Some Casey Property Photos

Photographs courtesy of Gen.

Casey Land Proposal Project

Last fall, a 1946 ISU engineering graduate donated 76 acres to the ISU Creative Writing Department. The land, valued at $201,000, was donated to the university by Everett Casey of Detroit, Michigan. He asked that the land be preserved in its natural state. Casey took a writing class at Iowa State that he credits as being fundamental to what he later did as a Detroit-area attorney and owner of a manufacturing company.

For your next assignment, we’re inviting you to visit the Everett Casey Nature Reserve. You will work in groups to research either the history of the land or the ecology of the land or possible uses for the land. By the end of this unit you will present us with either an analysis of the land or a plan for its use. Your Casey Land “Almanac” will consist of a map that you’ve created, a visual, and either a four page paper or a website. The final week of class we will be presenting these almanac projects in the large lecture classroom.

In order to give you more direction, Steve, Brenna, and I have broken up the assignment into six different focus groups. I provided several questions for each category in order to get you started but do not limit yourself to these prompts.

1-CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)-If we were to set up a CSA on the Casey Land site what steps would we take? What considerations would we have to take into account? How could we fund a CSA project? How could it benefit the creative writing program and the community?

2-Habitat Management-What species do you see on the land and how can we most effectively create a fruitful habitat for those species? Do you notice any invasive plant or animal species? What is the best way to moderate the plant and/or animal life on the property?

3-Prairie Restoration-If we were to restore part of the land to native prairie, what steps would we take? How would we fund the restoration of the prairie? What groups would we contact? What are some of the benefits of a prairie restoration project?

4-History-For this category I want you to examine some of the natural and human history of the land. What has happened on the land so far? Your final project would be a website rather than a proposal paper.

5-Creek Management-What plant or animal species do you see in the creek? How can we provide an effective habitat for them? What impact have humans had on the creek? How can we manage erosion and other effects of having water on the land?

6-Outdoor Classroom-How could the land be used as an outdoor learning space? What aspects of the land would you want to include in some sort of outdoor classroom? How would you go about creating a learning space on the land?


Links of Interest:

http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2009/sep/MFApreserve
http://www.foundation.iastate.edu/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8443
http://blogs.universitybusiness.com/2009/10/university-nature-preserves-inspire-students.html


On Saturday:

Meet at transportation hub behind stadium at 10 am. Free parking. You MUST ride with us. Because it is private property, you CANNOT be there without Eng. Dept. faculty.

Feel free to bring food and water, but do not take it out of the parking lot.

You'll be led around according to which topic you choose.

Wear old jeans, shoes, shirts. Stuff you won't mind getting dirty. Come prepared for rain. Check the weather beforehand.

Bring a camera. One person should bring a field guide.

Casey Land Groups

If you were absent and are not assigned to a group, please let me know prior to Saturday's field trip.


Group 1-Prairie Restoration/Habitat Management:

-Molly Heintz
-Yaheng Chen
-Shawn Seaton
-Emily Swaim
-Lauren Halbert

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Group 2-Prairie Restoration:

-Emma Broadnax
-Alex Frisvold
-Dani De Bruin
-Alex Bales
-Alison Metzger

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Group 3-Habitat Management:

-Ted Mathews
-Jordan Euson
-Sarah Craig
-Michael Gloss
-Austin Jay Godfrey

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Group 4-Outdoor Classroom

-Nicole Hanninen
-Chris Cozzi
-Erik Gerver
-Sara Adelman

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Group 5-Prairie Restoration

-Sara Hill
-Liza Jaszczak
-Matt Johnson
-Thomas Yung

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Class Today

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/402/save-the-day

Symbols--in English class we spend a lot of time talking about rhetorical devices and rhetorical strategies--symbols, metaphors, imagery, ext. However, we spend very little time talking about the larger social and political implications of these seemingly stylistic decisions.

I wanted to share a seemingly "symbolic" structure that I encountered over break--and talk about the implications of its "metaphorical" significance.

The "Birwood Wall" was built in the 1940s to separate white and black neighborhoods. It still stands near 8 Mile and Wyoming.

Recently there's been a movement to "re-claim" the Birwood Wall to give the neighborhood's residents more ownership and agency in their community. The Motor City Blight Busters and artist Chazz Miller banned together to turn something negative into something positive.

Questions: How could such a structure function as both a negative and positive symbol? What visual/rhetorical decisions do you notice Miller making in his reclamation of the wall?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXSJhiH0wk&feature=channel

Schedule Changes

3/22 Tuesday:

Song: Matthew Johnson
Overview of the rest of the semester
Rough Draft, Rhetorical Analysis Due
Buffalo for the Broken Heart 3-68 (Michael Gloss)

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3/24 Thursday:

Song: Theodore Mathews
Talk about Casey Land Field Trip
Buffalo for the Broken Heart 69-124 (Erik Gerver)

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3/27 Saturday:

Field Trip: Everett Casey Nature Reserve 10am-2pm

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3/29 Tuesday:

No Class
(Due to the weekend's field trip)
Finish Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Thursday, write a 1 page journal response to the reading

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4/1: Thursday

Hoover Classroom
Song: Alison Metzger
Final Draft Rhetorical Analysis Due
Be prepared to do to a brief (informal) presentation of your group's experience on the Casey Property

Don't Forget

Our field trip to the Everett Casey Nature Preserve is this upcoming Saturday. Attendance is Mandatory. It should be a great capstone to some of the semester's environmental exploration.

“Smokey the Bear Sutra,” by Gary Snyder, p. 473 (Lauren Halbert) (Journal)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-0WLiNLQM

Song: Sara Hill, Molly Heintz

When we analyzed film, we talked about light, color, chunking, and imagery.

When we talk about writing we often talk in terms about rhetorical devices--such as repetition, imagery, metaphor, structure, voice, tone, ext.

Activity 1:

Get with a partner and share your photos/blogs from last Thursday.

What does the image do that the writing cannot do? What does the writing do that the image cannot?

How would you describe their image to someone who hadn't seen it? How would you describe the writing to someone who hadn't read it? Imagine your partner is a writer or photographer and you are reviewing his or her work. Write a brief response under the comment section of his or her blog.

Activity 2:

Examine the reading for today--how would you answer the following questions for Gary Snyder's essay? How would you connect the answers to your question to the author's thesis or claim?

Questions to Consider:

Group 1: What is the rhetorical situation?

• What occasion gives rise to the need or opportunity for persuasion?

• What is the historical occasion that would give rise to the composition of this text?

Group 2: Who is the author/speaker?

• How does he or she establish ethos (personal credibility)?

• Does he/she come across as knowledgeable? fair?

• What is his/her intention in speaking? To attack or defend? To exhort or dissuade from certain action? To praise or blame? To teach, to delight, or to persuade?

Group 3: Who make up the audience?

• Who is the intended audience?

• What values does the audience hold that the author or speaker appeals to?

• Who have been or might be secondary audiences?

Group 4: What is the form in which it is conveyed?

• What is the structure of the communication; how is it arranged?

• What kind of style and tone is used and for what purpose?

Group 5: How do form and content correspond?

• Does the form complement the content?

• What effect could the form have, and does this aid or hinder the author's intention?

Group 6: Does the message/speech/text succeed in fulfilling the author's or speaker's intentions?

• For whom?

• Does the author/speaker effectively fit his/her message to the circumstances, times, and audience?

• Can you identify the responses of historical or contemporary audiences?

Upcoming Assignments, Clarifications, Changes

Journals are due on Tuesday.

Your journals should include entries on the following readings:
- Blood Dazzler, by Patricia Smith, second half. (Journal)
-From Walden; or, Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, pp. 9-25 (Journal)
- “Speech at Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903,” by Teddy Roosevelt “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks,” by Edward Abbey, p. 413 (Journal on one)
-from Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, p. 366 (Journal)
-“Smokey the Bear Sutra,” by Gary Snyder, p. 473 (Journal)

Please post your material from today's in class activity on your blog for Tuesday.


-This includes one (or more) photos from our class trip to the greenhouse
-One brief written "snapshot" of your experience in the greenhouse--this could be a written description of the object you photographed, a general description of the greenhouse, a description of something the greenhouse reminded you of, or some other written reaction to the experience...feel free to have fun and be creative here...these don't have to be long but I'd like you to take your time with language and description

Tuesday we'll be meeting in the lab, Thursday class is canceled.

Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Feel Free to post any questions using the "comment" function.

Assignment 2: Rhetorical Analysis

While the term "rhetorical analysis" is, at first, rather intimidating for many people, it is easily understood (at least at its most basic) when broken down and defined.

Rhetoric: The art of persuasion
Analysis: The breaking down of some thing into its parts and interpreting how those parts fit together.

A rhetorical analysis examines how a text works—how its words, its structure, its ideas connect—or don't connect—with a given audience. For this assignment I want you to choose one of the readings you’ve encountered this semester and to break it down to its structural components. Rather than merely summarizing what the author is saying you will be analyzing how the author conveys his or her thesis through specific structural decisions.

As with the last paper you will need to understand the author’ claim (what is he/she trying to accomplish?) and have your own thesis (how do his/her rhetorical devices contribute to his/her argument?)

Given the nature of this class—I want you to offer you two different approaches display your rhetorical understanding of the pieces you’ve encountered in class.

Option 1: A 4-5 page social/historical rhetorical analysis of a text of your choice

-Choose a reading that you’ve enjoyed in this course
-Examine that reading closely. What is the author’s claim? How does he or she make his or her argument stylistically? How does the essay’s structure reflect its purpose?
-Research the social/historical/cultural context of the piece—for example you could investigate Thoreau and transcendentalism, John Muir and the development of the National Parks, Teddy Roosevelt and his tour around the Western United States, Alice Walker and the role of African Americans in American environmentalism, Terry Tempest Williams and eco-feminism…the list goes on….
-Use that research to give the essay context. Try to relate use whatever information you find to understand how the author might have been trying to reach a specific audience
-Make your research the basis of your introduction. Shape your essay’s thesis around how the author was able to reach his or her audience stylistically during the time period he or she wrote.

Evaluation Criteria:
-The paper includes both the author’s claim and the writer’s thesis
-The writer shows an understanding of the historical/cultural context of the piece he or she is analyzing and is able to seamlessly integrate that context into his or her argument
¬-The writer examines at least three of the author’s rhetorical strategies (example: diction, imagery, tone, voice) and relates those strategies to the essay’s context, the author’s claim, and the writer’s thesis

Option 2: An imitation of a text of your choice and a 1-2 page analysis of your imitation

-Choose a reading that you’ve enjoyed in this course
-Examine that reading closely. What is the author’s thesis? How does he or she make his or her argument stylistically? How does the essay’s structure reflect its purpose?
-Write your own creative piece integrating rhetorical strategies you notice the original author using to convey your own ideas about home, place, or the environment
-Write a short (aprox. 2 page) paper which includes both your thesis (purpose) and the claim (purpose) of the original text, analyzing how both you and the original author used the same rhetorical strategies to convey your ideas

Evaluation Criteria:
-The imitation effectively uses at least three rhetorical strategies (example: diction, imagery, tone, voice) of the original text
¬-The writer examines at least three of the rhetorical strategies present in the original text and relates those strategies to both the original author’s claim and their own claim in their short paper which accompanies their imitation

Don't forget

Bring your camera and your notebook to class on Thursday!

Class Tuesday: Lab

Remember to read Rachel Carson before class.

Songs: Nicole Hanninen, Austin Godfrey, Lauren Halbert, Michael Gloss
from Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, p. 366 (Molly Heintz, Yaheng Chen)




In class:

Journaling exercise:

What reading have you enjoyed the most? Why?

Rachel Carson:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2714989n

Imagine you are reading this in 1962. John Glenn has recently become the first American to orbit Earth. The U.S is in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. John Paul XXIII has just opened the Second Vatican Council. What about Carson's writing might resonate? How do you imagine American's responding to her work in the midst of this period of scientific, theological, and political expansion? Pick out a passage that you found significant to the time period and explain why you see it as contextually relevant.

(Discuss in groups, have one person post a response to the blog with everyone's name on it.)



For your next large assignment (the rhetorical analysis), I want you to research one aspect of a reading we've done in class--for example the social and historical context, or the political or religious background of the author. Provide whatever background you find in the introduction of your paper and try to examine the text critically through that lens. (I'll provide you with an assignment sheet on Thursday.)