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Week 9

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G ood morning, everyone. Hope you had a good . . . two weeks! since last we met. Today we have class time to work on the essay on The School of Life video series, by Alain de Botton.  Two  of my favorites  here  and  here , funny and smart (imo).  As these are very short instructional videos designed for personal development, they differ from feature films, whose main intent is to show and tell a good story.  Of course, a little or a lot of charm is necessary in teaching, so one criteria you might use in evaluating the effectiveness of whatever selection you have made is whether the lesson is made clear and palatable (that ole spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down), and if so, how?     What are the elements that draw our attention?  How are we made to feel?  Do we laugh, feel touched, stimulated by the subject? What have we been shown or invited to consider?  What value have you or others (readers' commen...
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Week 8

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   W elcome back.   Hope you had a wonderful week. Today we will address the essay practice involving comparison and contrast, which may include adopting a hypothetical stance so that we get some practice in using the subjunctive mood and conditional verb forms. There will be time to work in class, and to review grammar and punctuation and summary works.  We may then watch one or two of the films from Alain de Botton's The School of Life,  on YouTube, time permitting.       The last essay (#6)  before the class final will require you to present a summary and response view of a Botton film short, including the main ideas of the work and description of how it is illustrated or animated.  There are many from which to choose, so I leave the final selection to you, knowing that a personal sense of connection to the topic is important to your sense of engagement.  Botton is an Englishman and speaks in a teacherly way...
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Week 7

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     Art by Marc Chagall (1887-1985)                                          G ood morning.  Today we will review work recently completed, midterm and summaries,   how to build upon a story or theme and use textual sources (primary or  secondary).  We continue verb exercises,  covering the subjunctive mood  and modal and irregular verbs.  Essay 5 we'll begin in class, a piece using  the comparison and contrast mode of organization (chapter 9 in  Mosaics). ----------------------------------------- Practice Prompts Using C omparison/Contrast Why do we wonder ,  what if . . . ?   What benefit is there in taking the perspective  of another? Empathy comes  to  mind,  a word that den...
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