LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Final exam (revised from syllabus)

Date: 7 May, regular class period (10am-12:50pm)

Relative weight: 40-50% of final grade

Final exam organization: 2 essay questions / answers (details below)

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

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

Format: In-class or email. Open-book and open-notebook. Follow same instructions as midterm.

Time: The exam should take at least two hours and a half to complete, but you may use the entire class period (2 hours and 50 minutes) as you like. In-class students must turn in their exams by 12:50pm. Email students must mail in the exam by 6pm on May 7. Until that deadline, the exam may be taken online any time after the final class meeting on 30 April.

Students wishing to take the exam in-class must appear in our regular classroom (Bayou 1213) at 10am, 7 May.

All students are welcome to use as much time as they want to prepare for the exam. However, no student should spend more than 2 hours and 50 minutes in writing the final draft of the exam. Please keep a log indicating when you start and stop. (Pauses or interruptions are okay.)

Within a few days after 7 May, students will receive a "final grade report" duplicating my personal record of their grades plus brief comments on the final and/or semester. As usual, welcome to reply.

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. You may prepare your “Works Cited” ahead of time. MLA style is preferred. In-class students may fold in a print-out with their exam.

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. These sources should be as varied as possible: web sources, personal interviews with teachers or experts, documentaries or encyclopedia articles, anything with trustworthy information on your subject.

·        Organize the information you found and review how you may use it, either in your college career, extended research, 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 learning curve as a journey or 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; of comprehension of subject; and of expression in essay form.

·        Interest: Make your reader *want* to process your report. Make the information meaningful; make it matter to our study of literature and culture. Remind us what we're learning together. Connect to and extend course objectives.

Model assignments of previous research reports

You may use previous research reports as one of your sources.

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 for topic 2 essay

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 (obj. 1) and the special narratives (obj. 3) 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); The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgen of Guadalupe” (handout); Bless Me, Ultima.
   

• Refer also to one poem from the presentations. (If it's the poem you presented, maybe refer to two.)
   

• 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) 
   

• Refer to at least one previous student exam answer that sheds light on these subjects.

Evaluation standards: Readability and interest; knowledge and comprehension of texts and objectives; development of thematic organization in essay.