New York Times Article: “After Combat, Victims of an Inner War”
No Place Like Home Syllabus 1/4 – 1/14
Syllabus: January 2011
Http://blog.lrei.org/jbelton
Tuesday 1/4
CLASS: View film clip from New York Times (“Shockwaves Through My Soul”). Freewriting and discussion. Reactions to Sgt. Blaylock’s statement “I’m scared because I’m going home.” What in the video might help us understand the difficult journey of coming home and reintegrating into society? Mental health, PTSD and the military.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Here Bullet (pp. 1, 6-13, 18, 26-27, 33-35). As you read, make note of recurring ideas, metaphors, images, and questions raised. What issues do the poems explore about the experience of war and of returning from war?
* If “Shockwaves Through My Soul” interested you, read the New York Times article “After Combat, Victims of an Inner War” on my blog for more about Sgt. Blaylock’s story or go to the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/02suicide.html
Wednesday 1/5
CLASS: Discuss and write about poems in Here, Bullet.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Here Bullet, pp 46-47, 55-56, 64-66. Begin Response # 2 (final draft due Friday 1/7): Choose any two poems that struck you most in what we have read of Brian Turner’s collection and that seem to speak to each other on some level (perhaps they deal with similar themes, problems, images, or questions). Begin a draft of a 2 page typed response in which you explore answers to the following questions: What connections do you find between the two poems? For example, what particular images, questions, or themes emerge in both works? How do the poems build on one another? Ultimately, what do you think these two poems communicate or problematize about the experience of being at war or coming home from war (this war, or war in general)? Weave short pieces of evidence from the poems into your response. Make sure to analyze the evidence thoughtfully and to use correct parenthetical citations. When discussing two different works by the same author, as we are doing in this response, you must include the title of the poem and the line number in your parenthetical citations. For instance (“Sadiq” line 2). Make sure to use slashes (/) to indicate line breaks if you are quoting more than one line of a poem. Bring in a first draft of your writing tomorrow.
Thursday 1/6
CLASS: Share drafts of Response # 2 in pairs. Respond to partner’s draft with questions or ideas for further consideration, ways to push analysis further, ways to help develop or hone the writing. What writing advice can you offer your partner? What can you learn from your partner’s writing/analyses?
HOMEWORK: Complete Response # 2, due Friday.
Friday 1/7
CLASS: Response 2 due. Introduction to The Odyssey; terms, characters, background on Homer. Begin reading The Odyssey, Book 1 together.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 1
Monday 1/10 – No Class
Tuesday 1/11 — Unit 2: Home and the Homefront
CLASS: Discuss Book 1: Status of the homefront; who is left behind. Telemachus; beginning and purpose of his journey, call to action.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey: Book II, lines 1-163 & 300-477.
Wednesday 1/12
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey, Book II. Life on the homefront. Odysseus’s “true son”; Penelope and the suitors. The image of home soldiers hold; the image of the soldier those at home hold.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate excerpts from The Warrior, A Mother’s Story of a Son at War and letters from women on the homefront during WWII (handouts)
Complete Response # 3: Write your own “letter poem” from the perspective of either Penelope or Telemachus, addressing Odysseus. You may choose to write from a more “modern day” voice, if you like. Take the time to imagine and embody the character, perspective, and voice from which you are writing. Use the examples of poetry and letters we have read thus far as inspiration. Feel free to imitate/parody Homer’s voice or use your own. (1-2 pages, typed).
Thursday 1/13
CLASS: Response # 3 due. Discuss excerpts from The Warrior, A Mother’s Story…; share our poems and discuss interpretations of Telemachus and Penelope.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 5-6 (pp. 152 – 178).
Friday 1/14
CLASS: Discuss Books 5 & 6: The first sight of the “hero,” Odysseus. Calypso; Odysseus as “he who gives and receives pain”; Odysseus at the Phaeacian Court.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey Book 7 (lines 94 – 160 & 266 – end) and Book 8 (lines 1-413 and 559-end)
English 10 Syllabus 1/4-1/14
English 10C
Jane Belton
Syllabus January 4 – January 14
Tuesday 1/4
In Class: Introduce Whitman; “Song of Myself” as both a self portrait and portrait of America. Visual portraiture: Charles Willson Peale’s The Artist in His Museum and Robert Frank’s Trolley in New Orleans.
Assignment: Writer’s Journal # 8: Go to the class blog and look through all the portraits we have provided for you there. Then select one image that strikes you or interests you most. In your writer’s journal, perform a close reading of the image, following the steps we practiced in class. See handout for details.
Wednesday 1/5
In Class: American Portraiture: Sharing WJ# 8 in pairs. Questions for pair-share: What stories or representations of America did you see in the image you chose? What are the differences or similarities between the images chosen and the interpretations of those images? Explore pairings of images as a class: Gilbert Stuart’s Anna Dorothea Foster and Charlotte Anna Dick and Dorothea Lange’s Mississippi Delta Children; Robert Frank’s Charleston, South Carolina and Henry Mosler’s Just Moved.
Assignment: Writer’s Journal # 9: Select a contemporary portrait of an individual that you think tells an interesting or important story about America. This could be a photograph, painting, advertisement, etc. Answer the following questions in 1 ½ – 2 pages: What strikes you most about your image? Why did you choose this specific image to share with the class? What story (about the individual and/or about American culture or society) does the image convey?
Please write the title of the image and the artist’s name at the top of your Writer’s Journal entry. If the image doesn’t have a title or a known artist, create a descriptive title for your image (eg. “Advertisement for the Army, New York Times” or “Michelle Obama in the White House”). You must also indicate the source of the image (the url, magazine title, book title, etc) at the top of the page.
Thursday 1/6 — No Class
Friday 1/7
In Class: Sharing individual images
Assignment: Writer’s Journal #10: If someone were to paint your portrait, what would you want represented? What would remain hidden? What truths or fantasies about yourself would you want to convey? Then, imagine the portrait as fully as possible: What setting or backdrop would the portrait have? What would you be doing in the portrait? What would you be wearing? Would any other people or animals be in the portrait with you? Any other objects or artifacts? What kinds of colors would you want used (or would the image be black and white)? Then think about the layout/design of the portrait. What would be foregrounded? What would be in the background?
Monday 1/10
In Class: Introduce Whitman and critical responses to his work; connections to visual portraiture/Robert Frank. Begin reading “Song of Myself” together.
Assignment: Read and annotate Whitman’s “Song of Myself” pp 32-39
Tuesday 1/11
In Class: Discuss Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. Questions to consider: What do you think Whitman is trying to communicate in his “Song of Myself”? In what ways does he create a portrait of America by removing the veil? What do we see? Whose America is it? Choral reading of section 16.
Assignment: Read and annotate Whitman’s “Song of Myself” pp. 48-63
Wednesday 1/12
In Class: Discuss Whitman; “text explosions” and other writing exercises
Assignment: Read and annotate Whitman’s “Song of Myself” pp 83-97
Thursday 1/13 — No Class
Friday 1/14
In Class: Discuss “Song of Myself “and Song of Self Project
Assignment: Go back to Writer’s Journal #10 and highlight the writing that seems most important or interesting to you. What details, images, or ideas stand out to you most in your imagined portrait? Then find and bring in one “artifact” to class – a personal item, possession, object, photograph, etc — that you would want included in your written portrait. Note: the artifact does not have to be from Writer’s Journal 10 (although that WJ may help you generate ideas about what to bring).
American Portraiture: Images for Homework
Robert Frank’s Movie Premiere, Hollywood (1955)
Robert Frank’s Parade, Hoboken (1955)
Robert Frank’s Rodeo, New York City (1954)
Robert Frank’s Fourth of July – Jay, New York (1955)
Thomas Le Clear’s Interior with Portraits (1865)
Charles Felix Blauvelt’s German Immigrant Finding His Way (1855)
Garry Winogrand’s El Morocco (1955)
Walker Evans’s Sharecropper Family, Hale County, Alabama (1936)
Dorothea Lange’s Damaged Child, Shacktown, Elm Grove, Oklahoma (1936)
American Portraiture: Images for Class
New York Times — Video On Deployment
No Place Like Home — Course Overview
No Place Like Home Syllabus — December 14-16 2010
Syllabus: December 2010
Http://blog.lrei.org/jbelton
Tuesday 12/14 – Unit 1; Introduction: Images of War and the Return
CLASS: Introduction to course, goals, expectations, procedures. Introduce essential questions of the course. Images/stories of war, the soldier, and homecomings. What image/stories are told, immortalized, kept veiled, or forgotten.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate Vanity Fair article (“Medal of Honor Winner…” and Yusef Komunyakaa’s poems “Camouflaging the Chimera,” “Losses,” and “Tunnels”.
Wednesday 12/15
CLASS Check materials. Discuss article and poems: The experience of war and the return.
HOMEWORK: Complete a 2-3 page typed response (Response # 1) to the
following questions: Part I: What are your personal experiences of home, leaving home, and homecomings. What departures and homecomings have been a part of your life? (1.5 pages) Part II: What images/ stories of war or the soldier’s return from war do you carry with you into this course? These might be family experiences, experiences you’ve witnessed, or images, books, films, news items, etc that have affected you in some way and helped to inform your understanding of war (1.5 pages). Please bring to class on Thursday an artifact (an object, image, article, quote, etc) that represents some aspect of this image/story that you carry into the course. Be prepared to explain your artifact briefly to the class.
Thursday 12/16
CLASS: Response # 1 due (with artifact). Share images.
NO HOMEWORK — Enjoy the break!