assignments ENGL301 Writing & The Teaching of Writing: Flash Mentor Text Memoir
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OVERVIEW
1) In his book, The Art of Slow Reading, the Compositionist Tom Newkirk uses the term Mentor Texts to refer to those important books that make a mark on a reader, a text that shapes them as a thinker, as a writer, as a person.
2) Occasionally making the rounds on Facebook, this: List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and don't think too hard - they don't have to be "right" or "great" works, just the ones that have touched you.
3) The previous incarnation of this assignment was a student experience memoir. In that text, students talked about their own experiences in classrooms--not just English. Students wrote sometimes well and sometimes not about what they learned about teaching from being students in classrooms. I've changed the assignment because I want students who intend to teach English to meet the bare minimum qualification for teaching it: liking to read. Our chief job as teachers is, at whatever point we are meeting and working with our students, to make them not hate reading. To do that, we must ourselves not just not hate it, but feel passionately about it.
4) "Flash" is a thing. Flash fiction. Flash non-fiction. Generally, these are pieces of writing that are 750 words or under. We'll read some samples in class ("Where I Learned to Read" is a version of this, "Take Me Home" is another). The trick of this kind of writing is to create a vivid scene that doesn't require a lot of explanation for a reader to get the main idea. So you don't have a lot of space for exposition. It's all scene and character.
For this very brief assignment, I am asking you to write a short, personal essay--flash nonfiction--about the books that have meant something to you and to identify the ways they've shaped you as a reader, writer, thinker, student, human. You can talk about one book or you can talk about 100 books (an exaggeration to make a point--don't write about 100 books). The point is to zero in on a memory of reading a specific text that you can point to and say, this, this is the moment where I "got" why reading really can change the world in general and how it change me very specifically.
Specifics
How I will evaluate this paper
This paper is worth 10% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" Grade for this paper, you must:
1) In his book, The Art of Slow Reading, the Compositionist Tom Newkirk uses the term Mentor Texts to refer to those important books that make a mark on a reader, a text that shapes them as a thinker, as a writer, as a person.
2) Occasionally making the rounds on Facebook, this: List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and don't think too hard - they don't have to be "right" or "great" works, just the ones that have touched you.
3) The previous incarnation of this assignment was a student experience memoir. In that text, students talked about their own experiences in classrooms--not just English. Students wrote sometimes well and sometimes not about what they learned about teaching from being students in classrooms. I've changed the assignment because I want students who intend to teach English to meet the bare minimum qualification for teaching it: liking to read. Our chief job as teachers is, at whatever point we are meeting and working with our students, to make them not hate reading. To do that, we must ourselves not just not hate it, but feel passionately about it.
4) "Flash" is a thing. Flash fiction. Flash non-fiction. Generally, these are pieces of writing that are 750 words or under. We'll read some samples in class ("Where I Learned to Read" is a version of this, "Take Me Home" is another). The trick of this kind of writing is to create a vivid scene that doesn't require a lot of explanation for a reader to get the main idea. So you don't have a lot of space for exposition. It's all scene and character.
For this very brief assignment, I am asking you to write a short, personal essay--flash nonfiction--about the books that have meant something to you and to identify the ways they've shaped you as a reader, writer, thinker, student, human. You can talk about one book or you can talk about 100 books (an exaggeration to make a point--don't write about 100 books). The point is to zero in on a memory of reading a specific text that you can point to and say, this, this is the moment where I "got" why reading really can change the world in general and how it change me very specifically.
Specifics
- Papers should be NO MORE THAN 500 WORDS, double-spaced, in 10 or 12 point fonts. You'll do a quick workshop in class.
- Include your name, date and EN 301 in the upper left corner.
- Always, always, always have a title. A good one. Especially important here.
- See syllabus for specific dates. You will turn this in as part of your midterm portfolio.
How I will evaluate this paper
This paper is worth 10% of your final grade. In order to earn a "B" Grade for this paper, you must:
- Bring a completed rough draft to the workshop and be ready to participate as a reader and writer.
- Complete the workshop letter to the writer for your partner.
- Read and reflect in writing on what your own reader wrote to you during the workshop, including a plan for what revisions you intend to include (or not) and why (in-class--you can do this work in the google.doc of your own draft).
- Turn in the completed draft to turn in to me for feedback that you will turn in along with your rough draft, workshop materials, and workshop reflection as part of your midterm portfolio.
- Meet all of the requirements identified above for a "B" Grade
- Demonstrate sincere effort to create a vivid image of a significant reading moment in your life; take the risk of writing creatively and not academically--in 500 words.
- Turn in the completed draft to turn in to me for feedback, though the reflective material and drafts might not be included.