Friday, January 11, 2013

January 11*

JOURNAL TOPIC: (today's tunes: "Angel Eyes" by Ella Fitzgerald; "Loveless Love" by Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars; "Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk)

What were the most compelling elements of your learning in Fall Semester? Did you draw inspiration from a Big Question, Collaborative Working Group, remix, new technology, literature analysis book, outside connected project, or something else related to the course? As you think about the options available to you (which include just about whatever you can imagine), what inspires you now as you imagine the next six months?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. The Harlem Renaissance and American art
3. SMART Goals: from goal to plan

HW:
1. Please select your first Literature Analysis book & bring to class on Monday, January 14
2. Please create a post on your course blog entitled "SPRING SEMESTER PLAN 1" and describe your plan per in-class discussion (I will update this post with a recap after class.)
3. Please begin memorizing "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes (see below)-- due Wednesday, January 16.

THEME FOR ENGLISH B

By Langston Hughes

The instructor said,


Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page: It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me---we two---you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me---who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records---Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white---
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me---
although you're older---and white---
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
1951

No comments:

Post a Comment