No Place Like Home Syllabus January – February
Syllabus: January – February 2011
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Monday 1/24 – No Class
Tuesday 1/25
CLASS: Discuss New York Times articles. Watch and discuss sections of Lioness
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Book 11 lines 1-256 and 436-731. Carefully annotate episodes in the book that you feel are important to Odysseus’s experience there and are significant to his journey home. Make notes on and interpret key language, imagery, word choice, allusions, symbolism, metaphors in the passages. Why are these episodes necessary to his journey (physically and emotionally)?
Wednesday 1/26
CLASS: Discuss Book 11. Close reading of specific passages.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Chapter 9 (pp. 76-85) and Chapter 17 pp. 168 – 174 (from “Stages of Recovery” to “which must then be restored”) in Odysseus in America. Annotate Shay’s main points carefully. In the margins, please mark and respond to the most interesting lines and ideas in Shay’s writing and make connections to The Odyssey wherever possible. Bring both this text and your Odyssey to class on Thursday.
Thursday 1/27 – Unit 4: Remembering the Dead
CLASS: Read Yusef Komunkakaa’s “Facing It” (handout). Continue discussion of world of the dead: What major points does Shay make about Odysseus’s journey to face the dead. Why must Odysseus go there? What do his experiences there teach him or give him?
HOMEWORK: Complete Response # 4 (see handout)
Friday 1/28
CLASS: Introduce essay assignment. Writing Workshop 1: Review Response # 4 and use a highlighter or colored pen to highlight/underline your most interesting and original ideas. Then, do your most interesting ideas fit together in some way? What do you seem to be arguing or coming back to in your response as a central idea?
HOMEWORK: 1. Go back to the text and make further notes/annotations on the passages you want to discuss in your essay. 2. Then begin a draft of your introduction. Your intro should set up the context of your argument, should discuss the 2-3 major points you plan on making in your essay, and should end with a clear, succinct thesis statement. It may take you several drafts to craft your argument! Your intro must mention the specific episodes from Book 11 you plan on discussing in your essay and give a preview of what you plan on arguing about those episodes. Bring your introduction (printed out) to class on Tuesday 2/1.
Monday 1/31 – No Class
Tuesday 2/1
CLASS: Intros due. Writing Workshop 2: Review/workshop introductions and thesis statements.
HOMEWORK: Revise your introductions/thesis statements according to feedback. Organize your ideas (Step 3 of essay handout) and write a draft of your first body paragraph for Thursday, 2/3.
Wednesday 2/2
CLASS: JOIN GWOT CLASS: SCREENING & DISCUSSION OF THE MESSENGER
HOMEWORK: Revise your introductions/thesis statements. Write a draft of your first body paragraph for Thursday, 2/3.
Thursday 2/3
CLASS: Essay intros due. Writing Workshop 3: Body paragraphs: topic sentences, organization, incorporating and analyzing evidence.
HOMEWORK: Revise body paragraph according to today’s workshop. Work on your next body paragraph. Bring in a draft to show me on Friday 2/4.
Friday 2/4
CLASS: Individual conferencing/working with laptops.
HOMEWORK: Continue work on your essay. Bring in a draft to show me on Tuesday 2/8.