TORDA'S SPRING 2021 TEACHING SITE
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assignments ENGL301 Writing & The Teaching of Writing: Flash Mentor Text Memoir

Need to be in touch with me? 
LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
ltorda@bridgew.edu
www.leetorda.com
​On Zoom: https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/3806648927
Fall 2021 Open Hours for students (office hours):
MW (in-person or Zoom) 1:30 to 2:30 
T (Zoom only) 10:00 to 11:00 
R 1:45 to 2:45 (in-person or Zoom) 
And by appointment 

​
Make an appointment, either face to face or on zoom, during office hours or at another time: Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf. If you are meeting me on zoom,  I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for. ​

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
  • 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. 

In order to earn an "A" Grade for this paper, you must:
  • 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. 

In order to earn a "C" Grade for this paper, you must:​
  • Turn in the completed draft to turn in to me for feedback, though the reflective material and drafts might not be included. 

Any assignment that does not meet the requirements for a "C" grade will fail that 10% of the class. 


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  • Home
  • ENGL102
    • ENGL 102 Class Discussion Board
    • ENGL102SYLLABUS
    • ENGL102 PORTFOLIOS/Research Notebook
    • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Class Profile Page
    • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENTS: Reading Journals
    • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROJECT >
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: POSITIONING YOURSELF
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part I
      • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part II
  • ENGL389
    • ENGL 389 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 389 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL 389 SYLLABUS
    • ENGL389 Reading Journals
    • ENGL389 Writer's Notebook.
    • ENGL389 WORKSHOPPING
    • ENGL389 Author Presentation
  • ENGL 513
    • ENGL 513 MONDAY UPDATE
    • ENGL 513 DISCUSSION BOARD
    • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • SYLLABUS ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • PORTFOLIOS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: READING RESPONSES
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Literacy History
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Pedagogy Presentations
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: Reverse Annotated Bibliography
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: ETHNOGRAPHY/CASE STUDY
    • ASSIGNMENTS ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY: final project
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL 102 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 policies >
      • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATE
      • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS
      • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
      • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
      • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment) >
        • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (instructions & sample annotations)
      • ENGL 301 ASSIGNMENT DESIGN (assignment)
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage
  • ENGL102 ASSIGNMENT: Locating & Evaluating part II