Sabatino Mangini
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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, p
lease 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)
  • ​Assignment Topic: Writing Process Roundtable
  • Assignment Focus: Writing Process
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Print out, read, and annotate these texts:
      • Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray)
      • Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr) ​​
      • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | pp. 28 -34 | Short Assignments & Shitty First Drafts (Anne Lamott)
    • 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:
      • https://juliapeabody.weebly.com/blog/category/writing-process
      • https://dhedges.weebly.com/blog/writing-process-round-table
      • ​https://dweavercooke.weebly.com/blog/category/the-writing-process
      • https://nadiiapynkivska.weebly.com/blog/category/writing-process

​Week 2
​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:
      • To You, I Belong (Becky Thompson)
      • College Writing Tips: How to Write a Good Literacy Narrative
      • Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives
    • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Composing an Emotional Scene
  • Assignment Focus: ​Emotional Life Scene
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • ​Print out, read, and annotate these texts:
      • ​What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind)
      • Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin)
      • My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou)
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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*
  • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Midterm Reflection 
  • Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Interpret these texts:
      • Reflective Writing
      • ​Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection
      • Genre How-To: Write a Letter
    • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Week 10 Reflection 
  • Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Interpret these texts:
      • Reflective Writing
      • ​Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection​
    • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Week 11 Reflection 
  • Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Interpret these texts:
      • Reflective Writing
      • ​Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection​
    • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Week 12 Reflection 
  • Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Interpret these texts:
      • Reflective Writing
      • ​Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection​
    • 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
  • Assignment Topic: Week 12 Reflection 
  • Assignment Focus: Growth as a Writer in this Course
  • Assignment Process: Please complete the following:
    • Interpret these texts:
      • Reflective Writing
      • ​Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection​
    • 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.
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