EWRT 1B

Passing by Nella Larsen

Adding the Class

• I can only take 32 students

• If you are on the waiting list, you can stay. I will hand out add codes via email as space becomes available in the class.

• As we go over the syllabus, consider whether you will stay in the class. If you want out, please let me know, so I can offer your seat to another student.

• If you are not on the waiting list, make sure to give me your name and email address.

Agenda

• Presentation: Green Sheet; Syllabus; Website; Google Drive; Kaizena

• Discussion: What is Identity? When do we "pass" as someone different from ourselves?

• In-class writing: How do we express our own identities? How much do we reveal about ourselves? How do we decide?

The Green Sheet

• What you will find here

– Course Requirements• Assignments and values

• Participation

– Required Materials

– Class Policies• Plagiarism

• Conduct and Courtesy

– The Class Website• How to sign up for an

account

• How to post your homework.

– How to use Kaizena to submit your Paper

Texts and Required Materials:

PRIMARY TEXTS Available on the Website

• Chesnutt, Charles “The Passing of Grandison”• Far, Sui Sin, “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of

an Eurasian”• Hughes, Langston, “Passing,” (the poem),

“Passing,” (short story), and “Who’s Passing for Who.”

• Morrison, Toni, “Recitatif” • Feinberg, Leslie, Stone Butch Blues

Available through Amazon and other book sellers• Larsen, Nella, Passing

SECONDARY TEXTS Available on the Website

• Assorted Journal Articles

Required Materials One large Blue Book for essay

four.

A Gmail account that you will be

willing to share via Wordpress,

Kaizena, and Google Drive

Requirements:

• Active participation in class discussions and regular attendance. You will earn real points for your participation in activities.

• Keeping up-to-date on the assignments and reading.

• Formal writing: Three out of class essays and one in-class essay.

• A series of writing posts to the class website: responses and QHQs.

• Terms tests, reading quizzes, and in-class assignments.

Grading

Class Policies

Writing Submissions

1. Before you submit your essay, please save your file as your last name and the number 2, like this: Smith 2. That will help me keep your essays organized.

2. Submit your essay through Kaizena, a Google Drive add-on, athttps://kaizena.com/palmoreessaysubmissiongmail. Or simply use the link on our class website home page. This system allows me to respond to your essay with both voice and written comments and to insert helpful links.

3. Sign in to your Google Account and allow Kaizena access to your Google Drive.

4. Click on the “Ask Dr. Kim Palmore for feedback” link.5. Choose your document from your Google Drive. Your paper must be saved

as either a Google doc or a PDF file to be detected by Kaizena. You will be directed to a new page to choose a delivery box from a drop down menu.

6. Add your essay to the appropriate EWRT 1B box (Essay #2, #3, or #4). Then, click the “Ask for feedback” button again.

7. Once I have graded your paper, Kaizena will automatically share with you the link to the Google document in the comments section — located on the top-right corner of the Google document.

8. Click on the highlighted sections of the paper to find both audio and written comments concerning your essay or links to materials that will help you improve your writing.

All out of class essays are to be submitted to me electronically

before the due date.

Attendance:Success in this course depends on regular

attendance and active participation. Participation points will be part of our daily activities. If you are not in class, you cannot earn these points. You should save absences for emergencies, work conflicts, weddings, jury duty, or any other issues that might arise in your life.

It is your responsibility to talk to me your absences or other conflicts. Work done in class cannot be made up. Also, please arrive on time, as you will not be able to make up work completed before you arrive, including quizzes.

• Tests:

– We will have several terms tests during the quarter. I will offer one opportunity late in the quarter to retake (or make-up) one of the first three terms tests.

• Late Work

– I do not accept late work. I do, however, extend an opportunity to revise either essay #2 or #3 for a better grade. If you miss an essay due date, you may submit that essay when the revisions are due. This does disqualify you from revising another essay.

Conduct, Courtesy, and Electronic Devices:• In this class, we will regularly engage in the discussion of

topics that may stir passionate debates. Please speak freely and candidly; however, while your thoughts and ideas are important to me and to the dynamics of the class, you must also respect others and their opinions. Courtesy will allow each person to have the opportunity to express his or her ideas in a comfortable environment.

• Courtesy includes but is not limited to politely listening to others when they contribute to class discussions, not slamming the classroom door if you do arrive late, and maintaining a positive learning environment for your fellow classmates. To help maintain a positive learning environment, please focus on the work assigned, put away your cell phones and iPods before class, and do not text-message in class. If your behavior becomes disruptive to the learning environment of the class, you may be asked to leave and/or be marked absent.

Academic Dishonesty:Plagiarism includes quoting or paraphrasing material without documentation and copying from other students or professionals. Intentional plagiarism is a grave offense; the resulting response will be distasteful. Depending upon the severity, instances of plagiarism may result in a failing grade for the paper or the course and possible administrative action. All assignments will be scanned and scrutinized for academic dishonesty. Please refer to your handbook for more information regarding plagiarism.

The Syllabus

• The syllabus is a tentative schedule.

• It may be revised during the quarter.

• Use it to determine how to prepare for class.

What we will do in class

Homework due before the next class Project title

Week and Days

Our class website is http://palmoreenglish.wordpress.com. In order to do the homework, you must establish an account. To make your own FREE Word Press account, go to wordpress.com. The system will walk you through the steps to signup for a username or to set up your own user-friendly Word Press blog. Alternatively, you can sign into our website through Facebook.

If you prefer not to use your own name, you may use a pseudonym. Just make sure you sign in with YOUR Word Press username before you post on our class page so you get credit for your work. Please email me your username once you have established which account you shall use for the quarter.

If you cannot establish your website and username, please come to my office hours as soon as possible, and I will help you with the process. Much of our work will take place online, so establishing this connection is mandatory.

http://palmoreenglish.wordpress.com

Some Reading Assignments

Essay Assignments

The Green Sheet

The Syllabus (The Daily Plan)

Writing Tips Helpful Links Your Daily Homework Assignment

(which is where you post your homework.)

Homework

There is writing homework due the evening before each meeting. This is both to help you think about your reading and to help you produce ideas for your essays.

In order to earn an A on your homework, you must do the following:

Complete all of the posts.

Post them on time.

Be thoughtful in your responses.

Posting Homework

• On the front page of the website, you will find the homework post after each class. (text me if you don’t see it)

• Below that post on the right, are the words “Leave a comment.”

• Click there and a comment box will open. Copy and paste your homework into the comment box

• Click “Post Comment.”

Is this class too hard? How many essays?

Is this classHistory 10?

What are we going to read?

What is Identity??

IDENTITY: A person’s mental representation of who he or she is.

Components of identity include a sense of personal continuity and of uniqueness from other people. In addition to carving out a personal identity based on the need for uniqueness, people also acquire a social identity based on their membership in various groups—familial, ethnic, occupational, and others. These group identities, in addition to satisfying the need for affiliation, help people define themselves in the eyes of both others and themselves.

Identity• What is it?

– Write a dictionary definition – Write what identity means to you personally.

• Next, reflect on your culture and the dimensions of that culture that contribute to your identity. Take two minutes and jot down some notes to yourself. – Where in your life does your culture emerge?– How do you see yourself within your culture?– How does your family manifest culture?– What would you tell others about your

culture?

More ideas about defining cultural identity?

• Music

• Food

• Faith, religion

• Values

• Language

• Family structure

How do these qualifiers figure into identity?

• Education

• Race

• Gender

• Sexual Orientation

• Social Class

Nitza Hidalgo’s “three levels of culture”

– The Concrete: This is the most visible and tangible level of culture. These aspects of culture are often those that provide the focus for multicultural "festivals" or "celebrations.”

– The Behavioral: This level of culture clarifies how we define our social roles, the language(s) we speak, and our approaches to nonverbal communication.

– The Symbolic: This level of culture includes our values and beliefs.

Let’s consider how we define ourselves within Hidalgo’s “levels.” Which aspects of identity go into which category?

– the Concrete: This is the most visible and tangible level of culture. These aspects of culture are often those that provide the focus for multicultural "festivals" or "celebrations."

– the Behavioral: This level of culture clarifies how we define our social roles, the language(s) we speak, and our approaches to nonverbal communication.

– the Symbolic: This level of culture includes our values and beliefs.

Music

Food

Faith, religion

Values

Language

Family structure

Education

Race

Gender

Sexual Orientation

Social Class

????

How Do We Want to be Seen?

–Are we the concrete?

–The behavioral?

–Or the Symbolic?

How do we see others?

– When you meet somebody, which qualities (under any of the categories) do you use to understand them culturally?

– Is your attempt to understand others culturally consistent with how you want to be viewed and understood?

– What forces in our society might contribute to our simplification of the culture of others, even though we don't want to be defined simplistically ourselves?

Course Theme: Passing

Historically, passing has been defined in terms of racial passing. It refers to a deception that allows a person to take advantage of certain roles or opportunities from which he or she might be barred in the absence of this posed identity. The most common racial passer, of course, was the African American who lacked those characteristics typical of his race. These mixed race people had physical appearances that allowed them to be perceived and treated as if they where white. But passing is not limited to African Americans assuming white roles in society; it is not even limited to a racial basis. People pass in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons—from African Americans who pass for white, to Jews who pass as Gentiles, to gays who pass for straight, for women who pass for men—and the opposite of all of these. Reverse passing, though less prevalent, also exists in multiple forms.

How does our judgment of people lead to the desire or need to “pass”?

In-Class Writing

• How do we express our own

identities?

• How much do we reveal about

ourselves and when do we do so?

• How do we decide?

• What does society expect from us in

terms of revealing who we are?

Establish: Your Webpage or Username and Gmail account

Explore: The class webpage

Buy or Order: Your books

Post #1: Write a paragraph or two describing a time when you were unfairly judged on concrete identity characteristics, OR write a paragraph or two describing a time when you passed as someone or something you were not. The passing can be either purposeful or inadvertent.