Gloucester Project (part five): Personal Essay, Something Else, & The Exam Day Challenge [That's it!]

The last step is to write a personal narrative/personal essay (650 words or fewer) about an aspect of Gloucester and to make "something else" small but awesome in response to an aspect of Gloucester (a couple poems, a series of photographs, a sculpture, a very short film, a drawing, a painting, a loaf of nisu bread, etc.). (For those curious about such things 40% of your exam grade will be based on your "real world" rhetoric, 30% of your exam grade will be based on your personal narrative/personal essay, 15% of your exam grade will be based on "something else" (small but awesome), and 15% will be based on the challenge you complete from 8:00 - 9:30 in the library on Monday, June 22. You will get a zero on the exam if you do not show up at all on Monday.)

Directions for the personal essay/personal narrative are below followed by an example.

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Directions for Personal Narrative 

Due Monday, June 22 at the final exam

* [Minimum requirement] Prewriting: Go somewhere or do something (have an experience) related to an aspect of Gloucester and a question. Or, think of an experience (or experiences) you have had in the past related to an aspect of Gloucester and a question.

* [Minimum requirement] Write a personal narrative by telling the story of an experience in an engaging, organized manner; by vividly and suggestively describing the characters,setting, and events involved in the experience; and by reflecting on the meaning of the experiences).

* [Minimum requirement] The essay must be 650 words or fewer in length (twelve-point font, double-spaced.) You must have paragraphs.

* [Minimum requirement] Give your personal narrative an appropriate and suggestive title.

·        Narration: Narrate a specific experience (and along the way describe and reflect). Bring the experience alive and bring your thoughts & feelings alive for the reader. 

·        Description: Describe the experience by presenting engaging, suggestive, and vividsensory imagery (sight, sounds, textures, smells, and/or tastes). The descriptions should create a tone and mood. The descriptions should complement your reflective thoughts and feelings about the experience.

·        Reflection (insights & beliefs): Reflect on the meaning of the experience. What did the experience suggest or reveal? Or, how did it challenge or solidify your beliefs or understandings? Reflect on what you experienced, saw, and felt. Develop these thoughts and feelings. You might also think about prior experiences, memories. You might also think about your research. Reflect on it all. Make meaning. Understand the difference between insight and cliché.

·        Organization:  As the story of the experience progresses in a well-paced, logical manner, the reflections on the meaning of the experience should be woven in—not just tacked on at the end. Make sure there are transitions between sentences and paragraphs.

·        Command of writing conventions: Proofread. Write properly punctuated and complete sentences. Choose words carefully; use them correctly; spell them correctly. There should be no run-on sentences and no homophone errors. If your essay contains dialogue, remember that each utterance should be given its own paragraph.

·        Command of personal style: Philip Lopate says, “the hallmark of the personal essay is its intimacy.   The writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom....”  I want to hear you—the thoughtful, observant, reflective you—on the page. The style of this essay should convey intimacy with the reader and care with language, including vivid, suggestive word choices and varied sentence structures.

OR

Directions for Personal Essay

Due Monday, June 22 at the final exam

* [Minimum requirement] Prewriting: What belief or insight about Gloucester (or an aspect of Gloucester) is most important to you?

* [Minimum requirement] Write a personal essay by exploring a belief or insight about Gloucester or an aspect of Gloucester; use vivid and suggestive description of narrative elements (such as characters, setting, and events) to explore and develop the belief or insight.

* [Minimum requirement] The essay must be 650 words or fewer in length (twelve-point font, double-spaced.) You must have paragraphs.

* [Minimum requirement] Give your personal essay an appropriate and suggestive title.

·        Reflection (insight and/or belief): Explore and develop the belief or insight about Gloucester. Reflect on what you have seen and felt. Develop these thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. (Think about prior experiences, memories. Think about your research. Reflect on it all. Make meaning. Understand the difference between insight and cliché.)

·        Narration: Explore and develop your belief or insight by including narrative elements like characterization, setting, and events. Bring the experience alive and bring your thoughts & feelings alive for the reader. 

·        Description: Use engaging, suggestive, and vivid sensory imagery (sight, sounds, textures, smells, and/or tastes) to explore and develop your belief or insight. The descriptions should be woven together with thoughts and feelings about the images.

·        Organization:  As the essay progress the belief or insight should grow, evolve and flow with description and narration woven in to help the growth, evolution, and flow. Make sure there are transitions between sentences and paragraphs. The writer should seem to be exploring the thought and belief not just stating and supporting it. Edward Hoagland suggests, “A personal essay is like the human voice talking, its order the mind's natural flow, instead of a systematized outline of ideas” Douglas Hunt writes that personal essays are "not reports of objective truth but explorations of...attitudes and thoughts." A “five paragraph”-style essay will not work.

·        Command of writing conventions: Proofread. Write properly punctuated and complete sentences. Choose words carefully; use them correctly; spell them correctly. There should be no run-on sentences and no homophone errors. If your essay contains dialogue, remember that each utterance should be given its own paragraph.

·        Command of personal & exploratory style and voice: Philip Lopate says, “the hallmark of the personal essay is its intimacy.   The writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom....”  I want to hear you—the thoughtful, observant, reflective you—on the page. The style of this essay should convey intimacy with the reader and care with language, including vivid, suggestive word choices and varied sentence structures.

Gloucester Project (part 4): Mini-Lessons

As you worked on creating your real world rhetoric, we used class time to learn more about Gloucester and to learn more about the different ways people respond to living in a polis.

To achieve that goal, we completed several mini-lessons.

First, we created maps of Gloucester from our minds and then we created satirical maps of Gloucester (or parts of Gloucester) using "Judgmental Maps" as a model.

Second, we made erasure poems using a page from your research. Examples: Here's a link to A Humument by Tom Phillips. Here's a link to excerpts from Nets by Jen Bevins.

Other mini-lessons to be announced.

Gloucester Project (part 3): Real World Rhetoric Based on Research

Monday (June 1)
Take a look at the mind map (or web) that has (1) your guiding question, (2) what you think you need to know (or what will you need to interpret) in order to address the question, and (3) where you might find out what you need to know (or what will you need to interpret).

(1) Have you grown more confident and excited about your guiding question? If not, how have you changed your mind about your guiding question? How might you make it stronger?
(2) Have you found what you need to know? What have you found that is useful even though you weren't looking for it? What else do you need to know?
(3) Did you find the sources of information you wanted to find? Where else might you look? Who else might you talk to? What sources of information surprised you?


DISCUSSION
Share some of what you've learned and some of what you've been thinking about related to your topic and question.
Relate what you've learned and what you've been thinking about to the bigger issues faced by Gloucester as a whole.
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Monday night (6/1) through class time on Wednesday (6/3)
Write a proposal (500-1000 words) for using your research to create a substantial piece (or several smaller pieces) of real world rhetoric based on your research.

Your proposal should include (1) a specific description (including format, length, and participants in the project^) of the real world rhetoric* that you want to produce; (2) an explanation of how your  real world rhetoric will develop a clear, insightful position in response to the essential question about your topic that you've developed; (3) an explanation of how you plan to use the research you've gathered (and, perhaps, additional research you will gather) in your real world rhetoric; (4) an explanation of how the real world rhetoric will persuade, inform, and engage readers/viewers; (5) an explanation of how the real world rhetoric will reach beyond your teacher and AP classmates at Gloucester High School to a larger audience; and (6) a plan (with dates) for creating the real world rhetoric (in other words, what parts of the project will you get done by what dates?). Write the proposal as a letter to me from you (and any other group members if any). Use Google Docs to share the proposal with me (and to make any revisions as the project evolves).

^You may work with colleagues on the real world rhetoric. Make sure the project is ambitious enough to justify multiple group members.

*Possible real world rhetoric products:
>A series of commentaries written for local newspapers: "My View," letters to the editor, submissions to Good Morning Gloucester, etc.
>A documentary addressing your topic and question uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, etc. and/or shown at the Hive, a community center, etc.
>A work of creative writing--short stories, script, and/or poems--made public on a website and/or performed at a public reading or on video/audio.
>A website and/or social media campaign addressing your topic and question.
>An exhibit, addressing your topic and question, shown at a library, website, other space...
>A tour, addressing your topic and question, organized, mapped, and recorded
>An educational curriculum, addressing your topic and question, with unit map, assessments, rubrics, and lessons to share with teachers in the Gloucester Public School system.
>In the right-hand column you'll find examples of last year's projects.
>Other...
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Wednesday (6/3) through Monday (6/15)
Create your real world rhetoric and annotated bibliography* to be ready for presentation in class Monday, June 15. 

*Annotations will include summary of the source, analysis of the source, and explanation of how the source contributed to the real world rhetoric.

Make sure your real world rhetoric and/or annotated bibliography is ready by class time on Monday, June 15.

Gloucester Project (part 2): research and response

(1) What does the Gloucester in your head look like?
Thursday in class make a map of Gloucester from memory. Focus on whatever details you know or think you know. Some students focus on the outer contour. Other students focus on roads. Other students focus on landmarks. Many blend all of the above. Some students begin with their own neighborhood and then build outward. Others begin at whatever they consider to be the center of the city and then build outward. Others build from the contour inward. Any approach works. It's your map.

Then compare this map with what you discover on Google Maps. Zoom in. Zoom out. Peel off the little yellow person and put her/him down somewhere. Look around. Spend some time exploring aspects of Gloucester that you were thinking about or struggling with while creating your own map. Write down some revelations and understandings and discoveries on the back of the map you made.

(2) What issues will we need to explore more deeply in order to answer the question "What is Gloucester"?
* In class on Thursday we also began exploring other ways of looking at Gloucester. First, I shared some readings with you. Then, we considered the tension between being prideful and critical toward Gloucester. We considered how ideas of heroism, perseverance, manliness, and womanliness affect us in Gloucester. We considered how ideas of tradition vs. change. (What do we call change? Disruption and decline? Or, progress and evolution?)

(3) Choose an aspect of Gloucester art and/or culture to examine more closely in relation to one of the Gloucester issues or tensions that emerged from our discussion.

Some topics from your 3-2-1s [I've grouped them a bit.]

Water culture, aquaculture, geography, ocean, coastline, estuary, marsh, beaches, etc.
Annisquam River
Ecology (turkeys, coyotes, other wildlife)
Water quality

Fishing industry
Trade with Suriname
Trade with Asia

Religion
Our Lady of Good Voyage
St. Ann's
 
Arts
painting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, theater, music [See below for some specific possibilities]
Fitz Henry Lane
Movies filmed in Gloucester
Architecture (buildings, streets)

Wars (American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Gulf)

Neighborhoods
Annisquam
East Gloucester 
Lanesville
Magnolia 
Rocky Neck
The Fort

Other Places
Dogtown
Ravenswood
Stage Fort Park
Quarries

People
"man in the woods" [I think that's the Hermit of Gloucester, Mason Walton]
 histories of families that have been in Gloucester for many years

Legends
Sea serpent
Dogtown "witches"
  
Immigration 
Portuguese culture
Irish culture

Sicilian culture

 Here are some more ideas that you maybe have not considered.

Arts:

Examples:

• poetry (Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, Jeremy Ingalls, T.S. Eliot, etc.)
• fiction (Peter Anastas, Jonathan Bayliss, Anita Diamant [on Dogtown], Rudyard Kipling [on Gloucester  etc.)
• non-fiction (Judith Sargent Murray [on women's rights], Mark Kurlansky, Sebatian Junger, etc.)
• music (Herb Pomeroy, Willie Alexander, etc.)
• painting (Fitz Henry Lane, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Nell Blaine, John Sloane, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, etc.)
• photography (Ernest Morin, Anne Rearick, Nubar Alexanian, Paul Cary Goldberg, Leslie Bartlett, Jason Grow, etc.)
•  sculpture (Walker Hancock, Paul Manship, etc.)
• dance (Carl Thomsen, Sarah Slifer)
• theatre (Israel Horowitz, Nan Weber)
• film (documentarian Henry Ferrini, The Perfect Storm, Captains Courageous)
• graphic narrative/comics (Greg Cook, Tony Millionaire, etc.)

Culture:

Examples:

• ethnic and religious practices and traditions (St. Peter’s Fiesta, the Portuguese Crowning Ceremony, the first Universalist Church in America),
• civic traditions (like Lanesville’s infamous parade, the Horribles Parade),
•  public art and architecture (City Hall, Dogtown rocks, the Man at the Wheel statue, the Fisherman’s Wife statue),
• civic institutions (schools, Fisherman’s Wives Association, St. Peter’s Club)
• industries (trade, fishing, tourism, quarrying)
• cultural figures (Roger Babson<<MAJOR AMERICAN CAPITALIST, Ebenezeer Babson, Howard Blackburn, Judith Sargent Murray<<ONE OF AMERICA'S FIRST FEMINISTS, A. Piatt Andrew, Ben Smith, Manuel Lewis, Newman Shea<<A MAJOR LABOR ORGANIZER, Benjamin Butler<<CIVIL WAR GENERAL, GREENBACK, POLITICIAN, QUARRY OWNER)

[You might also focus on culture in a particular section of the city.]

POST YOUR TENTATIVE TOPIC IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW. (You do some preliminary research by referring to step #4 below.

(4) Get started with your research into your topic & question. You'll need double-entry notes (information, quotations, summaries, etc. from the source on the left and your questions, ideas, rebuttals, connections, etc. on the right) for five or more sources (ten pages or so of notes) by Monday, June 1.
 

* In class on Tuesday, May 26 write a question to guide your research by combining the topic & question (below).

Possible questions to ask about your topic while conducting research.
 How does tension between old and new ideas about heroism, perseverance, womanliness, and manliness affect the polis of Gloucester?

How does tension between change and continuity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between what is hidden or concealed and what is open or known affect the polis of Gloucester?

 How does tension between insiders and outsiders affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between "us" and "them" affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between connectedness and isolation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between homogeneity and heterogeneity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between nature and industry affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between care-taking and exploitation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between leisurely enjoyment and rugged resilience (grit) affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between civic pride and civic critique affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between beauty and ugliness affect the polis of Gloucester?

I think it will be helpful to spend the first part of class on Wednesday doing a mini-lesson on what makes a good research question for this project. To create our research questions we're applying one of the big essential questions about Gloucester (see above) to a narrower aspect of Gloucester's polis. This question should be carefully crafted. Spend some time working on it. Make sure it's clear and focused. Ask a peer, is my question clear and focused enough that you could use it to guide research? If the answer is yes: dive back into researching a response to the question. If the answer is no: work on refining your question

 
* Put that question at the center of a map/web.

* Make a map of (1) the kind of information you hope to find on your question and (2) where you might go looking for that information. (See below for resources.)

Ask me lots of questions during class time.

Be resourceful. Use GHS library resources [mini-lesson on Wednesday], Sawyer Free Library resources (including the Reference Librarian and Gloucester Shelf on the second floor), living experts [mini-lesson on interviewing on Wednesday or Thursday], and reputable internet* sources [see below].
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*internet sources to consider
gloucestertimes.com (local daily newspaper)
ghwalk.org (Gloucester Harbor Walk website with information on 42 aspects of Gloucester art and culture)
quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2526150lk.html (demographic, social, economic, and housing census information)
galesites.com/menu/mlin_n_glchs (Gloucester High School Gale Resources)
books.google.com (I've found a lot of good information and many full books by searching here.)

Search for websites of organizations related to your topic (Gloucester Writers Center (this website has video and audio recordings of creative writers and researchers), St. Peter's Club, Cape Ann Museum, etc.)

Think of video too: search for your topic using youtube and vimeo (No Pretty Prayer about the Sicilian community in the Fort; Polis is This about Charles Olson, his writing, and his relationship to Gloucester; The Greasy Pole (award winning documentary)