Unit 3 Agenda

UNIT III: Writing About Culture (4 Weeks)

  • Week 9: What is culture? / finding your material
  • Week 10: Writing about culture / researching the “self” and the larger world
  • Weeks 11 & 12: Developing the culture essay / revision

Unit 3 Assignments: sustained essay (6-8 pp.) that engages with an aspect of culture that you are either part of or witness to; separate reflective essay (2 pp.) Essay due 11/30/2016.

Unit 3: Place and Culture

Objectives:

  • Students will compose an extended creative nonfiction essay (6-8 pp.) on issues of culture and identity that they are either part of or witness to, while continuing to mobilize tools of the craft of creative nonfiction and demonstrating attention to ethics, positionality, and awareness of their own ideological biases.
  • Students will read works of creative nonfiction that either engage them in an in-depth conversation around a single focused issue of culture and community designated by their instructor; OR students will read a wide range of creative nonfiction texts that engage them in conversations about culture from a number of different angles across a range of issues, identities, and geographies.
  • Students will engage in brainstorming, writing, and revision exercises designed to help them interrogate and develop their topic, continue to take chances in their writing, forge connections across shorter pieces of writing, build transitions, deepen their perspectives and positions.
  • Students will examine the role of history, culture, and systems of power and privilege in shaping their overall approach to framing the essay, as well as more local choices regarding specific depictions and rhetorical choices.
  • Students will continue to grapple with strategies for framing and arranging their essays, and with questions of form and content.

Calendar (approx. 4 weeks):

 

Week 9: What is culture? / Finding your material

Mon.  11/2 Focus: What is culture? Finding your material

Reading and unpacking: Sherman Alexie, “White Men Can’t Drum,” In Short 152-156( What cultural issues does Alexie address in the essay? Michael Dorris, “Three Yards,” In Short 203-205 (How does the author describe his childhood home, more specifically, a backyard? How has it played an enduring role all the way to his adulthood?)

Writing Prompt: Write about a place that stood clearly in your memory and to which you still feel connected to. Describe the place in details using as many sensory details as possible. Why is the place sharp in your memory? Who are in it? What event comes to your mind when you see this place again in your mind? What kind of feelings are associated with it? Why? Is there particular detail about the place that you feel has a lingering effect on you today?

Homework: 1) “‘Taking Place’: Writing the Physical World” Tell It Slant, Ch. 3, 25-38 ( Jot down some ideas of how to write about a physical world to the class for discussion);  2)Read three short essays from In Short -John Lane, “Natural Edges,” 261-263; Jerry Ellis, “Into the Storm,” 233-236; Jana Richman, “Why I Ride,” 395-418 ( How does the author of each essay describe or define  the nature s/he was in? How does each author approach the place as a character? In Richman’s piece, how does she blend culture into nature writing?)3) Continue exploring in your memories a place to which you feel connected. Use the heuristic “ Finding your Materials” to generate more places you have write about. You may find some photos, do research to see the changes made to the place or ask your family members their memory of the place, etc. Take notes during your “investigation”.

 

Tue.  11/3 Election Day No School

Wed.  11/4 Focus- place and culture

Reading and Unpacking: Writing the Physical World” Tell It Slant, Ch. 3, 25-38; John Lane, “Natural Edges,” 261-263; Jerry Ellis, “Into the Storm,” 233-236; Jana Richman, “Why I Ride,” 395-418 ( How does the author of each essay describe or define  the nature s/he was in? How does each author approach the place as a character? In Richman’s piece, how does she blend culture into nature writing?) Jana Richman, “Why I Ride,” 395-418

Writing Prompt: Frame the place you have been writing about or a new place in a scene. Describe the place as the main character. In that particular setting, what does it look like? What season, time of the day, weather, its geological features, any existence of animals? What makes the place unique at that moment? Now, look closer. Is there any cultural element to the place, which makes it more distinctive? What is it, a visual, a sound, a sight such as cemetery, monument, flag pole, a statue, etc.? What is the significance of the additional elements to the place? Why do you remember them (it)? How does it make you feel, connected, revoked, inspired or embarrassed, etc.?

Homework: 1) Continue with the writing about a place based on the writing prompt. 2) Read three essays from notice how each author connects or infuses the place with discussion of culture:  “Going Native” by Francine Prose, In Short 356-367, “Field Trips” by Stuart Dybek (pdf) , “The Usual Story” by Fred Setterberg  In Short 87-89 3) Read Andre Aciman, “A Literary Pilgrim Progresses to the Past,” PDF and take notes on how identify and culture are explored through environment and place. What are some of her thoughts about writing about a place that you resonate with? Bring your notes to the class for sharing.

 

Thur.  11/5 Focus-Writing about a special place in your memory or home

Reading and Unpacking: Andre Aciman, “A Literary Pilgrim Progresses to the Past,” PDF. Here are some quotes from Aciman’s essay about why she writes about a place-

  • I write to recapture, to preserve and return to the past.
  • I write about loss and feelings unhinged in provisional places where everyone else seems to have a home and a place…
  • I may write about a place and displacement but what I’m really writing about is dispersion, evasion, ambivalence…
  • I may write about a little parks in New York that reminds me of Rome… and about so many spots in the world that will ultimately take me back to Alexandria…I turn to Alexandria, the mythical home of paradox.
  • I write to find out who I am.
  • Writing about Alexandria helps me give a geographical frame to a psychological mess…
  • I keep writing about places. It is because some of them are coded ways of writing about myself
  • I write about diaspora, dispossession but these big words hold my inner tale together, the way lies help the truth afloat.
  1. a) Share your notes of how her thoughts about writing a place resonates with you personally.
  2. b) How does each author talk about culture through a place? (“Going Native” by Francine Prose, In Short 356-367, “Field Trips” by Stuart Dybek pdf , “The Usual Story” by Fred Setterberg In Short 87-89

Writing Prompt: Choose a particular thought of writing about a place from our discussion as your writing prompt and start from there. In addition to the feelings associated with the place, is there particular culture in the place that struck a chord with you? Describe it.

Homework: 1) Continue with writing about a place or home. Consider using “Three Yards” by Michael Dorris, In Short 203-205 and “Sanctuary ” by Jane Moress Schuster In Short 244-246  as models.2) Read

“Thank You in Arabic” by Naomi Shihab Nye(pdf) ( Consider: What does home mean when “ home is away”? Through her journey from the US to Egypt to Jerusalem back to the States, how does the author reassess her understanding of home and identify? How does the culture of each place to which she traveled shape her identity or her views of home?) 3) Reflect on Jana Richman’s “Why I Ride” In Fact 395-418 (How is her identify shaped by the place, Utah, where she has deep family history? Why is Utah the ultimate home to her?)

 

Fri.  11/6 Focus- place as an identity/”home”

Reading an unpacking: “Thank You in Arabic” by Naomi Shihab Nye(pdf); Jana Richman”s “Why I Ride” In Fact 395-418

Writing Prompt: Many of us find our sense of “desh” blends real and distant-maybe unseen- places. Is your family one of the many in this country that embodies a divided sense of home? What does home man to you, your siblings, your parents? Some may say “home” is where there’s a room for me to unpack my things’. Think about whether there is a single place- a physical location- your family defines as “ home,” or what you do to as you move around to bring the sense of home with you. Consider writing an essay in which you unpack the complex layers of meaning in the word home, with specific references to all the possibilities (Tell It Slant 36).

Homework: 1) Continue writing about “home”; 2) Read and annotate Barry Lopez’s “Landscape and Narrative” (PDF) (Consider: How does Lopez define exterior and interior landscapes?) 3) Read Gretel Ehrlich’s “From The Solace of Open Spaces” (Consider: How does the exterior landscape of Wyoming shape the interior landscape of its people? Pay attention to the contrasting details of how the wide open landscape is juxtaposed with the narrow-mindness of the people who inhabit the place.)

 

Week 10: Writing About Culture / researching the self and the larger world

 

Mon.  11/9 Focus- Place, culture, identity (exterior landscape vs interior landscape)

Reading and unpacking:  Barry Lopez’s “Landscape and Narrative” (PDF) and Gretel Ehrlich’s “From The Solace of Open Spaces”.

a)According to Barry Lopez,

  • There are two landscapes-one outside one self, the other within. The external landscape is the one we see- not only he line and color of the land and its shading at different times of the day, but also its plants and animals and season, its weather, its geology, the record of its climate and evolution… these are the elements of the land.
  • The second landscape is an interior one, a kind of projection within a person of a part of the exterior landscape… the speculations, intuitions are formal ideas we refer to as “ mind” are a set of relationships in the interior landscape with purpose and order, many impenetrably subtle.
  • The shapes and climate of these relationships in a person’s thinking re deeply influences by where on the earth one goes, what one touches, the patterns one observes in nature- the intricate history of one’s life in the land, even a life in the city where wind, the chirp of birds, the line of falling leaf, are known. The interior landscape responds to the character and subtlety of an exterior landscape, the shape of the individual mind is affected by land as it is by genres.

b)How does Gretel Ehrlich explore the relationships between Wyoming’s wide open landscape and the language used by the cowboys, culture of exclusion and the characteristics of its people?

Writing Prompt: Is there any particular trait of an external landscape that has somehow shaped your “internal landscape”- your views, character, and identity? Describe the particulars about the external landscape that have had profound impact on making you on you are today. The external landscape can be from your childhood where you grew up or the urban landscape you live in right now. What is one part of you that you feel is imprinted by your environment such as your neighborhood? Avoid writing the most obvious or cliché (tough personality shaped by rough neighborhood, etc.) . Delve into the physical specifics of the place and why they have shaped your identity. Think of Michael Dorris’ “Three Yards”, Richman’s “Why I Ride” and Gretel Ehrlich’s “From the Solace of Open Spaces”. To go even further, write about a particular culture that is embedded in certain physical traits of the environment you live in. How is the place unique in its own way although it is part of broad urban landscape? Why is it special to you? Continue to draw connections between what Barry Lopez’ describes as “the shapes and climate of these relationships in a person’s thinking” and “where on the earth one goes, what one touches, the patterns one observes in nature- the intricate history of one’s life in the land, even a life in the city where wind, the chirp of birds, the line of falling leaf, are known”.

Homework: 1) Continue exploring the relationships between your interior landscape and the external landscape and 2) Read “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams and Adam Hochschild’s  “World on a Hilltop” ( Pemfret prep school, privilege, change, history) ( Consider: How does each author use the place as a canvas set in a cultural or historical context where s/he paints its people?)

 

Tue.  11/10 Focus: place as a canvas set in a cultural or historical context

Reading and unpacking: “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams and Adam Hochschild’s  “World on a Hilltop”

  • How does each author use the place as a canvas set in a cultural or historical context in which s/he paints its people?
  • What cultural issues does each author explore? How are the issue directly linked to the place? Why do they bear distinctive marks of the places described?

Writing Prompt: Reframe the place you have been writing about or seek a new place in your memory. Is there a particular cultural or historical context about the place? Do some research and dig it out. How does the cultural or historical context shape who you are or the people who live within? Is there a particular language people use, a health issue people share, ritual or belief they follow, certain attitude, the way they demarcate the place, a shared identity? Do you fit in the culture of the place? Is there a tension among different people who live in the same place? What cause the tension? Where is it going? How do the culture, tension, and changes affect you? Do you want to stay or leave? Do you have conflicted feelings? Why?

Homework: 1) Continue your writing about the place and culture. 2) Read “Present Tense Africa” by William Harrison in pdf ( Nigeria, Egypt, culture, nature, people, conflicted views about the landscape and its people and culture, poverty, beauty, its innocent and yet corrupt people, simple and naïve, like its land, lack of sophistication, people waiting to be changed, can they, Westerners are interested in helping the animals but not people). 3) Share a piece or a portion of your writing about a place with two group members online. Give each other feedback ( Refer to the heuristic about “ Strategies for Productive Workshopping”). Be ready for the workshop on Thursday.

 

Wed. 11/11 Veteran’s Day No School

Thur.  11/12 Focus-Travel: Foreign Places, Different cultures

Reading and unpacking: “Present Tense Africa” by William Harrison in pdf

  • What particular places in Africa does Harrison describe?
  • What cultural issues does he direct the reader’s attention to either subtly or directly?
  • How does he infuse the descriptions of the culture of each place in his essay?
  • Does he show his attitude toward the different cultures he experiences? How do you know?
  • What do you believe compel the author to write about Africa?
  • What does the title suggest his attitude toward the place and its people?

Workshopping: Share your feedback with the writers in your group (Refer to the heuristics about “Strategies for Productive Workshopping” and “Craft Questions”). You may also consider the following at this point-

  • Is there a distinctive theme emerging in your essay (themes as borders, relocation, immigration, resettlement, exile, homelessness, diaspora, pilgrimage, refuge, sanctuary, travel, the environment, urban spaces, suburban and rural landscapes, farming, gardening, architecture, and the emotions and relationships that accompany these many links to place and displacement)?
  • Did you explore conflict over a given space between individuals and communities?
  • Are there any individual and group encounters that give meaning to certain spaces?
  • In your essay, have you started addressed any of the following questions?
    • What is culture? How is it linked to place?
    • What’s the role of places in shaping culture?
    • How do the rules and rituals associated with a place shape the behaviors, beliefs, and bonds of the people who inhabit it?
    • How does the history of a place leave its mark on the present?
    • What’s the role of culture in leading to certain acts of place-making: i.e., the construction, architecture, interior design, arrangement, and decoration of the place?
    • How do our identities and social positions determine our experiences of particular places?
    • How much control do we have over our participation in and experience of culture and place?
    • To what extent do we construct culture, and to what extent does it construct us?

Homework: 1) Use the notes from the workshop to help you expand the essay. 2) Read John Calderazzo, “Running Xian,” 168-171 ; Tim O’Brien, “LZ Gator, Vietnam, February 1994,” 60-619 ; Cynthia Ozick, “The Shock of Teapots,” In Short 68-71 (Consider the tone of each author when describing or exposing a foreign culture)

 

Fri.   11/13: Focus- Travel, foreign place and foreign culture

Reading and unpacking: John Calderazzo’s “Running Xian” 168-171, Tim O’Brien’s “LZ Gator, Vietnam, February 1994” 60-619 , and Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shock of Teapots,” In Short 68-71(How does each author describe a foreign culture in a foreign place? How does the author’s description of the culture serve as an unbiased introduction to the reader? Why may have caused their attention about the articular culture? What’s the author’s attitude? How does he convey such an attitude? Is there any tension caused by the unfamiliar culture? How does s/he describe the tension?)

Writing Prompt: Even if we don’t travel abroad, we still experience “foreign” culture in our own neighborhood. What makes the culture foreign to you? How does it affect you? Does it conflict with your own culture? How? How has the “foreign” culture played out in shaping the identity of the place (neighborhood) and you as an individual?

Homework: 1) Consider exploring the “foreignness” of the culture you have been writing about. What makes it foreign to you? How does your rejection to or acceptance of it reveal who you are? Use Stephen Dunn’s “Locker Room Talk,” 149-151as a model to explore “foreign” culture in a familiar place.

2)  Read one of the essays -Madison Smartt Bell, “Sa’m Pèdi,” 331-355 and Susan Faludi, “The Naked Citadel”( Consider: Why does the place the author writes about require extensive research to expose its culture? What are the parts that are informational? How does the author share her personal views with the reader toward the issue?)

 

Weeks 11-12: Developing the culture essay / revision

Mon.  11/16 Focus- Researching about a place

Reading and unpacking: Madison Smartt Bell, “Sa’m Pèdi,” 331-355 and Susan Faludi, “The Naked Citadel”. In a small group, discuss one of the assigned readings-

  • Why does the place the author writes about require extensive research to expose its culture?
  • What are the parts that are informational?
  • How does the author incorporate research in her essay to enhance the reader’s interests?
  • How does the author expose her personal views toward the issue?

Writing Prompt: Identify places in your writing where you need to add more information. Consider what kind of information you will need and why you will need it. How would you make the information a seamless part of your essay?

For this essay, consider more seriously how research might enhance the interest of your essay.  What kinds of non-traditional research might work well in grounding an essay on culture and place?  Your research may take the form of travel, observation, interviews, online research, archival research, or any other kind of research suited to the project you establish for yourself.  You do not necessarily need to do extensive “book” research, but you may find printed sources useful as a supplement.  There is no formula for how much research you need to do in order to write a successful essay, or how much time you need to spend as a researcher, but you should know that research is important to this project.  You will have to figure out what’s “doable” for you, what’s relevant and important, and what kind of research will strengthen your essay.

Homework: 1)Do research to expand the scope and enhance the interests of your essay. Continue working on your essay by incorporating some research in your essay. Consider why and how. Share in class your strategies or struggles. 2) Review “Using research to Expand Your Perspective” Tell it Slant 71-84

 

Tue.  11/17 Focus: research

Workshopping: What kinds of non-traditional research might work well in grounding an essay on culture and place?  How do we add information and make it a seamless part of the essay?

Share ideas and examples ( your own or from  published essays- Madison Smartt Bell, “Sa’m Pèdi,” 331-355 and Susan Faludi, “The Naked Citadel” ) to integrate researched information to your essay in an organic way.

Work in pairs: Critique each other’s essay only in regard to research. Is the research necessary? Does it take away or enhance the reader’s interests? Is the information an organic part of the essay? If not, how can we make it more organic? What other research needs can you help your partner identify?

Homework: Work to add complexity to your essay. Consider adding reflections, analysis and insight into your experience and observation into the larger culture or subculture. Think about why you frame the discussion of the place and culture in a certain way and what helped you make the choice. Bring in a hard copy of whatever you may have written for a workshop tomorrow.

 

Wed.  11/18 Focus –Revision

               Workshopping:

  • How did you forge discovery of your subject through moments of reflection, analysis, and insight into one’s own experience and into the larger relevant culture or subculture?
  • How did you provide a focused, complex, and nuanced treatment of a cultural issue?
  • Did you move your essay through both horizontal and vertical movements?
  • What helped you with making the decisions about framing your topic?
  • What images did you use to help arrange the material strategically?

               Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Work to complete the essay. Consider using an appropriate form to suit the content. Focus on adding lyricism to your essay- imagery, figurative language, avoidance of cliché, word choice that is innovative and precise, attention to phrasing, the rhythm of your sentences. Be prepared to share your examples in the workshop. Print out a hard copy of your essay and bring it to the class.

 

Thur.  11/19 Revision-Lyricism

Workshopping:

  • When you describe the physical landscape of a place, did you consider using a unique imagery to establish your unique perception of the place?
  • Does the way you describe the place seem to be cliché? Anyone could have seen it anywhere? Is there a personal stamp you put on the place?
  • Is your word choice innovative or again just cliché?
  • Do you often write short sentences or complete sentences? How about considering using fragments, short and long sentence to create a rhythm?
  • Is it possible to use a form more suitable to your essay content?

Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Use your notes from the workshop to revise or complete your essay. Share your writing with a friend or family member and ask if the way you treat the subject matter sounds fair. What does your friend think of the tone of your essay? If the tone is not clear, how can you make it clearer considering your own intention? Print out a copy of your friend’s feedback and your revision and bring them to the class for the workshop.

 

Fri.  11/20 Focus-Revision

Workshopping: How successfully did you establish a pack with the reader? Consider the

  • tone, context, precise choice of language,
  • ethical treatment of subject matter, ethical representation of subjects, and
  • a mature, in-depth, well-researched approach to the topic.

Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Continue working on the essay. Focus on crafting scenes, strong characterization and place description. Bring a copy of your essay with a specific highlighted scene, a character and place description to share in the workshop.

Mon.  11/23 Focus- Revision

Workshopping: How descriptive and detailed are your scene and character portrayal?

  • Did you include strong detail rendered through interesting language and well-crafted scenes?
  • How vivid are the characterizations and place descriptions? Can the reader see what you see through the detailed descriptions?

Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Proofread your essay. Check the sentence structure, word choice, use of verb tenses, point of view, and use of punctuation.

 

Tue.  11/24 Focus-Revision

Workshopping: Proofreading. Did you use…?

  • Variety of sentence structure to create rhythm and pacing and punctuation to make the reader “hear it” the way you imagine the essay sounding.
  • Precise word choice and verb tenses
  • Appropriate point of view to treat the topic ethically and fairly

Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Continue working on your essay. If you still have questions about the essay, bring them in and share with me and the class

 

Wed.  11/25 Focus-Writing a critical reflection-

Discuss: How to write a critical reflection that will help you understand the process you have been through, what you learned and struggled and demonstrate your growth as a writer? You may use the following questions to get started but it does not mean you cannot expand your own thinking-

  • How did you decide on a topic for this essay? What other topics did you consider, and what made you settle on your final selection?
  • Discuss a moment in the composition or revision process when your thinking took a sharp turn.
  • Describe your most significant discovery or intellectual breakthrough in composing/shaping this essay.
  • What aspects of this essay are you most proud of?
  • What “mountain” did you have to climb to write this essay?
  • What are you still struggling with?
  • Discuss some quotes or key passages from the readings for this unit that influenced your thinking about the content of your essay, about how to frame your essay, how to represent your characters and yourself as a speaking self, and how to arrange your material into the final draft.
  • Which published essays we read and discussed together helped /inspired you the most with your own writing?

Homework: Unit 3 essay and the reflection are due Nov. 30.

Thur. 11/26 Happy Thanksgiving!

Fri. 11/27 No School

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