Class – Page 4 – E110: Seminar in Composition

Class, Wed, 9/04

Thinking About How Tara Westover Represents Learning

Fastwrite

Tara Westover describes her memoir, Educated, as the story of a “changed person” (329). Please locate a scene or passage in Part Two of her book that either illustrates how Westover begins to change, to learn, to become educated, or shows some of the obstacles she faced in doing so. Explain why you feel this is an important or suggestive (or troubling) scene.

In Groups

Appoint a secretary. Share the passages that the members of the group have identified. Speak briefly (or simply read your fastwrite) about why you selected this particular scene.

Then, as a group, decide on three scenes that you’d really like to discuss in class on Friday. Send me an email in which you list those scenes (with page numbers) and say, in an sentence or two, why you’d like to talk about them. I’ll use these emails in structuring our class discussion on Friday.

Working Toward Your First Essay

A Midlength Critical Essay
X1: Westover on Learning

To Do

Class, Fri, 9/06: Reread Part Three of Educated, continuing to think about how Westover represents the process of learning. What does she have to say about becoming “educated” that strikes you as new, interesting, or troubling?
Class, Mon, 9/09: Submit X1. We will discuss guidelines and logistics on Friday.

Class, Fri, 8/30

John Michael Higgins as the Dead Poets inspired teacher of Accounting in Season 1 of Community

Fastwrite

Tell a story about a good experience you’ve had in school—a moment when you learned something useful or felt successful or had some fun. Don’t simply offer the lesson or moral of your tale. Show what happened. Set the scene, describe the people involved, show how events unfolded. Try to tell your story in a way that lets your readers understand your point without needing you to explain it to them. (As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m essentially asking you here to represent a moment of learning.)

This Class

What to Expect
Some Important Policies and Info

To Do

Wed, 9/04, class: Reread Part Two of Educated (pp. 153–251). Identify and be ready to talk about at least two or three scenes in which Westover represents moments of learning, or obstacles to it.
Fri, 9/06/ class: Reread Part Three of Educated (pp. 254 to end). Be ready to talk about not only scenes of learning in this section, but also key words and ideas from Westover’s book. What does she identify as essential, or contrary, to learning, to becoming “educated”?

Class, Wed, 8/28

Fastwrite

This is a course in writing. So let’s start by doing some.

Our focus this semester will be on the problem of representing learning—that is, of describing or illustrating something that largely happens inside us. We might begin, then, by looking at the famous scene (and often parodied) scene of learning from Dead Poets Society.

Then, please write for about five minutes in response to these questions: What actually happens in this scene? What does the teacher do? What do the students do? What does the clip suggest about how people learn? What might it miss or gloss over?

Plan of This Course

To Do

Fri, 8/30, class: Show up! I’ll tlak you through this website and the plan of the course in detail.
Wed, 9/04 class: If you haven’t read Tara Westover’s Educated yet, then do so, quick.