Category: Class

Class, Mon, 9/30

Voice and Clarity

Jane Rozenweig, “The Whistle-Blower Knows How to Write“, New York Times, 9/27/2019

From Restatement to Interpretation

“Simple, Uncomplicated” vs. “Concealed Meaning”
  • Zubia and Amita respond to Rita, pp. 68–70, and Blake’s “The Blossom”
What’s in a Name?
  • Anaya and Nathan respond to Rita, pp. 76–77

To Do

  1. Wed, 10/02, class: Discuss Push, pp. 1–140
  2. Fri, 10/04. class: Discuss all of Push.
  3. Mon, 10/07, class: Submit X3.

Class, Wed, 9/25

Interpreting Michael Caine

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip (2010), directed by Michael Winterbottom

Interpreting Educating Rita

  • What does it mean to be a “student” (minutes 0–14)
  • What does it mean to “sing a better song? (minutes 41–49)

To Do

  1. Fri, 9/27: No class. Keep posted, though, for an email from me about the X2s we will discuss on Mon, 9/30.
  2. Mon, 9/30, class: Discuss X2
  3. Wed, 10/02, class: Discuss Push, pp. 1–66
  4. Fri, 10/04. class: Discuss all of Push.

Class, Mon, 9/23

UD Climate Change Rally, Friday, 9/20

Workshopping X2

Getting Started

Do the fastwrite for Friday, 9/20. Read it as a way of telling your readers what sort of feedback you’d like to get to your piece.

Follow the Workshop Guidelines (As Before)
Added Question

What is most distinctive about this piece? (Think in terms of how the “moving parts” connect.) How can the writer develop this aspect of the piece?

To Do

  1. Wed, 9/25, class: Watch the first 14 minutes, and then minutes 41–49, of the film version of Educating Rita. I’d like to talk about the “interpretive spin” the film puts on the play. (We will also continue today’s workshop of X2, if needed.)
  2. Fri, 9/27, class: Read pp. 1-66 of Push, by Sapphire.

Class, Fri, 9/20

X2

Moving Parts
  • What question or idea about learning will you explore?
  • What parts of Educating Rita will you focus on?
  • What other text or experience will you relate Rita to?
Fastwrite

Describe your plans for X2 using all three “moving parts”. Then note your biggest concern or question about this piece. If you’d like me to answer this question, send all this to me in an email.

Educating Rita, directed by Lewis Gilbert (1983)

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/23, class: Post X2 to the class folder on Google Drive. Use the checklist from last week to double-check your formatting. Bring three print copies with you to class.

Class, Wed, 9/18

Moe, Larry, and Curly, in perhaps their most famous skit, from “Gents Without Cents”

X2: Educating Rita and Learning to Write

Fastwrite

Make a quick start on responding to X2. Identify a moment in your own experience (or from another book or film) that you feel you can relate (either by connecting or contrasting) to Rita.

To Do

  1. Fri, 9/18, class: I’d like to look at a few scenes from the 1983 film version of Educating Rita. So there’s nothing you need to prepare. But I will set aside about 10 minutes at the start of class for you to share your ideas for X2 with two or three classmates. So be ready to talk about what you plan to write about, as well as any questions you may have about that.
  2. Mon, 9/23, class: Post X2 to the class folder on Google Drive. Bring three print copies with you to class.

Class, Mon, 9/16

Educating Rita, Act One

Educating Rita is not only a play about learning, it is a play about learning how to write critical or academic essays—that is, about exactly what we are engaged in doing in this class. So I’d like to begin our discussion by looking closely at three scenes from Act One that center on essays that Rita has drafted and Frank has read:

  • Scene Three: Essay on Howard’s End
  • Scene Four: Essay on Peer Gynt
  • Scene Eight: Essay on Macbeth
Groups

What does Rita learn about critical writing in this scene? What, if anything, does Frank? Is there anything in addition that we as readers of the play might notice? Ground your comments in three or four key phrase or lines from the scene.

Fastwrite

What do you notice about the “narrative arc” that these scenes describe? Straight? Broken? Simple? Complex? What, if anything, does this first act of the play suggest to you about the process of learning how to write at a university that you had not thought about before?

Julie Walters and Michael Caine
Julie Walters and Michael Caine in Educating Rita, directed by Lewis Gilbert, 1983

To Do

  1. Class, Wed, 9/18: Finish reading Educating Rita. Locate a scene in it that you can relate (connect or contrast) with either your own experiences in learning how to write, or a scene from another book or film you’re familiar with. I’ll ask you to do a fastwrite on that connection in class.

Class, Fri, 9/13

Responses and Grades

  • Working with a text
  • Revising as developing

Developing: Some Texts to Work With

How might the writer go on to:

  • Say more about this scene from Educated?
  • Say more about the process of learning?

(With thanks to Hayley, AJ, Maddie, and Sydney)

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/16, class: Finish reading Educating Rita. In what ways are Rita’s obstacles to learning similar to Tara’s in Educated? In what ways do they differ? How does Rita bring up new issues in learning?

Class, Wed, 9/11

Responding to 9/11

Workshopping X1

Special Bonus Question

How might the writer talk more about not only what Tara learns but how she learns it? (And how Westover represents that learning?)

Grades

To Do

  1. Fri, 9/13, class: Read Act One of Willy Russell’s Educating Rita (pp. 3–56).
  2. Mon, 9/16, class: Read Act Two of Educating Rita (pp. 57–84).
  3. Wed, 9/18, class: Watch Educating Rita (directed by Lewis Gilbert, 1983).

Class, Mon, 9/09

Checklist

In Groups of Three

Exchange your pieces. Readers should review the two pieces they’ve been given according to the checklist. (Just mark each item on the list as done or as still needing work.) This is a free-pass day; writers will be given the opportunity to correct any mistakes before officially submitting their piece to me. So be particular, exacting. Call me over if you have questions. Help everybody get this stuff right.

checklistDownload

Work-in-Progress Memo

Please write an email to your readers and me in which you address the following questions:

  • Which sections of your piece are you most pleased with so far? What do you like about them? Please identify at least two sections.
  • Which sections of your piece worry you at this point? Why? Please identify at least two sections you’d like to discuss more.

We will use your comments and questions in offering you feedback on your work.

GRADES

To Do

  1. Wed, 9/11, class: Please read the two pieces by your classmates with their Work-in-Progress memos in mind. You don’t have to write anything yet, but if you want to jot down some notes on their print-outs, that’s fine. Please bring the print copies of their pieces (and your own) to class with you Wednesday. We will use them in our workshop.
  2. Fri.9/13, class: Please read Act One of Educating Rita (pp. 3–56).

Class, Fri, 9/06

Scenes of Learning in Educated

  • Asking about the Holocaust (157)
  • Shifting meanings of the N-word (177–80)
  • Failing the first quiz (156, Manatees, Peyton)
  • Cheating in Art History 162–63, Whales, Maggie)
  • Switching Majors (228-30, Dolphins, Hannah)

Specs for Writing

Example: Joe H E2.docx

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/09, class: Post your X1 to the class Google Drive Folder, and bring three print copies with you to class.
  2. Wed, 9/11, class: Read the other two pieces in your group. Come to class with print copies of those pieces and your own.
  3. Fri, 9/13, class: Read Act One (pp. 3–56) of Educating Rita.

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