12.20 Reading + final grades

The reading was wonderful. Thanks to each of you for your participation. 

I hope to be sending you your grade for the term by Saturday noon.  I am just starting on your course now (at 9:25 Thursday night) and I will be traveling all day Friday - but I will get them done.

As I said in class, I will send you an email on Saturday, hopefully by noon or shortly thereafter.  Please take a look at my calculations so we can see if we are in agreement.  If you have questions/issues, send me an email and we will see if we can work them out.

I will be posting final grades to Keanwise Sunday morning - by 11:00 AM, so if I don't hear from you by early Sunday, I will assume we are good.

It has truly been a pleasure teaching this class.  Your talk and your stories made me look forward to every class.  Thanks to each of you, and stop by my office once in a while to let me know how you are doing! 

12.18 Reading in UC 226

I checked out the space and it is great.  We will need to bring a laptop for the AV part, but there is a projector & cables and we should be fine.

This is a performance for our own pleasure and comraderie.  I am not grading your presentations.  All you have to do is be there and share.

See you soon.

Portfolios

I still need the links to many of your portfolios.  And some of you still need to re-set the permissions.  I cannot assign you a grade for the course unless I have access to your portfolio.

Questions about what to include:
How is the Final Draft section different from the Revised Draft Section?  The final drafts section is different if you have done additional revision on a piece in light of a grade. I haven't really given you grades on your final short pieces - since we got crunched up at the end. So the "Best" piece may or may not be the same if it is the short piece.

What goes in Additional Writing?  Additional writing is optional - and is simply any other invention writing/thinking/etc that you did for the course that you feel demonstrates the points you make in your reflective essay. We had a lot of discussions - about emotions & representation, about truth, and about where our ideas for writing come from - that may have been important parts of your writing process - but which are not necessarily included in the pieces posted in the portfolio. So this is the place to put writing like that.

 

Another observation
  I'm sorry the course got so crunched up at the end.  There are some writing exercises I am truly sorry we did not get to do, and you didn't get as much direction or feedback on the short pieces as I wanted to provide.  We missed 2 classes as a result of the storm and I guess that is just the way it goes.  I appreciate your hard work to take up the slack, and I respond to and evaluate work from the last part of the course in a way that reflects the complications posed by the hurricane.

 

I will be responding to the final 3 blogs when I send out your grade sheets.

 

 

12.12 Grades, Reflective Essays, Performance and Final Blog Posts

IMPORTANT NOTICES:

1. Send me the links to your portfolios.  Also - make sure you have set the saftey setting to "anyone with a link."  I will get  back to you to confirm that I can access your portfolio - hopefully sometime tomorrow (12.13).

2.  Be sure to check the blog on Tuesday to make sure of the performance location

Grading:
We reviewed the distribution of points listed on the syllabus and agreed to revise the balance of points as follows:

1.  Blog + comments (response to readings; drafts, reflections, etc)                      150  points       

2.  Short projects (includes 2 drafts and 1 polished essay)                                    150  points
3.  Long project  (includes 2 drafts, and 1 polished essay)                                    250  points                   

4.  Portfolio  [2&3, + craft essay, rhetorical analysis,and essay for publication]       300 points

5.  Presentations, readings, class participation                                                     150 points

The portfolio grade will include 150 points for the reflective introduction, and 150 points as an evalutation of the overall quality of the work in the portfolio (with emphasis placed on the evolution of craft/writing/etc evidenced in the final "best" essay); its completeness and the presentation(organization).

Workshop for reflective essay:
You spent about half an hour reviewing the criteria for the reflective essay and then workshopping your pieces in light of what you have written - and what you still need to write.

Criteria for the essay are:

•        Development of a series of nontrivial observations  about your subject material, craft, audience, ethics, and writing process. 
•        Use of detailed, specific examples from your writing and from your writing activities as a basis for supporting those observations.
• .       Artful use of strategies and practices associated with creative nonfiction.
•        Writing that is focused, organized, adequately developed, and relatively free from surface errors.

Sign-up list for (optional) conferences on short essays:
Monday: Luis, 1:00; Andre, 2:10; Allyson, 3:00.
Tuesday:  Sara, 1:00; Jay, 3:30; Roshell, 4:00;

Performance:
Location: University Center, Room 226 A (second floor as you come in the main entrance)

Tentative schedule:

4:15: Arrive, set up food, schmooze

4:40  Readings will begin

Order for presentation:  (If you don't have a title - or if you have changed the presentation piece since the sign-up - let me know and I can edit the list).

Allyson :  Never the Driver- Always the passenger
Arlette:  "The Letter I Found in the Book"
Jameelah: "Unresolved Mysteries"
Ashley:  "Introspect"
Andre:  Short scenes
Midyna  Short scenes
Luis  Short multimedia piece
Maria:  "Match Point"
Laurelle:  Short piece
Heather: to be announced
Paris:  "Music"
Andrea: "Rebekka and me"
Claudia: to be announced
Roshell: "Why Didn't They Tell Me?"
Lewis:  Short piece
Jay:  "What Deaf is Like"
Sara: to be announced

There will be a break in there somewhere.

Food sign-up
Allyson - sugar cookies
Jay - cheese & crackers
Sara - chips
Arlette- Soda
Jameelah - paper plates + cups
Ashley - Cookies
Andre - milk & chocolate chip cookies
Midiyna - coke & pound cake
Maria - cupcakes
Luis -chips/dip
Paris - juice
Laurelle - chips
Andrea - Pretzels or popcorn
Roshell - sandwiches
Lewis - shrimp

Whatever we end up with is going to be fine.

If there is anything I have forgotten/left out - let me know and I can edit this.  There was a lot going on in this class!

Final blogs:
Blog 14: Revised short essay
Blog 15: Final (best essay)

12.5 Set up portfolio + presentations on publication venues

Portfolios.  You worked on setting up your portfolios during our time in the computer lab.  At this point, everyone who was present seemed clear on the expectations for the portfolio, and you all had the correct basic structure.  We also talked through the purpose + requirements for the reflective essay that you will post on your landing page.  If you have questions - send me an email so we can set up a conference.

Presentations.  We spent the rest of class learning about some of the many journals that publish creative nonfiction.  We noted that some of the MFA program journals were more "literary" and some of the others were more "story based."  We saw some regional journals, and some that while they said they did not want "political" writing - had clear political assumptions within the kinds of essays they were looking for.  Those of you who did not present last night - will talk through your material (briefly) at the beginning of next class.

For next week:

Choose the piece you will read at our final class.  If we read from 5:00 to 7:15, and there are 16 of you who will read, that means you each have about 8 minutes.  In class we will create a sign-up sheet to organize the time. In class you will also rehearse the piece you will present for the reading.

Blog 13: Post your draft reflective essay.

During class we will also answer any remaining questions about grades and the portfolio, and finish planning the details for the last day.  Have a great week, and see you in class.