Assignments – Jessica Hoover

Assignment #1

Day Book (explanation from syllabus)

Over the course of the semester, you will be asked to keep a daybook. The daybook is like a journal, but it is more creative and comprehensive than simply a place for recording thoughts and feelings. Your goal in using the daybook is to expand your thinking beyond the walls of the classroom. You should bring your daybook with you to class each day and record your in-class assignments and notes inside the daybook, and you should also write in your daybook outside of class. (Students may choose to type up their entries and tape or paste them into the daybook. This is recommended for students who think they have handwriting that might be difficult to read by others.) The daybook can also include anything else you would like, such as thoughts and ideas about the texts and concepts we cover; ideas to write about later; brainstorming, outlining, drafting, etc. for papers; bibliographic info for texts to read for research or for fun; connections you see between things you have learned; pictures or visuals that help you learn; quotations that seem important; vocabulary words; things you want to remember; poems, pictures, mementos, etc. (You should not write answers to quizzes in the daybook.)

You may organize your daybook any way that is most helpful to you, but remember that you are expected to write in your daybook outside of class as well as during class, i.e. taking notes on a text, posing questions, etc. I will assess the daybook by: looking for the required number of entries for in-class writing, and looking for at least 2 entries per book. Thus, you will be writing in your daybook each class period, as well as (at least) twice for each book that we read this semester. Keep in mind that there are 9 books in total; therefore, you will be writing in your daybook at least 18 entries on your own time, plus each class period, in-class.

At the beginning of class, every class period, I would introduce an idea, a current event, write a quote on the board, provide a prompt, or ask a question, and the students would have 5 minutes to write in their daybooks in response to what I posed to them / wrote on the board. We would then spend about10 minutes (sometimes more, depending on the richness of the discussion) discussing their responses. The daybook prompts would act as a lead-in for the main topic / focus of that particular class period.

Sample Questions / Prompts for Daybook Writing:

1.)Explain why you think Sherman Alexie titled his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

2.)Explain your understanding of what is meant by the phrase “the American Dream.”

3.)GAP designed a t-shirt with the term “Manifest Destiny” on the front of it. What is your response to that and why?

4.)Why do you think LouiseEdrich provides a family tree at the beginning of her book Tracks? How does that help you when reading her novel?

5.)Which poem in Laura Tohe’sTséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chellyhas the most imagery? What is the imagery? Why do you think that is?

Assignment #2

Preface:I chose the texts for which the students would write their responses. One required text-response was for Laura Tohe’sTséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly.

Response Papers (explanation from syllabus)

For this course, you will be writing 4 response papers. These papers should be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced, and address a specific idea/question/topic/theme/character, etc on which you wish to focus. While these assignments are not formal essays, they are intended to be thoughtful, engaged responses to the readings. These may be anecdotal, as long as you connect your experiences/message to that of the character/book/theme/trope, etc that is being discussed that day. They may also be analytical in nature. Some topics and themes you might explore include: the relationship between two characters, relationship between your experiences and a character’s/the author’s, explain a key message found in the book and how its applicable to you or what it means to you, a theme you see reoccurring in class discussion that you also found in the reading, a connection to another text or to another character and why, an important symbol that you find important and why, a significant setting or location in the plot, the context surrounding the production or reception of the text, the historical emphases in the text, etc. The purpose of the response papers is to think critically about the text, forming and supporting an interpretation and response. You should NOT, however, merely summarize the plot or the reading----respond to it! These response papers will be due, typed, at the beginning of class. Each response paper will be worth a total of five points.

Response Prompt for Laura Tohe’sTséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly

Preface:To wrap-up our focus on Laura Tohe’s work, I encouraged my students to write a 3-5 page response paper on their understanding of Tohe’s text and their ideas as to what Tohe is “doing” in her poetry and why. Not only had we focused on code switching, rhetorical sovereignty, and rhetorics of survivance and alliance, but we had also discussed Tohe’s display of intellectual and cultural sovereignty. With all of the topics that we had covered while discussing Tohe’s text, these response papers provided the students with an outlet to share their understanding of Tohe’s demonstration of her own, as well as the Navajo Nation’s, survivance – in addition to the other rhetorical moves in her work.

Prompt: In Laura Tohe’sTséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly there are many rhetorical moves, such as her demonstration of cultural and intellectual sovereignty, rhetorical sovereignty, and rhetorics of survivance and alliance. Tohe also uses code switching and translation in her works by using both Navajo and English languages. Please write a 3-5 page, double-spaced, response that addresses one or more of these topics in Tohe’s text. Questions to consider: what is Tohe “doing” in her text, rhetorically? Why does she code switch between Navajo and English languages? Why does she use translation? Which audience(s) is Tohe addressing and how do we know this? Why does Tohe focus on the Navajo Long Walk? Why does she use the location of Canyon de Chelly? How does her text demonstrate survivance? Alliance? These are just some questions to get you thinking about your response. Your response may address additional topics as well. Please consult your notes, other in-class writings, and any necessary / additional resources for this response. You may also wish to check the requirements / expectations / examples for response papers in the “Response Papers” section of the syllabus.