INFORMAL ASSIGNMENTS: ENGLISH 050
Please visit this page to read the writing prompts for your informal assignments. Your informal assignments should be around 250-500 words. Feel free to explore multiple literacies, genres, and media: video, audio, photos, etc. Unless otherwise noted, each weekly informal assignment will be assigned on a Tuesday and will be due at the beginning of the subsequent Tuesday class. *Informal assignments are subject to change.
Informal assignments should be typed (12-point-font and double-spaced) and printed out before class begins. In addition, please provide a unique title for each informal assignment and place this header in the top left corner of your document:
First and Last Name
ENG 050 TR 1:45 - 3:10
Informal Assignment #_: [insert topic title]
Due:
Informal assignments should be typed (12-point-font and double-spaced) and printed out before class begins. In addition, please provide a unique title for each informal assignment and place this header in the top left corner of your document:
First and Last Name
ENG 050 TR 1:45 - 3:10
Informal Assignment #_: [insert topic title]
Due:
Week 1
Informal Formal Assignment #1 (Due on Tuesday, 9.10)
Informal Formal Assignment #1 (Due on Tuesday, 9.10)
- Assignment Topic: Writing Process Roundtable
- Assignment Focus: Writing Process
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Print out, read, and annotate these texts:
- Use narration, description, and exposition to set a scene for a writers' roundtable discussion about the writing process.
- Provide 3 quotes about the writing process from each reading. A total of 9 quotes. Remember to attribute the writer by inserting his/her name in the dialogue.
- Provide your own three quotes about your writing process.
- Your assignment should provide 12 total quotes (9 from the sources and 3 from you). You can use the quotes we co-authored on the board in class.
- Here are student samples of this assignment:
Week 2
Informal Assignment #2 (Due on Tuesday, 9.10)
Informal Assignment #2 (Due on Tuesday, 9.10)
- Assignment Topic: Literacy Narrative
- Assignment Focus: Literacy Moment
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following Word or Google Doc:
- Print out, read, and annotate these texts:
- Compose a narrative scene that illustrates a powerful writing and/or reading moment in your life.
- Provide a unique title, capitalized and centered and at the top of the page.
- Appeal to the five senses to animate the moment.
- Feel free to explore multiple literacies, genres, and media: video, audio, photos, etc
- Reveal how and why this moment is so powerful to your literacy life.
- Print out two copies of this assignment. Leave your name off of one draft for our in-class gallery walk.
- Sample literacy narrative: https://entropymag.org/literacy-narrative-reader-im-literate/
Week 3
Informal Assignment #3
Informal Assignment #3
- Assignment Topic: Composing an Emotional Scene
- Assignment Focus: Emotional Life Scene
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Print out, read, and annotate these texts:
- Compose a 50-word introduction that connects a theme (probably an emotion) from My Name is Margaret to a theme in your narrative scene. Use this sentence to start the first paragraph: In My Name is Margaret, Maya Angelou writes [finish sentence with main idea].
- Compose a 200-450 word scene that shows the reader a life-moment of intense emotion.
- Appeal to the five senses to animate this moment.
- Remember: Description + Action + Theme = Scene.
Week 4
Informal Assignment #4
Informal Assignment #4
- Assignment Topic: Composing an Emotional Scene with Dialogue and Symbolism
- Assignment Focus: Emotional Life Scene
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Print out, read, and annotate this text: Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway).
- Compose a 50-word introduction that connects a theme (probably an emotion) from Hills Like White Elephants to a theme in your narrative scene. Use this sentence to start the first paragraph: In the short story Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway writes [finish sentence with main idea].
- Compose a 200-450 word scene that shows the reader an emotional moment you shared with someone in your life.
- Please include dialogue. Use this article as a resource: How to Format Dialogue
- Please include at least one symbolic detail. Use this article as a resource: Symbolism
- Appeal to the five senses to animate this moment.
- Remember: Description + Action + Theme = Scene.
Week 5
Informal Assignment #5
Informal Assignment #5
- Assignment Topic: This I Believe
- Assignment Focus: Personal Belief
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang) | Transcript of the Podcast | Overview of Podcasts
- Explore This I Believe as a discourse community: This I Believe Home Page | About This I Believe
- Explore This I Believe as a genre: Life is an Act of Literary Creation | Featured Essays | This I Believe Themes
- Compose a 50-word introduction that connects What You Don't Know to your This I Believe theme.
- Compose a 200-450 word This I Believe essay.
Week 6
Informal Assignment #6 *Optional*
Informal Assignment #6 *Optional*
- Assignment Topic: Hiraeth
- Assignment Focus: Longing for a Home
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret Chef Table's Francis Mallman episode for the hiraeth theme. Click here for a trailer.
- Compose a 50-word introduction that connects Chef's Table Francis Mallman episode to your hiraeth composition about your longing for a "home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was..."
- Compose either a narrative scene, poem, song, sketch, painting, or photograph in your chosen design mode (paper, video, audio file, canvas, live performance, etc.).
- Share your composition with classmates during our in-class gallery walk.
- You can include this composition in your midterm portfolio to illustrate the breadth of your writer-identity repertoire.
Week 7
Informal Assignment #7
Informal Assignment #7
- Assignment Topic: Midterm Reflection
- Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret these texts:
- Compose a 250-500 word letter about your experiences in our ENG 050 course.
- Provide a greeting (Dear Sabatino or Dr. Mangini), a body, and a closing (Best, Sincerely, etc.) with your signature.
- In the body, consider specific assignments, specific readings/films, specific conversations, and/or specific processes that helped you learn and grow. To that end, focus on these four components:
- Your author identity. How has it changed in this course?
- Your theory of writing. How has this course impacted the way you define and value writing? Which composition concepts/terms do you most value?
- Your growth as a writer. How are your past academic writing experiences different from your present experiences with writing in this course? How are the past and present experiences the same?
- Your knowledge transfer to future writing situations. How do you plan to use your growing writing knowledge to compose texts in future academic and non-academic contexts?
- Please conclude the reflection by answering this question:
- What are my three primary intrinsic English Composition I goals for the rest of this semester?
Week 8
- No informal assignments due this week.
- Midterm Conferences in my office: 4317.
Week 9
- No Informal assignments due this week.
- Revise and submit process packet for Formal Assignment #1: Narrative Project (Memoir).
Week 10
Informal Assignment #8
Informal Assignment #8
- Assignment Topic: Week 10 Reflection
- Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret these texts:
- Compose a 250-500 word reflection on your learning in class this week. Please focus on specific concepts, readings, conversations, or writing assignments.
- In the reflection, please make connections to past and future experiences with this content or knowledge.
Week 11
Informal Assignment #9
Informal Assignment #9
- Assignment Topic: Week 11 Reflection
- Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret these texts:
- Compose a 250-500 word reflection on your learning in class this week. Please focus on specific concepts, readings, conversations, or writing assignments.
- In the reflection, please make connections to past and future experiences with this content or knowledge.
Week 12
Informal Assignment #10
Informal Assignment #10
- Assignment Topic: Week 12 Reflection
- Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret these texts:
- Compose a 250-500 word reflection on your learning in class this week. Please focus on specific concepts, readings, conversations, or writing assignments.
- In the reflection, please make connections to past and future experiences with this content or knowledge.
Week 13
Informal Assignment #11
Informal Assignment #11
- Assignment Topic: Week 12 Reflection
- Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
- Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
- Interpret these texts:
- Compose a 250-500 word reflection on your learning in class this week. Please focus on specific concepts, readings, conversations, or writing assignments.
- In the reflection, please make connections to past and future experiences with this content or knowledge.
Weeks 14, 15, 16
- No informal assignments are required.