14.Oral presentations (Group 5)

Please follow the instructions for Blog assignment 11 when giving feedback to Group 5. Please do not forget to answer all the questions in the self-evaluation part.

13.Oral Presentations (Groups 3 and 4)

Please follow the instructions for Blog assignment 11 when giving feedback to Groups 3 and 4.

12.Review of course themes and texts

We have read and discussed a number of texts this semester, all of which revolved around the course themes of Media and Family Ties. Our only remaining assessment is the final take home essay. So this is a good time for us to cast our minds back over what we have covered. Please reflect on the work we have done and answer at least one of the questions below.

*To what extent have the texts we read influenced your perception of the media as a shaping force in our lives?

*What new insights into family structure and family life have the texts/films given you?

*What was your favourite academic text? Your favourite short story? Please explain why.

11.Oral Presentations (Groups 1 and 2)

PART I. Feedback to other groups
If you were an audience member for Group One's and/or Group Two's presentation(s), please refer to our marking criteria, your notes and your memory and write a short paragraph describing your impressions of the presentation(s). What were the positive aspects of the presentation(s), and what could be improved? Please give honest yet constructive criticism, keeping in mind that the blog is a public forum.

PART II. Self-evaluation
If you are a member of Group One or Group Two, please consider your presentation carefully and then answer the following questions:

1. What grade do you expect to receive for your presentation and why? (Please refer closely to our marking criteria).
2. Which aspects of your presentation were you happy with? Which aspects were you less than happy with? Please explain.
3. What problems (if any) did you experience while preparing the presentation and how did you solve them?
4. Was it useful to have class time to work on this assignment? Was it enough? Too little? Too much? Please explain.
   
5. Overall, would you say this was a positive/useful learning experience? Please explain.
6. Do you have any suggestions to improve this process for future 101/102 students?
   

10.The Merchants of Cool

This is an open blog forum for the documentary "The Merchants of Cool". You may post what you like; here are a few suggestions to get you started.

What is the main thesis of the film? Was there anything in the film that surprised or annoyed you? As a young person, how do you feel about the involvement of corporations in youth culture? Do products simply mirror youth culture, or do they help to create new forms of "cool"?

9.The Key to My Father

This is an open blog forum for Coben's very short story "The Key to My Father". You decide what you would like to post. You may like to consider characterization/the descriptions of the father, genre/point of view, the symbol of the key, your response to the text and so on.

8. Adolescence

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Rebel Without a Cause and "The Continued Myth of Adolescence" all address the thorny issue of the transition from childhood to adulthood.

TASK ONE
Write a brief character analysis of Connie, Arnold Friend or Jim Stark.

TASK TWO
Underline all the references to music in Oates' story and consider at which points music is integrated into the story. How do these references help to create meaning?

TASK THREE
Nichols makes a number of hypotheses as to why youth has been devalued over time. To what extent are her arguments justified? Can you see any of the effects of this devaluation on Connie? On Jim Stark? Justify your answer with reference to the texts/film.

TASK FOUR
Compare and contrast the main points Nichols makes about adolescence with your observations and experience of Turkish society.

TASK FIVE
Write 2-3 possible final exam questions which synthesize 2-3 of these texts (Oates; the film; Nichols), just as we did before the midterm: evaluate; compare/contrast; discuss; argue, etc.

7. Family ties

The three texts we read on the gay marriage debate force us to look more closely at marriage as an institution and what it means to society. Maggie Gallagher's insistence on marriage for procreation and the protection of children raises some interesting and debatable questions about what exactly constitutes a 'family'. This brings us neatly to our second course theme, FAMILY TIES. From now until the end of the semester, we will be exploring this concept through our readings, films and oral presentations.

So, in order to set the theme, please explore the following questions:

What exactly is a family? Is it a group of people bound together by love? By marriage? By blood? By history? By shared memories? By economic dependency? By habit? What unites family members and what divides them? Does family denote only a traditional nuclear family or also a family broken by divorce and blended by remarriage? (all questions taken from The Blair Reader, p.78).

In answering these questions, consider your observations of Turkish society as well as your own personal experiences.

6. And Of Clay Are We Created

TASK ONE
Locate all references to distance (emotional and physical) in the text. How does the concept of distance change as the story progresses? How are these changes related to notions of subjectivity and objectivity? How do they relate to Rolf Carlé? To the narrator?

TASK TWO
What ironic contrasts can you find between Azucena's and Rolf Carlé's journeys in the story? What role does the theme of religion/spirituality play here?

TASK THREE
Comment on the role of photojournalism in the modern world.

5. The Enormous Radio

This is an open blog forum for Cheever's story "The Enormous Radio". In other words, you are now in control of the comments you post. You may ask questions, provide interpretations of the text, analyse the characters, define vocabulary, closely examine quotations, give your reactions and so on. The choice is yours. I will also participate and provide feedback as usual. Try to make the discussion as interactive as possible. What you write here may be very useful to others in preparing for the exams or the presentation. Happy writing!

4. Media and the erosion of values

TASK ONE
Murrow claims that "No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch" (226). Explain what he means in your own words. How can the media be instrumental in making us "itch"?

TASK TWO
Do you have a "plug-in drug"? (e.g. your mobile, laptop, iPod, etc.?) Do you see any danger in your dependence on this object, or do you see it as just a routine part of your life? Do you agree with Winn that TV is a "plug-in drug"?

TASK THREE
Rushdie's fear is that "our voyeurism will become more demanding" (241), leading to shows that will "feed our hunger for more action, more pain, more vicarious thrills" (241). Has this fear been realised in any way since this essay was published in 2001? Do you think Rushdie is correct to be alarmed, or do you think viewers will continue to be satisfied with the present level of thrills and action? Justify your answer with specific examples.

TASK FOUR
Write a summary of The Truman Show (maximum 50 words).

3. How to approach a literary text: "A Rose for Emily"

After reading the short story carefully, discuss the following questions. Make sure to interact with your classmates by responding to, questioning and expanding upon their comments as necessary. You may also pose your own questions about the text which you would like others to answer. Your teacher will also participate in this discussion for the purposes of giving feedback and providing support where needed.

1. Discuss the story in terms of its literary components: setting, theme, narration, characters, genre.
   
2. Faulkner's works are known for their fragmented chronologies. What effect does the lack of a linear chronology have on this story? (How does it change the reader's perception of the events?)
   
3. How did you feel upon reading the last line of the story?
4. Discuss the symbolism of the rose - where does it appear in the story and what could the title mean?
   
5. How challenging did you find reading this story? What made it challenging? Please be as specific as possible.
6. Please choose at least one new word/expression you learned from this text and include useful information about it for your classmates (for example: definition, word class, word stress, useful contexts, example sentences and so on). Why did you choose to learn and remember this word/expression?
   

2. What is a short story? What are its elements?

TASK ONE

Listen to the podcast entitled "Introduction to the short story" from the School of Languages web site: http://www.sabanciuniv.edu/do/eng/?PodCast/PodCasts.php or download it from the iTunes store. You may listen as many times as necessary in order to understand it well, taking notes on key terms. Then define one or more of the following terms in your own words. Please feel free to expand upon and improve your classmates' definitions.

--short story
--protagonist
--antagonist
--anti-hero
--theme
--setting
--characters (flat; round)
--genre
--point of view
--first person narration
--third person narration (omniscient; limited)
--narrator's reliability

TASK TWO
Discuss your experiences of reading short stories, whether in English or Turkish. Which short stories have you read? For what purposes? Did you enjoy them? Why or why not? What do you find challenging about reading short stories? What are your feelings at this moment about reading short stories for this course? (You may discuss all or some of these questions or just add whatever comments you like. Please respond to and expand on your classmates' points in order to make this an interactive discussion. Your teacher may also participate from time to time). 

TASK THREE

Think about the elements of the short story (setting, narration, etc.) as you read William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and be prepared to discuss them in class. 

1. Why use a class blog?

Objectives:

* To record your personal reactions to the human dilemmas posed by our reading texts.

* To practise and improve your critical thinking and argumentative skills by discussing and debating points raised by our reading texts.

* To keep in close communication with your classmates, other ENG 101 students and your teacher outside of class time, commenting and asking questions when necessary.

* To find and share useful resources for improving your language skills.

* To increase your confidence in using social software.

Do you think these are good reasons? Can you think of any more to add? Please COMMENT on this blog post. (Click on 'Comments' below, add your comment and click 'Publish comment').