Culture & Cultivation
English 4WS (Sec 2) – Critical Reading & Writing w/ Service Learning
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Instructor: Alex Zobel Email: akzobel@gmail.com
Office: Humanities A82 Time & Location: T/R 9:00-10:50 Rolfe 3134
Office Hours: W 12:00 - 2:00 pm Mailbox Location: Humanities 149
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COURSE DESCRIPTION

English 4W aims to expose students to the three major forms of literature (poetry, prose fiction, and drama) through the art of close reading, which literary scholars broadly define as the practice of scrutinizing a text carefully in order to discern complex patterns of meaning. It is impossible to spend sufficient time on the works we will be exploring within the bounds of class-time, so you will be required to spend time reading and writing on your own; this is a practice that will enable you to bring your personal experiences with these works to our discussions in class and participate in an engaged way as part of our community of learning. But our community of learning is broader than the classroom—it also includes the community organizations you will be partnering with for your service-learning. We will be investigating and interrogating a versatile metaphor—cultivation—and how it impacts the cultures and communities in which we live. “Cultivation” leaves its trace on culture both linguistically in the morphology of the word and symbolically by informing the figures we use to talk about the establishment, maintenance and the dissolution of a culture -- as when a character in Shakespeare’s play Richard II refers to England as a “sea-walled garden” that is corrupt and “full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up, Her fruit-trees all upturned, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots disorder'd and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars” (3.4.43-47).
The imagery of an unmaintained garden suggests a latent threat to the highly civilized and cultivated culture: that without cultivation, any culture can return to its antithesis—a wild, uncivilized and “disorder’d” nature. In the political register of these lines, the cultivation metaphor poses certain questions: How does the use of these metaphors encode and encourage certain habits toward nature and culture? What does it suggest about the relationship between nature and culture. If we’re terrified on some level that we will return to an uncultured nature, why use organic, natural imagery in the first place? We’ll be looking at the political ramifications of these metaphors, as well as the personal ramifications. Cultivation also serves as the primary trope that animates our sense of education. We still refer to the first level compulsory education as kindergarten, literally “children’s garden.” Our development as students and people was probably influenced by the kind of care and cultivation we received in K-12 institutions and in higher education. We’ll critically reflect on literary experiences of education and our own. If second-wave feminism is correct in identifying the false binary in the public-private distinction (in the famous phrase of the 60s and 70s “the personal is political”), we might ask how state mandated education is implicated in the construction of a culture. Culture critics love to use the terminology of constructivism – what is at stake in using diction that suggests manufacturing, such as “construction,” versus organic diction, such as “cultivation”? If “cultivation” activates an analogy between biology and society, what are the limits of that metaphor? We use imagery from agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry for the education of children and young adults, but what metaphors do we use for continuing education and for the remainder of the human life cycle? Surely cultivation, like learning, does not end with a college diploma. Agriculture provides a language for other stages of plant and animal life cycles, such as pruning, finishing, and harvesting, but we rarely continue to use organic metaphors for maturity, middle age, and old age. What prevents us from fully realizing cultivation as a conceit for the entirety of the human life cycle? Just as education continues after a degree has been awarded, studies show that the bulk of student learning occurs beyond the classroom. I know at the outset of the course that your experiences beyond the classroom cannot be scripted into a lesson. As you cull experiences from texts and from life, we’ll rely on each other to bring back those experiences and to share and reflect upon them critically in the classroom. Together we will engage themes of nature and nurture in our own education while collaborating with nonprofit organizations dedicated to cultivating various communities within Los Angeles.

REQUIRED TEXTS

* Poetry packet (posted on course CCLE page) * Virgil. The Georgics of Virgil. Trans David Ferry (9780374530310) * Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. (ISBN: 9780199536153) * Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America. (ISBN: 9780871568779)

SERVICE-LEARNING

Service learning is a pedagogical approach that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. This class operates on the premise that you will learn more about how “fieldwork” is a part of a larger ecosystem composed of the food system, education, business, immigration, healthcare, and the environment by collaborating with local community groups that deal with these issues than you would by exploring “fieldwork” from a purely theoretical perspective in a UCLA classroom. Thus, each week you will apply your academic skills to support the work of one of our community partners and simultaneously share what you learn from our partners with your classmates, enriching our seminar experience with the knowledge you gain from the Los Angeles community. During the first day of class, you will meet our community partners and choose a project to work on. Our community partners / co-educators are:

Learning Garden @ Venice High: The Learning Garden at Venice High serves the students at Venice High and the broader community by teaching visitors about sustainable gardening practices and food security. UCLA students will be working with David King, the garden master at the Learning Garden, either helping out with the high school’s Seed-to-Sale program at the garden and Mar Vista Farmers’ Market or interning with the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA). SLOLA maintains a seed collection and repository for promoting open-pollinated seeds among LA residents with the hope of preserving genetic diversity, increasing food security and food justice in the region safeguarding alternatives to GMOs, and empowering members. Available Times and Duties: Students who will be working with the Seed-to-Sale program are needed on Wednesday mornings from 8 am to 1 pm at the Venice High Learning Garden and Sunday mornings from 7 am to 1 pm at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market (times are negotiable with David, but please be consistent). Students working with the Seed Library of Los Angeles will be responsible for holding library hours on the third Sunday for 2-3 hours and any other day that you can consistently manage the library for patrons. Your duties entail checking-in and checking-out seeds for members. Location and Transportation: The Learning Garden is located at Venice High School at 13000 Venice Blvd where Venice Blvd and Walgrove meet. Access from Walgrove. Big Blue Bus #1 will take you from UCLA Hilgard to Venice High. L.A. Metro Bus #733 or #33 also serve Venice High. Please verify by checking the route yourself. Contact Info: David King – gardenmaster@thelearninggarden.org or 310-722-3656

826LA – This nonprofit is dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. With this in mind, 826LA provides drop-in tutoring, after-school workshops, in-school tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications. Available Times and Duties: Drop-in tutors are always needed on-site in Mar Vista (M-Th 3:00-6:00pm) and Echo Park (M-Th 2:45-6:00 pm). Both sites hold evening tutoring for middle and high school students most weeks (T/Th 6:30-8:30pm) and field trips are frequently held from at both locations from 10-1 M-F. Locations and Transportation: 826LA Mar Vista at 12515 Venice Blvd 90066 (behind Mar Vista Time Travel Mart). Take Big Blue Bus 1 or 2; transfer to the 14 south on Bundy and get off at Venice & Centinela. Free street parking in the neighborhood. 826LA Echo Park at 1714 W. Sunset Blvd 90026 (behind Echo Park Time Travel Mart) Take Metro Bus 2 east and get off at Sunset & Glendale Blvd or Echo Park Blvd. Metered parking in the lot behind the building; limited street parking. Contacts: Lauren Humphrey (Mar Vista) – laurenhumphrey@826la.org or 310.915.0200 Laura Rosof (Echo Park) – laura@826la.org or 213.413.3388 Website: www.826la.org

WISE and Healthy Aging – WISE & Healthy Aging is a multi-service, non-profit organization serving older adults and their families and caregivers throughout Los Angeles County. Headquartered in Santa Monica, the team at WISE & Healthy Aging works to promote and improve the well-being, independence and self-esteem of seniors, and to prevent premature institutionalization whenever possible. WISE & Healthy Aging enhances the independence, dignity and quality of life of older adults through leadership, advocacy and innovative services. The community of constituents includes older adults at all stages of their lives – from pre-retirement through frailty, caregivers and their families, senior service organizations, as well as others who share our passion and commitment to serving older adults. Available Times and Duties: WISE is open Monday through Friday 9am-4pm. Assistance from 10-3 is ideal but any time during business hours should be possible as long as you consult the site supervisor. Service learning students will participate in a diverse array of adult day activities, including large group activities (e.g. exercise groups), small group activities (e.g. games, puzzles, and creating life histories), and one-on-one time with clients (initiating conversation and providing companionship). A unique feature of this site is that students have been encouraged to create their own activities using their talents (e.g. sing- alongs). Please note that all service learners are required to submit verification of a negative TB test (within the last 12 months) at the start of their service learning. TB tests can be performed at the Ashe Student Health Center or at a number of local clinics (such as the Minute Clinics at CVS pharmacies). For more information consult the Ashe Center immunization website: http://www.studenthealth.ucla.edu/Lists/ChannelContent/CustDispForm.aspx?ID= 37&Title=Immunizations&Channel=Services Location and Transportation: 1527 4th St., 2nd Floor, Santa Monica 90401
Take Big Blue Bus 1 or 2 and get off at 4th Street and Broadway (near Santa Monica Place mall and the 3rd Street Promenade).
Contact: Eva Jimenez – ejimenez@wiseandhealthyaging.org or (310) 394-9871
Website: http://www.wiseandhealthyaging.org/

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Service-Learning: On the first day of class, we will discuss service learning in general as well as the specific project options and methods for documenting your hours. You will be placed with a community partner during this seminar meeting and will learn about additional training they will provide at the site. Weekly service with your community partner is just as integral to your ability to participate actively in this seminar as the homework you do outside of class. Therefore, you MUST complete at least 20 hours of service learning by Week 9 in order to pass this course. Be sure that the available times (above) do not conflict with other classes or activities because completion of the course requirements is contingent upon your participation during the specified hours. Missed hours may be made up during Week 10, if your service partner is available. Your successful completion of 20 service hours will be reflected in your graded assignments (below) and will be verified through a mid-quarter check-in with your site supervisor and a signed timesheet submitted at the end of the quarter. Signed timesheets are due by 5pm on Friday of Week 10. You may submit your timesheet in hard copy to my box in Humanities 149 or electronically via the course website.

Papers - Drafts & Revisions: You are required to write two essays for this class, and all of them will require some sort of workshop before you turn them in. The first paper will involve workshopping your close reading, and the second paper will require a complete first draft, which you will workshop in groups, and a revision based on feedback from your peers. A complete paper means that it meets the entire length requirement—outlines will not be accepted. Papers should be typed in 12-pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, and must be turned in on the due date in order to receive full credit.

Attention & Contribution: Your attention and contribution grade will be divided between your daily, in-class contribution, participation in the paper workshops, and your performance on unscheduled assignments (including pop quizzes). We will workshop papers in groups on designated workshop days (see the course schedule on the following pages). On workshop days, you are responsible for bringing in a copy of your draft for each member of your group, one copy for yourself and one copy for me (depending on the size of your group, you will probably bring in 4 or 5 copies). Attention and contribution is worth 10% of your final grade for this class, and it is by no means free grade padding. Your feedback on your peers’ work will be evaluated when I tabulate your grade, as will the strength of your contributions. Since you cannot participate when you are late or absent, you can expect that they will have an adverse effect on your grade, as will lack of in-class contributions. If you are going to be absent, let me know in advance and make sure you have the contact information of at least one person in the class who can fill you in on material you missed. Journal: You will be expected to keep a private journal for this class and to make weekly contributions to it. I will suggest topics for you to write on in class, but they are only suggestions. I will only read material from your journal that you choose to revise in your submitted reflections and final project. I will not collect your journal. Please view this journal as a place for personal reflection on you service-learning experience, and as part of the writing, reading, and ultimately thinking process. This is a great place to think through issues that might make there way into your final project.

Final Project: In lieu of a final paper, this course will culminate in a final project with a public component—that is, there will be an authentic audience other than you, me, and your classmates for this project. I will work with you throughout the quarter to develop your ideas for a final project. I expect that your final project will draw on your submitted service-learning reflections, insights from your private journaling, your own research, and your own lived experience. Assignment sheet forthcoming.

Written Reflections: Everyone will reflect on their service-learning and reading three times over the course of the quarter, beginning Week 2. See the schedule for the specific due date for each service project’s reflection. Your reflection does not need to address every text, but to receive full credit you must: (a) discuss at least one specific textual example—a passage, poem, chapter, etc.; and (b) connect that example to some aspect of your service project—a specific anecdote, event, problem, or something more general—such as your assessment of the organization’s mission or the community it serves.
See the schedule below for the due dates for your project’s reflections. Reflections should be at least 500 words (approximately 2-pages double spaced with one inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font) and you will be posting these on the appropriately labeled forum on our CCLE page by
8 pm on Sunday 10/13, 11/10, and 12/1. BOL Proxy Server: Every student must have set up the Bruin Online Proxy server on their home computers. This will allow you to use university resources like the Oxford English Dictionary and library databases without using a UCLA terminal. To set up the proxy, follow the instructions for your preferred internet browser here: http://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/proxy/.

Grading: 3 Reflections (500-700 words each) 10% Final Project 10% “Notice Three Things” Assignments 15% Sonnet Close Reading (1000 words) 15% Analysis in Action (500 words) 10% As You Like It Paper (1500 words) 20% Attention & Contribution 10% As You Like It Reading quiz 5% Uncategorized Assignments 5% POLICIES & PROCEDURES

Late Policy: Late papers & drafts will be penalized by 1/3 of a letter grade for each day they are late (for instance, an A- becomes a B+ after one day). Weekends and holidays are included. Other late work will not be accepted.

Plagiarism: You are expected to do all of your own writing in this course. The UCLA Student Conduct Code’s statement regarding plagiarism states: “Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the use of another person's work, (including words, ideas, designs, or data) without giving appropriate attribution or citation. This includes, but is not limited to, representing, with or without the intent to deceive, part or all of an entire work obtained by purchase or otherwise, as the Student's original work; the omission of or failure to acknowledge the true source of the work; or representing an altered but identifiable work of another person or the Student’s own previous work as if it were the Student's original or new work. Unless otherwise specified by the faculty member, all submissions, whether in draft or final form, to meet course requirements (including a paper, project, take-home exam, computer program, oral presentation, or other work) must either be the Student’s own work, or must clearly acknowledge the source.” If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism or if you feel the temptation to plagiarize, please see me and we can talk about strategies for avoiding plagiarism and generating original content. A Writer’s Reference has a helpful section on plagiarism.

Student Writing Center: Please avail yourself of this free resource. The SWC offers UCLA undergraduates one-on-one sessions on their writing. The Center is staffed by peer learning facilitators (PLFs), undergraduates who are trained to help at any stage in the writing process and with writing assignments from across the curriculum. PLFs tailor appointments to the concerns of each writer. Sessions can focus on how to approach an assignment, formulating a thesis, fleshing out a plan/outline for a draft, reading a draft with the writer to check for clarity and flow, incorporating and citing sources, revising a paper based on instructor feedback, or tackling grammar or sentence structure problems. They offer in-person appointments, drop-ins, and virtual appointments online. Located in A61 Humanities, the Writing Center is open Monday through Thursdays 10AM – 6PM; Fridays 10AM – 3PM. Writers may make an appointment by visiting their website: www.wp.ucla.edu and clicking on “Student Writing Center.” Then, click on “Make an Appointment.” For questions, call them at 310-206-1320, e-mail them at wcenter@ucla.edu or just drop in.

Students with Disabilities: If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at (310) 825-1501 to make arrangements.

SCHEDULE

Cultivating a Culture:
Verse & the Seminary of Western Tradition

Week 0: R 9/26 R. Crumb: Book of Genesis (ch. 1-4) Andy Furco: “Service-Learning: A Balanced Approach to Experiential Education” “Notice Three Things” Assignment Introduction to Service Learning with Beth Goodhue, Assistant Director of Center for Community Learning Week 1: T 10/1 Service Learning Sign-Ups Poetry Packet Check Virgil: Georgics I Pastoral vs. Georgic; Georgic vs. Epic; Golden Ages; War vs. Cultivation Seamus Heaney: “Requiem for the Croppies” and “Digging” Gary Snyder: “Hay for the Horses” Lisel Mueller: “The End of Science Fiction”

Week 1: R 10/3 Virgil: Georgics II Cultivating the Patria; Laudes Italia, Country vs. City Seamus Heaney: “Antaeus” and “Hercules and Antaeus” Andrew Marvell: “Mower Against Gardens” Week 2: T 10/8 Virgil: Georgics III Love & Death; Plague & Politics Anne Sexton: “My Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman” Seamus Heaney: “Mid-Term Break” and “The Outlaw” Walt Whitman: “This Compost”

Week 2: R 10/10 Virgil: Georgics IV Republic of Bees, Epyllion & Education; Poetry & Politics Alison Hawthorn Deming: “Science” William Wordsworth: “The Tables Turned” Seamus Heaney: “Alphabets” Langston Hughes: “Theme for English B” Sonnet Assignments

Sunday 10/13 First Reflection Due @ 9 pm Post “Notice Three Things” for Sonnets

Week 3: T 10/15 Shakespeare Sonnets: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 68, 71, 73, 76, 81, 97, 100, 126 “Meter, Scansion, & Sonnets” (Handout) Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Close Reading Workshop

Week 3: R 10/17 Close Reading Presentations w/ Three Things & Dueling Theses Dueling Theses

Sunday 10/20 Paper 1 Due

“These Trees Shall be My Books”: Education & the Stages of Man

Week 4: T 10/22 Shakespeare: As You Like It Reading Quiz Week 4: R 10/24 Shakespeare: As You Like It Sunday 10/27 Thesis statements due @ 9 pm Week 5: T 10/29 Shakespeare: As You Like It Week 5: R 10/31 Shakespeare: As You Like It Happy Halloween! Come in costume as one of the characters for Extra Credit! Sunday 11/3 Analysis in Action Due Week 6: T 11/5 Shakespeare: As You Like It Week 6: R 11/7 Shakespeare: As You Like It Sunday 11/10 Second Reflection Due Week 7: T 11/12 Shakespeare: As You Like It Week 7: R 11/14 Shakespeare: As You Like It

Sunday 11/10 Post three moments your paper will close read. Week 8: T 11/19 Shakespeare: As You Like It Week 8: R 11/21 Shakespeare: As You Like It Paper 2 Workshop Sunday 11/24 Paper 2 Due

Education Narratives:
Cultivation Complicated

Week 9: T 11/26 “How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again” Joyce Carol Oats (17 pgs) Wendell Berry: The Unsettling of America – “Ch 1: The Unsettling of America” (pgs 3- 14) and “Ch 2: The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character” (pgs 17-26) Week 9: R 11/28 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

Sunday 12/1 Third Reflection Due Week 10: T 12/3 Lee K. Abbott: “One of Star Wars, One of Doom” (20 pgs) Donald Barthelme: “The School” Wendell Berry: The Unsettling of America – “Ch 3: The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Agriculture” (pgs 27-38) Week 10: R 12/5 Alice Walker: “Everyday Use” (16 pgs) Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” Wendell Berry: The Unsettling of America – “Ch 4: The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture” (pgs 39-48)

Sunday 12/8 Final Project Due @ 8 pm.