Trials IV: Becoming Your Own Person Syllabus

Trimester I, 2017-18Cary Honig

Objectives: This class was designed to help students master essay writing skills and learn how to approach the analysis of literature in the context of discussing legal and social issues primarily dealing with families and culture. English skills specifically addressed were paragraph structure, short essay writing, support of statements, reading comprehension and basic punctuation, note taking, vocabulary, spelling and dictionary skills. Students were also asked to analyze and compare a novel, short stories and drama, focusing on theme, characterization and structure. Another aim of the class was to introduce students to a variety of serious authors and ideas.

Methodology: Students first defined difficult words in the upcoming section of the novel or short story. They then read a chapter at home or in class and wrote answers to a series of questions. When everyone had completed the reading and their answers had been returned, the class went over this material. These question sheets were designed to help prepare students for discussions and to provide notes to help them write their essays. Students wrote and revised five essays during the trimester. Those who were late on homework four to seven times did an additional essay with extra required reading in order to earn credit. Those with more than seven late assignments could not earn credit.

Students read:

Maya Angelou: Grandmother’s Victory;

James Joyce: The Boarding House;

August Wilson: Fences;

Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club;

Ken Burns: Baseball (chapters on the Negro Leagues and Jackie Robinson)

Linda Greenhouse: Should a Fetus’s Well-Being Override A Mother’s Rights?, NYTimes 2000

Elaine Sciolino: Britain Grapples With Role For Islamic Justice NYTimes 2008

Alexandra Alter: Amy Tan, the Reluctant Memoirist NYTimes 2017

Michael Eric Dyson: Famous Athletes Have Always Led The Way NYTimes 2017

Jelani Cobb: From Louis Armstrong to the N.F.L.: Ungrateful as the New Uppity

The New Yorker 2017

Sinead McEneaney: Trump, #takeaknee and American History London Review of Books 2017

The topics of the five essays the students wrote were:

- An opinion essay about two traits that make a good parent.

- An assessment of the authors’ views of parenting in the two short stories.

- An assessment of similarities and differences between the mothers in The Joy Luck Club;

- A comparison of parent-child relationships in The Joy Luck Club and Fences focusing on cultural issues;

- An assessment of the socializing power of family and culture on young people in the five works we read

Students also wrote a business letter in class of advice to a parent in one of our texts.

The extra essay for late work was:

- An assessment of the role of playing in the Negro Leagues on Troy's personality in Fences.