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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)
The Essay Writing Course Blog is Up
It’s here. Make sure you go and apply for membership. I’ll approve you within a day or two.
The Task List
Here is the first part of the list of tasks for all students to work toward completing during the Fall 2008 Semester. These tasks are like the Megabosses (the big bad guys) at the end of a level in a video game.
You cannot move on to #2 until you have completed #1. If you fail to succeed at #1, you need to try again, but cannot try again until the next class. In that way, this course is like a video game: you have to go to level two only after you pass level 1.
It is in your interests to work on finishing the tasks as soon as possible, since they get harder and harder as they go along. This means you will need more time to finish later tasks, and the last few tasks in the list (something like tasks #16-20) will require a LOT of time and cooperation from other students.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to start working on Task #1 right away.
Good luck!
Partial Task List for English Listening & Speaking:
- Introduce yourself to to the class, while explaining what it is you hope to learn from the course, develop in the course, or get out of the course, and why you want that. It should be interesting and memorable.
- Tell the class a funny story which is also a true story. It has to be a true story (though you can “stretch the truth”), a good story, and it has to make us (ie. me) laugh at least ten times in five minutes or less. Your job here is to be funny by whatever means available to you.
- Upload a video of yourself “ranting” (that is, complaining in a conversational, not an academic way) about something that bothers you. It could be your noisy neighbor, a problem with your parents, or anything at all. But remember, it will be on Youtube forever! So carefully choose something you don’t mind other people seeing! You rant must be at least eight minutes long, and you must not stop talking for more than three seconds at any point. (You are, however, allowed to breathe.)
- Listen to an episode of This American Life, a famous radio show that is podcast here. (You can listen to older episodes here.) This American Life usually features three or four interesting stories; choose one and write about your own reaction: why you loved or hated the story, what were the most interested sentences or words used, and what questions you wanted to ask the speaker after listening. Then record your own mp3 of a response to the person’s story. You can mix music and other sound effects into the mp3. For mixing, you can use the software Audacity (download it here) or any other software you like. Warning: the sound quality must be good. Terrible sound means you’ll have to try again! Warning: this story will be podcast from our site, and will be permanently archived on a web archive. It will not disappear from the web after the class ends, so make sure it’s good, and it’s something you don’t mind making public!Also, make sure you make a reference to the episode you’re responding to!
- Now, create your own mp3 in the style of This American Life. You should tell a funny story — your own, or the story of someone else you know. This story will be mixed with other students stories, three or four at a time, and podcast. Again, it will be put online forever, so don’t tell a story you don’t want permanently available in the world. But choose your funniest, most interesting story possible. If it’s boring, you’ll just have to try again! Make sure to include music you are legally allowed to use. Come talk to me if you don’t know what I mean by that.
- Collaborate with another student. You will walk around campus with the other student videotaping you, and you will speak ONLY in English to everyone you meet. You must try to get them to talk to you in English. When they do, you should interview them about whatever subject you find interesting. Your video should include both the interviews, but also the experience of walking around speaking only in English, and people’s reactions to it. By the way — you should not bug anyone who works at the University. Don’t visit professors or your friends to get this done: just walk around and try to talk to regular students and strangers — people who, like you, are not native speakers of English. Feel free to pretend you are a foreign student and cannot speak Korean, if you like. Also, you must only talk to the camera person in English. (The camera person can speak any language he or she wants.) At the end of your experiment, you will have a lot of footage. Choose the most interesting parts and make a video of at least 20 minutes long with these interesting parts, and add a short summary of your experience as a “English speaker” on campus, and how you feel about it.
These are only the first six tasks on the list. The later tasks will be even harder, so make sure to start working now: you’ll need more time for the later tasks.
Homework for Week 1
Here’s a short note about your homework. Your homework this week was easy:
- fill out your student ID form with your partner, and then return it to me on Monday, Sept. 8th.
- think about why you are in this class, and what you want to learn in it.
- spend some time with your partner in this class — go for coffee, a beer, a meal, I don’t care, but get to know the person a little bit. (I’m not sure I remembered to announce this, but if I didn’t, you can always choose a partner next time and do this sometime this week. In fact, you’ll be doing this every week, and changing partners.)
The list of English-speaking tasks for this semester will be post after class on Monday, so that everyone will have a fair chance to start at the same time. I will include a list of bonus activities you can do as well. Bonus activities will be used to determine who gets the top grades in the case where several people have all earned the top grade.
Homework for Week 1
Hi there,
I got so busy this week that I forgot to note your homework for the week:
- You should finish reading Shake Girl, and explore the website a little bit.
- You’re supposed to fill out the ID forms and bring them to me for Monday, Sept 8th. You should also note what kinds of books, comic books, and films you like.
- You should think about what kind of story you want to tell in our graphic novel: serious or funny, happy or sad, adventurous or mundane, historical or modern, etc. Remember what I said about our class’s goal: to tell a meaningful story, an honest and fair and powerful story. Let’s think about this and talk some more on Monday and Wednesday.
Your readings packages have been delayed a little bit, so we’ll focus on figuring out what we want to do, this week, and then move on to looking at the readings during Week 3.
No Subs!
Everyone! I discovered something horrible!
When I ordered my copy of the film Such a Long Journey , the website said that there were English-language subtitles. I just received the film, and it has no subtitles!
However, there is always a silver lining in every rainbow, so what I’m going to do is get you guys to make the subtitle file. You’ll split into three groups, and each group will be responsible for about 35 minutes of subtitles. There’s free software, called Jubler, that you can use to do this, and working as a team, it should be possible to get this done pretty quickly, with two people listening, one writing, and one controlling the movie. You can download the Jubler software here. Or you can use other subtitle-authoring software instead, if you like. My only requirement is that you create the file using the .srt format. (It MUST be .srt format, or else we won’t be able to connect the different parts and make one file!)
UPDATE: I was told the link above wasn’t working, so please try here. You should get a Windows-compatible program there. If you can’t find it, Google around for Jubler for Windows…
Of course, to do that, you will need copies of the film, so I’m going to get some of those made for you at the A/V Center on Monday. (I hope they’re ready for you to pick up on Tuesday; I’ll let you know in class then.)
Once you email me your part of the subtitle file, I’ll give it a quick look and try to correct any errors I see, put the differen t parts of the file together, and provide the final completed subtitle file here for you to download. Then you can re-watch the whole film with subtitles. (And any students who want to volunteer, for bonus marks, can volunteer to work as a group and translate the subtitles to their mother tongue, ie. Korean or Chinese.)
So the plan for next week is this:
Tuesday: we watch the film from beginning to end. (With no subtitles, but that’s okay; you can still get a lot out of it this way, and it certainly won’t stop us discussing the biggest question I have for you, which is: How can we understand this as part of Canadian literature?)
Hopefully Tuesday, you will pick up the .avi file copies of the film, and begin making subtitle files with your partner or group.
Thursday, we will talk about Multiculturalism and Literature some more, especially trying to find a definition for Multiculturalism. I will also be assigning some reading from our Readings Package (which will be available soon, I hope!) for our class on Sept. 16th.
Your group’s part of the subtitle file is due on Tuesday, September 16th.
Remember, your homework for Sept. 9th is:
- to spend some time with the class — go out and talk, possibly about literature, or just get to know one another.
- to prepare the ID sheets, including information on your favorite writers and films.
- to think about what “multicultural” means.
Syllabus!
We’ll discuss our syllabus in class on Thursday. You can download it here:
Essay Writing 2 Syllabus (PDF)
Also, for week 2 (ie. September 9th) please read the following essay:
“A Few Words About Breasts” by Nora Ephron
The Forum is Up!
The Discussion forum for this class is now up and running. It is located here.
You will notice that several classes use the forum for their discussions. Each class has its own “category.” You are free to look at the other classes’ forum if you like, or you can block their “category” so that you won’t see their discussion, and will only see your own class discussions.
To join the forum, click on “Sign In” in the top right corner of the window. A new page will load, and you can click “Apply for Membership” (near the middle of the window) to join the forum. (After you join, you will need to wait a little while — maybe a day or two — so that I can approve your application. Make sure you use your real name for now, so that I can know it’s a student and not a spam robot who is trying to join the forum, okay?)
I’ll discuss the forum in class next week, but feel free to experiment with it for now. You can start by replying to the discussion I’ve already started in each class. Remember, if you start a new discussion, to put it in the right “category” — that is, put the discussion into the right class!
Student Info Sheet
I will be bringing copies to class for all my classes, but in case you missed it, or lose your copy, you can download the Student Info Sheet here:
You must fill this out with a partner. If you wish to write comments on the back, fold the paper on the black line in the middle, and be sure to write your name at the top of the side you use, so I can know who wrote on which side.
Our Syllabus
Here is our class syllabus:
Listening & Speaking 2 syllabus (PDF)
I’ll be finalizing the list of tasks you must complete this semester for this course over the weekend, and it should be ready (or mostly ready, the first part anyway) by Monday.
Have a good weekend, and remember: your homework is to think about what you want to learn in our class.
You should also consider a self-introduction for next Wednesday, since that will be your first task in the course. An interesting self introduction. I’ll explain more about what I mean by interesting during Monday’s class.
Syllabus and Welcome!
Hi there!
Welcome to the class! I’m still working on setting up our discussion forum, so for now, here’s the syllabus for our class:
Literature in a Multicultural Society Syllabus (PDF)
See you next week!