TORDA'S SPRING 2021 TEACHING
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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
​
​NOTE: All classes, student meetings, and open student hours (office hours) this semester will be held virtually via Zoom.

Need to make an during a time that is not an open student hour? appointment? Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf and I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for. ​​
Spring 2021 Open Hours for students (office hours):
T&R 11:00-12:30 
W 11:00-12:00
F 3:00-4:00
and by appointment.
Click here to attend ANY of the Open Hour for Students Zoom sessions listen above.

​HOW TO ATTEND ZOOM CLASS
Click here to attend ENGL 301 Writing & the Teaching of Writing
Click here to attend ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature
Click here to attend ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio workshop. 
​​​

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, and, for that, I recommend that you do that draft in a google.doc that is easily shared with classmates by putting a link set to "anyone with this link can edit" into the chat. For the final draft, you can simply add it on to the google.doc you used for the workshop, or you can convert it to an MSWord document. The only thing I ask is that you not .PDF it because that makes it harder to comment in/on the draft. 
  • 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 regarding the workshop for the draft of this paper and due date when you will turn it in to me.

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 (you can do this in google.doc of your workshop partner's draft)
  • 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 (again, probably easiest to do all in one google.doc, but I'm open to whatever format you prefer, except .PDF). 

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:
  • 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
  • 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
  • ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio
    • ENGL 489 AUTHOR BIOS
    • ENGL 489 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 489 SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE
    • ENGL 489 WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 ICRN (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 RETHINK/REVISE (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 Interview with An Author (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (ASSIGNMENTS)
  • ENGL 301 Writing & Teaching
    • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATES
    • ENGL301 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL301 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS DAY
    • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment) >
      • ENGL 301 LT WRITING AND STUFF
    • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment)
  • ENGL344 YA LIT
    • ENGL 344 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL344 CLASS UPDATE
    • ENGL 344 SPRING 2021 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL344 YA LIT SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE IN ENGL101
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment: Flash Memoir YA Edit
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL101 Writing Rhetorically >
      • 101 SYLLABUS
      • BOOK CLUB >
        • How to do virtual BOOK CLUB
        • BOOK CLUB OPTIONS
      • PARTNER INTERVIEW MINI-PAPER
      • 101READER'S NOTES
      • THE BIG DEAL: Archival Ethnography of Bridgewater State
      • THE BIG TALK: Alumni Interview Project
      • THE BIG IDEA: WE ARE BRIDGEWATER: FINAL PROJECT & PRESENTATION
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • 226 Writing & Writing Studies
    • 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 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY >
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage