Month: February 2024

Yesterday in class we examined Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School,” and in groups of two, three, or four you addressed in writing some of the elements of the story that you might explore in an analysis. As I mentioned last week, if you find the prospect of analyzing “The School” more appealing than analyzing one of the texts we studied previously (“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the opening of “The Falling Man,” “Back Story”), you are welcome to change the subject of your analysis to “The School.”

Among the elements of Barthelme’s story that you considered yesterday are these:

• the narrator and the narrative voice
• conflict
• narrative shift (Where does “The School” make an unexpected turn?)

Whether the subject of your analysis is Bartheleme’s story or one of our earlier readings, you will begin your first paragraph with a summary of the text. Remember that a summary is an objective synopsis of a text’s key points. It should be written in third person and present tense. For example, if you choose to analyze “The School,” you might summarize it this way:

Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School” recounts a series of classroom lessons that end with the deaths of plants and animals–deaths that serve as a prelude to the unexplained death of a Korean orphan, followed by the senseless deaths of classmates and family members.

Notice that the summary above does not comment on the story in any way. What follows the summary will be the beginning of your commentary, or analysis, the thesis statement that offers your particular close reading, or interpretation, of the story. The passage below is the same as the one above, but at the end of it I have added a thesis statement in bold.

Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School” recounts a series of classroom lessons that end with the death of plants and animals–deaths that serve as a prelude to the death of a Korean orphan, followed by the deaths of classmates and family members. With conversational narration, accumulation of detail, and a shift in fictional mode, Barthelme deftly depicts the reality of the fleeting nature of life, even as the story itself veers from reality.

If I were to continue to write the analysis that I began in the previous paragraph, I would follow that opening paragraph with body paragraphs that address each of the three story elements that I include in my thesis: (1) “conversational narration,” (2) “accumulation of detail,” and (3) “shift in fictional mode.”

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, after I collect your fourth Check, Please! assignments, I will return your handwritten analysis plans and drafts (with my notes), and you will have the remainder of the class period to devote to revising on your laptops and tablets. Because next week is spring break, you will have two additional weeks to continue revising. Your revision is due on Blackboard and on your WordPress blog Wednesday, March 6 (before clas). The hard deadline in Friday, March 8 (before class).

Yesterday’s class was devoted primarily to reading and responding to the blog post of one of your classmates’ literacy narratives. Elements you considered in your response included these:

• the title
• vivid details
• dialogue, the use of scene and/or summary

Before you began that assignment, we examined the opening pages of “Back Story,” the first chapter of Michael Lewis‘s The Blind Side, which dramatizes the moments in the November 1985 Redskins-Giants football game leading up to the injury that ended quarterback Joe Theismann’s career:

“From the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone is closer to four seconds than to five. One Mississippi: The quarterback of the Washington Redskins, Joe Theismann, turns and hands the ball to running back John Riggins. He watches Riggins run two steps forward, turn, and flip the ball back to him. It’s what most people know as a ‘flea-flicker,’ but the Redskins call it a ‘throw-back special.’ Two Mississippi: Theismann searches for a receiver but instead sees Harry Carson coming straight at him. It’s a running down—the start of the second quarter, first and 10 at midfield, with the score tied 7–7—and the New York Giants’ linebacker has been so completely suckered by the fake that he’s deep in the Redskins’ backfield. Carson thinks he’s come to tackle Riggins but Riggins is long gone, so Carson just keeps running, toward Theismann. Three Mississippi: Carson now sees that Theismann has the ball. Theismann notices Carson coming straight at him, and so he has time to avoid him. He steps up and to the side and Carson flies right on by and out of the play. The play is now 3.5 seconds old. Until this moment it has been defined by what the quarterback can see. Now it–and he–is at the mercy of what he can’t see” (15).

What Theismann cannot see is Lawrence Taylor. A second later, as Taylor sacks Theismann, Taylor’s knee drives straight into Theismann’s lower right leg, leading to the “snap of the first bone” that Lewis mentions in the first line of the chapter. He hooks the reader by linking the beginning of the play, “the snap of the ball” to the gruesome “snap of the first bone” that will follow. Lewis develops the opening paragraph using the common one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi method of marking seconds to present the events leading up to the compound fracture that ends Theisman’s career.

Lewis doesn’t dramatize the injury itself because his interest lies instead in the blind side that led to it and subsequently elevated the status and salary of the left tackle, the player who protects the quarterback’s blind side.

When you’re struggling to develop a piece of writing, reread the opening paragraph of The Blind Side. Observe how Lewis dramatizes 3.5 seconds–yes, only 3.5 seconds–with about two-hundred words.

Yesterday, after we studied the opening of The Blind Side, we examined the first two paragraphs of Tom Junod‘s Esquire magazine feature “The Falling Man” and considered why Junod may have chosen to present the beginning of his essay as an unusually long single paragraph, one that could have been divided into three or more paragraphs.

Peer Responses

In the last few minutes of Monday’s class (or on your own if you were still completing your blog comment at the end of class), you began reading your other classmates’ literacy narratives and began taking notes on them in your journal.

Once you have read and taken notes on all of the essays, compose a brief comment that states which of the narratives is the strongest and why. Include in your response the title of the narrative, the writer’s first and last name, and the section number. Post your response as a comment on this blog post no later noon on Thursday, February 15.

After the posting deadline (but not immediately after), I will make the comments visible. In the coming days and weeks, we will look at some of the comments in class, as well as the literacy narratives that they address.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday you will begin planning and drafting your analysis, which will focus on one of the texts that we have studied in class, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” David Sedaris‘s “Me Talk Pretty One,” Helen Keller‘s “The Day Language Came into My Life,” Michael Lewis‘s “Back Story,” and Tom Junod‘s “The Falling Man.” If you have misplaced your copy of any of those or were absent the day that I distributed copies, you can download a copy from Blackboard and print it. Next Monday we will examine an additional text that may serve as the subject of your analysis. If it appeals to your more than the text you write about on Wednesday, you are welcome to change your subject to that latest addition to the readings.

This morning in class you will read one of your classmate’s literacy narratives, compose a response to it, and post your response as a comment on the student’s blog.

Directions

1. Go to the class page, and click on the link for the blog of the of classmate whose name follows yours on the roster. If you are last on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is first on the list.  
2. If the student’s blog is not accessible, email the student and ask that he/she/they email you a copy of his/her/their literacy narrative.
3. Read the classmate’s narrative and compose a response (seventy-five words, minimum) that addresses one or more of these elements: the title, vivid details, dialogue, the use of scene and/or summary.
4. Does the blog post include an image that documents part of the blogger’s writing process away from the screen? ___ (yes or no)
5. Does the post include a relevant embedded link? ___ (yes or no)
6. Write on the lines provided on your worksheet and use the back of the sheet if you need additional space.
7. After you have composed your response longhand on your worksheet, type your response as a comment for the blogger. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click on the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.
8. Submit your worksheet at the end of class today. You will submit your paper copy of your comment because the blogger may not choose to make your comment visible. You will receive credit for this assignment only if you submit your worksheet at the end of class today.
9. In the last few minutes of class (or on your own if you’re still completing your blog comment at the end of class): Begin reading your other classmates’ literacy narratives, and take notes on them in your journal. After you have read and taken notes all of the essays, compose a brief comment that states which of the narratives is the strongest and why. Include in your response the title of the narrative, the writer’s first and last name, and the section number. Post your response as a comment on my February 13 blog post no later noon on Thursday, February 15.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will begin planning and drafting your analysis longhand. The following Wednesday, February 21, I will return your handwritten drafts with my notes, and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops and tablets. After that, you will have an additional two weeks to continue working on your analysis before posting it to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog. (You have an additional week because of Spring Break, February 24-March 3.) The due date for your analysis is Wednesday, March 6 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, March 8 (before class).