2014 UTEP Integrated Reading/Writing

Spring, 2014 Semester Calendar of

Owen Williamson, MA, Instructor

All assignments are due at the beginning of the class period for which they are assigned. The instructor is not obliged to accept late daily work.

All major assignments and exams completed late will be penalized a letter grade for each class day they are late.

In case of absence or if class is ever cancelled due to circumstances beyond Instructor control, students are still expected to complete and submit all assignments shown on the Calendar.

Instructor reserves the right to modify calendar to meet the needs of the class.

Note: Certain links on this OpenCourseWare page lead to articles or pages on other servers that require permission or a subscription to access. If you have trouble opening these pages, please check with your local or campus librarian or with the author of this page for more information on access. I am in the process of linking alternative, completely open-access resources for all assignments. O.W.

Week

Book

Fusion: Integrated Reading and Writing, Book 2 by Kemper, Meyer, Van Rys, and Sebranek (Wadsworth, Cengage Learning: 2013 edition)

Book:

The Public Life of Capt. John Brown, by James Redpath.

Note: this book is free online, but can be ordered in print from Amazon.com here.

Assignments

Week 1:

Jan. 21-24, 2014

Chapter 2: Academic Reading and Learning

Begin reading book by Redpath! Read up to p. 32.

Instructor will assign journals weekly.

Homework: Welcome survey.

Introductions.

Introduce book. Discuss John Brown and his context.

Resource: Brain centers and reading.

Do first weekly journal on beginning of John Brown, up to p. 32.

Week 2:

Jan. 27 - 31, 2014

Chapter 2: Academic Reading and Learning (cont.)

Read book, pps 33- 85.

Reading Journal on book, pps. 33-85 (up to end of part IV).

"John Brown's Body" (version by Pete Seeger)

Tentative: Respond to "I Hate Reading"

Do Welcome survey if not already completed.

Read:

A Dozen Things You Can Do On Your Own to Improve Your Reading

How to write a summary.

Selection: "The Curious Behavior of the Milky Way's Central Black Hole." (link may not work off campus)

Discuss Wu Wei--"non-effort," and reading.

Resource: "Using DNA To Trace Michelle Obama’s Past"

Resource "Working Alone Won't Get You Good Grades"

Resource: English Language Problems

Example of a real-world college-level summary/abstract.

Full scientific report on the same study (may require password to access).

Full college-level article on the same study (may only work on campus, or may require password).

Resource: Sample First Sentences

Week 3:

Feb 3-7, 2014

Chapter 3: The Traits of Academic Reading

Read book, pps 85-130.

Tombstone of Owen Brown, son of John Brown.

Reading Journal on pps . 85-130 of book.

In-class assignment: Summary practice on "Why Men Cheat" by Constance Holden.

In-class assignment: Write your reading autobiography.

Census day Wed., Feb. 5, 2014

Meet in Meet in coffee-shop Wed. for Library walk-through.

Summary example:

Original article:

Longitudinal Links Between Fathers' and Mothers' Harsh Verbal Discipline and Adolescents’ Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms, by Ming-Te Wang
and Sarah Kenny.

Example of a real-world summary:

"Yelling Doesn't Help, May Harm Adolescents"

Intro to responses/commentaries.

View Response PowerPoint

Resource:

It’s time to start calling ‘domestic’ violence what it really is, by Jim LaPierre.

Week 4:

Feb. 10-14, 2014

Chapter 3: The Traits of Academic Reading (cont.)

Read pps 131-176 of book

John Brown

Reading Journal on pps 131-176 of book.

Resource (Note: Links may work only on UTEP campus computers):"Caudate Over Heels in Love."

Alternative selection: Resource: "Asians are far more likely than Anglos to be college-educated "

Resource: NY Times article on college dropouts.

Videos: Harper's Ferry. (VOA).

Harpers Ferry and John Brown (WV Public Broadcasting).

Song of John Brown (Version by William Weston Patton)..

Friday:

Resource: "The Defence of Lawrence," by Richard Realf, on pps 120-121 of Redpath's book.

Paraphrase/translation exercise.

Week 5:

Feb. 17-21, 2014

Chapter 18: Sentence Basics

Read pps 177-221 of book.

Reading Journal on pps. 177-221 of book.

Resource from YouTube: "Whiskey for My Men and Beer for My Horses" by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson.

SUMMARY Paragraph Introduced--10% of grade!

On pps. 175-179 of Redpath's book. Instructions pending.

How to Analyze a Text

1, Analyzing for rhetorical factors: message, purpose, occasion, appeal, and intended audience.

2. Analyzing for internal factors: structure/arrangement, tone and level of style.

3. Analyzing for contextual factors: Why was this particular subject or article selected?

4. Analyzing for other assigned factors, including reader-related.

Resource:

In-class exercise: Analyze and respond to "Milwaukee."

How to argue: The ISARC format for argument (a guide)

Selection: Plagiarism Scandal in Germany. Respond: Should UTEP revoke the degrees of students who graduate but are later found to have plagiarized?

Friday: Peer review of summary paragraph.

Week 6: Feb. 24-28, 2014

Chapter 4: Academic Writing and Learning

Read pps. 222-269 of book

SUMMARY paragraph: Final draft due Monday, in class (printed).

Reading Journal on pps 222-269 of book.

Comparing and analyzing different texts together:

Resource: John Brown's Family (Redpath, p. 35)

Resource: Simon Rapalje.

Compare and analyze: What is unusual about both these two stories, something obvious to us that the authors evidently did not notice? How was the world different at that time?

Wednesday:

Finding implications and inferences: Finding what is not said in the text:

1. Resource: Taking one for the team. (May work only on campus computers).

Friday:

View selections from movie Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Begin at 1:23:30, and 1:36:11.

Resource: "John Brown Kin" website.

ALL FIVE READING JOURNALS ON JOHN BROWN DUE ONLINE FRI. 8:30 am FOR GRADING.

Week 7:

Mar. 3-7, 2014

Chapter 19: Simple, Compound, & Complex Sentences

Read pps 270-295 (end) of book

Reading Journal on pps 270-295 (end) of book.

Introduce weekly reading journals for rest of semester.

Analysis/ response practice:

Write a one-paragraph analytical response.

Read poem, "Samson Agonistes," on p. 295 of Redpath's book. Explain in ONE paragraph what the last stanza (paragraph) if the poem means. Use these two links to understand the poem: Judges 16 and Graphic of Sampson. Also think of the date of the poem (Dec. 2, 1859) and the historic context of what was happening in the USA when Redpath was writing and the book was published. Be sure to answer: How did this stanza come true?

Exercise: Read Time Travel and Spontaneity, by C.J. Raju, up to page 9. You must write in first person (use "I" and "me") in this analysis!

Explain the Grandfather Paradox carefully, in your own words, in terms an intelligent ten-year-old might understand, but putting yourself in the place of "Tim." (Do NOT mention "Tim" in your analysis!)

Wednesday: Briefly review structures of the summary, the argumentative/persuasive essay and the comparative essay. Introduce/discuss other common academic writing structures: Chronological, process, listing, and cause and effect.
Friday: Study day (Review Redpath's book.)

Spring break Mar. 10-14, 2014

Week 8:

Mar. 17-21, 2014

Chapter 5: The Traits of Academic Writing (cont.)

Topeka, KS, Summer, 2013

Reading Journal on either (choose one):

1. Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? by Baum, Haqq-Misra and Domagal-Goldman.

OR (alternate choice)

2. Assessment and Diagnosis of Sexual Addiction, by Coleman-Kennedy and Pendley (link may not work off campus)

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Tentative: Midterm Exam

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Wednesday: Reader response: The dark side--how to attack a text or standpoint.

Unclear (Obscure): See Cartoon.

Tentative resource: "Texas Declaration of Causes" (Instructions to be provided).

Friday: Comparison exercise. Carefully compare this front page article from NY Times published on October 18, 1859, just as the Harper's Ferry Incident was going on, with pps. 175-179 of Redpath's book, written a few months later. Note at least five specific differences of facts, different attitudes and and different treatment of the subject between the two sources, numbering your five points of comparison. Be sure to quote from both sources to point out the differences and prove your comparison.

Week 9: Mar. 24-28, 2014

Chapter 16: Summarizing

Reading Journal on More about Alcoholism.

Freshman midterm grades due Mar. 26.

Comparison Essay

Assigned

Worth 20% of semester grade

Options for assignment (your choice):

Option 1: Imagine it is 1858 and John Brown is sitting in a train (travelling under cover, of course), heading for Boston. Next to him is a southern slaveholder. The two begin a conversation about the subject of slavery. Write an imaginary bur believable conversation between the two in order to compare the arguments for and against slavery. Your paper must compare at least eight different arguments for and against the slave system.

Option 2: Briefly compare the life of John Brown to that of any ONE of the following historic figures

Ancient Rome's Spartacus;

Latin America's Ernesto "Che" Guevara;

Nicaragua's Carlos Fonseca; or
Augusto Cesar Sandino;

the Dominican Republic's Minerva Mirabál;

El Salvador's Farabundo Martí;,

Puerto Rico's Pedro Albizu Campos; or

Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh.
(Choose only one).
Use at least eight points of comparison, numbering each one. Draw a practical conclusion from your comparison.

Optional Resource (song): The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh (YouTube) (in English). See also Giải phóng Sài Gòn part 7 (YouTube) (in Vietnamese).

Optional Resource (full length movie): The Liberation of Saigon (YouTube) (in Vietnamese).

Optional Resource (song): Comandante Che Guevara (YouTube) (in Spanish)

Optional Resource (song): Dicen que dicen que vieron pasar a Farabundo Martí (YouTube) (in Spanish).

Optional Resource (movie preview): Spartacus (YouTube) (in English).

Optional Resource (movie preview): The Time of the Butterflies (YouTube)

Optional Resource (song): Carlos Fonseca (YouTube) (In Spanish).

Optional Resource (video): Pedro Albizu Campos (In Spanish).

Optional Resource (full length movie): Sandino (YouTube) (in Spanish).

Learning by reading out loud.

Background resource (to be read out loud): Fremont

Background resource: Give us a Flag (YouTube) [VIEWER ADVISORY--Song contains an obscene word!]

Resource (to be read out loud): History's Blood-Dimmed Tide

Resource: I Dreamed I saw St. Augustine (YouTube)

Friday:

Brief analysis question from More about Alcoholism: What is the easiest way to self-diagnose alcoholism?

Discuss "Tone."

Identifying genre in reading and writing. Resources:

Resource: Lucian's "In Praise of the Fly."
Resource: Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
Resource: Daniel Strain's "T-Rex Packed World's Strongest Bite."
Resource: NY Times article

Week 10:

Mar. 31-Apr. 4, 2014

Chapter 16: Summarizing (cont.)

Reading Journal on selection from Hogshire

Cesar Chavez Day Observance (No Classes): Monday, Mar. 31

Comparison Essay continued

Wednesday:

How to do a comparison (two ways).

Resource for comparing people: Comparison (Synkrisis).

How to write an introduction and a conclusion.

Note: Course drop deadline Fri., Apr. 4.

Friday:

Revising and proofreading (slide show).

Quality control expectations for Comparison Essay and other major assignments.

Week 11: Apr. 7-11, 2014

Chapter 20: Agreement (optional)

Reading Journal on selection from F. Korovkin's History of the Ancient World.

Tentative analysis resource:

Abraham Lincoln on John Brown (p. 93-94, 1st and 2nd paragraph).

From Maltby, Charles. The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln.. 1884. Reprint. Hong Kong: Forgotten Books, 2013.

Tentative analysis question: Based on this 1860 speech by Abraham Lincoln, what was his attitude toward John Brown? (Write in your own words!) Briefly explain why you came to this conclusion.

Argumentation essay practice: First read http://newsuc.utep.edu/index.php/news-latest/1316-reserved-student-became-catalyst-for-desegregation-at-twc

and also

http://usas.org/organize/new-local/

and then argue in ISARC format for either a.) or b.) -- your choice.

a.) As college students we should try our best never to get mixed up in the great public questions of the day in the ways these web pages describe, because at this early stage of our lives these big questions are none of our business! Dangerous problems happen all the time and we can't do anything about them, we can only change ourselves. Our only task in college is to study hard and graduate in four years with a good GPA so we can get decent jobs and become successful in life. Right now we need to keep our noses clean and stay strictly out of dangerous stuff like this, stuff that doesn't concern us.

Our leaders are wiser and more informed than we are. That's why we pay them, to worry about all the big questions in this world so that we can have the freedom to enjoy the things that interest us most (school, family, friends, love, fun, shopping, sports, music and entertainment, exercise, diet, hair, shoes, clothes, fashion, gaming, etc.). This way, right now while we are still young we don't have to go around stressed out worrying about the big issues out there that aren't our business, all that stuff out there that we as young people can't and shouldn't ever try to change.

OR,

b.) As college students and future leaders, our business is to keep ourselves informed about and deeply involved in the great public issues of our time in just the ways these web pages describe. Whether we choose to recognize it or not, dangerous problems are threatening us all the time. If we stay informed and involved in our world we can better protect ourselves, our families and our friends and make ourselves a better tomorrow! Young people are powerful, and right now at this stage in our lives each one of us has both the power and the duty to help make this a better world for our own generation's future.

Today's old leaders represent the past. We need to get ready to step in and become the new leaders of the future, leading our families and our country in what we need to do to survive and to work for a better world. But we can only do this if right now, while we are still young, we start doing our little bit every day to make our world a better place, instead of just hiding in a corner trembling with fear, watching the grand parade of history march by. Today's leaders and politicians simply don't care about young people; they only care about getting reelected, holding on to power and lining their own pockets with the people's money. We can't expect that older generation of worn-out, corrupt, selfish politicians to protect us and save us from new crises if we don't look out right now for ourselves, our families and the interests of our own younger generation.

Correction

Rough Draft of Comparison Essay

due in hardcopy (printed out)

Wednesday at the beginning of class

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Friday:

Final Draft of Comparison Essay

due

Friday at the beginning of class

In-class analysis practice: Analyze for situation, purpose and audience.

Resource:

1. Narrative of Sarah Allen

2. Narrative of Mother Anne Clark

Analysis questions:

1. What was the time and situation (context) in which these articles were written?

2. What was the purpose of writing these articles?

3. What was the demand for these articles?

4. Describe the intended audience of the articles.

Optional Resource: Kidnap Survivor, from ABC/Yahoo News.

Week 12:

Apr. 14-18, 2014

Chapter 21: Sentence Problems

Graphics from www.northernsun.com used with permission.

Reading Journal on your choice (choose one of the following three articles):

1. "Freshman Funk." by W. Herbert;

OR (alternate choice)

2. "Predictors and Consequences of Sexual 'Hookups' Among College Students." (Link may not work off campus)

OR (alternate choice)

3. Article from New York Times on problems with contemporary dancing.

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Mon.: Argumentation Essay Assigned.

Subjects:

Use a strict ISARC five-part format for your argumentation essay. Number your paragraphs. Choose only one of the following four questions to argue:

1. Argue whether it is good or not good for someone to participate in casino gambling, and why. Your audience is an ordinary young Hispanic UTEP woman student who has just turned 21 and who just told you she has been invited to go gambling with friends to the casino in Sunland Park, NM. She is not sure whether to go or not.

2. Argue for or against the idea that college varsity athletes should demand and get a professional salary and benefits for the hard work they do risking their bodies on the field, just like other professional athletes. Your audience is the UTEP Student Government Organization.

3. Argue for or against the idea that UTEP professors should always let their students fail if they want to, and should never bother, get upset with, hassle or look down on students who choose not to turn in homework, or who have too many absences.

4. Argue for or against the proposition that all restaurant and food service workers should try to organize protective associations or workers' unions in their workplace in order to protect their rights. Your audience is made up of a small group of UTEP women students of your own age, of various racial and ethnic groups, who all work together with you in a certain El Paso fast food restaurant.

Important: Be decisive and take a clear stand on one side or the other on the question you choose. Invent new, creative and original arguments; do not just repeat the same old off-the-shelf arguments you've heard before. Be sure to give warrants or evidence to prove and support any argument you offer. Your ultimate goal is not just to convince your audience to agree with your standpoint, but to get them do DO something about it!

Worth 20% of semester grade

Refresher: How to write an introduction and a conclusion.

Do Prewriting Worksheet 1 for Argumentation Essay.

---

Wed (tentative).: Do Prewriting Worksheet 2.

Resources: Slavery and the 2012 electoral map

and

University Of Alabama Student Government Votes To Leave All-White Sororities Alone

(Respond in ISARC format.)

Friday, April 18, Study Day. No classes.

Week 13:

Apr. 21-25, 2014

Chapter 11: Classification
Chapter 12: Cause-Effect
Chapter 13: Comparison

Reading Journal on "Fugitive Slaves in Mexico."

Argumentation Essay continued

Mon: Tentative: Prewriting Worksheet 3.

Wed: Peer Review of Argumentation Essay

Audio: Afro-Mexican Studies .

Fri.:

Resource: NY Times Article

Respond to resource--What should our response be? Argue in ISARC format.

Week 14 :

Apr. 28 -May 2, 2014

Chapter 28: Comma
Chapter 14: Argumentation

Reading Journal on your choice of either:

"Compulsive Gamblers."

"How Poor Mental Health and Casual Sex Reinforce Each Other"

Tentative: Video related to theme of class. Other review depending on needs of class.

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/02/308899307/crisis-in-eastern-ukraine-takes-a-deadly-turn

Argumentation Essay Final Draft Due Friday at beginning of class.

Week 15.
May 5-8, 2014

Evaluations

ALL READING JOURNALS FROM 2nd HALF OF SEMESTER DUE online in Dropbox Mon. before class.

Review for final exam.

Resource: New York Times article.

May 8: Last day of classes and complete withdrawal from the University

Week 16

Mon., May 12, 7:00-9:45

Usual classroom.

You should expect to spend SIX to NINE HOURS every week outside of the classroom working on this class (online, researching, discussing, writing, and most of all, reading). If you are not willing to devote this amount of time on the course, you cannot expect to do well.