Verbal Skills

NOTE: This syllabus serves as an example, only, of what the Verbal Skills course might look like.

Week 1-Acclimation Week

6/11 Introductions, overview sheets, syllabus, journals, packet, and text
Get ID!! You'll need it to acquire a Vax account for e-mail
Due Tuesday, 6/12:
Assignment: You are having an informal dinner party and you can invite any 3 guests, living or dead, from any country in the world. Who would they be and why would you invite them? ( 4 paragraphs, typed ) Be sure to have an introductory paragraph and a conclusion.
6/12 Responding to a prompt; Journal entry; topic of discussion: oppressed people, alienation; pre-writing techniques;
Intro. book: Mutant Message from Forever;;;;
Assignment: Annotate, underline, highlight, and double-entry notes, ch.1-5, Mutant...due Wed. 6/13.
6/13 Journal. Check notes on Ch. 1-5. Return Dinner Guests (revision due Tuesday,6/19); essay prep./do's and don'ts of formal writing. Due 6/14, double entry notes, ch. 6-11.
6/14 Collect journals. Check notes on reading. Quiz on Ch. 1-11. Due Tuesday, 6/19, Ch.12-19 with double entry notes.

Week 2-Poetry-

6/19 Return Journals; Journal; discussion of the reading; relate to other cultures; Open notes Quiz on pg.1-115, Ch.'s 1-19.
Assignment: essay (4 par.'s) based on prep for writing assignment due Wed. 6/20.
Begin poetry. See notes in packet. Also, indigenous Australian Voices. Imagery and form. Metaphoric language.
6/20 Computer Lab: Meet in Green Lab this week.
Journal; 4 paragraph essay due. Research indigenous people from Australia: Aborigine culture. Group work: use 6 search engines with 3 students in each group; compare and contrast findings; evaluate each site's resources. Present findings.
Assignment: due Thurs. 6/21, Rd. 116-150, Ch.'s 20-26; quiz on reading, 6/21.
6/21 Journal, collect; discussion on reading; quiz on reading pages 116-150. Continue poetry.
Assignment: poetry: indigenous voices. Return essays (revisions due Mon. 6/25). Group work on revisions and consultations.
Assignment due 6/25: Read, annotate, etc. pgs. 151-218, Chapters 27-33; quiz 6/25.

Week 3 Short Story

6/25 Return journals; journal; Open notes quiz on Ch. 27-33 in class. Essay assignment due Tues. 6/26 (4 paragraphs) Narration, Description, and Example
Collect revisions. Short story notes in packet. Film: Peggy. Discussion of short story terms.
6/26 Collect essay part of quiz. Fables, jokes, myths. Read Liam O'Flaherty's The Sniper for Wed. 6/27. Quiz Wed.
6/27 Computer Lab; Journal; Fables research; choose fable from your culture; use guidelines for research given in class. Present in class on 6/28.
6/28 Journal; collect. Wise Women of the Dreamtime; present your researched fable.
film:Mythology with Joseph Campbell; fables; short story; fairy tales; The Witch Must Die.
Assignment: Write a fable, short story, fairy tale ( 4-8 paragraphs ); what are your messages? Morals? Be clear and concise. Due Monday July 2; also due: essay revisions.

Week 4--Communication

7/2 Return journals; journal; collect Fables/stories; In packet: Begin Communications.
Assignment: Read/Annotate Chapters 34-46, pages 219-289 for Monday, 7/9.
7/3 Return fables/stories for revision due 7/9; Continue Comunications; Quiz on p. 219-289. Read Denis Hayes: The Green Decade in class. Compare and contrast with Aboriginal Wisdom and philosophy. Prewriting exercises for topic: Indigenous wisdom versus progress and the future of the environment.

Week 5-In class advising; reading catalogues; setting up a program for fall.

7/9 Return journals; journals; collect revisions on fables/stories; quiz on p.290-323 end of the book.
Assignment: Read: If the Child is Safe... by Marian Wright Edelman in packet.
7/10 Present Fables to the class.
7/11 Computer Lab; journal; Who is Marian Wright Edelman? Research. Choose one of Edelman's gripes with US today and do cursory research on topic. See guidelines. Evaluate and record sites for citing.
7/12 Journal; Quiz on Edelman while advising is going on; open notes. Advising.
Last journal; collect. Resilient Adults ( overcoming horrific childhoods)
Assignment: prepare either your Edelman research or story re: environmental issues for presentation on either Monday or Tuesday, 7/16 or 7/17; review oral communication sector of packet.

Week 6- Wrapping it all up...

7/16 and 7/17 Present environmental issue story or Edelman research to class.
No computer lab this week! Assignment due 7/17: p43-46 Mother Tongue; p. 47-50-Sawaquat; 7/18 Joy of Language; film clip from Joy Luck Club. 7/19- Last Night!

Graduation Ceremony July 20 at 11:00 AM in Snowden Auditorium, Wheatley Bldg..