Finding Your Voice: Writing for Success in College

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Calendar for Spring 2011 Baruch College-Now Program

Join the Forums (Class Name: FYV Spring 2011 Class Key: Z3ZZZ06FZ0 )

February 2011

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
 
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Session 1: syllabus review,
--Who Am I? What is my life plan?

Envision what your life will be like 8 years from now.
Write descriptively how you see your life to be in the future.
Use imagery to describe your profession and life.
--How much do you know about your intended profession?

Identify / find a person who is very successful in your field. In addition,

students will find out 3 things about this person's career process.

 "Who am I?" "My Life My Plan"

What's Your Life's Purpose?

Career Role Model
Resources at the College Office

HW #1
1.Complete the personal writing "My Life&My Plan"
2. Describe your 5-second life.
3. Interview a professional about his career.
4. Go online and research on three types of colleges-a city college, state college and private one.
In what ways are they similar or different?

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Individual
Conference

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Session 2

Describe your ideal college setting, environment, types of students, falculties and classroom.
Provide details as to what kind of education you expect to receive in college.

Use your prewriting to compose-"My Typical College Day" or "My First Day in College"

Introduction to college

Individual
Conference

10

Session 3

Who am I? What do you need to know about me?

How would I like other people to perceive me?

reading applications for personal statement topics
(either from the college you are interested in or the Common Application)

A. Personal essay session -

Step 1: Come up with 5 topics associated with Family,Place and Identity

Step 2:Pick two topics from each category that you would like to discover further

Step 3: For each of the choices, list 4 details about the situation / experience

Step 4: Share your responses with the class.

Step 5: Classmates will answer the following questions for each topic:

            1.  Is the choice about the student or someone in the student’s life?

            2.  In which topic, does the student seem most interested?

Conclusion: How did it feel to discuss these personal experiences? 
Which of them were you comfortable discussing?  Which were uncomfortable? 
Were there any topics from which you stayed away?

These questions will help you to begin having an inner dialogue about your comfort level with writing
about your own lives and also help them to determine what the “best” topic for them to write about is.

Sample College Essays

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Individual
Conference

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Session 4

Personal Essay Writing #2

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Individual
Conference

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Session 5#3

Personal writing-
Race … Other
by Esmerelda Santiago and Notes of A Native Speaker by Eric Liu:

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Winter Break

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Winter Break

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March 2011
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
 

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Session 6

Agenda-

1.Share and Discuss the uniqueness and strengths of your peer's personal essay (peer review)

2. Revise your essay by -

  • Change the order of the details
    • Chronological
    • Order of importance
    • cause/effect
    • spatial order
      • left to right
      • top to bottom
      • inside out
      • bird's eye view to close-up view
  • Change the point of the view of narration

Understanding Art#1

Dali's Art

Visit the museum sites and choose a paiting to describe.

 

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Individual
Conference

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Session 7

Understanding Art#2

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7

Individual
Conference

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Session 8

Understanding Art #3

 

 

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Individual
Conference

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Session 9

Developing a Short Story#1

  • Describe the setting
  • Decide on a theme
  • Pick a character that can help you illustrate your theme
  • Creating a Storyboard
  • Create a catchy beginning of the story

 

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Individual
Conference

15 Session 10

Developing a Short Story#2

  • Create a dialogue
  • Do reasearch if necessary to collect more facts about your topic
  • Add a historical or social background or any related scientific background
  • Have a very specific focus: what's my story about? What do I want my audience to remeber about the story the most?
  • Three Ones( one setting, one day and one action)

 

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Individual
Conference

17 Session 11

Developing a Short Story#3

  • Use details(sensory, descriptive language)
  • Is there a conflict in my story? Resolved in the end?
  • Is my Point of View clear? Whose voice do I want to use to narrate the story?

 

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Individual
Conference

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Session 12

  • Use sophsticated and appropriated diction
  • Use figurative language such as simile, imagery, metaphor or hyperbole etc.

Creative Writing Rubric & Presentation

 

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Individual
Conference

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Session 13

2W Creative Writing Identity Rumble #1

 

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28

Individual
Conference

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Session 14

2W Creative Writing Identity Rumble #2

 

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Individual
Conference

31

Session 15

2W Creative Writing Identity Rumble#3

 

 

 

April 2011
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
       
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4

Individual
Conference

5

Session 16 2W Creative Writing Identity Rumble#4

Echo Poem

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Individual
Conference

7

Session 17

Next James Joyce?

Found poem : Select words or phrases from the poems provided. Drop the selected words in a Word Bank.Use the words or phrases from the Word Bank to create a found poem about yourself-speaking your thoughts, feelings and dreams etc.

Make a list of words to describe  how you feel right now.

Pick one word and write extensively without stopping. Paragraph or poem

Use streams of consciousness- cluster of imagery, no time sequence , no logic, no punctuations , past, present and future all meshed in one.

Identity Monologues

Publishing Your creative work on Identity Rumble

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11

Individual
Conference

12

Session 18

Picture This #1

Activity 1:

Self-Knowledge

1.Reciprocal Interviews

2. Create a symbolic portrait of your partner in writing based on the information from your interview.

3. Reflect: Did you learn anything new about yourself?

Activity 2-

1. Group read photos. Imagine the story of this picture and tell it in writing. Pick a setting. Narrate the image from the outside, as the photographer, or a person in the photo or onlooker.

2. Share stories and reactions evoked by the image.

  • What visual cues in the photo led you to the conclusion?
  • What preconceived ideas do you have that might have influenced your interpretation?

 

 

13

Individual
Conference

14

Session 19

Picture This#2

Activity 1-

Describe a future image in writing. Imagine your future and tell about it by framing a visual scene and describing it in writing.

Describe yourself as a sophomore or junior in college; give the reader insight into the character and everyday reality of who that person will be.

Activity 2: Taking symbolic photos

 

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Spring break

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Spring Break

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25

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Spring Break

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Session 20 (End of the 2nd Marking Period)

Picture This#3

1.Publication of Identity Rumle is due.

2. Symbolic portrait ( photo) and written descriptions are due.

3. Share our work- gallery walk and reflection

Introduction to the Identity Research paper

 

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May 2011
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
2

3

Session 21

Agenda-

1. Share in class the Identity Rumble project

  • Select one poem or a few lines from your project to read out loud in class. No comments.
  • Share comments and reflections.

2. Introduction to the Independent Reserach Paper #1 - On Identity

Use the four strategies to cite information-

1. Summarize
2. Paraphrase
3. Interpret
4. Quote directly

  • Databases

1. Ebscohost.com (username/password: bergtraumhs)

2.Gale Critical Thinking Resource Center (username: new65658 password new_log) -from school

3. From Home: Gale Resource ( username: new65658rpa / password: new_log)

4. Gale_Novel (login: nysl_me_71_mbhs, pw: empirelink )

5. Grolier-Novel ( username: novel547 pw: novel)

6. Britannica (user name: bergtraum password: library)

7. Novel-ProQuest

8. TeachingBooks.net




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Individual
Conference

5

Session 22

Independent Reserach Paper #2

Thesis Workshop

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9

Individual
Conference

10

Session 23

Independent Reserach Paper#3

Research paper Checklist
1) Clear thesis statement with 3 subtopics relating to the thesis
2) Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence, a statement on one of the sub topics.
3) One quotation at least, no more than three in each body paragraph
4) Use your own words (paraphrase) when using evidence from research
5) Work cited (give credit) 

 

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Individual
Conference

12

Session 24

Independent Reserach Paper#4

Research Paper Revision Workshop

Manual for Using MLA StyleResearch Unit

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16

Individual
Conference

17

Session 25

Research paper#5

Portfolio Consultation

18

Individual
Conference

19

Session #26

Independent Reserach Paper#6

Research Paper Due

Portfolio Contents

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June 20112
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri  
   

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Individual
Conference

2

Session 27 (Last Class)

Final Portfolio Due

Portfolio Contents

1. Cover page
2. Table of contents with page numbers
3. Preface(Introduction to the Final College Now "Finding Your Voice ")
4.Who Am I?
5.My Vision
6. Interview about a career
7. My Typical Day in College /My First Day in College
8. Personal Essay
9. Creative Writing based on self-selected artwork
10. Identity Rumble Project
11. Symbolic Portrait and Writing
12. Research Paper
13. My Best Work and Reflection
14. Reflection on the year-long CN Finding Your Voice course

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