True Stories & Real Life Writing

Oct 7/15 (Wed)
1 - True story? Real life?
TRY SHAREPOINT DISCUSSION BOARD thru web portal
      - When should you write the truth, and when should you not?

          How the media inspires mass shooters

2 - Work to do:

      a) Response to David Sedaris's Us and Them essay
            - Reading Response #3
               - Respond to Sedaris's writing by choosing one character in the essay
                 with whom you can most closely identify. That is, which one of the
                 characters acts and speaks and thinks most like you (as far as you
                 can tell). Explain how this character is like you, and how you are
                 like this character.
      b) Thinking question #6 - Writing prompt
                Working with a personal weakness
      c) Free response to one of Lena Dunham essays.
               - Discuss how you understand and respond to what Lena Dunham
                  is saying. You may explain the following in your response:
                    - Describe and explain an idea or issue she's talking about.
                    - Is this issue relevant (relatable) to you? Who else might be
                       interested? Why?
                    - Is her writing style interesting and engaging for you? Explain,
                       using examples.
                    - How would you compare her writing and her style to David
                       Sedaris's?
      d) Work on writing your own essay
              - See the linked assignment
                      - Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly
                      - Due date: Oct 9 (Fri)


Oct 6/15 (Tues)
1 - This class will be time to complete work that has already been assigned:
      a) Response to David Sedaris's Us and Them essay
            - Reading Response #3
               - Respond to Sedaris's writing by choosing one character in the essay
                 with whom you can most closely identify. That is, which one of the
                 characters acts and speaks and thinks most like you (as far as you
                 can tell). Explain how this character is like you, and how you are
                 like this character.
      b) Thinking question #6 - Writing prompt
                Working with a personal weakness
      c) Free response to one of Lena Dunham essays.
               - Discuss how you understand and respond to what Lena Dunham
                  is saying. You may explain the following in your response:
                    - Describe and explain an idea or issue she's talking about.
                    - Is this issue relevant (relatable) to you? Who else might be
                       interested? Why?
                    - Is her writing style interesting and engaging for you? Explain,
                       using examples.
                    - How would you compare her writing and her style to David
                       Sedaris's?
      d) Work on writing your own essay
              - See the linked assignment
                      - Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly
                      - Due date: Oct 9 (Fri)


Oct 5/15 (Mon)
1 - Thinking question #6 - Writing prompt
      Working with a personal weakness

2 - Summative assignment #1
      - Due date change, from Oct 2 to Oct 9 (Fri)
      - Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly

3 - 3 Lena Dunham essays
      - If David Sedaris hasn't worked for you, let's try Lena Dunham.


Oct 2/15 (Fri)
1 - Short film Friday: Offline Dating
                                   Hellion

2 - Reading Response #3
LT
Empathy - to relate:
To recognize how my own life is like someone else's - 

that is, we are different, and we are the same.
               - Respond to Sedaris's essay, Us and Them, by choosing the one
                 character in the essay who acts most like you, or with whom you
                 most closely identify. Explain how this character is like you, and
                 how you are like this character.

3 - Summative assignment #1
      - Due date change, from Oct 2 to Oct 9 (Fri)
      - Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly

4 - Thinking Question #5 - Writing prompt
      Smart phones: A net social good, or a problem?


Oct 1/15 (Thurs)
1 - Irony?
Wayne's World
Is it ironic?

2 - Irony, etc. in "Us and Them"

LT
To understand irony.
To see familiar situations from a new perspective.
       - discuss the reading questions in small groups (assigned)
        - Class discussion



Sept 30/15 (Wed)
1 - True story!
      - The story of Joyce Vincent

2 - Read Us & Them

LT
To see familiar situations from a new perspective.
To recognize my own story in someone else's story.
       - discuss the reading questions in small groups (assigned)
        - Class discussion


Sept 29/15 (Tues)
1 - True story

      - Where the children sleep

2 - REVisit - RLW - Creative expression
LT
To imagine what I might say if I could be honest,
in a safe way.


      - A letter to the neighbours

      - Thinking question #4
           Write your own "letter to the neighbours".


3 - Read Us & Them

LT
To see familiar situations from a new perspective.
To recognize my own story in someone else's story.
       - discuss the reading questions in small groups (assigned)
        - Reading Response #3
               - Respond to Sedaris's writing by choosing one character in the essay
                 with whom you can most closely identify. That is, which one of the
                 characters acts and speaks and thinks most like you (as far as you
                 can tell). Explain how this character is like you, and how you are
                 like this character.
               

Sept 25/15 (Fri)

1 - Short film Friday: Growth
LT
To see familiar situations from a new perspective.


Sept 24/15 (Thurs)
1 - 
Go Carolina reading questions       
            - go over question #5 - Voice

2 - RLW - Creative expression
      - A letter to the neighbours
      - Thinking question #4
           Write your own "letter to the neighbours".


3 - Read Us & Them

       - answer the reading questions


Sept 23/15 (Wed)

1 - IRL
     - What is responsible behaviour?
     - How far should the ideal of "being a good neighbour" (you know,
       being a good person?!) reach?

     - Can the web help us be better neighbours? better people?

2 - Complete
 the Go Carolina reading questions         
            - go over the questions as a class


Sept 22/15 (Tues)
1 - True story?

2 - 
Listen to David Sedaris (from 16:32) read "Go Carolina"           
            - before listening, read over the Go Carolina reading questions           
            - after listening and following along, go over the questions in a group
              and answer them in your notebook


Sept 21/15 (Mon)

1 - True story
          - missing child and mother story (CBC Manitoba link)
          - mother of autistic boy duped ... (CBC Manitoba link)

2 - 
Explain Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly 
            - Go over assignments

3 - 
 Listen to David Sedaris read "Go Carolina"             
            - before listening, read over the Go Carolina reading questions             
            - after listening and following along, go over the questions in a group
              and answer them in your notebook


Sept 18/15 (Fri)
1 - Short film for Friday - Barbie Boy

2 - 
Thinking question #1 - Writing response to the film 
Discuss both the positive and challenging aspects of gender stereotypes
for young children and their parents. How does this film challenge our
assumptions, 
and maybe let us off the hook?

3 - Friday food sign-up??


Sept 17/15 (Thurs)
1 - True stories #2  School PTSD (Notebook)
      - Write an anecdote of a personally traumatic elementary school 
         experience: a time you felt you weren't treated fairly by a teacher,
         an accident that 
seemed beyond your control at the time, an insult
         or words that have stuck with you over the years, an older student
         you feared and who pushed you around in one way or another.
         Include the background to the story and the aftermath of it.
       - Then reflect on how this experience and the memory still 
shapes
         who you are today, and probably will continue to effect you in the
         future.

2 - Complete discussion of reading questions (from Sedaris's Letting Go).


Sept 16/15 (Wed)
1 - After reading Letting Go, answer these reading questions in a small group,
     then answer them in your notebook.
                - discuss answers as a class

Sept 15/15 (Tues)
1 - True story: Westdale Junior High - CBC                 
                  - Why is this story in the news?

2 - Unit One - Experts in Pain and Folly
                - Read David Sedaris's Letting Go

3 - After reading, answer 
the reading question for Letting Go in a small group,
     then answer them in your notebook.
                - discuss answers


Sept 14/15 (Mon)

1 - True stories #1 - Notebook
      - Bad habits: List 3 habits you have that you or others might consider
        bad (even if you do not think it's bad, or that bad).
      - Focus on one. Describe how the habit began and how it fits into your
        life. 
Tell a story about the first time. About getting caught, or not
        caught. Be detailed. 
Explain why you want/don't want to quit.
        Explain whether or not you think 
you could quit. What would it take
        to stop it?

                - Read David Sedaris's Letting Go
                - After reading, answer these reading questions in a small group,
                  then answer them in your notebook.Sept 11/15 (Fri)

** 30S or 40S??


1 - Today's TSIRL - Hotel 22

2 - Course outline


Sept 10/15 (Thurs)
1 - Today's TSIRL
       - Artisanal firewood

2 - True stories #1 - Discussion Notebook
      - Bad habits: List 3 habits you have that you or others might consider
        bad (even if you do not think it's bad, or that bad).
      - Focus on one. Describe how the habit began and how it fits into your
        life. 
Tell a story about the first time. About getting caught, or not
        caught. Be detailed. 
Explain why you want/don't want to quit.
        Explain whether or not you think 
you could quit. What would it take
        to stop it?



  

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