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ZOOM LINK FOR OUR COURSE

Please access the following ZOOM LINK for our course this fall 2020 Semester:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86043804402

This link will remain consistent. If you have trouble logging in, please call or text my cell phone (509) 367-3041, so I can help you. There may be times when we will all need a "fresh link" to move forward with our class. Please if you are having trouble, do not hesitate to reach out.

Additionally, as you know our Heritage System can be unstable at times. Please note this alternative email address where you can reach me:  wynnwinona@gmail.com 

We are all in this together and WILL be successful at navigating any difficulties!

Thank you!

Dr. Wynn

 

Our Class Process

First of all, let me begin by saying "Welcome to our Literary Conversation!" The good news is that on the first day we will all have questions! We will explore, through Ethnic Literature the great mystery of ourselves, others and our relationship with this tiny, short LIFE. Asking questions will be rewarded. When you encourage a classmate by asking, "Can you give us an example of what you are thinking?"  That will be rewarded because generosity and thoughtfulness are often noted and appreciated. When we talk about the "angry tone" in the text, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, (which is directed at her reader), and we ask, "Why is she so angry?"----we will talk about it and come up with several reasonable explanations. 

Please be assured that I will be with you through every part of this "Ethnic Literature" journey. This is indeed a subject area for which I have a deep respect and passion. The good news is that both of us want you to earn an "A."  However, that potential reality is totally in your control. Prioritizing this class will help you with that goal.        

 

 

Evocative Narratives and Complex Analysis

The texts you will be reading this semester present varying human themes of belonging, trauma, forgiveness, steely determination, in-depth community observations and insights that you may discover inform your own experiences. Additionally, the narratives are beautiful language displays-- some simple, some complex, but all compelling. The first contact we have with a book is usually its cover and beyond that the opening lines of the first chapter.... Consider the following opening lines. I challenge you to play a "matching game."  Looking at your book's covers, or the covers displayed in the image gallery below, which of the following opening lines belong to which book?  1) The air stretched tight, quiet and cold over the vast land. 2) If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you'll see. 3) Princeton in the summer smelled of nothing, and although Ifemelu liked the tranquil greenness of the many trees, the clean streets and stately homes, the delicately overpriced shops, and the quiet abiding air of earned grace, it was this, the lack of smell, that most appealed to her, perhaps because the other American cities she knew well had all smelled distinctly. 4) Before the crimson rays of dawn touched the treetops, before the cry of the cock, the bark of a dog, or the bray of a donkey pierced through the heavy darkness, or the voice of Sheikh Hamzawi, echoed in the silence with the first call to prayer, the big wooden door opened slowly, creaking, with the rusty sound of an ancient water-wheel.  5I began what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. 

A Word About Learning

A Word About Learning

A word about learning ---Learning is not a spectator sport. Fundamentally, the responsibility to learn is yours and yours alone. For learning to happen in any course, you must take an active role in the process. For our class, you are expected to come to class prepared and ready to learn, which requires you to read and study the assigned reading before you come to class. Being prepared for class enables you to construct a knowledge base on which subsequent learning rests. During our class, we don’t cover content, which means I talk less to encourage you to talk more about what you are learning. 

Regarding Attendance and Participation--VERY IMPORTANT

Our class process is heavily dependent on your preparedness and your presence. When I am in class, you need to be in class. We are dependent on each other for conversation, sharing ideas, and processing assignment guidelines.

You will be engaging in learning tasks that require you show through speaking and writing, your grasp of the material and how it connects to your previous knowledge or experiences. Your in-class performance on these tasks will be evaluated through your response to questions that directly pertain to our discussions. They will also be evaluated through your honest answer to the following question, "Have you read the text up to the point that was due today?"   

These in-class opportunities are centered on your voice and experience. They are intended to help us continually shape our classroom process so that it is relevant, reflective and refreshing in the context of your learning this semester.

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Together

 

Writing Together

Writing together. Often when we meet, we will be writing together--okay, there may be a day or two where we just don't feel like it, but most of the time, I hope we feel like it. The purpose of writing together will be to provide "models of writing" that you can emulate (copy or replicate in some way). So, we may choose to write about literary devices that a particular author uses. What impact do they have on us as readers? Following a discussion, we may choose to "write up" observations about a character in one of our texts. Or we may choose to write several versions of a thesis together. Another possibility is just to write up examples of "transitions" or participate in some brainstorming about one of our assignments. The writing that we produce together will be sent to you via email after our class. It is totally up to you what you do with it. No permission is needed to use any of the information that we may write together. Use any of it or none of it. Or use it as a reference only if you wish.

Engaging in Inquiry

 

So, I think you get the point by now that the main process that we will be engaging is "INQUIRY"---the practice of asking questions. Primo Levi, a Jewish-Italian physicist and Holocaust Survivor tell us that “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”  Because our class is essentially a conversation, we need to honor the voices coming from our text, and coming from ourselves. To this end, I am asking you to consider the following, "What does an ideal conversational space look like? Do we deserve to completely focus on the ideas presented without disruption for a time-frame of 45 minutes? In this culture of distraction that claims our time, can we even do it? Is there value in coming together and listening to one another? Why or why not?  Does silence play a part in our conversational space? If so, what role does it play? Sherry Turkle says in her book, Alone Together, Face-to-face interaction teaches "skills of negotiation, of reading each other's emotion, of having to face the complexity of confrontation, dealing with complex emotion." She goes on to say, "Face-to-face conversation is the most humanizing thing we do. It's how we participate in empathy" (NPR Interview)

The Reading Load

 

Our reading load is reasonable if you break it down into "pages and days." So, for example a reading timeline for the first text we will read, Americanah, by Chimimanda Adiche (608 pages) would be 33 pages per day for 18 weekdays if you only read Monday-Friday (leaving leaving weekends out). However, if you wanted to include reading on weekends, you would reduce your daily pages to 23. Both options would get you to the finish line of Thursday, September 24th. AND, you can further break this down hourly. So, in the morning before noon, you may read 16 pages, and then at night you may read the other 16 pages on that Monday-Friday schedule. The second book we will be reading is A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid. The same strategy applies--break it down to a daily page number commitment to insure you will finish the book within the time-frame set in the syllabus. At the beginning of class, you may be asked to write about the text which will count for participation points.

So it is best to be prepared to insure you are on the path to earning that "A" that you desire. Those who read will be rewarded, and those who don't are going to struggle with passing the course. Please invest in your learning and engage with the course material! 

Close Reading Interpretive Tool

In this course, we will be using the Critical Reading Interpretive Tool (CRIT). It is a systematic approach to literary analysis that has six steps:

1) Paraphrase  2) Observe  3) Contextualize  4) Analyze  5) Argue 6) Reflect

This tool is particularly useful when you use it with smaller amounts of narrative within a particular text...a paragraph or a chapter, rather than the entire text you are reading. Following is a link to my PowerPoint which includes a description of CRIT. 

EthnicLiterature Two Old WomenPP.pptx

We will be practicing this skill in class. You will be expected to demonstrate a solid grasp of this approach to literary analysis through your assignments. Mastering this skill will serve you well in any career field you choose to pursue.

Additionally, you may wish to review the following resource describing the Critical Reading Interpretive Tool and the Close Reading Process:

The CRIT VIDEO!

 

Repetition can be a good thing!

Hello, Hello, Hello!

Using repetition in my salutation (my opening greeting to you) is annoying, right? It sounds like I am in some cave calling out just to hear an echo. In high school or in some other educational context, you may have been told to not use the first person pronoun, "I" too much. A teacher once told me to not begin too many of my sentences with "I" when I was assigned an essay to write about my family. It would bore my reader she said, and so I changed my beginnings. Instead of "I have a brother who likes to run," I got the same idea across by saying, "My brother likes to run." 

However, we discovered today that in the first five sentences of Americanah, the author, Chimimanda Adiche, uses some form of the word, "smell" six times! She is using the literary device of "repetition" to make a point that our sense of "smell" connects us to distinct memories of a person, place or thing (an experience for example). Think about going to the FAIR or to a wedding, or to another event, even a funeral----there may be a particular smell you remember that reminds you of that specific experience---cotton candy, candles, cologne or perfume. As we discussed in class today, memory is connected to smell. We also talked about "diction" (word choice) which is another literary device. The author did not use a synonym for "smell" like possibly "aroma or scent." She stuck with the same word. Why? We thought that she was looking for connection. She was using the word to let us know that "Princeton had no smell."  It was unlike other where she associated a smell with something familiar---sun-warmed garbage, musty history, brine.  She was telling us that for her, Princeton was unfamiliar and had not associations for her. It could be interpreted as a new beginning, or we could interpret it as sterile--having no content, having no meaning for her.

So today, September 1st, we covered three literary devices: repetition, imagery, and diction (word choice).  In your "close reading" of this book, look for those things--ask yourself, "Why did she choose that word?" Or, "Why did she repeat that word?"  Or, "What kind of imagery does that bring up for me?" "What picture in my head or what memory is brought up for me through that language in the book?" "What kind of connections are there for me?"

Asking these questions indicate that you are engaging and practicing "close reading." I look forward to more "close reading" together.

Thank you once again for your contribution to our class discussion.

Winona Wynn

 

 

First Day and Success!

Any new venture can feel overwhelming at first, but in our current state of safety restrictions due to the "you know what" (Starts with a "C"), life is particularly challenging and somewhat more complicated then ever before. At this time, the entire world, not just the United States, is in crisis, and so if we think about that, maybe we will not feel so alone. Movement signifies LIFE. So, just put one foot in front of the other, as the saying goes, and you will see progress to some degree.This semester, we need to be a little more committed to our goals, due to the obstacles we will be facing. It may feel easier to give up and move sideways into our future, instead of bracing ourselves for a full charge forward, come what may. Don't give up! Move ahead and apply all of your energy to your success. We are all in this together.

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