Last Week of Class

Because Scotland, PA was not available last week, we did not watch the film as planned. Instead, we watched excerpts and discussed them in class. It is no longer necessary for those who missed class to view Scotland, PA.

This also means a change in plans for the final week of class. Everyone is still required to upload Essay 4 to turnitin.com before coming to class. Everyone is still required to attach the turnitin receipt to the hard copy and bring it to the final class session. At that point, you have two options:

1. You can leave after submitting the essay and have your grade based on that submission.

OR

2. At the final class, you can review the essay you brought with me and then submit a revised version to turnitin.com by Friday, May 15 at 5:00 PM sharp. If you miss that deadline, your grade will be based on the version you brought to class.

NOTE: The Friday deadline is ONLY for those who have a review conference with me at the final class session. If you do not want to have a review conference, your essay (hard copy with turnitin receipt) will ONLY be accepted at the last class session.

Grades will be calculated very soon so there are no exceptions to the above policy. To avoid calamity, submit to turnitin as soon as you can. I will accept hard copies placed under my office door any time before the deadline as well.

Finally, please be aware that if you are trying to see your final grade from turnitin.com, that site fails to deduct the lowest reading quiz score, so the grades there are all too high (sorry). Do not expect your final grade to match the score appearing on turnitin unless you missed or failed at least one reading quiz. If you passed all four of those quizzes, you must manually subtract 50 points to get your true score.

Scotland, PA

We will view the movie, Scotland, PA at the next class. If you won't be present, it's important that you view it on your own somehow before the last day of class when we discuss it. We will discuss and debate the following issues:

1. Does the movie capture the same ideas as Macbeth or depart from them?
2. Is Mac guilty of Duncan's murder? If so, to what degree? Did he have intent?  Could he claim insanity?
3. Is Pat guilty of being an accomplice to Duncan's murder? To Banko's murder?

On another note, please do not ask me to accept papers beyond their due date. Regardless of the reason, I will not accept it outside of the published timeframe. A safety measure is in place whereby you get the grade from the first draft. An emergency that took you out of commission for more than 3 weeks and made you miss both draft and final version is an emergency that warrants re-taking the class in a future semester. By the same token, observe the strict deadline for Essay 4 and do not expect an extension. There is also no substitute for missing the in-class debate. The answer to all these requests is no. If you are missing an assignment and are close to the border between two grades, at that point I will look at your whole portfolio of work to find a reason to push it to the higher grade.

The Tortilla Curtain

You are expected to complete the reading for The Tortilla Curtain by April 21 or 23 class date, or at least the first 280 pages.

There will be a 20-minute in-class writing at the beginning of class. Please appear on time to avoid being locked out. Less than half of our class was on time last week.

Answers will not receive credit unless they make numerous and sensible references to specific details from the text. Generalized answers or those supported by a reading of the back cover only will receive no credit.

Possible Topics for In-Class Writing and Discussion

Between Delaney and Candido, who is more close-minded regarding the community outside his own, and who is better at dealing with that close-mindedness?


Which stereotypes against Mexican immigrants do Candido and America confirm and which do they dispel?


What anti-immigration arguments are given by Jack Jardine or others, and how logical are they shown to be by events in the novel?

What are the politics of the Arroyo Blanco community? Is it fair to make an equation between those politics and U.S. politics? How do events in the novel show that it is a fair or unfair comparison?

Does the author seem to like or dislike Kyra? What scenes support your answer?

Are Delaney and Kyra truly living the American Dream? Why or why not? Is their "Dream" something that Candido and America really want? Why or why not?

Does Delaney transform? If so, in what way?

Candido constantly refers to his bad luck. Is he truly unlucky, or does he create his own bad luck, or is the system simply against him? Support with details from text.

In what sense is the portrayal of Candido and America exaggerated and inaccurate, especially when considering that the setting is Los Angeles?

Is T.C. Boyle depicting racism like a journalist, or is he "committing" racism himself? What scenes support your answer?

for Wednesday, April 8th only, my office hours will be from 3 o'clock until 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Macbeth

It is impossible to discuss a literary text without each person having their own copy. Therefore, the price of admission for next week's class is your own copy of Macbeth. Nobody gets in without showing their text. You should set about purchasing The Tortilla Curtain for the following month so that you won't be caught without a book when the time comes.

Over the next three weeks, I may give in class a passage chosen at random from the text that I ask you to "translate" and comment upon. You will need to know the text very well to do this. Since you're only reading two acts in a whole week, that should not be a problem.

Example:

DUNCAN

There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS

Answer

In this scene, Duncan is responding to news of a traitor. He comments that there's no way to tell what a person is like by just looking at the face, and expresses disappointment at the breach of trust. This idea of treachery runs through the whole play. It's ironic that Macbeth walks in just at this moment, since Duncan trusts Macbeth and will have that trust betrayed soon as well.

During the week of Mar 23-27 we discussed Flannery O'Connor in the Tuesday class and various poems in the Thursday class.

Please see the previous post for important changes to the Essay 3 deadlines.

Essay 3 Due Dates are Changed

We are changing the due dates for Essay 3.

The First Draft of Essay 3 will be due two weeks later than stated in the syllabus. That's April 14 for the Tuesday class and April 16 for the Thursday class.

The Final Draft of Essay 3 will be due one week later than stated in the syllabus. That's April 28 for the Tuesday class and April 30 for the Thursday class.

All other due dates remain as in the syllabus. Final Draft of Essay 2 is still due Mar 31 for Tuesday class and April 2 for Thursday class. Exam 2 and Essay 4 keep the same due dates as in the syllabus.

Grade Check and upcoming Readings

For those who didn't submit the Essay 2 draft on time, we will try to review them at the end of the next class (after Spring Break). That may be the only opportunity, and I may or may not get to all of them as they are numerous.

The next full class meeting is the week of March 23 - April 27).

By the way, you can view your individual scores on www.turnitin.com, but you must ignore the total and percentage it gives you as far as your overall grade. That's because turnitin isn't smart enough to drop the lowest of the four scores. If you received credit for all four quizzes, you must subtract out your lowest score. If you missed or failed one or more quizzes, then your score is accurate, however.

IF YOUR TURNITIN ACCOUNT ISN'T PROPERLY SET UP BECAUSE YOU JOINED THE 1A SECTION RATHER THAN 1B, YOU WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ALL YOUR SCORES AND CANNOT ASSESS YOUR GRADE. IN THIS CASE, PLEASE LOG INTO YOUR TURNITIN ACCOUNT AND "ENROLL IN A CLASS" USING Class ID 9518792 and password spring. Until you do so, you cannot know your grade in this class.

There are 500 points graded so far (three quizzes, half the participation grade, Essay 1, and Jane Eyre exam), which leaves 500 to go. This means that if you have,

Fewer than 200 points = mathematically impossible to pass
200-230 points = highly unlikely to pass
231-260 points = currently passing, but at risk for not passing
over 261 points = currently passing
*** BUT REMEMBER, ONLY THE TOP THREE QUIZ SCORES COUNT***
CHECK YOUR TURNITIN ACCOUNT TO BE SURE YOU ARE LISTED AS IN ENGLISH 1B. "B" AS IN BEST. NOT "A" AS IN ABOMINABLE.