Lesson One
Overview
All work for lesson one is due before midnight on Sunday, March 22, 2009.
1. Submit the interactive syllabus form from the class homepage.
2. Take the writing assessment.
3. Write a short biography and post it to the discussion group.
4. Read the preface and introduction to Cultural Conversations: The Presence of the Past.
5. Read five film reviews from magazines, newspapers, or the Internet.
6. Write and submit your film review.
Assignment One
Welcome to English 1C Online, Critical Thinking and Composition. To take this class you must have successfully completed with a grade of C or better either the classroom or online version of English 1A, English Composition and Reading or a comparable college-level writing course. You will be writing five major essays (about 1000 to 1200 words each), complete the assigned reading, take a midterm examination and a final examination, and post your thoughts weekly to the discussion group. You can take a look at the scheduled assignments at the weekly outline. You must also agree to and submit the interactive syllabus. IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO ALREADY, SUBMIT YOUR INTERACTIVE SYLLABUS BEFORE YOU PROCEED ANY FURTHER!
YOU WILL ALSO HAVE TO SUBMIT YOUR WRITING ASSESSMENT BEFORE THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK OR YOU WILL BE DROPPED FROM THE CLASS.
CLICK HERE: WRITING ASSESSMENT.
Assignment Two
Let's proceed to the discussion group where you will post a short biography of two or three paragraphs. Did you read my little bio at Meet the Instructor on the class homepage? This writing task will receive discussion credit (15 points maximum). I recommend you that type your biography in a word processing program such as Word, Works, or Apple Pages (even Note Pad will work). After you edit it for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, copy and paste it into the text box in the discussion group. If you don't know how to copy and paste, review the Copy and Paste Guide on the homepage. The entire class will be reading your postings, so proofread carefully. Please respond to three of your classmates.
AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE IS A "DISCUSS" BUTTON. JUST CLICK ON IT TO GO TO THE DISCUSSION GROUP. POST YOU DISCUSSIONS THERE; DO NOT E-MAIL THEM TO ME. If you are confused just click on this link. Go to the discussion group and find the link Lesson 1--Biographies.
Assignment Three
Read the preface, table of contents, and the introduction to Cultural Conversations: The Presence of the Past. This will give you an idea how the book is designed thematically. No, you will not be reading every selection. Yes, some of the readings will be challenging and may present opposing views to commonly held beliefs.
Assignment Four
Do you ever read film reviews before you spend your hard-earned cash to go to a theater or rent or buy the the latest DVD of a movie? Reviews are an art in themselves. The following is a review by Manohla Dargis of on a popular film that I enjoyed. It is from the the New York Times website at http://movies.nytimes.com.
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FILM REVIEW Little Miss Sunshine: You’re Either on the Family Bus, or You’re Off |
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family that pops Prozac together stays together, perhaps, but the family
that piles into an old Volkswagen bus the color of a banana surely has
more entertainment value. That at least seems true of the happily (for us)
unhappy relations at the center of the bittersweet comedy of dysfunction Little
Miss Sunshine, a tale about genuine faith and manufactured
glory that unwinds in the American Southwest, but more rightly takes place
at the terminus of the American dream, where families are one bad break
away from bankruptcy.
Written by the newcomer Michael Arndt, and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, seasoned music-video directors making an effortless feature-film debut, Little Miss Sunshine relates the story of the Hoovers, just around the time that the youngish, harried Sheryl (Toni Collette) takes her suicidal brother, Frank (Steve Carell), under her wing. (“I’m glad you’re here,” she says. “That makes one of us,” he answers.) Straight from the hospital, Frank moves in with Sheryl’s family, including her 7-year-old daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin); teenage son, Dwayne (Paul Dano); husband, Richard (Greg Kinnear); and father-in-law, a heroin-tooting crank simply called Grandpa (Alan Arkin). The bandages on Frank’s wrists are as fresh as his wounds when he enters the Hoovers’ fold, a dim burrow filled with clutter and noise. Eccentric families are a mainstay of comedy, and at least in their schematized personalities (the sullen son, the desperate dad), the Hoovers are not much different from most, despite the vials of white powder tucked in Grandpa’s fanny pack. They may be more downmarket than Wes Anderson’s Tenenbaums and a lot scruffier than the average big-studio clan. (Their kitchen looks as if it hasn’t been remodeled since Alice slaved for the Bradys.) But like most American comedy families, they are also a familiar social microcosm, a group of radically individualized souls in search of one another. The means to that end is the competition of the film’s title, a child beauty pageant called Little Miss Sunshine. Soon after Frank moves in, Olive, a dumpling of a child with oversize glasses and a seemingly endless reserve of optimism, receives unexpected word that she has been invited to compete in Little Miss Sunshine, just days away. Short of cash if not bright ideas, Richard decides to pile the fractious, reluctant brood into the family’s antique VW bus so that Olive can live out her dream and prove herself a winner. Much like Steinbeck’s Joads, the Beverly Hillbillies and millions of other westward-ho pioneers, the notably named Hoovers set a course for California, the land of sunshine, bleached teeth and eternal promise, leaving dusty Albuquerque behind. “Little Miss Sunshine” doesn’t look particularly ambitious, in terms of either its narrative or its function-over-form visual style. But tucked in between all the hurt and the jokes, the character development and the across-the-board terrific performances is a surprisingly sharp look at contemporary America, one that sets the metaphor of the stage (and, by extension, competition) against the cherished myth of the open road. Like her father, who’s peddling a get-rich scheme, and like her brother, who yearns to fly the coop by becoming a jet pilot, Olive lives in a fantasy world that has become more real than her own life. When she watches a video of Miss America accepting her tiara, the image flickers in her eyeglasses, but it might as well be projected on her frontal lobe. It’s on the road that the Hoovers first lose and then find themselves, both as individuals and as a family. There is engine trouble, naturally, which leads to a delightful sight gag that involves Richard tucked behind the wheel as the rest of the family pushes — then scrambles inside — the bus. An emblem of an earlier, possibly more freewheeling era, this temporary mobile home seems an unlikely vehicle for transformation, but it takes the Hoovers across state lines and through a series of emotional and psychological roadblocks. In between the fast-food joints, hot tears and hurled insults, there are wide-open spaces and a suggestion of freedom along with a sign for the “Carefree Highway,” an actual state route that here seems more like a cruel joke. For the most part, the jokes and the sensibility are more kind than not in “Little Miss Sunshine,” which motors forward on the strength of its seamless ensemble and direction, and its touching human comedy. Mr. Arndt unleashes scads of deftly funny one-liners and situations, the best of which float along on sheer absurdity, like the collision between some pornographic rags and Marcel Proust. The jokes don’t land as lightly when they come with a message tied to the punch line, especially as the Hoovers near the Little Miss Sunshine competition, a ghastly spectacle that features underage fleshpots writhing to pounding beats while weighed down by sequins and parental vainglory. Graham Greene’s description of Shirley Temple’s appeal as “interestingly decadent” could not be more apt. However true to life, the Little Miss Sunshine competition comes accompanied by a whiff of class snobbishness. Richard weighs in as a total middle manager, the type of man who has read one too many self-help books. But, as the nods to Proust and Nietzsche suggest — and that VW bus, with its intimation of 1960’s rebellion, underscores — the Hoovers are clearly not meant to be cut from the same tacky cloth as the rest of the pageant parents, who smother their daughters in spray-on bronzer and expectation. In a different film, one not as generous of spirit (or funny), that snobbishness might seem insufferable. Yet there’s a melancholy here that clings to this family, which however triumphant and united, may well remain stuck in the national Hooversville located at the crossroads of hope and despair.
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The above review is from the New York Times website at http://movies.nytimes.com. The best thing to do is read reviews from magazines, newspapers, and websites. I also like http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ because it links your search to numerous online reprints of reviews. Now go ahead on your own and read five film reviews. Now read four more reviews online or in magazines.
Assignment Five
Now select one of the films listed below that parallels a unit from the text:
GENDER
The Hours
Boys Don't Cry
Philadelphia
RACE
The Color Purple
A Raisin in the Sun
Crash
DISABILITIES
The Miracle Worker
Forrest Gump
Born on the Fourth of July
THE UNCONSCIOUS
What Dreams May Come
A Street Car Named Desire
Sybil
NONVIOLENCE
Gandhi
Life is Beautiful
The Passion of the Christ
THE FRONTIER
Dances with Wolves
Last of the Mohicans
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Watch one of the above movies and then write your film review. Your film review will be about 1000-1200 words long. I don't care if you like or dislike the film. Sometimes a negative review gives you more material for discussion. What I don't want you to do is give a plot summary and leave it at that. That isn't a review. Here are the structural elements required for your your film review:
1. Title
2. Introduction (Get the reader's attention and then identify the film, director, film genre, actors, approval/disapproval, etc.)
3. Body (Evaluate and analyze. Body paragraphs must have topic sentences and specific examples from the film to support your approval or disapproval).
4. Conclusion (Reaffirm your evaluation and leave a lasting impression.)
In the classroom I always recommend that students double space their essays. For online classes when the essays are sent through the feedback forms, I receive them as single-spaced e-mails; unfortunately the extra line spacing is removed automatically. HOWEVER, I DO RECOMMEND THAT YOU PUT EXTRA SPACES BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS AS I HAVE DONE IN THIS LESSON. ALSO PLEASE INDENT THE BEGINNING OF EACH PARAGRAPH FIVE LETTER SPACES. If you don't, sometimes the e-mail will cram all of your sentences into one long paragraph.
I require that all essays be submitted through the feedback forms. That way the assignments are labeled and identified for correction and filing. Do not send your work as a separate e-mail or as a file attachment. I delete e-mail with file attachments without even opening them because of the threat of computer viruses. Yes, I have received viruses from students on several occasions. I have learned my lesson.
You will get a "thank you" after you submit your essay. The essay will appear to be run together, but if you have added spaces between paragraphs and indented the first line of each paragraph, there should be no problem. What you see is not what I get as an e-mail.
Also there will be a three-hour time difference on the "thank you." The server for BCCOnline is through Earthlink located in Georgia. Meet your deadlines by Pacific time.
If your essay contains too many errors, I will stop reading it and return it to you without a grade. I am not your proofreader. Avoid writing fragments, comma splices, or run-on sentences. When you are satisfied with your essay, copy and paste it from your word processing program into the text box of the feedback form.
Use your real name, not your username or password in the feedback form. If you do not type in your e-mail address correctly, you will not get your graded assignment returned.
By submitting this assignment, you affirm that you wrote it for this class and allow it to undergo a plagiarism search. Plagiarism is punishable by failure in this course.
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