composition #2

Assignment #2: Storytelling, Interviewing, & Writing Activity

1. Tell a story from your personal experience in response to one of the following prompts:

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something by helping someone.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something when someone helped you.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something by taking a risk.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something by being careless.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something when you did something difficult.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something when you succeeded at something.

·      Tell a story about a time you learned something when you failed at something.

2. Write an essay that tells your story. Be sure (a) to describe the sequence of events that occurred in the story and (b) to explain what the story means to you.

Your essay may be one paragraph or a few paragraphs, but it must be at least eight sentences long.

Possible structure for a one-paragraph story:

1.   Topic sentence/ Introductory sentence

2.   First event / step of the story

3.   Explanation

4.   Second event / step of the story

5.   Explanation

6.   Third event / step of the story

7.   Explanation

8.   Conclusion – meaning of the story

Here is an example of the kind of essay you are being asked to write. You can find this on page 449 in Stepping Stones

Pius Kamau 

A Duty to Heal 

Pius Kamau was born in Kenya, Africa. He has studied in Spain, England, and Kenya, and he moved to the United States in 1971. He is now a surgeon and lives in Aurora, Colorado. 

Growing up in the grinding poverty of colonial Africa, America was my shining hope. Martin Luther King’s nonviolent political struggle made freedom and equality sound like achievable goals. America’s ideals filled

my head. Someday, I promised myself, I would walk on America’s streets. 

But, as soon as I set foot in America’s hospitals, reality — and racism — quickly intruded on the ideals. My color and accent set me apart. But in a hospital I am neither black nor white. I’m a doctor. I believe every patient that I touch deserves the same care and concern from me. 

In 1999, I was on-call when a nineteen-year-old patient was brought into the hospital. 

He was coughing up blood after a car accident. He was a white supremacist, an American Nazi with a swastika tattooed on his chest. 

The nurses told me he would not let me touch him. When I came close to him, he spat on me. In that moment, I wanted no part of him, either, but no other physician would take him on. I realized I had to minister to him as best as I could. 

I talked to him, but he refused to look at me or acknowledge me. He would only speak through the white nurses. Only they could check his body for injury. Only they could touch his tattooed chest. 

As it turned out, he was not badly hurt. We parted strangers. 

I still wonder: Was there more I could have done to make our encounter different or better? Could I have approached him differently? Could I have tried harder to win his trust? 

I can only guess his thoughts about me, or the beliefs he lived by. His racism, I think, had little to do with me, personally. And, I want to think

it had little to do with America, with the faith of Martin Luther King and other great men whose words I heard back in Africa, and who made me believe in this nation’s ideals of equality and freedom. 

My hands—my black hands—have saved many lives. I believe in my duty to heal. I believe all patients, all human beings, are equal, and that I must try to care for everyone, even those who would rather die than consider me their equal.

Reading Analysis Presentation Questions

On the day that you present in front of the class you must also write your response to the questions below and hand in your answers. You must hand in your answers on the day you signed up for.

Reading Analysis Guide for Walter Mosley's Devil In A Blue Dress

Guidelines for Reading Analysis Presentation

Sign-up on the presentation calendar on my desk. Make a note of the chapters and presentation date that you sign up for below.

Reading analysis chapter: __________________________Presentation date: _______________

You will be presenting your analysis in class along with other classmates. The class will be counting on you to be on top of the article you are covering, so please be prepared!

This assignment is worth 40 points – to receive credit, you must participate in the presentation of your analysis. You will be graded primarily on your written analysis (breakdown of scoring below), but outstanding presentations will be rewarded.

Read the chapters or section that you will be analyzing carefully. On your first reading, just try to identify the main idea(s) and get a feel for the writer’s approach and the flow of the chapter. On your second reading, go over the text more carefully; notice how the writer creates characters and tells the story.

To prepare your written analysis:

Identify the author’s name and the title of the chapter(s) you are covering. Answer the following questions, numbering each answer in the way the questions are numbered.

1.     What is the central theme of the selection? Your answer should be a complete sentence in your own words (not a quote!). Be as specific as possible, but remember that the theme of a book refers to the authors overall concerns. The plot is what happens as the book moves ahead. The theme refers to the overall concerns of a book.

2.     What are the concerns of the characters in the chapter(s) you have read? This book is fiction. Do you think the events in the book could happen in real life? Do you think the way the characters act is believable. If the events in the book are exaggerated by the author, does it make the book less effective? If the behavior of the characters are exaggerated, does it make the book less believable or effective?

3.     Is the central theme expressed explicitly or implicitly? The claim is explicit if the writer spells out what it is. The claim is implicit if the writer only implies the claim but does not state it outright.

4.   Did the events and actions in your chapter(s) surprise you or change your mind about the characters in the book?

4.     What is the tone – the feel – of the chapter(s) you read?

5.     What things in the story give the most insight into human nature?

6.     Does the writer leave the opinions and feelings to the readers? If so, why? Is this approach effective?
7. Make up two questions relating the chapters you read that you'd ask the class if you were the teacher.