Our America

In College Prep class we've begun reading Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago. Here are a couple of helpful links to check out:

Although the Ida B. Wells projects ended up in pretty poor shape by the time Eric Morse was killed, it wasn't always that way. The CSPAN program Book Notes did an interview with one of the authors of the book. Find it here.

There is a movie based on the book. You can watch it for free on YouTube. Part I is here.

Danger of a Single Story

Chimamnda Adichie speaks about the power stories have to shape the way we see our lives and the world around us. 

Identify all the formatting errors you can find in the paper below

Abdel 

9.25.2013

Into the Lion’s Den

The first time I walked into Shelly Atkins’ graduate writing workshop ten minutes late, I knew there was going to be trouble. Before the semester started, the students who took her class before had scared us. She was intense, harsh, demanding, and brilliant, they said. Not only was she an acclaimed novelist and scholar, she also had a part-time law practice where she took on animal rights cases. In the words of my students, “she did too much.”

So, it really wasn’t a good look when I showed up late. I opened the door and everyone was gathered around a long table, with Shelly at the end. The conversation paused and she looked up. She had on a black leather jacket and a mane of frizzy blonde hair with a huge black burette. The hair made Shelly look like a lion. She flashed me a tight smile and I tried to find a seat as quietly as I could.

My classmates had taken strategic positions in the chairs away from Shelly. I took one of the empty seats near her. The heavy chair groaned across the floor as I sat. The seat was hard and cold. My roommate Dennis grinned, enjoying my agony.

“Are you Abdel?” she said.

“Yes, that’s me. I’m sorry for being late.”

“We were just discussing the syllabus,” she said. She laid the syllabus down with a smack and slid it across the table. I glanced at it and tried not to show surprise at its thickness. This was going to be the most challenging class I ever took.

Besides having to read my classmates work, we also had to read complex critical theory, and challenging fiction. All of us taught undergraduate creative writing classes as well. On top of that there was the work that was most important: writing our own stories. 

Mastering Your Own Fate

Although William Ernest Henley lost his leg at a young age, he never lost his will to master his own fate. You can find out more about him here. His poem is below. 

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,                                            

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,  

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

ChiArts Writing Tutors

Did you know that there ChiArts has writing tutors? It's true. If you're having difficulty with writing and you need someone to work with you one-on-one or even just look over a paper for you, you can email them at writingtutor [at] chiarts.org. They are available for consultation during study hall and by appointment. Ask Mr. Shakur for more details.

Survey of Literature Frequently Asked Questions

This year we're going to be exploring a lot of questions. Here are a few students posed to me about the class. If you've got more, post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

Questions about Mr. Shakur

• Where did you teach before ChiArts? (1st) Before I came to Chicago, I taught Creative Writing and Introduction to Composition at Indiana University. After that, I taught for two years at the Academy of Communications and Technology Charter School.
• Where are you from? (1st) I grew up mostly in Oakland and Berkeley, California. However, I’ve lived in Minneapolis, MN; Baltimore, MD; and Bloomington, IN .
• What’s your favorite food? (5th) I’m fond of pizza
• Why did you want to be an English teacher? (5th)  I love to help people explore literature and ideas. I also like working with kids.
• Are you a strict teacher? (5th) I’ve been told that I am, but I don’t think of myself that way. I like class to be focused, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.
• Who’s your favorite musician? (5th) Stevie Wonder
• How old are you? (5th) 35
• Did you have a good first day of school? (5th) The first day is always a bit of a blur, but I did enjoy meeting all my students.
• Do you enjoy ChiArts as a teacher? (4th) The students are the best part of what I do. I think ChiArts students are some of the best in all of Chicago. They certainly work as hard as anyone.
• What are your expectations? (4th) I expect caring. I expect hard work. I expect integrity. I expect creativity. I expect these things from myself and my students.
• What is your motto for teaching? (5th) I don’t know if I have one, but I’ve posted some of my favorite quotes around class.
• What type of music do you listen to? (5th) A lot of different stuff. R&B, Classic rock, Hip-hop, Jazz, even some country. Pretty much anything that's funky.
• What was your favorite subject as a kid?(1st) Growing up, I had to say that English and Social Studies were my favs.

Questions about curriculum:

• Why is this class called Survey of Literature instead of English? (1st) A survey is designed to give you a wide range of something. Survey of Literature will expose you to a variety of forms of literature (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama)
• Will your class challenge us individually or the whole class holistically? (1st) Ideally, challenge will be designed for both class and individual.
• Are we going to be doing creative writing in this class? (2nd) If you’re talking about stories and poems, yes. Our current unit will culminate in a personal story from your life. We will actually have a poetry unit in the Spring.
• Will we take field trips? (2nd) I don’t have any planned right now. But, we’ll see. I am trying to get us a guest speaker for our 2nd unit.
• Do you have any fun activities planned? (2nd) Yes.
• Am I going to be challenged? (2nd) Yes.
• Is this class fun to learn in? (2nd) I guess it depends on what “fun” is for you.
• Will it be fun and educational? (4th) I think so.
• Are you going to always give lectures? (5th) No. I want to make learning more interactive for you and a lot of time lectures don’t do that well enough.
• Will we watch a movie after we read the book? (4th) Probably not. We might watch a few clips, but there’s not a lot of time to watch a movie.
• What books will we be reading? (5th) Our America, Night, Fahrenheit 451, Romeo and Juliet, and various short stories/poems.
• Do we get a lot of tests? (2nd) There will be a variety of assessments.
• How much homework do you think we get in a month? (2nd) I would plan on at least one hour a night.
• Will we get a lot of homework? Do you give out tons of homework every single class? (2nd)
• Will you have us stand up and read in front of class? (2nd) Public speaking is an essential part of being prepared for college, so there will be times where you’ll be expected to speak in front of class. I’m not a fan of putting people on the spot without preparing them, so we’ll work on it.
• What is the most common thing we’ll be learning in this class? (2nd) Although this is called Survey of Literature, I regard my class as mostly a thinking class. I will help you increase your ability to think critically.  

Questions about work:

• Will we have a lot of reading work to boost up our vocabulary and how much will you give? (4th) We will focus quite a bit on vocabulary this year. There will be work.
• Will we learn Greek and Latin roots? (1st) We will talk more about these.
• Is there going to be tons of reading we will have in this class? (4th) Depends on how you measure a “ton”.
• Do you give out extra-credit? (4th) I do. If a student wants to pursue studies above and beyond what’s expected, I’m willing to support that with extra-credit.
• How do you grade the homework? (4th)
• Homework counts for 15% of your final grade.
• How does late work operate? (5th)
• Do we get homework every day? (4th)
• Homework will be posted on the front board. You can count on getting some kind of work every class.
• What’s the final going to be like? (4th)
• The first semester final will be given in January and it will probably consist mostly of multiple choice and short answer responses.
• Why am I in this class? (5th)
• I hope, to learn.
• Should we expect the unexpected this year? (5th)
• Depends on what you’re expecting.
• Will we be writing in cursive? (5th)
• I don’t require it, but I do want writing to be legible.
• Are we going to be able to write articles about the things we read?(1st)
• I’m not sure what you mean by articles, but you will be responding in writing to much of what we read.
• Will we look at videos in Survey of Literature? (1st)
• Certainly. We don’t have a lot of class time to watch longer pieces, but we’ll be looking critically at some shorter videos in class.
• Will there be a lot of group projects? (1st)
• You will be asked to work in collaboration with classmates.
• Can I still get an A in this class even if I didn’t complete my homework once? (1st)
• Certainly. Remember that completing homework is an important part of learning the material, but a single homework assignment is just one small part of computing your overall grade.
• When you say double spaced for the essay, is that only for typing or do you want us to skip lines on paper? (1st) When I want assignments typed, I will be sure to specify.