Welcome to ENG201!

January 28

I. Three-Question Story (must be submitted at the end of class)
​Write your answers to these questions as an interesting story.  This is your FIRST writing assignment for the semester.  Show what you can do.  Be creative.  Be bold. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

1. How has college been so far for you?  Why? What have you learned about yourself?  The world?  
2. What, if anything, are you leaving behind in 2018?  Why?   
3. What are you reaching for in 2019?  Why?  (You might also say what you are looking forward to most for this semester---  What are your goals for spring 2019?)  ​​

Questions #2 and #3 might pertain to school but do NOT have to. ​​​

"I was born by the river in a little tent 
and just like the river, I've been running ever since . . ."

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II. Partnered Introductions (based on writing activity)

• Please do not sit/meet with someone you already know!
• Feel free to write down your partner’s answers as you will need to remember what they tell you.  Please try and partner with someone who you do not know.
• Share what you wrote earlier... and ask a question of your own (What's you sign?  Hobby?  Fav movie?  Fav artist?)
• ​Please make sure that you know your partner's pronoun (she, her, hers/ he, him, his/ they, their, them) and the correct pronunciation of their name.  
• Make sure you added your own question into the mix!  Keep it G-rated please....

III. The Name Game
The name game is an activity that we will do for the beginning of the semester.  At the start of each class, 4-5 people will have to go around the room and say everyone’s name.  This activity is meant to form community.  This may be the only class you have this semester where you know everyone’s names and interact with them significantly.  This is something to be taken seriously—hence, we start this course by making sure we know everyone’s names and pronouns! 

IV. Review of the Syllabus with Q&A

V. Overview of the Course Website and the 1st Assignment

• Please remember that there is an agenda like this for every class.  If you miss a day, look at the agenda.  Do not send an email asking what you missed.
• Make sure that you really want to be in this class.  There is a waiting list of others trying to get in.  If your name is not on the roster, you cannot get an over-tally because the class is full!
• Please make sure you go to the Resources page whenever you need to. Click here.

VI. Reminder for Homework for Next Class
Make sure that you understand the homework assignment.  If you do not email the assignment, you will have your first "0" of the semester.

YouR First AssignmenT

These directions are from the syllabus.

There is no class today because Carmen is presenting in Florida at an HBCU Summit. Do all of the following:

1. Click here for the “Put Some Stank On It” tab and look at the main page and the subpages there. This section of the course website tells you everything that you need to know about the class.
2. Please read the syllabus/calendar closely.  You received one in class but one is also available to you at the  course blackboard. Many of the assignments described on the syllabus will not make sense right now because we have not reached that part of the semester.  Trust that this will all make sense when we get there though.   We will not stray much from this calendar so you need to get yourself in the HABIT very quickly of following and doing what is asked of you here.  A course syllabus/calendar is like a trust between you and the professor.  This is what spells out how to succeed--- the work and the policies.  There will be no surprises and everything in the course will be as transparent as possible.
3. Send an email to Carmen using [email protected] with any comments or curiosities that you have about the course syllabus and website.
   
4. Read Pearl Cleage’s “Why I Write.” Then write a 500-word response to it addressing two things: a) What part(s) did you like or not like and why?  B) What are the issues that YOU like to write about and why? Make this 500-word response interesting and creative.  It does not need to be formal, boring, and stiff.   It must be typed and it must be at least 500 words.  Email this essay to [email protected] .  This is Assignment #1 for the course (worth 2 points).

Pearl Cleage's "why I write"

Optional: Watch the 2-minute video above to hear Pearl Cleage talk more about her start as a writer

Click here for the short essay, "Why I Write" by Pearl Cleage. (Read this online or print it out, whchever your prefer)

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