Group Presentations on Minion, by L.A. Banks

 Damali Richards, the Vampire Huntress. Illustration by Eric Battle.

Click here for a link to the Vampire Huntress series website, where you can learn more about the characters: Characters from the Vampire Huntress Series

Per the posted group presentation project guidelines, each group should be “divvying” up the work in terms of assigning group members to particular aspects of the project (researching and selecting thematic links to other works, passages of significance, overall design, image research, content and caption writing, selections for the Works Cited slide, group credits, etc.). The final PowerPoint presentation must be emailed to me by Monday, 4/19. Here are the groups for the PowerPoint presentations.

Group 1 – Alienation and Community

Keyonna Hill

Pamela Hunter

Michelle Johnson

Quadriyyah Shakoor

Zandra Thomas

Group 2 – Education and Intellectualism

Taquanah Anderson

Aaron Bailey

Bianca Dasne

Janere Davis

Joseph White

Group 3 – Faith and Religion

Melisa Gonzalez

Marteena Lisle

Amatullah Safir

Charlee Thompson

Ancin White

Group 4 – Gender and Sexuality

Amirah Hillman

Michelle Ruiz-Taylor

Alicia Stephens

Curline Stewart

Quiana Warner

Group 5 – Justice and Injustice

Jeff Desroches

Cecily Hillman’

Teri Hills

Sonia Saenz

Connie Smith

Group 6 – Radicalism and Rebellion

Annzhinga Bailey

Allyssa Bell

Darnell Huggins

Jon Olson

PowerPoint Project Guidelines for Group Presentations on Minion

Don't be afraid to sit awhile and think.

--Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

Final Project: Group PowerPoint Presentation on Minion (20 points)

The members of each group will focus on one of the sets of linked themes listed below, and to analyze those themes as delineated in L.A. Banks’s Minion. In addition, each group is expected to link their presentation to at least three other authors whose texts explore their linked themes, and utilize them in the overall presentation. As some of these themes overlap, you may also interweave some of the other relevant thematic discussions from other readings done during the semester into this group presentation.

Your major theme should be considered as the central, controlling idea of your piece—again, if you find that other themes of significance are surfacing and converging with your major theme as you develop your project, please note them. Your thesis should reflect your theme in a clear, well-articulated manner.

Linked themes:

1) Alienation and community

2) Education and intellectualism

3) Faith and religion

4) Gender relations, sexism, sexual exploitation, and sexuality

5) Justice and injustice

6) Radicalism and rebellion

You are encouraged to use video, film, photographs, text (including quotes from the text), and other documents to create a PowerPoint presentation of your work (maximum10 minutes in length). 

You must include a slide listing the “Credits,” i.e., the specific contribution made by each group member. In addition, you must create a Works Cited Page as the final slide of your presentation, using MLA-style. Refer to the MLA Style Guide on the course blog for MLA-style compliance. At our final class meeting, the group members will present their projects.  I encourage you to be as imaginative as possible with these presentations. 

Below is a list of the criteria for your PowerPoint, adapted from a rubric adapted from a former colleague.

Final Project Rubric for PowerPoint Presentation Photo-documentaries and Essay

The following categories provide a clear list of the elements that are expected in each group’s project, regardless of its form and purpose.  Use these criteria as a tool that will enable you, as the designer, to produce persuasive communication by means of innovation, creativity, and polished reflection.  Each of the categories is worth 4 points, for a total of 20 points of the final grade.

GROUP NAME_____________________________________

Thesis and Purpose:                                                                           Points_____

How clear is your thesis?  Is the topic compelling and relevant not only to your own interests but to an issue of larger significance?  How well do the images (photos, film, or other visuals) illustrate both the thesis and its related ideas in a cogent manner?

Composition:                                                                                      Points_____

Does the project follow a logical flow of thought?  Do these ideas transition well and are they well-supported by both visual and interpretive qualities?  Is the project free of grammatical errors and does it show familiarity with simple, compound, and complex sentence structures?  Can it be used as a model for other students in the future? 

Technical Image and Quality/Audio Recording and Editing:                   Points_____

How well have you operated your camera, produced high-quality digital files, or created high quality images?  This also includes how well you utilized the basic elements of photography, including lighting and composition, to make or choose the most interesting photographs possible.  Do the photographs demonstrate a variety of images and perspectives?  Do they seem to illustrate or create a pattern of thought?  How well have you recorded (or integrated) sound, including ambient sound and interviews, and how will have you edited the packaged product if sound is not provided?  How does the overall final project look, including captions, titles, transitions, audio, and image?

Caption Information and Presentation:                                                Points_____

Is there a clear integration of the visual and written composition of the final project?  How well have you complemented your images with written text?  How does the written text (approximately 750 – 900 words) act to amplify and enhance the quality of the project as a whole?  Are original insights supported by relevant research in your written text or is it merely expository? 

Individual Performance:                                                                      Points_____

TOTAL___________

Screening for 3/16 and 3/18: Marlon Riggs's "Black Is...Black Ain't"

This Tuesday and Thursday, we will view Marlon Riggs's 1994 documentary Black Is...Black Ain't. In addition, we have the following presentations--we will begin class with these.


Tuesday, 3/16
Rijbergen Desroches (Jeff): Bayard Rustin, "From Protest to Politics" (1965)


Tuesday, 3/23
Taquanah Anderson: Shirley Chisolm, "I Am for the Equal Rights Amendment" (1970)
Michelle Ruiz-Taylor: Barbara Jordan: "Who, Then, Will Speak to the Common Good?" (1976)

Below is a poem by black lesbian feminist poet and scholar Audre Lorde (1934-1992). Here is a link to more information on Lorde, her life, and her work: Voices From the Gap: Audre Lorde 


Coal
I
is the total black, being spoken
from the earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open
how a diamond comes into a knot of flame
how sound comes into a words, coloured
by who pays what for speaking.


Some words are open like a diamond
on glass windows
singing out within the crash of sun
Then there are words like stapled wagers
in a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—
and come whatever will all chances
the stub remains
an ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.
Some words live in my throat
breeding like adders. Other know sun
seeking like gypsies over my tongue
to explode through my lips
like young sparrows bursting from shell.
Some words
bedevil me


Love is word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes into a knot of flame
I am Black because I come from the earth's inside
Now take my word for jewel in the open light.
                                                           --Audre Lorde

Readings for 3/9 and 3/11: The Bluest Eye and The World and the Jug

African American girl, full-length portrait, seated on stool, facing slightly right. Photo by Thomas E. Askew. From Types of American Negroes, compiled and prepared by W.E.B. Du Bois, v. 1, no. 59. Part of the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Literary/Textual Analysis Quiz #3

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye:

Write an essay of between 300-500 words (2 pages—MAXIMUM) in answer to the following question.  
DUE TUESDAY, MARCH 9th, 2010--at the BEGINNING of class.

In author Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, shame and internalized racial self-hatred are motivating factors in the actions of some of the major characters we meet in the first 93 pages. Discuss how these self-destructive factors manifest themselves in two (2) of the following characters: Junior, Pecola, Geraldine, Cholly. Please base your response on textual evidence and quotes from the text. I am not asking you for your opinion in the absence of reasoned analysis, although you are free to include a final personal observation at the end of your essay. For this quiz, please paraphrase and include only page numbers, MLA-style. Ex: (54).

Discussion

Ellison's "The World and the Jug" 

We will discuss Ellison's major argument in this seminal essay on Thursday, as we continue to discussion the Morrison novel. Please come prepared to participate. 

Presentations This Week

  

Tuesday, 3/9

Joseph White: Marcus Garvey, "The Principles of the U.N.I.A." (1922)

Ancin White, Jr.: Ralph J. Bunche, "The Barriers of Race Can Be Surmounted" (1949) 
Melisa Gonzalez: Charlotta Bass, "Acceptance Speech for V-Presidential Candidate..." (1952)


Thursday, 3/11

Bianca Dasne: Malcolm X, "Exhorting Afro-Americans to Confront White Oppression" (1965)
Darnell Huggins: Stokely Carmichael, "Definitions of Black Power" (1966)

 

Readings for 2/23 and 2/25: Morrison and Ellison

Novelist, essayist, professor, and literary critic Toni Morrison (b. 1931)

On Tuesday, 2/23, we will finish Nella Larsen’s Passing—for more background on the literary movement popularly regarded as the “Harlem Renaissance,” please click on the link below to be directed to the online site PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project, created by Dr. Paul P. Reuben.
 

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/chap9.html

I also asked you to read up to p. 58 of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. I will have handouts of the seminal Ellison essay, “The World and the Jug.” I am shifting the Audre Lorde selections to Tuesday, 3/16.

PRESENTATIONS THIS WEEK:

Tuesday, 2/23

Keyonna Hill: Booker T. Washington, "The Atlanta Compromise Speech" (1895)

Cecily Hillman: John H. Smyth, "The African in Africa and the African in America" (1895)


Thursday, 2/25

Pamela Hunter: Mary Church Terrell, "In Union There is Strength" (1897)

Quiana Warner: Alexander Crummell, "The Attitude of the American Mind..." (1898)

Teri Hills: Lucy Craft Laney, "The Burden of the Educated Colored Woman" (1899)

Guidelines for English 238 Final Research Paper

Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994), novelist, essayist, and literary critic. Author of Invisible Man, Juneteenth, and Three Days Before the Shooting, and the essay collections Shadow and Act and Going to the Territory.

ASSIGNMENT: You will write a final essay of 6-8 pages, allowing you the luxury of extended thought and discussion of a dominant theme in one of the semester’s readings or on one of the major works we have read (Ex: Passing, The Bluest Eye). This essay will be written utilizing Modern Language Association guidelines. We will have a brief “brainstorming” session on Tuesday, 3/23 to assist you in developing a topic and focus for your final paper.

CORRECTION: THIS PAPER IS DUE ON TUESDAY, 4/20. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. (corrected by Prof. Williams, 3/28/10)

This paper will be due on Tuesday, 4/6. Any paper submitted after this date will result in a loss of 5 points per class meeting day overdue (ex: submitted by Thursday, 4/8 for a possible maximum of 25 pts; submitted by Tuesday, 4/13 for a possible maximum of 20 pts). You may submit your paper early. NO papers will be accepted after Tuesday, 4/13/10.

Sample themes: abolitionism, accommodationism, adventure, aesthetics, alienation, childhood, class distinctions, colorism/color consciousness, community, corporeality, education, equality, family, femininity, feminism, freedom, gender roles, hypocrisy, individuality, integration, intellectualism, interracialism, law, literacy, masculinity, morality, passing, poverty, race relations, racism, radicalism, rebellion, religion, repatriation, responsibility, revolution, science, segregation, separatism, sexism, sexual exploitation, sexuality, slavery, stereotyping, violence. Some of these themes overlap—your thesis should reflect your theme in a clear, well-articulated manner.

The paper will follow MLA guidelines in matters of form (see MLA in-text citation style below—for complete MLA style, click at left on course blog), and it will contain a Works Cited Page, in-text citations to those sources, and a complete outline. 

If you wish to (not mandatory), you may turn in a typed draft of the research paper by Thursday, 4/1 for a quick review. This will be quickly scanned during class for structure and documentation and returned to you. You must use a total of ten (10) in-text citations from at least five (5) sources, in any combination, for your essay.

For this final research paper, YOU MAY NOT USE the following as sources, as they are NOT considered scholarly works: SparkNotes, CliffsNotes, ClassicNotes, Enotes, GradeSaver, or any other student guides.

A Wikipedia entry may NOT be used as a source—however, if the “Source” section of a Wikipedia entry contains a scholarly work (a journal article or academic book) that you want to quote from in your paper, you are free to retrieve the work from the library (hard copy or from a database) and incorporate it into your paper.

YOUR PAPER WILL BE GRADED ON CONTENT AND MECHANICS 

(see Student Checklist for Papers). 

ANY INSTANCE OF PLAGIARISM IN THE RESEARCH PAPER WILL RESULT IN AN “F” ON THE ENTIRE PAPER WITH NO POSSIBILITY FOR REVISION.

_____________________________________________________________________

SUBMISSION DATES

ABSTRACT: Students must present a one paragraph abstract of approximately 75-100 words summarizing the paper and how he or she plans to proceed, detailing the following: Why you chose it; what is important about it; what you intend to examine; what library resources you intend to use to complete the assignment. Due Tuesday, 3/23

BIBLIOGRAPHY: You must present a Bibliography of sources (books, journal articles, newspaper articles, media sources, Internet sources) that you think you be using for your research paper. The page will consist of no fewer than five (5) outside sources. At least three (3) of the sources must come from scholarly books or articles on the main topic. Internet sources can comprise no more than two (2) of the sources. 

Due Tuesday, 3/30

OUTLINE: An outline is required as part of the grade for the research paper. This outline must directly correspond to the research paper. 

Due Tuesday, 3/30

DUE DATE for Research Paper (with final Works Cited page): Tuesday, 4/6.

ANY PAPER SUBMITTED AFTER THIS DATE WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF 5 POINTS PER CLASS MEETING DAY OVERDUE. NO PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER TUESDAY, 4/13/10. NO EXCEPTIONS. PAPERS MAY BE SUBMITTED EARLY.

Requirements for Individual Presentations

Portrait of Knoxville College Glee Club, ca. 1880s.
 
Regarding the requirements for the presentations--the objective of the assignment is to present the work in such a way as to heighten the class’s interest in learning more about the author or the topic presented in the text. I mentioned the guidelines in class numerous times, and I posted them on the course blog. Several of you lost 2 points of credit for not completing the assignment as instructed. Here are the instructions again:

Please provide a one-page handout containing the title of the speech and its author, along with one or two passages which exemplify the major theme of the piece. This handout should include at least 3 educational/scholarly links  to more information about the author (such as an online bibliography, collected works, etc.).

You must provide a brief overview of the piece, as well as some analysis as to why you think the work is of continuing literary/historic value.

If you send it to me in advance (by 12:00 NOON the day of your presentation), I will make copies for the class so that you don't have to spend money on copies. Do NOT print out or send the speech--all the students in the class have access to the original speech online. Just send the one-page handout as a Word Document.

If you choose NOT to provide the handout, you will automatically lose 2 points, so you will only be eligible to earn up to 8 of the 10 points--the choice is yours.

Class will begin with the delivery of the presentations, so come to class on time.

*There will be no make-up allowed for this presentation, which is worth 10 points.*

Best,

Prof. Williams  

P.S. Please spare me stories of technical difficulties--you all have plenty of time to get this done--thanks!