For Monday: Practicing for the CATW and Open Thread

For Monday, choose one (or more) essays from the term to either revise or complete as an essay if you haven't yet done so. Leave them in the comments. If you cut and paste from a word document, include a word count. Look at each other's work, leave a comment and take a look at my comments.

You can also add any questions or concerns about Monday's test, and post make-up work on the posts below.

Have a great weekend and good luck on Monday!!!!

Drawing Connections: For Thursday, February 3rd

For Thursday, choose one of the readings from last week's lab. It can be one that you summarized, the one we discussed in class, or another that's interesting to you. In the comments, talk about the connections between this article and Danticat's book. Think about how to use specific language to make those connections. What other information or details would you like to know that would help you explore these connections further?

Lab Work for Wednesday, January 26th and Homework for Thursday, January 27th

In lab today, we're going to keep working on reading comprehension and vocaublary. Below you'll find a list of links to articles related to many of the topics we've been discussing in class, including immigration, immigrant rights, and the situation in Haiti.

You can work through the articles in any order, choosing titles and topics that look interesting to you. For each article, as you read it, note and look up an vocabulary you need to figure out. In the comments list the vocabulary words and their definitions in context, and give a paragraph long summary of the article.

Do a separate comment for each article you read. Read carefully, but also try to get through as many of them as you can during your lab time. While these articles are longer than the ones you'll read on the CATW, building your skills as a reader and summarize will help you on the test.

The articles:

Here is an article about activism by young undocumented students (notice the page numbers at the bottom to click through to the full article).

Here is a very intersting piece about the role of private prisons in Arizona's anti-immigration laws.

Here is an article about the treatment of undocumented workers in the United States.

Here is an article about Haiti by a historian about some of the reasons for that country's poverty.

Here is an article by Danticat about how an earlier period of Haitian history continues to have an impact.

Here is another, very recent article by Danticat, reflecting on the earthquake one year later.

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Homework for Thursday: Read through page 243 of Brother I'm Dying. Choose five vocabulary words and explain how they are used in the context of the passage. Then rewrite the orginal sentence in which they are written using different vocabulary.

Work for Tuesday, January 25, 2011

After reading through page 224, think about the story of Danticat's uncle. In a post of about 200 words, respond to some or all of the following questions: What do you think Danticat most wants us to understand about this story? What factors do you think led to his mistreatment? What do you notice about the way she tells the story? What do you make of the title of the chapter "Alien 27041999" and the way Danticat chooses to end that chapter?

Assignment for Tuesday, January 18th

For Tuesday, January 18th, read the first three chapters from Part II of Brother, I'm Dying (pages 127-155). Think about all your reading from the book so far as well as the articles by Danticat. In the comments, respond to the following questions: What have you learned about Haitian history from your reading so far? About the relationship between Haiti and the United States? What ethical, political or philosophical questions do you think are raised by this relationship, and by what you've read of Danticat's book so far? (This timeline may help you keep track of some of the historical events, as Danticat moves around in time throughout her book.)

In Class Work for Lab on Wednesday, January 12th; Assignment for Thursday, January 13th

Wednesday Work in Lab

1) In the lab period, keep working on your revision of the practice CATW test that you did in class last week. Type your revision and save it in a word file as you go along. Remember that I don't mark anything so feel free to make as many changes as you think will make your essay stronger. Also feel free to change your argument or examples, but do work with the same reading. Read over your work carefully. When you've completed your revision, post it in the comments here. (Folks who didn't do their practice test last week: take about 90 minutes to complete it and post it here.)

2) When you've posted your revised draft, begin to read the essays of your classmates. Choose at least two essays and respond to them by noting at least one strong point of their essay and at least one thing that could be improved. BE SPECIFIC and use the categories we discussed in yesterday's class.

3) If you complete steps your essay and response, you can use the rest of the lab to work on your next reading and post from Brother, I'm Dying. If not, complete it for Thursday. Here's the assignment (all groups this time): Read the chapter "Gypsy" (pages 112-123). In your post, both summarize and respond to the chapter. Describe its most important ideas and respond with drawing on your own experiences. As a part of your post, talk about the title of the chapter and its significance.

Brother, I'm Dying: Assignments for Monday, January 10th

For Monday, we'll begin our reading of Brother I'm Dying. We'll start by continuing our work with summary and vocabulary - this time you'll complete the task we didn't last time. We'll look at two different chapters. So if you're writing a summary, keep in mind that you'd want someone who hasn't read the chapter to understand it.

Group I: Read the first chapter of the book, "Have You Enjoyed Your Life?" (pages 3-26). In the comments, list at least 5 vocabulary words from the chapter. Quote the sentence it comes from and give the page number on which it appears. Begin by giving your best sense of the word's meaning from your knowledge and context. After looking it up in a dictionary, write a complete sentence that gives the meaning of the sentence it comes from.

Group II: Read the first chapter of the book, "Have You Enjoyed Your Life?" (pages 3-26). In the comments, summarize the chapter. Describe the most important idea(s) in the article in a paragraph of about one hundred words.

Group III: Read the second chapter of the book, "Brother, I'm Dying" (pages 27-42). In the comments, list at least 5 vocabulary words from the chapter. Quote the sentence it comes from and give the page number on which it appears. Begin by giving your best sense of the word's meaning from your knowledge and context. After looking it up in a dictionary, write a complete sentence that gives the meaning of the sentence it comes from.

Group IV: Read the second chapter of the book, "Brother, I'm Dying" (pages 27-42). In the comments, summarize the chapter. Describe the most important idea(s) in the article in a paragraph of about one hundred words.