LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

LITR 4332: American Minority Literature UHCL fall 2005 Final Exam. 5 Dec.

Format: In-class or email. Open-book and open-notebook. In-class students write in blue or black ink on paper of choice. Email students should work things out as they can on the exam itself or in separate files or attachments.

Email students send completed exam to whitec@uhcl.edu.

·        Paste contents of your word processing file directly into the email message.

·        “Attach” your word processing file to an email message. (My computer and programs work off of Microsoft Word 2000. If in doubt, save your file in "Rich Text Format" or “text only” format.)

Relative weight: 20% of final grade

Time: The exam should take at least two hours to complete, but you may use the entire class period (2 hours and 50 minutes). In-class students are given the exam at 4pm, to be returned by 6:50pm. All students are emailed the exam at approximately 3:45pm, when the exam is also posted on the course webpage. Email students must email the exam by 8pm. Their time is more flexible to account for possible interruptions. However, email students should spend no more than 2 hours and 50 minutes in writing the exam, and they should keep a log indicating when they start and stop. (Pauses or interruptions are okay.)

Final exam organization: 2 essay questions / answers

Topic 1: Research Report of information gathered and progress made on proposed topic (1-1.5 hours)

Topic 2: essay on Native American and Mexican American narratives (1-1.25 hours)

Identify which questions or items you're answering. 

Topic 1: Research Report of information on proposed topic (1-1.5 hours)

Format requirements

Title: Give your report a title

Length: approximately 4-6 paragraphs

Time: 1-1.5 hours

Works Cited: Include a list of your major research sources

Assignment description: Write a complete report describing your research on your chosen subject.

·        Student is responsible for having researched at least four sources on the subject before the exam.

·        Organize the information you found and review how you may use it, either in your college career, teaching, or personal development.

·        The emphasis is on information, not opinion and analysis, though some summary and evaluation is welcome and expected. It's a report foremost.

·        You are encouraged to connect your findings to course objectives or texts.

Default organization: Describe your path of learning as a quest.

·        What subject did you choose and why? What relevance to our course and/or to your life or career?

·        What were your starting points in research? How did your subject or understanding change or develop?

·        What did you learn? What was expected or unexpected? If you continued your research, what would you seek to know next and why?

Evaluation standards: Readability, competence levels, and interest.

·        Readability: Your reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Given the pressures of a timed writing exercise, some rough edges are acceptable.

·        Competence levels: quality of your research and comprehension of your subject

·        Interest: Make your reader *want* to process your report. Make the information meaningful; make it matter to our study of literature and culture.

Topic 2: essay on Native American and Mexican American narratives (1-1.25 hours)

Format requirements

Title: Give your essay a title; No Works Cited required

Length: approximately 4-6 paragraphs

Time: 1-1.25 hours

Assignment description: Referring to appropriate objectives and texts, write a complete essay explaining how Native America and Mexican America may be considered minority ethnic cultures and the special narratives these cultures have developed in response to their conditions.

·        Refer specifically to at least three of the following texts or sets of texts: American Indian origin stories (handout); American Indian Stories; The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgen of Guadalupe” (handout); Bless Me, Ultima.

·        Explain the course’s working definition for ethnic minorities and relate Native American and Mexican American culture to this definition. (Objective 1)

·        Describe the narratives that Mexican American and American Indian cultures offer as an alternative to the dominant culture’s American Dream narrative. (Objective 3) 

·        Feel free to refer to poems from class presentations or to previous student exam answers that shed light on these subjects. (Not required.)

Evaluation standards: Readability and interest; knowledge and comprehension of texts and objectives.