socio-economic differences in our personal relationships.  Reflect upon an experience in your own life when you have had to navigate differences of this sort.   Describe the experience. What issues or complications arose?  How were they resolved?

Here is the link for the recording of the Zoom call for Wednesday, May 6th.  We discussed Tayeb Salih’s “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid.”

https://baruch.zoom.us/rec/share/uMVbFerJ811ORqvW9hztf4oGT4q1aaa80CZN-fUOyRyhndoYJQBvOYPXAPvYua_- Password: 4M^6=##6

As we discussed during our Zoom call today, it’s time to complete the final Reader Response Assignment of the semester.  As you recall, you agreed to do three different responses to three different texts over the course of the semester.  The first was a response to the question “Is this a great work?” addressed to the text of your choice.  The second was about The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

For the third and final installment of this project, please return to our original prompt: Is this a great work?  This time, you may respond to any of the following texts:  “Punishment,” “The Metamophosis,”  “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “In the Wineshop,” “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen,” or “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid.”  Using “Is this a great work?” as your jumping off point, craft a 300-500 personal response to the text.  This time, just for fun, try to take off your “English class” hat and just speak back to the text in your own, most natural voice.  What does this text have to say to you?  What would you like to say back to the text?   How did reading this text make you feel?  What thoughts did this text evoke in you?  What associations did it call up?  Does it remind you of anything? If you are a visual thinker, feel free to link to images in your response.   What elements of the text have stayed with you? Why?  Use this response as a chance to flex your creative muscle.

When you have completed your response, please post it to our course blog.  Additionally, please use the link below to submit all three of your Reader Responses to the team coordinating this project.  You can find your first two responses on the blog if you don’t have access to them on your own computer.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

 Click here to access the Reader Response Submission Form! (url: https://tinyurl.com/yaup8xg7)

Here is the link to access the recording of our Zoom call on Monday, May 4th.  We discussed Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”

https://baruch.zoom.us/rec/share/5ssoJYHMxHNJS4Wc02-EAaoBMKK4T6a8g3Ab-vsNykqxYF8boNdzaTBr1eT81QFN Password: 0z@^+6k8

Please respond to three of the following questions.  Remember to compose your answers in complete sentences and to ground your ideas in specific details from the text where appropriate.  Your responses should be posted by Wednesday, May 6th.

1.  What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?
2. This story can be described as a kind of “initiation story” for the narrator.  How is he changed or transformed by the events of the narrative?
3. Describe an example of dehumanization in the text.  What about this moment made a particularly strong impression on you? Why?
4. A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator.  What does she mean?
5. “Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?
6. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?