(This webpage is the assignment for our course's first midterm, to be updated until 26 September, when paper copies will be distributed.)

Official date: 3 October. No class meeting. Classroom available. Instructor keeps office hours 7-10. Confer in-person, by phone or email re midterm essays, research proposal, etc. (Bayou 2529-7. 281-283-3380. Whitec@uhcl.edu.)

Email exams to whitec@uhcl.edu by midnight Tuesday, 4 October. "Submission window" is 27 September-4 October.

Format: Email. Open-book, open-notebook, open-website.

Three parts to Midterm1:

Part 1. Essay comparing and contrasting immigrant and minority narratives and cultures. (At least 7 paragraphs; references to 6 texts.)

Part 2. Web Highlights reviewing at least three Model Assignments from previous semesters (incl. at least one previous midterm1) (4-5 paragraphs)

Part 3. Research Report Topic proposal (for Research Report on Final Exam) (with update on Midterm 2) (1-2 paragraphs.)

Special requirement: Essays & Web Highlights must have titles.

Advice: Draft Part 2 Web Highlights first to acquaint yourself with standards, reinforce your learning, and provide models for organization.

Special notes: Section contents may overlap or repeat materials, but be efficient; cross-reference to economize.

Part 1. Essay comparing and contrasting immigrant and minority narratives and cultures. (At least 7 paragraphs; references to 6 texts.)

Using examples from course readings, presentations, and discussions, compare and contrast the immigrant and minority narratives. How do immigrants' and minorities' stories differ, and how do they respond differently to the USA and assimilation? Where do the immigrant and minority narratives intersect or separate?

Refer to Objectives 1-3 (at bottom of syllabus / homepage).

Referring to examples from our readings and appropriate web links, define "minority" and "immigrant" as contrasting historical origins and experiences (with some similarities).

Define and cite examples of "Model Minority" immigrants and the Dominant culture. How do Immigrant and Minority cultures relate differently to the dominant culture, and why? How do "Model Minority" immigrants function as "ideal immigrants?"

Define assimilation and resistance, possibly including acculturation / "selective assimilation," and cite examples from course readings. What different attitudes toward assimilation among immigrants and minorities?

As literature, compare the immigrant and minority narratives as stories that appeal to, confirm, or challenge your and others' attitudes. What different appeals do the immigrant and minority narratives make to readers? What different pleasures or purposes do readers find in these distinct stories or profiles? How and why do readers—regardless of their own particular ethnic identity—identify with these stories, or not?

Special requirements / options:

Required: references to course objectives 1-3 + knowledge of course-website definitions for terms. (All course objectives and terms open for discussion.)

Optional: personal references: Not required, but you may refer to your own backgrounds, personal knowledge and experiences, and unique interpretations of the materials. Relate to terms, themes, objectives.

Textual requirements: Refer to 6+ texts from course readings—mostly assigned readings but also poems presented in class.

Of the 6 required texts, 2-4 should exemplify the immigrant narrative and 2-4 should exemplify the minority narrative.

Of the 6 texts, at least four should be prose pieces from Imagining America or Immigrant Voices Vol. 2, fiction or nonfiction handouts, or webpage texts. Two texts may be poems presented, or use all prose texts if preferred.

Welcome to refer to quotes or ideas from earlier midterms in Essay, but Web Highlights make this optional.

Also welcome to refer briefly (i.e. not extensively) to outside texts, quotations, etc. These can always help but don't count as a substitute for references to course readings.

  Texts available for essay

Immigrant texts (select, describe, and analyze at least 2)

Immigrant fiction and nonfiction: Anzia Yezierska, excerpt from Bread Givers; Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water”; Nicholasa Mohr, “The English Lesson” (IA 21-34); Anchee Min, from The Cooked Seed (IV2 193-215); Sui Sin Far, "In the Land of the Free" (IA 3-11); Gish Jen, “In the American Society” (IA 158-171); Dr. Rose Ihedigbo, from Sandals in the Snow (IV2 149-172); J. Christine Moon, "'What Color would you Like, Ma'am?"'; Le Ly Hayslip, from Child of War, Woman of Peace (IV2 105-125)

Immigrant poetry: Joseph Papaleo, “American Dream: First Report”;

Minority texts (select, describe, and analyze at least 2)

Minority fiction and nonfiction: Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, The African; Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” (IA 145-152); Alice Walker, “Elethia” (IA 307-309; Handsome Lake, How the White Man Came to America; Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” (IA 205-209); Louise Erdrich, "American Horse" (IA 210-220); Mei Mei Evans, “Gussuk” (IA 237-251)

Minority poetry: Patricia Smith, “Blonde White Women” ; Chrystos, “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government"

Part 2.  Web Highlights: Review at least 3 student submissions from course website's Model Assignments (4-6 paragraphs)

Requirements & guidelines:

  Review at least one midterm1 essay from 2013 Midterm1 Essays.

  Review at least one final research report from 2013 American Immigrant Literature final research reports.

  Your third item may be another midterm1 essay, another final research report, or any other submission on Model Assignments.

  “Review”: Describe what interested you, why you chose it, and what you learned. You may criticize what you found, but not required.

To identify passages, copy and paste brief selections into your web review or refer to them using names, locations, paraphrases, summaries, and brief quotes. (Both options in models.) Either way, highlight and discuss language used in the passages as part of your commentary.

What did you learn from reviewing model assignments that you didn't learn from in-class instruction?

Requirement: Web Highlights essay must have a title. Also remember to write it as an essay, not just a list of 3 items.

Unify your essay by relating what you learned from one Model Assignment to what you learned from another, or start with a theme, idea, term, or question of interest that all three of your models connect to and you want to learn about.

These Web Highlights are a new assignment for American Immigrant Literature. To see models of Web Highlights, go to LITR 4326 2016 midterm Web Highlight samples or LITR 4328 2015 midterm Web Highlight samples.

Part 3.  Write a proposal for your Research Report Topic (to be developed in Midterm2 and completed as part of Final Exam).

Model Assignments of Research Proposals for 2013 Midterm1

Assignment: Write 1-2 paragraphs of 3-5 sentences identifying your probable topic for a research report. Why did you choose this topic? What do you want to learn? How? Indicate what you already know.

If you're stuck between 2-3 subjects, describe situation—instructor will help.

You can change your subject, or your subject can evolve as you do research. If your subject changes completely, clear with instructor. If your subject evolves but stays more or less the same, no need to clear with instructor. As part of your research report, you can write about how your subject changed. (That is, how your subject or interests evolved can be part of the learning experience you describe.)

Range of subjects: You have considerable freedom to choose, but anyone reading your proposal should immediately recognize its relevance to a class on immigrant literature and multicultural identity.

Look across the whole semester for possibilities—you're not limited to what we've covered so far.

Warning: The only recurrent mistakes are that some students propose pure Minority topics that didn’t have anything to do with immigration or the immigrant narrative. This course doesn’t exclude Minority Literature, but such a topic is more appropriate for our American Minority Literature course. You can involve Minority identities and narratives, but they must relate to Immigrant literature or identity in some direct and obvious way.

Possibilities for topics (there are others—these are just to help you start thinking):

Literature of an immigrant group—e. g. Chinese-American, Mexican-American, Turkish-American—the possibilities are innumerable.

History of a particular immigrant group and / or some literary or cultural movements or achievements associated with them.

An immigrant or ethnic group that mixes immigrant and minority traditions, e. g. New-World Immigrants like Haitians, Jamaicans, or other Afro-Caribbeans; Dominicans; Mexican Americans?

A particular immigrant writer, e. g. Gish Jen, Frank McCourt, Sandra Cisneros, Henry Roth, Anzia Yezierska, Richard Rodriguez. (Career review + bibliography of major writings.)

An immigrant-literature-related topic of a more formal literary nature focusing on narrative, language issues, publishing challenges, etc.

The main thing is for you to choose a topic you care about and want to learn about and share.

To get a sense of this report’s possibilities, look at previous models on Model Assignments. No problem if you repeat an assignment—in fact, you may use previous research reports as sources for your own research requirements.

Response to Research Proposal

When your midterm-submission email is received, instructor will directly read your proposal and reply-email a response.

Student does not receive a letter grade for the proposal, only a “yes” or instructions for receiving a yes. Students don't lose credit for problems reaching a topic as long as they are working on it.

  The only way to get in trouble over proposal is by not doing enough, i.e., if you simply don’t offer much to work with, especially after prompts from instructor.

A bad proposal is one sentence starting, “I’m thinking about . . . ” and ending “ . . . something to do with immigration and gender.” Then, “What do you think?” In these cases, a bad grade isn’t recorded, but notes regarding the paper proposal may appear on the Final Grade Report.

In other words, a few students obviously don't think about this topic until the last minute when the midterm is due. Instructor can't act like that's acceptable, but you can recover.

Instructor welcomes inquiries on possible topics before Midterm1. Email, phone, confer in person.

Future developments:

Midterm 2: 4-5 paragraphs describing your research and learning so far on your topic and how it relates to American Immigrant Literature.

Final Exam: 8-10 paragraph report summarizing your research and learning on your topic and how it relates to our course.

General grading standards: Readability, competence levels, evidence of learning, thematic unity, and interest.

Readability & surface competence: Your reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style limit quality.

Content quality:

Evidence of reading & coverage of required texts.

Evidence of learning, including use of course resources esp. instructional webpages (for terms) + materials from class discussion and lecture.

Interest & significance: Make your reader want to process your essays by making the information meaningful to our study of literature and culture.

Thematic unity / organization: Unify materials along a line of thought that a reader can follow from start to finish.