EXIT EXAM SESSION 2 RESCHEDULED for WEDNESDAY

...

and here's the reading for that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/05/magazine/warning-this-is-a-rights-free-workplace.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print

REMINDER

TOMORROW is EXIT EXAM Session #1!
Please come to class.
Please come to class on time!

For next week (EXIT EXAM info! important!)

Yesterday, in class, we talked about the exit exams that are a college-mandated requirement for this course.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

1. Passing the exit exam is a necessary (but not sufficient) requirement for passing this course. In other words, if you fail the exam, you can't pass the course. But passing the exam will not guarantee a passing grade in the course.
2. I'll be administering two in-class exam sessions: one on Wednesday, 4/27, and the other on Monday, 5/2. (The "last chance" exam is on 5/30; location TBA.)
3. Passing the exit exam will be easy. DON'T PANIC. (See below for further details.)

HOW IT WORKS:

1. You get the reading ahead of time. Typically, these will be short essays, 2-3 pages long.
2. You're allowed (strongly encouraged) to annotate your copies of the reading and bring them into the exam.
3. You will receive writing prompts at the beginning of the exam session.
4. Over the course of the 75 minute long exam session, you'll write an essay, at least 350 words long--so, basically the equivalent of one of our weekly response papers--on the prompt of your choice.
5. If English is your second language, you can have a bit more time, although I have to be present, and we'll have to move to a different location. 

THE PROMPTS

Obviously, I'm not allowed to give you the specific prompts ahead of time, but they come in three flavors:

1. Relate the reading to your own experience. For example: "What part of this essay seem to be the most valid, when compared to your own experience? Make specific references to the reading."
2. Do you agree or disagree with the claims made in the reading? If you agree, argue in support of the reading. If you disagree, argue against the reading.
3. Combined 1) and 2): Argue for/against the reading, drawing on specific examples from your life.

STRATEGIES FOR EFFICIENT READING/ANNOTATION/PRE-WRITING

The readings are easy. They're nowhere near as complex as the material I've been giving you all semester. (Also, nowhere near as long.) So--these very basic strategies should work well:

1. On your first read-through, skim the reading. Read--and underline!--the first and last sentences of each paragraph--generally, the first sentence will tell you what the paragraph is about, and the last sentence will lead into the next paragraph. 
2. Now read through the essay again, this time slowly. As you read, give each paragraph a number. (P1, P2, ... Pn) On a piece of paper, write the number, and then paraphrase the paragraph. (The underlined sentences from #1 should help you do this.) By the time you're done going through the essay, you should have a nice little outline of the entire thing.
3. Try grouping paragraphs together, so that you have a better sense of the flow of the reading. For example, in "Back to Basics," the essay by Diane Ravitch (see below for a link to the file), paragraphs 1-2 introduce the problem Ravitch is examining (peer pressure against academic achievement in American schools); paragraphs 3 and 4 provide evidence that goes beyond Ravitch's anecdotal memories; paragraphs 5 and 6 describe the further consequences/implications of the problem (lowered academic achievement levels are harming the economy of the US); paragraph 7 proposes a solution to the problem (a strong core curriculum); and so on and so on.
4. Now try summarizing the main claim of the essay, in 1-2 sentences. Think about whether you agree or disagree with the claim.
5. With #4 in mind, read through the essay one more time, underlining specific things you agree/disagree with. For each thing you underline, write down a short note in the margins about why you agree or disagree.
6. Read through one more time, this time underlining/annotating things that speak your personal experience. Pay special attention to the things you've underlined that overlap with the things you underlined in #5.
7. Using the material you've generated, try writing a short essay that addresses one of the three prompt "flavors."

LINKS TO PRACTICE READINGS/EXAMS

grading rubric: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZMFp4ZWgyS1g0R28

sample exam responses/grades: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZTHFGVlhPY0l2dHM
The prompts the students were writing to: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZOFBnS3Fmb3FpTEk


Practice Exam 1

Sample reading #1 (Ravitch): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZU0xkUHc3aUlYUnM
Sample prompts for Ravitch essay: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZZjhfMVZjbFBVUnc


Practice Exam 2

Sample reading #2 (Harris): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZRmJNcUo3clZmN2c
Sample prompts for Harris essay: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZdmxxSzVabHo0cVE


READING FOR EXAM SESSION #1

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B19N9rbwQdXZeERNVTNBTGR4RDg

(hard copies available in our next class)

For Monday,

Please read:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/07/webs-and-whirligigs-marshall-mcluhan-in-his-time-and-ours/

and

Chapter 2 from Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19N9rbwQdXZS2pmN21WSWxydVU/view?usp=sharing

Reading for tomorrow

Laura Mulvey, on "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"--it's pretty dense, and I don't expect you guys to fully digest it, but give it a read, and make notes on anything you don't understand.

https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1021/Laura%20Mulvey,%20Visual%20Pleasure.pdf


Supplementary watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE1wRL-BRo0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP7yf8-Lk80

Supplementary reading:

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/29/its_time_to_call_foul_on_the_cruelty_of_beauty_pageants_trump_may_not_own_the_miss_universe_pageant_anymore_but_his_dehumanizing_worldview_permeates_all_beauty_pageants/

For use in class--

Hawkeye Initiative:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiVjMi8lvrLAhXBRSYKHXtyB50QFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehawkeyeinitiative.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNEzWO812Niw1Twi3EGV6TZ6UKwbgw&bvm=bv.118443451,d.eWE

Beyonce:

"Beyonce is not performing for the male gaze."
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kQGMIm0Y3ZsJ:www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/beyonce-91908+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

"Beyonce is absolutely performing for the male gaze."
http://stanfordartsreview.com/the-girl-you-like/

Reading/viewing for Monday

For Monday (in addition to having your papers ready), please read:

http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/CS/Marketing%20Madness.pdf

After you read, watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTA_8waxTo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcV8WN1YIL4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGZa5xGwgko

Come ready to discuss.

*For use in class (and for those of you who won't be in class), we're also watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPOla9SEdXQ

Full transcript of this video (and extra links) available here:

http://feministfrequency.com/2016/03/31/body-language-the-male-gaze/

Long Paper #2

Your second long papers are due on Monday. (See previous post for topic.)

A word about interpreting quotes:

A lot of you tend to write things like this:

Mami  was  nervous,  like  a  frozen  person  without  reactions,  as  shown in this  quote : “Why  don't  you  help  me  to  unpack?  Mami  suggested. Her hands  were  very  still,  usually  they  were  fussing  with  a  piece  of  paper,  a sleeve,  or  each  other.”

 That's not quite enough.

Saying Mami is "nervous" in this quote is ONLY valid if you guide the reader through the steps that led you to this conclusion:

1. We know, because Yunior tells us, that Mami's hands are "usually" in constant motion, "fussing  with  a  piece  of  paper,  a  sleeve,  or  each  other."

2. But in this scene, where the boys are unknowingly headed towards confrontation with their father, her hands are "very still."

3. Holding your hands still when your natural inclination is to have them in constant motion requires effort; tension. 

4. We can therefore guess (infer) that Mami is feeling really tense.

5. In the context of this scene, there's only one reason for her to be feeling tense--it's the possibility of conflict between her husband and her sons.

6. Why would this make her tense? 

7. Yunior says, in the middle of narrating the scene, that if he'd known his father better he wouldn't have turned his back on him, which implies danger coming from Papi--and more specifically, physical violence. (Physical violence is the kind of danger that can be mitigated when you can see it coming.)

8.So when Mami is tense in this scene, we're able to gather that she's afraid of her husband doing physical harm to her sons.

9. Therefore, we can guess that Mami is "still," in this scene, in the same way that a gazelle is still when it's near a lion. She's frozen, like a deer freezing in front of the headlights of an oncoming car.

You have to show your work, like long division.