jay's museum of college writing

Jay's BELIEVE IN THE BINDER Post - Secret Plan to Help Students ORGANIZE and COMPLETE Their Semester Projects - Everyone Wins!

14 more days.  This is the countdown to the end of my Fall Semester SHORT COURSE. It's  a special HYBRID course designed for students  to satisfy the requirements of a COLLEGE-LEVEL English Course. The idea is to complete a SIXTEEN-WEEK course in EIGHT-WEEKS time.

Jay's Pleasant Reminder: This doesn't mean that we do HALF the WORK; It means we have HALF the TIME to accomplish our goals.  Outside of inter-session classes, this may be the first time I've ever taught a course in this format.  Apparently, for my students, the experience is also new. It takes some time getting used to. At this point in the semester I notice that many students have FALLEN BEHIND in our schedule.  

Currently, we are developing COMMUNITY profiles. This semester l have asked my students to look around their Valley (Imperial and/or Coachella)  for someone to interview for a Community Profile.  This will be the basis of our semester writing project, a combination of PERSONAL and ONLINE RESEARCH.   Their profile could come right from their past, present, family, job, school, or reading. Their goal will be to convey how the subject of their interview represents a larger idea. 

 Here are a few of the topics my students came up in previous semesters: Sex Trafficking, PTSD, Standardized Instruction in Public Schools, Drug Smuggling, Vegetarian Lifestyle, Eating Disorders, Bullying, Binge Drinking, Gangs,  Gender Identification, Mental Illness, Deportation...

Many of my students are close to family members that have worked in the fields surrounding our campuses. These students are able to research first-hand sources regarding the hardships and complexities of the job.  I've read several essays that detail the history of the UFW, and the "lucha" that continues to this day to protect worker rights. My students interview friends and family members who know the TRUTH. 

Here is  the problem: Because of my own fear of the accelerated schedule, I began this project on the FIRST DAY of the semester with the idea to get my students FOCUSED from the GET-GO.  I bought  Project Binders from Walmart for my students to organize their materials.   On the second day, we chose our topics.  On the third, I introduced them to our campus databases. Very shortly thereafter, we were summarizing research articles.  I told them that the semester was going to move fast. But, this semester, a large percentage of my students don't seem to GET IT.  For more than a few, they are taking their first college-level English class. They sit in class with blank expressions, like they would inside a bus station or a hospital waiting room.   I feel like I'm speaking to deaf ears when I tell them the semester will be over before they know it: TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!  

   So, this week, I have sprung daily BINDER CHECKS on them.  The goal and purpose of the Binder is to allow them to be more organized and creative in their school work. I ask them to arrange their research materials and to process/apply information and skills learned in this class. 

On the left, that's Travis Bickle from the movie Taxi Driver.  My students aren't going to know anything about it, but that's not the point.  When I talk about movies in the class, any movies, they seem to pay more attention. The poster in the background of this image says, "ONE OF THESE DAYS, I'M GOING TO GET - ORGANIZIZED."  It's part of my job, I feel, to help my students realize how  their "organization" skills has helped or hindered them in their classes. To think ahead, in what ways can being organized help them succeed in this class? Unfortunately, I hear a lot of this:

• I don't know what we are doing...
• I can’t find my notes, quizzes, homework etc….
• I can’t remember what we did yesterday….
• I left my notes or homework at the house…
• I have it, I mean…I know its somewhere…
• Wait, what do I need to study?
• I lost my stuff!! Can I have more copies??

Here is how I start off every class:  We are very close to the END of the SEMESTER.  I can see the LIGHT at the END of the TUNNEL. NOW  is the time to GET IT IN GEAR - Each CLASS PERIOD  will be CRITICAL to your SUCCESS in the COURSE

• DON'T BE ONE OF THOSE GUYS - Who don't know WHAT IS EXPECTED FROM YOU after SIX WEEKS!

For our FINAL PUSH to SUCCESS, I'm planning specifice activities - BINDER CHECKS - with each class  THERE WILL BE NO TIME FOR SECOND CHANCES - YA! - Like Carol King sings, "It's Too Late" - LET'S WORK TOGETHER! Below I provide you a SNEAK PREVIEW of what to EXPECT.

Jay's Pleasant Reminder: As their instructor, I reserve the right to ADD stuff and/or REMOVE stuff.  My goal is for the MOST STUDENTS to experience the GREATEST SUCCESS in English 110

Begin with THIS:  COMMUNITY PROFLE DESIGN on FRONT COVER ( see above)  - ABOUT ME PAGE on the BACK COVER ( see below)

1. SECTION ONE - PUBLICATION

• MLA Cover Page - First page of the binder - When your readers open the binder - this is the page they will see!
• Abstract
• Final Essay
• Works Cited

2. SECTION TWO - PREWRITING ACTIVITIES

• Freewrites
• Graphic Organizers
• Formal Outline

3. SECTION THREE - RESARCH ACTITIIES

• Research Questions/ Research Answers
• Annotated Research Articles
• Research Images
• Annotation Bingo Card!

4. SECTION FOUR - DRAFTS

• Anecdote
• Jay's Delayed Thesis
• Summary Paragraph
• Quote Sandwich
• Definition
• Interview Summary
• This I Believe - Conclusion
• Mini-Draft #1  Draft - Paragraphs 1-3
• Mini-Draft #2b- Paragraphs 4-7 
• Works Cited

5. SECTION FIVE - EVALUATION

• Peer Review
• Self-Reflection

JAY'S BACK COVER - ABOUT ME PAGE:

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Over the years I have been teaching, the rate of teen pregancy has shown a steady decline, but the number of single mothers grows every year.  The last statistic I read reveals that more than half of all babies are born to  single mothers.  I encourage my students to  write about the causes and effects of single parenthood.  Like  Bob Dylan once said, "The Times They Are a-Changin'."   I see students write with intimate knowledge about a stigma around single parents. Each semester I recognize I have several single mothers in each class.  They write about how raising a child on their own may be the best thing that could have ever happened to them. Their knowldege is acutely aware. Their writing is expectantly STRONG. 

My Nursing and Administration of Justice students always elevate their performance on this project. Most often they have a clear idea for what inspired them to join the profession?  Their essays define the attitude and sacrifice necessary to succeed on the job. Their interview subjects have great stories. 

For our next class meeting, I've asked my students to present an MLA MINI-DRAFT #1 - Paragraphs 1-3 - in the first section of their binders.  When their readers open their binders, they will see an MLA Cover Page.  My plan is for my students to follow this page with their first three paragraphs: Anecdote, Delayed Thesis, Summary of a Research Article.  They should be able to download their work from Canvas Assignments. I've never considered myself a very SMART teacher, I know this much: it's more reasonable for first-year students to complete their work in CHUNKS.  This is where the teacher divides a program, task, topic, list or process into small chunks to make learning more manageable.  Below I share the first three paragraphs of my Teacher's Model for my Community Profile about Teen Pregnancy:

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J. Lewenstein

Professor Jay Lewenstein

English 110 

16 Sept. 2024

                                            In It for the Long Run: Profile of a Relentless Teen Mom

     Before Suzy became pregnant, we were very close friends. In high school, we used to sit together in the back of the room in all of our classes.  Suzy always used to sit next to the window she was a dreamer.  She was also a runner.  She spent a lot of her time in class drawing pictures of running shoes she liked in her notebook.  She was good with the Nike and Puma symbols.  They covered her pages.  But it was never the same between Suzy and me after she had her baby.  I was the one who sat by the window.   Suzy had to drop out for a while.  While I was able to go to college, Suzy worked to take care of her family.  She told me that she had different priorities and made new goals.     I missed her.  We didn't t see eachother very often after she had her baby .  On occasion , however, I’ve see see her  running again.  I see her in her running shoes pushing her stroller along the side of the road when I go to school.  I always HONK.  “You Go Girl!”  Nothing can stop you!"

    In today’s heated political climate,  how can we expect teen mothers to live successful independent lives?  I have read that California's teen birth rate has declined by 48 percent since 1991. It now stands at the lowest level in state history (Imperial Valley Press).  But the rate of teen pregnancy remains high in some parts of California, including Coachella Valley and Imperial County.  I mean, why are the percentage of teen mothers here so much different than the percentages in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Sacramento?  Back in my day, it was much different.  Teen mothers – like Suzy - didn’t have the options or support that young women have today.  Teen Pregnancy usually meant Teen Drop-Out.  Broken Dreams.  Forced Marriages.  Sadly, there is an ugly stigma that still  falls uponTeen Mothers.  Our society labels them as wreckless, irresponsible, promiscuous, or WORSE.  But, it doesn’t have to be this way.  Many of my students are teen mothers. Some of them will be the first college graduates in their families.  With the appropriate support, Teen Mothers can succeed just like anyone else at the college level.  They are motivated. More determined than ever.  Teen Mothers – like Suzy – contribute special insight and experience to our college campuses and our society. Although many teen mothers face limited future prospects, Suzy only sees an unlimited future for her child – as a single mother, she’s in it for the long run.

   In "Heroes in a Broken Home," Sophie Frankpitt writes that over the last 25 years, the traditional structure of American family has made a dramatic change. More and more single mothers  prefer to remain unmarried, but many critics believe they are unequipped to effectively lead a family. An unfair stigma has been placed upon young mothers who seek to run their families on their own.  They are often judged to be selfish and irresponsible.  Research shows that many mothers face incredible odds.  For economic reasons, they won’t have the same resources to take care of their children.  In raising their families, single mothers often forfeit important educational opportunities. Without a diploma or a husband, these women will live in poverty for the rest of the lives. “Reducing teen pregnancy is not just a public health issue,” said Pam Kennedy, with Imperial  County’s Adolescent Family Life Program.   “It is an entire community-wide effort” (Morales.)   We are a border community.  A large percentage of families are immigrant families.  Parents work around the clock to build a better future for their children.  Young teen women know this. While birth control is very popular and accessible, there are many adolescents who go without it for fear of their parents finding out that they are sexually active.  In "Challenges Remain to Reduce Teen Pregnancy among Local Latinas," Julio Morales says sexual education in these parts is  both lacking at school and in the household. Parents simply tell their children sex is something they have to avoid, without offering much real advice. 

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This I believe: When they see their first pages arranged in their binder, they will feel the confidence to add on in the next class. When they look to the calendar of their assignments, they will MLA MINI DRAFT #2 - Paragraphs 4-7 - Quote Sandwich - Definition Paragraph - Interview Summary - This I Believe Conclusion. It's coming up FAST.  I tell them, "I CAN SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!"  It's bearing down on us like a Freight Train coming from the other direction. 

In Jay’s Community Profiles, we strive to open a greater discussion of social and political import.   With first-hand research of an uncle’s minimum-wage job experience in the fields, for example, a student can better address the issue of worker rights.  An interview with a former teacher can lead nicely into an insightful paper about educational reform.   Here is our goal: to provide our own commentary, questions, interpretations, clarifications or even feelings of what we have read and heard.  In other words, we take possession of our source and establish our presence in our papers.  I want to deepen my students’ involvement in their own education.  I want to give them their voice and a larger audience.  I want them to feel more a part of this campus.  The writing here reflects the diversity of student interest and concern regarding important issues in our community.

Jay's BURN ALL THE LIARS Post - Frances Farmer Biography - Shadowland - Kurt Cobain - Marilyn Monroe - The RISE and FALL of a Few SHOOTING STARS- Take Your Pick!

Frances Farmer was Marilyn Monroe before there was a Marilyn Monroe.  In the 1930s Frances was a beautiful and talented Hollywood actress who battled her studios for meaningful roles,only to encounter resistance from all sides.  I just read the William Arnold biography Shadowland. The author tries to capture the real Frances beyond the myths, lies, and slander in the headlines of the day.   It’s a tragic story.  From the time Frances was in high school, she was a glamourous and complicated young woman, outspoken and rebellious.   At age 17, she won a National Scholastic writing contest with her essay, "God Dies," for which she was awarded a free trip to to Stanislavsky’s Group Theater in Moscow, to Europe, and back.  This was in the middle of the first Big Red Scare,1919-1920, when many people in the United States feared the spread and infliltration of Communist dissidents and spies across their country. The fervent and sometimes hysterical Anti-Communist Seattle community wasn't too pleased to see one of their brightest teen-agers spouting what they deemed to be Soviet philosophy and propaganda. Frances's mother was at the front of the line. Lilian Farmer was a vociferous advocate for all parents who felt threatened by the radicalism of their children. Frances's behavior infuriated her mother. Frances's action embarassed her community.  They thought she was crazy.  They would do whatever they could to stop her from speaking out.  Whereas everyone will remember Frances by her photos and movie posters, she lived her life with a target on her back. 

Arnold shows Frances’s downward spiral from Golden-Era movie star to an alcoholic, amphetamine addicted, violent, unpredictable woman before they threw her into a Washington State mental hospital against her will.   Not much earlier, they were calling her another Greta Garbo (a legendary beauty of stage and screen.)  Now they were calling her manic depressive, psychotic, and dangerous.  Frances's own mother signed the papers that would give psychiatrists free reign over her daughter. In Shadowland, Arnold writes Lilian Farmer "was the kind of woman for whom being a mother was everything, and yet she would do things in the name of motherhood that seem almost unthinkable."  Arnold details the next seven years of Frances's life bouncing from one mental institution to another. In the 1940’s, patients in these types of institutions were treated with electro-shock therapy.  Moreover, Frances was often injected with overdoses of insulin to induce violent convulsions.  Her doctors thought that the trauma could jolt the brain and return her to "normal." 

  In the nineties, Seattle's own Kurt Kobain wrote a song about her: “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle.”  Clearly, Kurt felt a profound connection with Frances. He must have related to Frances’s struggles with corporate Hollywood.  All she wanted was a few intelligent roles – she saw herself as an aritist -  but the studios didn’t look beyond her body and/or face.  When she stood up to them, they labeled her a “troublemaker.”  Likewise,  Kurt was known for difficulties with his record labels. He felt like they were holding back his artistic potential. The music they wanted wasn’t the music he heard in his head.  Like Frances, his frutration pushed him to drugs and alcohol.   In his song for Frances, he sings the words,  “She’ll come back as fire and burn all the liars, leave a blanket of ash on the ground.”  He knew Frances’s pain.  He named his daughter afte her. Kurt died of a heroin overdose at age twenty-seven. 

Wait a moment - I know what you are thinking - One more Hollywood star moving a little too fast and rising a little to high before burning out.  It's the business they have chosen.   Why am I writing this now?  Late into her career, shortly before she died, Marilyn Monroe came dangerously close to finding herself in the same position as Frances.   Her last film, The Misfits,  didn’t come out the way she would have hoped.  She hated the story.  She hated her role. And she hated the writer – her husband Arthur Miller who she soon divorced.  Initially, Arthur Miller began his screenplay as a loving tribute to his wife, but somehow his love and admiration for Marilyn gradually faded through the pressure and demands of the re-write process.  Marilyn didn’t take it well.  On the set she was known to drink and drug to make it through the long, hot Nevada days.  Amphetimines to get up.  Barbituates to come down.  She began slurring her words and missing cues.   In fact, all work on The Misfits had to be suspended when Marilyn overdosed.

Here is where Marilyn’s troubles began to parallel Frances’s traumatic experiences. Marilyn’s time on The Misfits drove her into a deep depression. Upon her return to New York City, she agreed to commit herself to a mental hospital for rest and recuperation, but when they took her to her room, she quickly realized it was a padded cell. “I’m not crazy!  I’m not crazy.  They p-put me in a room with bars on the windows and they go out and lock the door…”   Can you imagine?  At the time, Marilyn may have been the most famous woman on the planet.  Once they walked her down the hall, beyond the view from the public, they headed for an isolation unit built from cement blocks, and threw her in, like the destitute or homeless off the street.  She found herself in a padded observation cell, doctors and nurses staring  at her through chicken wire glass windows.  The more she protested, all agreed the "crazier" she seemed.   Marilyn was forced to stay in this facility, without legal representation or outside contact, for four days, before she was able to contact her ex-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio. 

    Arnold believes that in 1948, Frances was submitted to a frontal lobatomy procedure at Western State Hospital by a celebrated neurologist. At the time, the treatment was new and revolutionary – the psychiatric community saw potential of the prefrontal lobotamy as a cure for schizophrenics, alcolholics, homosexuals.  Once the patient was anethesitized, the surgeon could enter a long, thin instrument – resembling an icepick – between a patient’s eye and eyelid.  

The whole operation could be performed in less than a few minutes. A trained surgeon could manipulate the tip of his instrument in a way to sever the nerves connecting the cortex with the thalmus. According to America's foremost psychosurgeon, Walter Freeman, the procedure was safer and more comfortable than a trip to the dentist. Witness testimony from Western State Hospital attests the doctor would line up 10 patients in a row on gurneys, in front of a live audience, and complete all the lobotomies in less than an hour.  He once said, "The patients for whom this operation brings the best results are those who are tortured with self-concern, who suffer from terribly painful, disabling self-conscioussness.  His description of the ideal patient just may have matched the description of Frances Farmer.  Moreover, Frances was a famous Hollywood movie actress.  In this case, Freeman's image of the ideal patient may have been the one who could bring him the most fame and fortune.  After the lobotomy, Frances would never be the same again.  She could never act with the same intelligence and/or emotion.  She couldn't memorize her lines.  She didn't care anymore.  To Freeman, his operation was a success.  No more trouble from Frances. 

Many of my students will have heard me speak to Marilyn’s childhood.  She was separated  at age four from her schizophrenic mother.  She never knew her father.  She had spent most of her life bouncing from one orphanage to foster family.  How does someone like that find the drive to become the most famous woman in the world?   Inside her cell at Payne Whitney, she must have felt abandoned and alone.   At that point, most of us would truly gave in, just curl up into a corner, but after a few days of thinking about it, Marilyn flashed back on a movie in which she played a sociopath, Don’t Bother to Knock.  In the final scene, Marilyn, the charcter, put a razor to her throat in front of oncoming police and threatened to kill herself.  Here, maybe 10 years later, she picked up chair from her room and began to bang it against the chicken-wire window until she could pick up a nice-sized piece of broken glass off the floor. “You want nuts,” she screamed.  “I’ll give you nuts.”  She held the sharp end of the glass and threatened everyone looking at her that if they wouldn’t let her loose, she would begin cutting the most famous face in the world.

Despite the objections of her doctors and their staff,bMarilyn was allowed to make a phone call to her ex-husband.  The same day, he flew up from Miami to threaten the hospital with legal action.  If they didn’t want to speak his lawyers, he would tear down the building brick-by -brick. Marilyn was finally granted her release thanks to the bravery and loyalty of Joe D.  Frances took the needle.  She had no one to help her. The only one she could call, her mother, may have been sicker than she was.