Syllabus
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| NOTE: ASSIGNMENTS ARE LISTED HERE ON THE DAY ASSIGNED, NOT THE DAY DUE. UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED, ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE DUE THE NEXT CLASS. |
UNIT: WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Class 1: (9/03)
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In class: introductions, signing of contracts
Assigned Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 1 & 2 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned
reading: Helen Epstein, America's Prisons:
Is There Hope?
Assigned Writing: Homework 1 (click
here) (this assignment
is worth 11% of your semester grade)
Quiz 1: Brief quiz on reading (America's
Prisons: Is There Hope?) first 5 minutes of next class (worth 3
percent of semester grade)
 The
homework, including the reading, should take between 2 and
half and three half hours to do--plus 2 hours of video
viewing Really; we've timed it. Be sure to schedule accordingly |
Class 2: (9/10)
in class: short-answer quiz on reading (America's Prisons: Is There Hope?) at the start of class. Review cl/ev/wa & student introductions. Review homework 1, Discuss character journals.
Assigned Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 3 & 4 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned
Writing: Homework 2 (click here);
| The
homework, including the reading, should take between 2 and
2 a half hours to do--plus 2 hours of video viewing Really;
we've timed it. Be sure to schedule accordingly |
Class
3: (9/17)
In class: crime cartoons, description of scene analysis
Assigned Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 5 & 6 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned reading: (electronic reserves) David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson "Principles of Narrative Construction," 68-77. In Film Art: An Introduction. Also, Handout on understanding Television Design Grammar (ms-word file delivered to your desktop)
Assigned
Writing: Homework 3 (click here)
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK. (NOTE EARLIER DEADLINE--WED 9/23
by 5 PM)
THIS HOMEWORK IS DUE WED, 9/23 BY 5 PM RATHER THAN BY CLASSTIME ON THURSDAY |
Class
4: (9/24)
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 7 & 8 (DVDs available
for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned reading: (electronic reserves) "Why Do Drug Dealers Still live with their Mothers?" in Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt's Freakonomics.
Assigned
Writing: Homework 4 (click here)
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Quiz
2: Brief quiz on reading first 5 minutes of next class
| Concepts for Quiz Next Class 2) What was so destructive about the timing of crack's arrival to inner cities? 3) How did crack change the long-term prospects of gang membership? |
Class 5: (10/01)
in
class: short-answer quiz on reading
at the start of class.
Discussion of the origins of the War on Drugs
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 9 & 10 (DVDs available
for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned reading: (electronic reserves) Chapter 4, "The Politics of Crime" from Becket and Sasson, The Politics of Injustice
Assigned
Writing: Homework 5 (click here)
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Class 6: (10/8)
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes: 11, 12, and 13 (DVDs
available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned reading
(in Blackboard, under "course documents"):Marsha
Kinder, “Re-Wiring Baltimore”
Assigned Writing: SHORT ESSAY ASSIGNMENT.
Class 7: (10/15)
in class: lecture: The History of Inequality and the American City
Assigned
Viewing: Catch up to episode 13 if you haven't already done
so.
Assigned reading: (electronic reserves) Michael Katz, “Poverty
and Inequality in the New American City” in The Price of Citizenship
Assigned Writing:Homework 7 (click here)
(note extra-credit assignment at end)
Quiz
3: LONGER (20 minutes), MORE SIGNIFICANT
(5% percent of semester grade) MID-TERM QUIZ AT THE START OF NEXT CLASS.
DETAILS UNDER "ASSIGNED WRITING" ABOVE.
Class 8: (10/22)
in
class: MID-TERM QUIZ on reading
at the start of class.
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes:
2: 14 (that is, the first episode of Season 2) (DVDs available for use
in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned
reading: (electronic reserves):
Moskos, Chapter 6, "Under Arrest: Discretion in the Ghetto"
from Cop In the Hood
Assigned
Writing:short-answer
questions and short essay.
NEW CHARACTER JOURNALS FOR SEASON 2
From
the choices below, pick 1 character from "the Port" and 1
character from "Season 1," options below-- if you need help
with the characters, see viewing guide
(but notice not all characters on the viewing guide are available for
the "journaling")
Then following the NEW directions for this NEW round of journaling here,
write about the two characters you have chosen.
| Season 1 | Port |
| Colonel Cedric Daniels | Ziggy |
| Detective Shakima "Kima" Greggs | Nick Sobotka |
| Omar Little | Frank Sobotka |
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Class 9: (10/29)
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes:
2: 15-16 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned
reading: Film Quarterly,
62(2), pp. 58–63. on-line
article 1 (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/wire
) and
on-line article 2
(http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/wp-content/uploads/pdf/4_Robbie_The_Subversion_of_Heteronormative_Assumptions.pdf)
Assigned
Writing: essay assignment
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Class 10: (11/05)
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes:
2: 17, 18, and 19 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve
Desk)
Assigned
reading: (on line):
read "Is
The Wire Too Cynical?" in Dissent Magazine and the
response by Anmol Chaddha, Sudhir Venkatesh, and William Julius Wilson,
here
(be sure to do BOTH readings)
Assigned
Writing: script
writing activity
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Class
11: (11/12)|
"last day to withdraw without penalty"
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episodes:
2: 20, 21, and 22 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve
Desk)
Assigned
reading: (electronic reserves):
“Dialogue Devices” pp.
161-174 excerpted from Film Scriptwriting, Second Edition: A Practical
Manual by Dwight V. Swain and Joye R. Swain. Scriptwriting Toolkit
Handout
Assigned
Writing:
script proposal
CONTINUE YOUR CHARACTER JOURNALS AND INCLUDE THEM
IN YOUR SUBMITTED HOMEWORK.
Class 12: (11/19)
Assigned
Viewing: none
Assigned
reading: (electronic reserves):
Susan Faludi, "Chapter 1:
The Son, The Moon, and the Stars: The Promise of Postwar Manhood"
from Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man (this assignment
is worth 9% of your semester grade)
Assigned
Writing: short answer questions and short
essay
Short
vocabulary quiz at the start of next class (see "assigned writing"
above for details), worth 2 percent of final grade.
Class
13: (12/03)
Assigned Viewing: The Wire:
Episodes: 2: 23 and 24 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the
Reserve Desk)
Assigned
reading: (electronic reserves):
“Identity Crisis? More than
Acting Black” pages 53-68
In Bakari Kitwana, Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers,
Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America
Assigned
Writing:short essay assignment
Class 14: (12/10)
Assigned
Viewing: The Wire: Episode:
2: 25 (DVDs available for use in JJ's library at the Reserve Desk)
Assigned
reading: none
Assigned
Writing: Final Script Writing Activity
(due 12/17 @ 9:35 by blackboard)