Final Exam Response: The Clan of College (due May 4th!)

If you missed our LAST CLASS on Thursday, then you missed two things: (a) an in-class writing on the theme of our final response paper, and (b) the response paper itself! Luckily, I'm posting (b) below. This is due NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, MAY 4th BY 5pm! I can't accept late papers since I have to get final grades in that weekend, so please be careful! This is your final assignment, worth 10 pts. out of 100, so it's a letter grade. It will push you one way or another in the class, so not doing such a simple assignment would be disastrous. Read it carefully and e-mail it to me anytime between next week and the 4th. Good luck! 

Final Exam Response: The Clan of College

 “The catch, or the double-blind, about the whole thing is this: If it isn’t pulling from tradition, how is it Indigenous? And if it is stuck in tradition, how can it be relevant to other Indigenous people living now, how can it be modern?” (Orange, There There)

PROMPT: For your final response exam, I want you to write a short reflection on what it takes to switch from ‘pretending’ to be a college student to really being one. Just as Orvil feels like he’s only a “pretendian,” do you think many students feel like they’re just “faking it until they make it” in college? Since college is so full of traditions, expectations, and aspirations, is it difficult to find your way here? What ultimately separates a college drop-out from a college graduate? Is it a state of mind? A way of thinking or behaving? Or something else? In other words, what does it mean to belong to the ‘tribe’ of college students? How do you feel like you belong and are not merely playing dress-up?

REQUIREMENTS: There There is all about the search for identity in a world of tradition, stereotypes, and confusion. So find AT LEAST ONE passage in the book that helps you talk about your experience in college over the past year. How might you share the same search for identity and belonging as many characters in the book? Find a passage you can connect to and you can explain to your readers (and please, don’t use the passage I quoted above—find your own).

Write more than a paragraph: give me AT LEAST A FEW PAGES (double spaced) that really talks about your experience and history while in college (either at ECU, or at other institutions if you’ve transferred from elsewhere). This is worth 10 points, and should be a very easy reflection since it’s totally about you, and you only need one passage from the book to connect to. So make it honest, interesting, and insightful. I want to give you as many points as possible on your way out of the class!

For Tuesday: Start Reading There There...

As I explained in class on Thursday, I want you to read There There at your own pace, as much as you can by the end of the semester. But I won't give you any questions or reading assignments, It's totally up to you if you want to finish the book, read most of it, half of it, etc. The Final Exam will use this book as a source, so be sure to at least read some of it, since that will help you respond to the conversation. 

Instead of questions, I'm going to give you the Final Exam assignment on Tuesday, and we'll do some in-class writing based on some ideas in the book to get you started. We talked a bit on Thursday about definitions of the term "Indian," and how difficult it might be to define yourself when everyone in the world has their own idea of who 'you' are. This is especially true for Native Americans, as their racial identity has been used and appropriated as team mascots, TV and movie villains, and even to sell tobacco. If the entire world uses you as a caricature and a stereotype, why might it be difficult to discover or own your own identity? The book talks a bit about the difficulties of being native in the 21st century, as well as the historical legacy that we read about in poems such as "38" earlier this semester.

So start reading, see what you think of the book (which I think is really good) and we'll talk more on Tuesday! 

Two Things: No Class Tomorrow and...

Sadly, I have to cancel class tomorrow (the 11th) because I need to take my wife to the city for a procedure which will require her to be sedated. So when she wakes up, she can't drive home. As much as I hate to cancel two classes in a row, in this case, I have no choice.

So, come back to class on THURSDAY, and we'll pick up where we left off. No reading yet, but I'll introduce the next book and we'll do some in-class writing to prepare for it.

The Scissortail assignment can be due on THURSDAY as well, instead of Tuesday. It's not worth a lot of points, but the 5 points can be the difference between letter grades, so don't ignore it. Unless, of course, you didn't attend the festival, in which case I can't help you...

See you on Thursday! 

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Questions

English 1213

Scissortail Paper: Worth 5 pts!

Starting on Thursday, ECU hosts the Scissortail Creative Writing festival, which features dozens of writers from all around the country who come to Ada to read their works. Each session is about an hour long, and will feature anywhere from 2 to 4 writers, each one reading for about 15-20 minutes. There are also 3 special sessions on Thursday and Friday night, as well as Saturday afternoon: these are our ‘featured’ writers, who get an entire hour to read from some of their latest works. You can find the entire schedule at: ecuscissortail.blogspot.com

PROMPT: I want you to attend AT LEAST ONE session at the festival and write about it following the template below. In case you’re too busy to attend the festival, I’m canceling class so you can at least attend the 9:30 Thursday session. However, you don’t have to attend this session; you can attend any session throughout the 3 days, or go to several sessions and choose to write about your favorite one. Make sure to attend the entire session, otherwise you’ll have trouble answering the questions below.

Answer ALL FOUR QUESTIONS for the session you attend, and give some thought/detail to your answers. You won’t get full credit if you give a one-sentence response or it sounds like you didn’t actually attend the session. Just give your honest response and explain why you felt/answered this way.

Q1: Which of the authors interested you the most and why? Was it a specific poem or story? The way they read and presented their work? Did it remind you of something else?

Q2: Did you feel the writers in this session worked well together? Were they all very similar, or were they all very different? Why do you think they were chosen to read together? How did one reader help you appreciate another one? Did they build up to a climax? Or was the first one the best?

Q3: What makes hearing a writer read their works a different experience than simply reading them yourself? Which writer was particularly effective at doing this? Do you think hearing it helped you appreciate or understand a work that you might not have otherwise? Or would it have been easier simply to read it? What is the biggest advantage (or maybe, the biggest disadvantage) to hearing a work read aloud?

Q4: In general, how did the audience react to these authors/works? Did certain works get more response than others--and if so, why do you think so? Did people laugh? Were they completely silent? Did they applaud? Make appreciative noises? Did people seem to 'get' these writers, or did some leave them scratching their heads? How could you tell? 

These questions can either be e-mailed to me, or turned in during class no later than NEXT TUESDAY, April 12^th. Hope to see you at the Festival!