Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Sample Literacy Narratives . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, we will examine “Creativity is Key,” which you read and annotated for today. In groups, you and two or three of your classmates will compose a brief written assessment of the essay and determine a letter grade for it, based on the assignment guidelines and grade criteria.

Once you have evaluated “Creativity is Key,” we will discuss it as a class. After that, I will distribute copies of a second student literacy narrative for you to read, assess, and grade.

For your reference, your group worksheet lists the literacy narrative’s guidelines and grade criteria, which also appear below.

Guidelines

The focus should be one of the following:

  • A memory of a reading or writing assignment that you recall vividly 
  • Someone who helped you learn to read or write
  • A writing-related school event that you found humorous or embarrassing
  • A particular type of writing that you found (or still find) challenging
  • A memento that represents an important moment in your development as a reader or writer
  • Learning a second language

The narrative should be a well-told story that includes the following elements:

  • Vivid detail
  • Some indication of the narrative’s significance
  • A minimum of 600 words
  • A title that offers a window into your essay (It should not be titled “Literacy Narrative.”)

All three major writing assignments for English 1103, including the literacy narrative, must comply with MLA style guidelines.

Grade Criteria

  • An A literacy narrative complies with all assignment guidelines: It presents a well-told story, includes vivid details, and conveys the story’s significance in a way that demonstrates a depth of understanding. An A literacy narrative is also well-organized and relatively free of surface errors.
  • A B literacy narrative complies with all assignment guidelines but may convey the significance of the story superficially, may have organization issues, or may be flawed by surface errors.
  • A C literacy narrative complies with most but not all assignment guidelines and may be flawed by organization issues and/or surface errors.
  • A D literacy narrative complies with only a few of the assignment guidelines and may also be flawed by organization issues and/or surface errors.
  • An F literacy narrative fails to comply with most or all assignment guidelines and may also be flawed by substantial issues of organization and/or surface errors.

Scrabble Debriefing, continued

Today’s Scrabble debriefing will continue with a study of some of the plays in the games pictured below. Answers to the questions that I pose about those plays are included at the end of the post.

Acronyms: To Act or Not to Act?

If you have the letters to form an acronym, should you act on it? Each of the following two games includes an acronym. In the first game, the acronym appears once. In the second game, the same acronym was played twice, once using a blank tile. What is an acronym, and are the acronyms below playable in Scrabble?

When You Draw a Blank

In the game below, a team used a blank on a bonus square to score a two-letter double-word play with the letter a. Although that play is permissible, it isn’t advisable. Why should the team have chosen a different play? The game also includes four unplayable words. The fourth unplayable word was formed by pluralizing (adding s) to an unplayable word.

Assessing S

In the game that follows, a team played two s tiles to form the single word toss. The play is similar to the play of blank in the previous game because although the play is permissible, it isn’t advisable. Why should the team have chosen a different play?

The Long and Short of It

The word vigorous in the game below was formed by adding “o-u-s” to vigor, yet another play that is permissible but not advisable. Why should the team have chosen a different play? Consider that the words duo and tour had already been played–and what letter had not been played?

Three Letters, Three Words

In the game below, in one play, a team formed one of the two-letter b words featured in Friday’s post, along with two other words for a total of forty-eight points. What is the two-letter b word and what are the other two?

Up Next

Wednesday will be devoted to revision work. I will return your literacy narrative drafts, and you will then have the remainder of the class period to begin revising on your laptops. You will have an additional week to continue revising before posting to Blackboard and WordPress. The due date for your literacy narrative is Wednesday, September 9, before class; the hard deadline is Friday, September 11, before class.

Answers

  • Acronyms: To Act or Not to Act? An acronym is a series of letters in which each letter is the first letter in a word. For example, NASA is an acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Acronyms are not playable in Scrabble. MIA, which was played in the first game, is an acronym for missing in action. Note that the word bon–playable in French Scrabble but not in the North American game–was also played. IQ, which was played twice in the second game, once with a blank, is an acronym for intelligence quotient.
  • When You Draw a Blank: Though the blank tile followed by the a can form many permissible two-letter words, it earns the team only two points for the double-word play. In all likelihood, the team could have scored more points elsewhere by playing one or more lettered tiles. Keep in mind that a blank can be used as any letter, but it has no point value. Also note that four unplayable words were played in the same game: taft, ea, df, and tafts.
  • Assessing S: Playing toss for six points is permissible but not advisable because the team probably could have earned six or more points by playing other letters and saving the two s tiles for higher-scoring words. Also, the placement of toss offers the opposing team the opportunity to make a triple-word play on the bottom row.
  • The Long and Short of It: Playing vigorous was a risky move that only gained the team thirteen points. It was a risky play because two of the four u tiles had been used (to form tour and duo), and the q had not been played. Even if the team could not score as many as thirteen points elsewhere, a lower-scoring play would have been preferable to losing a u and an s for a gain of only thirteen.
  • Three Letters, Three Words: One team’s knowledge of the two-letter word bi in last Friday’s post enabled its players to form three words in a single play: fix, bi, and ox, which earned the team a double double-word score for fix and ox with the x on the double-word square. That double double-word score and the additional word bi earned the team forty-eight points for a turn in which they played only three letters. The unplayable word pedels–a misspelling of pedals, perhaps–was played later in the game.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Two-Letter Words, B-E . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

The first Scrabble blog post of the semester featured playable two-letter words beginning with a. Learning those two-letter words, as well as the others that follow in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and can increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

Here’s a list of the playable words beginning with b, d, and e:

  • ba: the soul in ancient Egyptian spirituality
  • bi: a bisexual
  • bo: a pal
  • by: a side issue
  • de: of, from
  • do: to perform, also a tone on a scale
  • ed: education
  • ef: the letter f (also eff)
  • eh: used to express doubt
  • el: an elevated train
  • em: the letter m
  • en: the letter n
  • er: used to express hesitation
  • es: the letter s
  • et: a past tense of eat
  • ex: the letter x

When in Doubt . . .

Consult the guidelines (in the game box) if you are unsure whether an action is permissible in gameplay. An additional copy of the guidelines follows.

Scrabble Guidelines

  • Do not let your opponents know which letters are on your rack. Whenever possible, communicate with your teammate nonverbally by pointing to the letters and rearranging them on the rack. If you need to refer out loud to letters on your rack, refer to them as “this one, that one . . . .”
  • Do not say the definition of a word aloud. If you play a word and your opponents question its validity, do not provide the definition. Definitions can be provided only in the event of a challenge. See the note below regarding challenges. Also, note that you will have the opportunity on your own after class to look up the meanings of any unfamiliar words played by your opponents or recommended by your teammate and subsequently played by the two of you. You will also have the chance to look up definitions during your Monday debriefings.
  • If you think your opponents have played a word that isn’t permissible, such as a misspelled word or a proper noun, tell me that you have a challenge. I will consult the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary to determine whether the word in question is playable and will provide the definition. If the challenged word isn’t playable, the team that set it down loses a turn. Conversely, if the challenged word is playable, the team that called the challenge loses a turn.
  • If any group member’s smartphone or laptop is in evidence during the game, immediately tell that person to put it away. The presence of any player’s digital device is a foul—as is providing a definition or otherwise offering unauthorized assistance—and fouls come with penalties, five points each.

Repetition, Plurals, and Competitive Scrabble

Fatsis, Stefan. Word Freak. 2001. Penguin, 2002.

One question raised during last Friday’s Scrabble games was whether a team can play a word that has already been played, either by that team or the opponent. The answer is yes; you can play the same word multiple times in a single game. Scrabble has no rule prohibiting repetition.

Another question raised was whether you can play plurals. You can, but unless playing the letter s enables you to form multiple words in a single play and earn a substantially higher score, keeping the s tile on your rack (for a higher score in a later play) is a better option.

Are there Scrabble tournaments? That’s another question asked last Friday. Yes, hardcore players do compete in tournaments, and journalist Stefan Fatsis’ book Word Freak (pictured above) documents his immersion in the competitive Scrabble subculture.

Competitive Scrabble is also chronicled in the documentary film Word Wars (2004).

Next Up

On Monday, we will examine “Creativity is Key,” the sample student literacy narrative that I will distribute today. In class on Monday, I will distribute a second student literacy narrative, and in groups, you and your classmates will assess the two. If you were absent today or misplaced your copy of “Creativity is Key,” download a copy from Blackboard and print it.

Coming Soon

Next Wednesday will be devoted to revision work. I will return your literacy narrative drafts, and you will then have the remainder of the class period to begin revising on your laptops. You will have an additional week to continue revising before posting to Blackboard and WordPress. The due date for your literacy narrative is Wednesday, September 9, before class; the hard deadline is Friday, September 11, before class.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Lessons in Summary, Scene, and Dialogue from Harper Lee . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday, before you began drafting your literacy narrative, we examined a page (pictured above) from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. That page from the first chapter serves as a valuable model for three narrative elements: summary, scene, and dialogue–at least two of which will figure in your literacy narrative.

The first paragraph of the passage summarizes the characters’ circumstances, designating the “summertime boundaries” (12) within which the narrator, Jean Louise, “Scout,” Finch, and her older brother, Jem, may play outdoors. The short one-sentence paragraph that follows continues the summary, informing readers that the summer Scout has just summarized is the one in which Dill (Charles Baker Harris) first visits Maycomb, Alabama.

With the first words of the next paragraph, “[e]arly one morning,” Scout shifts from summary to scene (12). All of the remaining paragraphs except the final one continue the scene with dialogue. Scout returns to summary with the words “Dill was from Meridian” (12).

Note that Harper Lee begins a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes. Also note that every line of dialogue does not include a dialogue tag, such as “he said” or “she said.” If a passage of dialogue includes only two speakers, none of the paragraphs require dialogue tags after the speakers’ first lines because the start of a new paragraph signals to the reader that the other person is speaking. If a dialogue includes three or more speakers–such as Scout’s conversation with Jem and Dill–occasional tags are essential.

Lessons in Punctuation

The excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird also demonstrates how to use a variety of punctuation marks, including em dashes, hyphens, and commas.

  • Harper Lee uses em dashes to set off “Miss Rachel’s rat terrier was expecting” (12) from the rest of the sentence because it is nonessential. It adds details, but the sentence can function without them. An em dash is used before and after phrases that are nonessential. Note that there is no space before or after the dash, which is made with two strikes of the hyphen key.
  • Jem asks if Dill is “four-and-a-half”? Hyphens appear between those words because multiple-word numbers, such as ages, are hyphenated. The numbers twenty-one through ninety-nine are hyphenated as well.
  • Near the end of the excerpt, “Mississippi” and “Miss Rachel” (12) are both set off by commas because those details are nonessential. Commas are used to set off single words and short phrases of nonessentials the way that em dashes are used to set off longer units of words.

Work Cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, 1960. p. 12.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes on the game and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: A First Glimpse of Keller, Beginning Your Literacy Narrative . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning at the beginning of class, we will examine the literacy narrative that you read for today, “The Day Language Came into My Life,” which is the fourth chapter of Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life.

Together, Sedaris‘s essay and Keller’s chapter demonstrate two vastly different ways to present a literacy narrative. “Me Talk Pretty One Day” offers a quirky look at the challenges of learning French from a sarcastic, soul-crushing instructor. Keller’s story poignantly recounts learning to make meaning of the world through sign language.

After we discuss Keller’s chapter, you will begin planning and drafting your first essay assignment, a literacy narrative: an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language.

Directions

Begin by asking yourself this question: What were some of my most formative experiences as a reader, a writer, or a language learner? Freewrite on those, then choose one to bring to life. Your aim is to recreate your experience on the page and reflect on its significance. Your focus may be any one of the following:

  • A memory of a reading or writing assignment that you recall vividly  
  • Someone who helped you learn to read or write
  • A writing-related school event that you found humorous or embarrassing
  • A particular type of writing that you found (or still find) challenging
  • A memento that represents an important moment in your development as a reader or writer
  • Learning a second language

Your literacy narrative should be a well-told story that includes these elements:

  • Vivid detail
  • Some indication of the narrative’s significance
  • A minimum of 600 words
  • A title that offers a window into your essay (It should not be titled “Literacy Narrative.”)

Detailed instructions are included in the assignment handout that you will receive in class today. An additional copy is posted on Blackboard in the Major Paper Assignments folder.

Quiz Follow-Up

Rather than listing the answers to the questions on Monday’s quiz, I have followed each question below with a note regarding where to find the answer. By finding the answers yourself, you will learn more than you would from simply reading them in a list.

  1. How is David Sedaris different from his classmates, or how does he perceive himself as different from them? See pages 166-67 of “Me Talk Pretty One Day.”
  2. What style will you use for formatting files and documenting sources in papers for English 1103 and many other courses in the humanities (philosophy, classics, religious studies, art history, and foreign languages)? See the August 20 class notes.
  3. What is one of the formatting requirements for the style you will use for your papers in English 1103? See the August 20 class notes.

Your quiz also included a bonus opportunity. Possible answers for that bonus are found in the class notes for August 20 and 21.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, review Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble Word Finder page, your journal notes on the game, and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble.

Postscript: Dolly Parton (January 19, 1946-August 25, 2026)

Dolly Parton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Parton

It’s fitting that you began your literacy narratives on a day when we are remembering a woman who created one of the largest book-giving programs in the world. Although she is known primarily as a country music icon–and songwriter, actress, producer, and entrepreneur–she was also a philanthropist whose Imagination Library, founded in 1995, has given more than a million books to children in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Australia. Children enrolled in the program receive one book per month from birth to five years regardless of their family’s income. Rest in peace, Dolly. Your artistry and philanthropy have made the world a better place.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: A Second Look at Sedaris . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, we examined David Sedaris‘s essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” and you and two or three of your classmates collaborated on an exercise that involved identifying an instance of tension in the essay. Locating such a moment in another writer’s work provides you with a model for creating tension in your own story, which is key to maintaining the reader’s interest and propelling the narrative forward.

As models for you, I included the examples below on your worksheet.

Examples

  • In “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” David Sedaris introduces tension when he writes, “the students exhibited an ease and confidence I found intimidating” (167).
  • In “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” the author introduces tension when he writes, “the students exhibited an ease and confidence I found intimidating” (Sedaris 167).

I included two examples because the correct format for the citation is determined by the content of the sentence, specifically, whether the author is named. The first example includes only the page number in parentheses because the author is named in the sentence. The second example includes the author’s name in parentheses because he is not named in the sentence. Including the author’s name in both places would be redundant.

Here are some of the instances of tension that you identified in “Me Talk Pretty One Day”:

Moments of Tension in “Me Talk Pretty One Day”

  • The French teacher asks the Yugoslavian student if she “love[d] your little war” (Sedaris 169).
  • Sedaris conveys the underlying pressure in the classroom when he recounts how “the optimist struggled to defend herself” (169).
  • The author renders tension when he writes, “‘I hate you,’ she said to me one afternoon. Her English was flawless . . . I couldn’t help but take it personally” (Sedaris 171).
  • Sedaris notes, “The teacher, through word and action, conveyed the message that if this was my idea of an identity, she wanted nothing to do with it” (171).
  • The writer recalls that “[His] fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of the classroom” (Sedaris 171).
  • The narrator observes, “the teacher hadn’t meant to stab the girl, but neither did she spend much time apologizing” (Sedaris 172).

Talking Points

Your groups also identified a minimum of three talking points in Sedaris’s essay, parts of the narrative you had questions about, or any passages that you deemed particularly interesting or revealing. Section one did not have time for post-exercise discussion. In section eight, a student addressed Sedaris’s use of gibberish, or nonsense words, such as “meimslsxp” (167), as an effective way to convey Sedaris’s utter lack of understanding of his French teacher’s speech.

Nonsense Words and Italics

If you include nonsense words in your literacy narrative or any words in a language other than English, those words should be italicized because MLA style requires that words in languages other than English be italicized. See the examples in “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” beginning on page 167.

Figurative Language

One of the notable features of Sedaris’s writing is his use of figurative speech, including metaphor (direct comparison), simile (a comparison using like or as), and hyperbole (extreme exaggeration):

  • Metaphor: “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (Sedaris 167).
  • Simile: “like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets” (Sedaris 168).
  • Hyperbole: “front teeth the size of tombstones” (Sedaris 168).

Work Cited

Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little Brown, 2000. pp. 166-73.

“What’s in a Name” Follow-Up

Friday’s blog entry offered a bonus assignment credit to any student who posted a response identifying the classmates whose names are also common nouns, which makes them playable Scrabble words.

The playable names of your classmates appear below in bold, followed by the definitions in parentheses.

Section 1

  • Grace (ease and fluidity of movement) Duffy
  • Brenna Murphy (a potato)
  • Bridgett Murphy (a potato)
  • Hayden Porter (a person who carries baggage)
  • Will (used to express futurity) Roberts
  • Madi Stone (a piece of rock)

Section 8

  • Dev (deva, a Hindu god) Broomer
  • Parker (one who parks) Davenport (a small desk or large upholstered sofa)
  • Ariana Foy (a farewell feast or gift)
  • Devyn Jones (a craving)
  • Lance (a spear-like weapon) Morgan (a unit of distance between two genes)
  • Cole (a plant of the cabbage family) Wilhelmsen

Kudos to Avery Broadbent, Madison Haugk, Vivian Laliberte, Michael McNamara, Layla Rothberg, and Alexis Zavalashin for identifying your classmates’ playable names. For their efforts, they will receive bonus assignment credit in the short assignments and participation category.

I will offer additional bonus assignments, so be on the lookout for those. Reading all the notes that I post for you here, on my blog, will ensure that you don’t miss those opportunities.

Using AI Ethically for Your Literacy Narrative

Using generative AI to write your literacy narrative and presenting an AI agent’s words as your own violates High Point University’s Honor Code and is grounds for an F. However, there are ethical ways to use AI for your literacy narrative, such as for brainstorming topics.

As a model for your own possible brainstorming with AI, I prompted ChatGPT to ask me a series of questions to help me decide which one of two events I might be able to render more vividly in a literacy narrative: (1) “reading” the panels of the comic strip Henry (before I could read words) as a way of joining my family’s ritual of newspaper reading, and (2) memorizing my lines for a play in which my character, María, speaks solely in Spanish. The images below are screenshots of that conversation.

Screenshot of ChatGPT Plus conversation.

Review the screenshot above and note how many specifics I offer about the two topics I’m considering and how I ask the AI agent to ask me a series of questions. Developing your initial question and requesting multiple questions in response will lead to a more productive exchange of ideas.

Question six, pictured above, and my answer serve as a key turning point in the conversation. Earlier questions posed by the AI agent asked me for details about the two experiences. Here I turn from focusing on the setting of the first of the two (my family’s den) and the action (“reading” Henry) to the implications. What was the moment of recognition or revelation? What was the significance of the event? Those are questions you will answer–not necessarily explicitly but implicitly–in the conclusion of your narrative.

In response to my answer to question six, pictured above, the AI agent raises another important point: In addition to conveying the importance of the experience, I need to be able to enter the mind of that earlier self, that preschooler who could not read yet.

In response to my answer to question seven, pictured above, the AI agent clearly delineates the differences between the two experiences and notes that both “have a clear desire and obstacle.” When you are planning your literacy narrative, ask yourself, what did I want, and what might have prevented me from getting it? Desires and obstacles figure in all compelling stories.

Question eight, pictured above, asks me to make a “quick mental inventory” of the sensory details from each experience, another important step in the writing process. Those particulars will enable readers to enter into the memory with you, as if they are looking over your shoulder. You may not remember many sensory details now, but trust the process. The more you think about the experience and put your thoughts on paper, the more you will recall.

You are welcome to use ChatGPT, as I have here, or one of the other AI agents, such as Anthropic’s Claude, Microsoft 365’s Copilot, or Google’s Gemini, but remember that the words of your literacy narrative must be your own. If you think brainstorming with an AI agent will tempt you to seek an AI-generated literacy narrative, do not use AI. Instead, brainstorm with a classmate or a consultant at HPU’s Writing Center.

Congratulations to Bridgett Murphy and Sophia Stewart for winning copies of Me Talk Pretty One Day in yesterday’s drawing.

Next Up

In class tomorrow, you will begin drafting your literacy narrative, an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language. As part of your prewriting process, revisit “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and consider how you might incorporate some of the elements David Sedaris includes. Repeat the process with Helen Keller’s “The Day Language Came into My Life” when you read and annotate it.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: David Sedaris’s “Me Talk Pretty One Day” . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, we will examine David Sedaris‘s essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” and you and two or three of your classmates will collaborate on an exercise that involves identifying an instance of tension in the essay. Locating such a moment in another writer’s work provides you with a model for creating tension in your own story, which is key to maintaining the reader’s interest and propelling the narrative forward.

Your group will also identify a minimum of three talking points in Sedaris’s essay. Those points may concern any parts of the narrative you have questions about or any passages that you deem particularly interesting or revealing. I will include those points in tomorrow’s class notes.

Sedaris rose to prominence in 1992 after National Public Radio broadcast his essay “Santaland Diaries,” which chronicles his stint as an elf at Macy’s flagship store in New York. That essay is included in his collection Holidays on Ice (1997). “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is the title essay in his 2000 collection, which you will have the opportunity to win in today’s class drawing.

Sedaris’s current reading tour includes a performance at Greensboro’s Tanger Center on October 28.

Scrabble Debriefings

Starting today, at the beginning of class on Mondays, I will return your Scrabble score sheets from Friday, and you and your group members will participate in a Scrabble debriefing in which you will (1) review and discuss your game, and (2) individually compose journal entries on the game. Questions to address include, but are not limited to, the ones on the handout that I will distribute this morning in class. Those questions for consideration are also listed below.

  • Did you learn any new words from your teammate or from your opponents? If so, what were they? If you did not look up their meanings after class and record them in your journal, look them up and record their meanings now.
  • What plays involved analyzing multiple options? Did your team opt not to make the highest-scoring play possible in order to either (1) block your opponent, or (2) keep letters that might enable you to score more points later?
  • Where did creative problem-solving figure in the game? If your team had a rack of all consonants or vowels–or mostly consonants or vowels–how were you able to advance the game by playing only one or two letters?
  • What was the largest number of words formed in a single play and what were they?
  • Scrabble, like writing, is a process of composing, only the board game involves composing smaller units, words rather than sentences and paragraphs. What parallels, if any, can you draw between your Scrabble play and your writing process?

You will have the opportunity to draw on the journal entries that you write during debriefings when you compose your midterm and final reflections for the course. If you choose Scrabble as the focus of your annotated bibliography and preface, you may incorporate portions of your Scrabble debriefings into that assignment as well.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will begin drafting your first major writing assignment longhand. The assignment, a literacy narrative, is an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language. As part of your prewriting process, look back at “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and consider how you might incorporate some of the same elements David Sedaris includes.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: “What’s in a Name?”

Posted on by janemlucas
Section 1 (L-R): Bridgett Murphy, Oliver Henderson, Michael McNamara, Claire Jahnke

To help us put names with faces, I have included in this post pictures of all of you in sections one and eight with picture captions that list your names. I encourage you to review this page frequently. In between the pictures, I have included lists of first names that are also common nouns, making them playable in Scrabble.

  • Al: a type of East Indian tree
  • Alan: a breed of hunting dog (also aland, alant)
  • Alec: a herring
  • Ally: an advocate
  • Ana: a collection of miscellany about a specific topic
  • Ananda: extreme happiness
  • Anna: a former Indian coin
  • Ava: at all, of all
Section 1 (L-R): Kel Wadley, Grace Duffy, Hayden Porter, Sebastian Olander
  • Bailey: an outer castle wall
  • Barbie: a barbecue
  • Belle: a pretty woman
  • Ben: an inner room
  • Benny: an amphetamine pill
  • Bertha: a style of wide collar
  • Beth: a Hebrew letter
  • Biff: to hit
  • Bill: to charge for goods
  • Billy: a short club
  • Bo: a friend
  • Bobby: a policeman
  • Bonnie: pretty (also bonny)
  • Brad: a small nail or tack
  • Brock: a badger
Section 1 (L-R): Alexis Zavalishin, Baylee Shattenberg, Nicole Halucka, Ryder Pitek
  • Calla: a tropical plant
  • Cam: a rotating or sliding piece of machinery
  • Carl: a peasant or manual laborer (also carle)
  • Carol: to sing merrily
  • Celeste: a percussive keyboard instrument (also celesta)
  • Chad: a scrap of paper
  • Charlie: a fool
  • Chase: to pursue
  • Chevy: to chase (also chivy)
  • Christie: a type of turn in skiing (also christy)
  • Clarence: an enclosed carriage
  • Cole: a plant of the cabbage family
  • Dalton: a unit of atomic mass
  • Dagwood: a large, stuffed sandwich
  • Daphne: a flowering shrub with poisonous berries
  • Davy: a safety lamp
  • Deb: a debutante
  • Dev: deva, a Hindu god
  • Devon: a breed of cattle
  • Dexter: located to the right
  • Dom: a title given to some monks
  • Don: to put on a piece of clothing
  • Donna: an Italian woman of repute
  • Erica: a shrub of the heath family
Section 1 (L-R): Madi Stone, Brenna Murphy, Gavin Godfrey-Ryan
  • Fay: to join together closely
  • Florence: a former European gold coin
  • Franklin: a nonnoble medieval English landowner
  • Fritz: a nonworking or semi-functioning state
  • Gi: a white garment worn in martial arts
  • Gilbert: a unit of magneto-motive force
  • Gilly: to transport on a type of train car
  • Grace: ease and fluidity of movement or manner
  • Graham: whole-wheat flour
  • Hank: to secure a sail
  • Haven: a shelter
  • Henry: a unit of electric inductance
  • Herby: full of herbs
  • Jack: to hoist with a type of lever
  • Jacky: a sailor
  • Jake: okay, satisfactory
  • Jane: a girl or woman
  • Jay: any of various birds, known for their crests and shrill calls
  • Jean: denim
  • Jenny: a female donkey
  • Jerry: a German soldier
  • Jess: to fasten a strap around the leg of a bird in falconry (also Jesse)
Section 1 (L-R): Madison Haugk, Kai Jarvis, Olivia Lavallee
  • Jill: a unit of measure equal to to 1/4 of a pint
  • Jimmy: to pry open
  • Joannes: a Portugese coin (also johannes)
  • Joe: a fellow
  • Joey: a young kangaroo
  • John: a toilet
  • Johnny: a hospital gown
  • Jones: a strong desire
  • Jordan: a type of container
  • Joseph: a woman’s long cloak
  • Josh: to tease
  • Kelly: a bright shade of green
  • Kelvin: a unit of absolute temperature
  • Ken: to know
  • Kent: past tense of ken
  • Kerry: a breed of cattle
  • Kris: a curved dagger
  • Lance: a spearlike weapon
  • Lars: plural of lar, a type of ancient Roman guardian deity (also lares)
  • Lassie: a lass
  • Laura: an aggregation of hermitages used by monks
  • Laurel: to crown one’s head with a wreath
  • Lee: to shelter from the wind
  • Louie: a lieutenant
  • Louis: a former gold coin of France worth twenty francs
Section 8 (L-R): Devyn Jones, Dev Broomer, Zach Roseman, Sophia Stewart
  • Marcel: to make waves in the hair using a special iron
  • Marge: a margin
  • Mark: a line, figure, or symbol
  • Martin: any type of the bird also known as a swallow
  • Marvy: marvelous
  • Matilda (a hobo’s bundle (chiefly Australian)
  • Matt: to put a dull finish on (also matte)
  • Maxwell: a unit of magnetic flux
  • Mel: honey
  • Melody: an agreeable succession of musical sounds
  • Merle: a blackbird
  • Mickey: a drugged drink
  • Mike: a microphone (also mic)
  • Milt: to fertilize with fish sperm
  • Minny: a minnow
  • Mo: a moment
  • Molly: a type of tropical fish
  • Morgan: a unit of frequency in genetics
  • Morris: a type of folk dance from England
  • Morse: describing a type of code made of long and short signals
  • Mort: a note sounded in hunting to announce the death of prey
Section 8 (L-R): Mackenzie Mossa, Avery Broadbent, Vivian Laliberte, Ariana Foy
  • Nelson: a type of wrestling hold
  • Newton: the unit of force required to accelerate one kilogram of mass on meter per second
  • Nick: to make a shallow cut
  • Norm: a standard
  • Pam: the name of the jack of clubs in some card games
  • Parker: one who parks a motorized vehicle
  • Peter: to lessen gradually
  • Pia: a fine membrane of the brain and spinal cord
  • Randy: sexually excited
  • Regina: a queen
  • Rex: a king
  • Rick: to stack, hay, corn, or straw
  • Roger: the pirate flag
Section 8 (L-R): Lance Morgan, Skylar Bowry, Parker Davenport, Rocco Marcello
  • Sal: salt
  • Sally: to make a brief trip or a sudden start
  • Sawyer: one who saws wood
  • Shawn: past tense of show
  • Sheila: a girl or young woman
  • Sol: the fifth note on a diatonic scale (also so)
  • Sonny: a boy or young man
  • Sophy: a former Persian ruler
  • Spencer: a type of sail
  • Tad: a young boy
  • Tammie: a fabric used in linings (also tammy)
  • Ted: to spread for drying
  • Teddy: a woman’s one-piece undergarment
  • Terry: a soft, absorbent type of cloth
  • Tiffany: a thin, mesh fabric
  • Timothy: a Eurasian grass used for grazing
Section 8 (L-R): Mariah Robinson, Cole Wilhelmsen, Kathleen Barr, Leslie Arreola Mendoza
  • Toby: a drinking mug in the shape of a man or a man’s face
  • Tod: a British unit of weight for wool equal to twenty-eight pounds
  • Tom: the male of various animals
  • Tommy: a loaf or chunk of bread
  • Tony: very stylish
  • Vera: very
  • Victoria: a light, four-wheeled carriage
  • Warren: an area where rabbits live, or a crowded maze-like place
  • Webster: one who weaves
  • Will: to choose, decree, or induce to happen
  • Willow: a tree or shrub
  • Willy: to clean fibers with a certain machine
Section 8 (L-R): Layla Rothberg, Ryan Lofton, Marisol Moreno

Bonus Assignment Opportunity!

Students who correctly respond to the playable first names and last names question below will earn a bonus assignment credit, which means they will have an extra assignment in the short assignments (course work) category. Completing a bonus assignment such as this one will offset a low class exercise or pop quiz grade.

How many students in English 1103.1 and 8 have first and/or last names that are playable Scrabble words? Keep in mind that only playable first names appear in the lists above. Some students in each section may have playable last names as well.

Directions for Finding and Submitting Your Answer

  1. Review the list of playable first names, compare it with the students’ first and last names in the photo captions above, or on the class page, and determine which of the students’ first and last names are playable in Scrabble. If you aren’t sure whether a name is also a common noun, you can consult the Merriam Webster’s Scrabble Dictionary site. The spelling of the name must be identical to the spelling of the common noun. Homophones with different spellings don’t count.
  2. Compose a response of one or more complete sentences that includes the first and last name of each student with a playable name. Indicate which name, first or last, is playable.
  3. Post your comment as a reply to this blog post by 7:30 a.m. on Monday, August 24.
  4. To post your comment, click the title of the post, “What’s in a Name. . . . ,” then scroll down to the bottom of the post. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a white rectangular box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and hit return. Voila! You have submitted your answer. Good luck! I will make the comments visible before class on Monday, August 24.

Next Up

For class on Monday, you will read and annotate David Sedaris‘s essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” which I distribuded in class today. An additional copy is posted in the readings folder on Blackboard. We will examine Sedaris’s essay as a model for your own literacy narrative: a personal account of one of your experiences with reading, writing, or learning to speak a language. You will begin drafting your literacy narratives in class on Wednesday.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Parallel Play and Two-Letter Words Beginning with “A” . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

First, an Introduction

Every Friday is WordPlay Day, which means that the class period will be devoted to Scrabble games in which you and one of your classmates will play as a team against two other classmates. Before the beginning of class each Friday, volunteers will draw four names at a time at random to form five groups of four and write the group members’ first and last names on the white board. If you arrive early to class, please volunteer to help with the name-drawing or name-writing (on the whiteboard) process.

If you haven’t played Scrabble before, this short video tutorial will provide you with a helpful overview of the game. Also, I will be offering a brief introduction to the game myself at the beginning of class and will be available to answer your questions, except these: (1) Is this a word? and (2) Is this a playable word? For the answers to those questions, you must rely on your own knowledge and that of your teammate.

You may think of Scrabble solely as a game that increases players’ word power, but it also fosters creative problem-solving skills and foresight. And for those who play in teams, as you will in English 1103, it offers exercises in collaboration. Through my own research on the game, I have learned that college faculty in a variety of disciplines incorporate Scrabble into their classes, including an English professor at California State University-Monterey Bay, a professor of Christian education at MidAmerica Nazarene University, and a professor of engineering at Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia.

Each week I will publish a blog entry devoted to tips for improving your game. This week’s post focuses on parallel play and two-letter words beginning with a.

Parallel Play and Two-Letter Words Beginning with “A”

Parallel play increases your score through the points you earn by spelling more than one word in a single turn. In the first play of the hypothetical game pictured at the top of this post, the first player or team would score sixteen points by spelling enact with the t on the center double-word square. With the second turn, the other player or team could take advantage of the opportunity for parallel play. If the team knew that aa is a type of lava, they could earn twenty-four points with four words: whoa, he, on, and aa.

Aa is one of sixteen playable two-letter words beginning with a. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the others that follow in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

  • aa: a type of stony, rough lava
  • ab: an abdominal muscle
  • ad: an advertisement
  • ae: one
  • ag: agriculture
  • ah: an exclamation
  • ai: a three-toed sloth
  • al: a type of East Indian tree
  • am: the first-person singular present form of to be
  • an: an indefinite article
  • ar: the letter r
  • as: similar to
  • at: in the position of
  • aw: an expression of sadness or protest
  • ax: a type of cutting tool (also axe)
  • ay: a vote in the affirmative (also aye)

Recording Scores

The image of the hypothetical game below includes seven words that were spelled in the players’ first two turns. Examine the scoresheet beside it and note how the scores are recorded.

Because both teams played multiple words in their second turn, those words are recorded in the same space. Each cell is for a single turn, not a single word. The second line in each score column is for the score of the second play. The line that follows the plus-sign line is for the total. Maintaining a running tally enables all the players to see the current scores at a glance.

For the task of completing the scoresheet, select the team member with the best penmanship. Make sure that the writer you appoint records the first and last names of each group member, the section number, and the date. After a blank tile is played, the writer should write the designated letter in the box provided (see the two boxes near the top of the sheet). Remember that the designated letter for a blank cannot change once the letter has been played and recorded on the score sheet.

Important Note about Challenges

If you think that the opposing team has played a word that isn’t permissible, such as a misspelled word or a proper noun, tell me that you have a challenge. I will consult the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary to determine whether the word in question is playable. If the challenged word isn’t playable, the team that set it down loses a turn. Conversely, if the challenged word is playable, the team that called the challenge loses a turn.

The Scrabble socks pictured above were a Christmas gift that I will wear for the first time tomorrow. To commemorate our Wordplay Days, I will sport these socks each Friday.

Matters of Style

MLA (Modern Language Association) style, the standard format used for writing and documentation in the humanities, is the style that you will use for paper assignments in English 1103.

Formatting a paper in MLA style requires changing the font because Times New Roman, used in MLA papers, is not the default font in Microsoft Word. You will also need to create a running header that includes both your last name and the page number. If you do not know how to change a font or create a running header, this YouTube video on MLA page set-up will show you how.

For additional models of MLA style, see the sample essays posted on Blackboard and the MLA Style center’s sample essays, including this one by Holly Nelson, an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University.

Bonus Assignment

As practice in both revision and MLA formatting, complete the assignment below. Students who do so will earn a bonus assignment credit in the short assignments and participation category.

Directions

  1. Revise the introductory reflective writing that you began in class on August 17. If your literacy narrative will focus on one of the classes that you wrote about in your reflection, do not include that class; the content of your bonus assignment should be markedly different from the content of your literacy narrative. You do not need to begin with a paragraph of summary followed by a paragraph of commentary. Those specifics were included in your reflective assignment so I could assess your understanding of the differences between the two and your ability to follow directions.
  2. Compose a revision of at least two-hundred and fifty words, and type it into a Microsoft Word document that you have formatted to comply with MLA style. If you are unsure of how to change the formatting in a file, revisit the second paragraph of this blog post.
  3. Print a copy of your file, and submit your paper copy at the beginning of class on Monday, August 24. You will not submit a copy online. Posting to Blackboard and WordPress is a requirement for your three major writing assignments only. However, if you want to publish your bonus assignment on your blog as practice in using WordPress, you are welcome to do so.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, look to the Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble Word Finder page, and review this post.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Observations on Your Reflections

Posted on by janemlucas

In the first half of today’s class, we will review the syllabus questions that you answered on Monday and address any other questions you have about the course. In the second half of the period, we will discuss the reflections that you began composing, and you will have an opportunity to continue working on them.

When I return your reflections in class, they will include a copy of the notes on diction, mechanics, grammar, and style that are included in the bulleted list below.

Summary

The reflection that you began on Monday required you to begin with a one-paragraph summary. As I noted in the directions, summaries are by nature objective. If you expressed your opinion about your high school English courses, the course readings, or the writing assignments, you shifted from summary to commentary or analysis.

If you had time to begin a second paragraph, that is where your commentary or analysis should have entered your writing. There you had the opportunity to address such questions as these:

  • Were those recent courses similar to or different from your previous English classes? How?
  • Did the courses contribute to your development as a writer, as an analytical reader, as both, or as neither?
  • How did those courses shape your attitude towards writing and/or reading?
  • How do you anticipate that English 1103 may be similar to or different from those courses?

Whenever you are faced with a writing assignment, be sure you understand the requirements. If the assignment calls for a summary to proceed your own take–your commentary or analysis–beginning with your opinions will undermine your credibility. That misstep will tell the reader that you lack rhetorical awareness.

Diction, Mechanics, Grammar, and Style

  • &: Do not use an ampersand (&) in place of the word and in formal writing.
  • Abbreviations should often be avoided in formal writing. Do not write vocab for vocabulary. On first reference, spell out Advanced Placement in the name of a course. In subsequent references, AP is acceptable.
  • A lot: Don’t use a lot a lot. There are a lot of better ways to express that idea, such as many, often, considerable, etc. If you use a lot in your writing, I will mark it with a d, which denotes diction or word choice.
  • Compound modifiers are linked with a hyphen. Write twelve-page paper, not twelve page paper.
  • Do: What specifically did you do? (There is almost always a stronger verb than do.) Drafted, revised, edited, reviewed, studied, and memorized are all verbs that denote a particular action. Use action verbs whenever possible.
  • English and the names of other languages are always capitalized. If you write English with a lower-case e, I will underscore the letter with three vertical lines. Those three lines are the proofreader’s mark that denotes the need for a capital letter.
  • Like and such as: Such as is used for specific examples. Like is used to indicate a similarity to or make a comparison. Such as introduces true members of a group; like shows resemblance.
  • Modifiers: Place modifiers and modifying phrases as close as possible to the words they are meant to describe. Consider this sentence: As a fifteen-year-old, my English teacher inspired my interest in poetry. In it, the person who is fifteen is the teacher, which makes no sense. (Unless he or she was a child prodigy.) The sentence should be revised to read something like this: As a fifteen-year-old, I was inspired by my English teacher to develop my interest poetry.
  • Numbers that can be expressed as one or two words are written as words, not figures, in MLA style, which is the style used in English courses as well as some other courses in the humanities. Write twenty-five, not 25.
  • Paragraphs: Business writing calls for block paragraphs, but English 1103 and many of your other classes will require you to indent the first lines of each paragraph five spaces or one-half inch.
  • Passive voice should often be avoided in formal writing. The subject should perform the action. Write, we read several nineteenth-century novels, not several nineteenth-century novels were read.
  • Separate: an easy way to remember the spelling of this often-misspelled word is to tell yourself, there’s a rat in separate.
  • That/Who: The relative pronoun who, not that, refers to people. (That refers to things.) Do not write He is the teacher that taught me how to develop my writing. Instead, write He is the teacher who taught me how to develop my writing.
  • That/This: The relative pronoun this refers to something at hand or occurring now. That class is the one you’re writing about in your reflection. This class is English 1103.
  • Then/Than: Than is used in comparisons; then refers to a point in time.
  • Titles: In MLA style, the titles of book-length works are italicized. If you are writing longhand, the titles of book-length works are underlined. The titles of shorter works—such as essays, short stories, and poems—are enclosed in quotation marks.
  • Whether/If: Whether introduces alternatives or a choice. If introduces a condition. Write, I don’t know whether my sophomore or junior English class was worse, and, If my pen runs out of ink, I will write in pencil instead.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! If you haven’t played Scrabble before, this short video tutorial will provide you with a helpful overview of the game. Also, I will be offering a brief introduction to the game at the beginning Friday’s of class and during gameplay I will answer your questions, except these: (1) Is this a word? and (2) Is this a playable word? For the answers to those questions, you must rely on your own knowledge and that of your teammate.

For helpful tips, visit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble, beginning with tomorrow’s.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Looking Ahead to Our Second Class

Posted on by janemlucas

Before tomorrow’s class, be sure to complete the following tasks.

Review yesterday’s blog post as well as the syllabus. If you added the class after our first meeting on Monday, you can download the syllabus from Blackboard. In your journal, jot down any questions you have about the course.

Also, if you added the class after our first meeting on Monday, begin composing a reflection focusing on your most recent experiences in literature and/or composition courses. Begin your essay with a one-paragraph summary. Keep in mind that summaries are by nature objective. Do not comment on the courses, simply offer an overview of them.

Follow those paragraphs with your observations on the courses. (Here is where your personal observations enter the writing.) Points to address include the following:

  • Were the courses similar to or different from your previous English classes? How?
  • Did the courses contribute to your development as a writer, an analytical reader, both, or neither?
  • How did those courses shape your attitude towards writing and/or reading?
  • How do you anticipate that English 1103 may be similar to or different from those courses?

If you haven’t purchased or rented it already, order the textbook, the paperback edition of Exhalation by Ted Chang. You are required to have a physical copy of Chiang’s book, not the ebook, because your screen time will be limited in class. Your first reading assignment in the textbook is scheduled for October 19, which will give you ample time to order and receive your copy before you are required to have it in class.

Bring your journal to class along with your other required materials, which are listed in the syllabus and pictured in yesterday’s post.

Also, as soon as possible, create a free WordPress blog at wordpress.com, and email the URL to me so that I can link your blog to the class page.

Because writing longhand and limiting screen time are essential components of the class, I am including below some notes that illustrate why those practices, which may seem quaint, are vital to our work.

Writing Longhand

One practical reason for writing longhand: What we mark through remains on the page. Sometimes what we cross out can be useful later on, elsewhere in our writing. More importantly, research in cognitive neuroscience indicates that writing longhand has these benefits:

Simply put, writing longhand sharpens our minds in ways that typing doesn’t.

Limiting Screen Time

When we use our phones and laptops, it’s difficult for us to give our undivided attention to one endeavor, but often that singular focus is critical.

When we type on our phones, we often aim to convey as much as we can with as few characters as possible. Texting and emailing–both of which now feature predictive text–do not foster the vital skills of developing our writing and producing original thought.

Limiting our screen time not only helps us improve our writing skills, it can also benefit our overall well-being.

The research cited in the links that I’ve included above isn’t definitive, but it makes a strong case for the value of limiting our screen time and putting pen to paper. I encourage you to continue these practices after the semester ends.

Next Up

On Wednesday, we will review the syllabus question questions that you answered in class, and I will return the reflective writing that you began on Monday.