Category: No Place Like Home
Veteran’s Help Network
Click on “friends” or “stories” for some potentially useful links for final projects.
Swords to Ploughshares: Helping Vets since 1974
An interesting link to consult for final projects, particularly in addressing community outreach and support for returning veterans.
The following excerpt is from the “Our Mission” section of the website:
War causes wounds and suffering that last beyond the battlefield. Swords to Plowshares’ mission is to heal the wounds, to restore dignity, hope, and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need, and to significantly reduce homelessness and poverty among veterans.
Founded in 1974, Swords to Plowshares is a community-based, not-for-profit organization that provides counseling and case management, employment and training, housing and legal assistance to veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area. We promote and protect the rights of veterans through advocacy, public education and partnerships with local, state and national entities.
No Place Like Home Final Project
No Place Like Home Syllabus, February-March
Syllabus: February – March 2011
Wednesday 2/16
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey Book 17.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 19. Begin brainstorming and writing your focused freewrite or proposal for final project.
Thursday 2/17
CLASS: Discuss Odyssey, Book 19
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Books 21. Begin step 1 of final project: initial freewrite/proposal for final project. Please be as specific as possible in your freewrite/proposal. This will be due 2/24.
Friday 2/18
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey Books 21
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Books 22 and 23
Monday 2/21-Tuesday 2/22 – No School
Wednesday 2/23
CLASS: Discuss Books 22 & 23.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 24. Complete project proposal/freewrite, due tomorrow!
Thursday 2/24
CLASS: Final project freewrite/proposal due. Discuss Book 24
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Odysseus in America Chapter 20 (pp 208-230).
Friday 2/25
CLASS: Discuss Odysseus in America and final project. View resources on lrei library website.
HOMEWORK: Begin independent research for your project: find at least two sources and take detailed notes on each source. Make sure to indicate what source your notes are from (including page numbers). Sources can and should be accessed through print materials, and through the databases and websites through the library website or visual search.
Over the course of your research, you should find at least four sources in total including primary sources – such as first person accounts, interviews, films, images, primary documents, recordings, etc; secondary sources — such as articles, reviews, essays, chapters in books, and statistical information from websites, articles, or books; and reference materials — such as articles/entries from encyclopedias. Web sources can be accessed through the LREI visual search or other means (if you can identify that it is a trustworthy and valuable source of information).
Monday 2/28 – No Class
Tuesday 3/1
CLASS: Independent work/research
HOMEWORK: Work on project: find sources and take notes on each. Make sure to indicate what source your notes are from (including page numbers).
Wednesday 3/2
CLASS: Independent work/research
HOMEWORK: Work on project: find sources and take notes on each. Make sure to indicate what source your notes are from (including page numbers).
Thursday 3/3
CLASS: Workshop on using footnotes/parenthetical citations in your written work and on creating works cited; conferencing as needed.
HOMEWORK: Work on project: Continue taking notes on your sources. Begin the visual and written portions of your project.
Friday 3/4
CLASS: Work period; conferencing as needed. Indicate any audio-visual needs for your presentation.
HOMEWORK: Complete your final project (due at our exam period). The project (visual and written elements), works cited, and your detailed research notes will be due at the exam time. Prepare and rehearse your presentation for the class (5-7 minutes in length).
No Place Like Home Syllabus 2/8-2/15
Syllabus: February 2011
Tuesday 2/8
CLASS: Individual conferencing/working with laptops.
HOMEWORK: Continue work on your essay. Bring in a draft to show me on Wednesday.
Wednesday 2/9
CLASS: Individual conferencing/working with laptops.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Book 13 (213 – end) and New York Times article “Back From War, But Not Really Home”. Continue to work on essay.
Thursday 2/10
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey, Book 13
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 16 (pp. 338-353)
Friday 2/11: Unit 5 – Home at Last
CLASS: Discuss Book 16.
HOMEWORK: Complete essay and process piece for Tuesday 2/15. Turn in Response 4 on Tuesday with your essay. Read and annotate “The Last Tour”
Monday 2/14 – No Class
Tuesday 2/15
CLASS: Essays due. Discuss “The Last Tour” and final project
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 17 (lines 194 – end)
Odyssey Book 11 Essay
No Place Like Home Syllabus REVISED
Syllabus: January – February 2011
REVISED
Friday 1/28
CLASS: 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 or force him to recognize/address? Discuss encounters with Achilles, Ajax, Sisyphus & Tantalus, and Heracles.
HOMEWORK: Complete Response # 4 (see handout) in preparation for the essay on Book 11.
Monday 1/31 – No Class
Tuesday 2/1
CLASS: Discuss 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 as a central idea in your response? Go back to the text and make further notes/annotations on the passages you want to discuss in your essay. Brainstorming/conferencing.
HOMEWORK: 1. Go back to the texts (The Odyssey and Odysseus in America ch. 9 and 17) 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 Thursday.
Wednesday 2/2
CLASS: Get your lunch at 12:24 and bring it to the Student Center for joint class with GWOT: SCREENING & DISCUSSION OF THE MESSENGER
HOMEWORK: Work on a draft of your intro for class on Thursday.
Thursday 2/3
CLASS: Intros due. Writing Workshop 2: Review/workshop introductions and thesis statements; revise your introductions according to feedback.
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 Friday 2/4.
Friday 2/4
CLASS: Writing Workshop 3: Body paragraphs: topic sentences, incorporating and analyzing evidence.
HOMEWORK: Revise body paragraph according to today’s workshop. Work on your next body paragraphs. Bring in a first draft of your essay to show me on Tuesday 2/8. Bring in an electronic copy as well, if you want to use a laptop during class.
No Place Like Home Syllabus January – February
Syllabus: January – February 2011
Http://blog.lrei.org/jbelton
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.
No Place Like Home Syllabus REVISED 1/13 – 1/21
Syllabus: January 2011
Http://blog.lrei.org/jbelton
Thursday 1/13
CLASS: Response # 3 due. Discuss excerpts from letters and The Warrior, A Mother’s Story…; share our poems and discuss interpretations of Telemachus and Penelope.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 5. Note: in Books 3 and 4 Telemachus visits King Nestor and King Menelaus to learn more about his father; the suitors make plans to ambush/kill Telemachus when he returns.
Friday 1/14
CLASS: Discuss Books 5: The first sight of the “hero,” Odysseus. Calypso; Odysseus as “he who gives and receives pain”.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 7 (lines 94 – 181 & 266 – end) and Book 8 (lines 1-413 and 559-end). Note: In Book 6, Odysseus lands in Phaeacia and flirts with the king’s beautiful daughter, Nausicaa, who is washing her clothes on the shore. Eventually, Nausicaa sends Odysseus to her father’s (Alcinous) palace in order to help him return to Ithaca. Prepare for Odyssey quiz on Thursday 1/20: identifying key terms and characters. Review notes and annotations.
Monday 1/17 – No School
Tuesday 1/18 – Unit 3: Staying in Combat Mode; The Spoils of War
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey, Books 7 & 8. Odysseus’s tactics, heroism, masculinity, achievement and failure.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Chapter 3 of Odysseus in America: Pirate Raid: Staying in Combat Mode (pp 19-34) and Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home”. Prepare for Odyssey quiz on Thursday: identifying key terms and characters. Review notes and annotations.
Wednesday 1/19
CLASS: Discuss “Staying in Combat Mode”, “Soldier’s Home” and connections to Odyssey.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 9 and pp. 46-50 from Odysseus in America. Prepare for Odyssey quiz on Thursday: identifying key terms and characters. Review notes and annotations.
Thursday 1/20
CLASS: Odyssey quiz: identify key terms and characters; discuss Odysseus and the Cyclops;
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 10 lines 1-60 and 146-631.
Friday 1/21: Unit 3 – Women at War
CLASS: Discuss Book 10; women and the soldier
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate selected readings (handout)