Essay III: Position Paper in Relation to Two Perspectives on Community OR Broadening Our Sense of Community Issues (Comparison-Contrast, Definition)

SCHEDULE
Date Homework Due In-Class Work
Day 10
10/4
Read Terkel's "C.P. Ellis" (575), "Stephen Cruz" (326), and Blue and Naden's "Colin Powell" (314) in Rereading America.  I suggest you read the first set of questions at the end of each section and answer them in your mind.  Then I'd like you to consider the different attitudes and ideas you encouner in these three readings in order to think and write more about these questions:  How big is our community?  What responsibility do we as individuals have to other communities?  How important is it to pursue our personal dreams in relation to working to meet the needs of some wider community? Or consider your own questions that come out of these readings. Try using a chart to develop your thinking.  E-mail me the homework (1 1/2 to 2 pages). Feedback on Essay III and possible further revisions.   Discuss questions from homework based upon the readings.   Short discussion of project possibilities for Essay IV.
Day 11
10/6
Read van Wormer handout and Boaz's essay in Rereading America (732).  Write a response that identifies where you agree and disagree with the two essays.  Represent the positions fairly and fully, and then explain why you respond as you do (1 1/2 to 2 pages).  Write to your classmates to persuade them to join a SHU community project that would most interest you.  Enter both assignments into Learning Space.  (See separate Discuss van Wormer and Boaz.  Plan for first draft due next class.  Make some tentative decisions about your project for Essay IV.
Day 12
10/13
First draft of Essay III due, with metatext and Works Cited page.  Enter draft into Learning Space by noon. Full-class work on first draft plus peer response in Learning Space.  Make final decision about project for Essay IV.
Day 13
10/18
Part I.  Read Jordan's essay in Rereading America (712), and look at the questions following the selection. Write a response that connects Jordan's thinking to the thinking in your essay.  Modify your essay if useful.  (Your response could actually be part of a revision.)
Part II.  Comment on two of your classmates' Essay III drafts.   Try to find drafts that have fewer than two comments on them.  Copy the draft into the comment space and make your comments noticeable by making them ALL CAPS.
Part III.  If you haven't done so already, write me a letter to respond to the grade and comments you've been getting from me.
Discussion of Jordan essay in relation to your Essay IIIs.   Individual work on essays. 
Day 14
10/20
Second draft of Essay III due in Learning Space with Works Cited page and new metatext. Editing work.  Visit from staff of Community Development?  Within groups decide on a tentative plan of action, including what you need to research (students' attitudes, how things change at SHU, relevant policies at other schools, why things are the way they currently are).

You've had a chance to think carefully about how an individual relates to community by sifting through all your classmates' stories.  In Essay III you will take your growing understanding of community and consider it in relation to the perspectives of various authors who are concerned about the status of community in our era.  One thing that seemed to strike everyone is that the feeling of belonging matters very much to all of us.  The question arises, however, belonging to what?  How big is our community?  What responsibility do we as individuals have to other communities?   How important are individual freedoms in relation to the needs of the wider community? 

Essay Requirements
Develop a position in relation to two perspectives on community from the readings.
*  Create an argument for this idea using the evidence from the class anthology and any of the readings, your own reflection upon that evidence, and transitions that lead the reader from one part of your argument to the next.
*  Effectively summarize and contextualize positions from the readings, incorporating them within the larger argument of the essay.
*  Properly cite sources.
*  3-4 pages, double-spaced, following MLA format, with meta-text.