Day 3:
Today we are going to start with our vocabulary journals.

Vocabulary exercise: (Depending on class size)
Compile a list of one to five vocabulary terms that each student found particularly interesting.
Say why you chose your particular word.

Paraphrasing: Work together to paraphrase a complete paragraph from Viggo Mortensen's Introduction.
Go through individual examples and have groups explain why they chose particular words.
In Class Group Work:

  1. Say what you like about the piece.
  2. Go through each other's homework and underline:
    evaluative or judgmental terms
    descriptive or non-judgmental terms
    abstract terms
    concrete terms
  3. List three to ten details you found particularly striking.
Journal Entry #3: Due Tuesday July 19
"Station yourself somewhere [in town] such as the entrance to [a movie theater or restaurant] or any place where people tend to gather. Go there every day for at least five days and write a neutral description of what you see and hear. Don't include judgments or conclusions about your scene. Just collect detail that strikes you as particularly telling. You will find that it is surprisingly difficult to leave out your reactions, though you should recognize that the details you choose to record are already reactions because it is you and your orientation toward the world that have selected them.
When you are finished put together a one-to two-page account that tells by showing--that is, your account should be made up entirely of telling detail rather than your interpretations of the significance of tat detail. Your goal is to provide readers of your account with a window on the world, but one that is, of course, highly selective, because writing does not operate like a camera eye. Writing is inevitably and necessarily more selective. Keep revising your account until you have a rendering of your "data"--the observed details--that will cause your readers to think and feel as you do about the scene" (7).
Record your finished observations into your webjournal. You may choose to record notes or whatever extraneous information into your private journals

Suggestions: interesting, strange, revealing, and significant
Begin this assignment by making a list of details about the place you have selected. After compiling a healthy list, choose the details that you think are most important for understanding the character of the place. Use the four words above. It may be helpful to use these prompts:
What I notice is...
What I find most (interesting, strange, revealing, significant) is....

Notice we are not passing judgment on the place but are instead noticing and recording standout details.
Interesting: Things that capture your attention without your knowing why.
Strange: Things that are odd. This is not a judgmental term in this context because we are merely noticing things that are not readily explained.
Revealing:
Significant: These terms beg the question why. It may be useful to begin to say why you used these terms to label particular details. What do the details say about the place that make them important.