Project VIII: Writing about New York

Project IV: Writing about New York-My Neighborhood

	Objectives: --To learn the skills of communication, observation , and interview . --To learn to process the information for a specific purpose through doing primary research, reading and writing. --To learn to prepare a portfolio. --To make students be aware of their social commitment --To exercise the student's skills of technology such as web design, and web navigation.
	Materials: New York Writings, Web sites about New York, a notepad, camera, and visit to the Municipal Archives.
	Technology involved: using camera, scanning photos, creating a photo gallery, web design, e-mail, discussion forum, web navigating

Time Frame: 4 weeks

Procedures:
Part I.
1.Form groups: Divide the class into numerous groups according to the borough, and each student from the same borough select a partner who lives nearby .

Part II
2.Create their neighborhood map(see the gallery of the student's creative work of their neighborhood).
3. Find maps of their neighborhood map in the web. Go to http://newyork.citysearch.com/
Use scroll bar to scroll the screen all the way down until you see on your left hand side Maps and Directions. Click open the site. Put your zip code and your partner's zip code in the two spaces. A map of your neighborhood will be created.

Part III
4. Read stories about New York from Writing New York- A Literary Anthology .Study the literary elements used in the writing( genre, figurative language, irony), and various perspectives adopted by each writer to portray the New York he/she knew.

We will read 4-5 excerpts from the anthology--, and the rest of the reading materials will be shared through jigsaw activities.
a. Washington Irving from A History of New York(pages 1-7)

i. How did Manhattan come into being?
ii. What is Irving's tone when describing the development of the town of new Amsterdam?
iii. What are the positive aspects described? The negative ones?
iv. What literary techniques did Irving use in describing the town?
v. What is the most interesting thing described?
vi. What point of view is used in the writing?
vii. What style is the "History" written? What ideas or writing techniques can you adopt in your writing about the

New Vocabulary

HOMEWORK:
Observing Irving's way of describing the history of Manhattan, try the similar method to describe the "history" of your neighborhood. To find out the history of your neighborhood, you can either interview a senior neighbor or your family member, or do research in the Internet or go to the local library and ask the librarian to help with the research on the topic.

b. Bartelby, The Scrivener- a Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville(pages 153-190)

c. The poem Brooklyn Bridge by Vladimir Mayakovsky (pages479-484), and the poem To Brooklyn Bridge by Hart Crane (pages 485-486) Walt Whitman's Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (pages 138-144).

Read more of Whitman's Poetry

-Brooklyn Bridge by Vladimir Mayakovsky (New Vocabulary)

i. What was the author's initial reaction to the sight of the bridge?
ii. How did he describe the bridge?
iii. How was his comment on the structure of the bridge?
iv.What was his concluding comment on the bridge?
v. How did the poet describe his amazement at the bridge?

d. A number of poems by Sara Teasdale, Gramercy Park, In the Metropolitan Museum, Coney Islan, Union Squre, Broadway (pages 407-409)
e. Poems by Claude McKay , The Tropics in New York, and The Harlem Dancer(pages 461-462).

More poems by Claude Mackay

f. Only the Dead Know Brooklyn by Thomas Wolfe (pages 598-603)
g. Sense of Humor by Damon Runyon (pages 604-613)

On Damon Runyon and His Writing

h. An essay Here is New York by E.B. White (pages 693-711)
E. B.White realted project

i. Jame Baldwin's apocalyptic book-length essay The First Next Time( pages 849-856)

j. Poems by a Jewish poet Harvey Shapiro, National Cold Storage Comany and 47th Street(pages 857-858)

k. An article written by Mark Twain to poke fun at the vogue for "personas" ads, Personals(pages 257-259)
Questions and Useful Vocabualry
Mark Twain Walking Tour in New York City

l.Henry James masterpiece of impressionistic prose, The American Scene (pages 369-381)

m.The Duel by O. Henry (pages 382-386)
Questions and Useful Vocabulary
Visit O'Henry Museum
Read O'Henry's THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

j. George Foster's urban sketch The Eating-House

New Vocabulary

i. What is the atmosphere described in the Eating-Houses? How is it described?(the sound, the scene, the smell, the mood?etc.)
ii. How many people rutinely dine at eating-houses? How important are the eating-houses to them? How do they behave when dining at such a place?
iii. What are the three disctinct classes of eating-houses?
iv. How is Brown described? How are Sweeney and the aristocratic restaurant described ?What are the major differences at the three eating-houses?
v. How did the author evaluate the eating-houses?
vi. What stylistice devices are used in the essay?
vii.How did the author make the writing so descriptive?
viii. What is the structure of the essay?
viv. What writing techniques could you adopt in your writing the descriptive piece?

Part IV
5. Take a trip to the Municipal Archives of the City of New York to do research about their neighborhood and find out what their neighborhood was like many years ago. Bring back the copies of the original maps of their neighborhood and the main buildings to be scanned to their web site.

Visit our collection of the original maps(gallery).

Part V: Collect first-hand materials:

6. Write observational journals( describe objectively what you see, hear, smell, and touch).Use your sense memory. How does it smell? What noises can they hear? Do they have any memories associating taste with the area?Three observational journals are required for this project .

7. Choose scenes to take pictures of. Two photos of their neighborhood are required for the site as well.

What kind of photos should you take that can inspire your writing?

8. Search their neighborhoods for signs of a changing city. They might arrange to interview people who have lived and worked in the neighborhood for a long time. Consider older neighbors, owners of local businesses, ministers, policemen, firemen, or teachers at your school. Interview at least one resident who is one of the original residents and has been living in the neighborhood for a long time. You may interview a family member or your neighbor, or even a business owner.

9. Discuss how to prepare interview questions. It is esential that they all have well-prepared interview questions before conducting the interview. They may record the interview using a tape recorder or simply by means of note-taking. Read an example of interview . Pay special attention to the questions raised (Writers Write® interviews selected authors each month in The Internet Writing Journal TM. In the interviews the authors discuss their works, their lives and give writing tips).

Guidelines for the Oral History Interview

Part VI: Process collected materials
10. Discuss the materials they have gathered-journals, pictures, primary resources, and interviews ,etc., and decide how we are going to solicit a theme from the materials , such as neighborhood parks, businesses, education, art, music, languages, cultures, or any other theme that arises itself from the materials.
11. Do research about your neighborhood in the web and see if you can find other people's writing about your neighborhood. If you can, make the links to your site.

	Suggested links about New York- New York Historical Society-dedicated to the preservation of collections which illuminate the American Experience. New York City & its History A New York Reading List in the areas of travel and impressions, History, politics and society, History, politics and society, and specific guides, New York in fiction. Contemporary New York Writers Writers' Link & Resources PBS Part VII. Ideas for Composition a. Write a descriptive piece about your neighborhood illustrated by an artistic illustration. --Observe people, occurances, events, experiences, and surroundings in your neighborhood. --Learn to observe(using five senses) keenly since noting details is the key to selecting what is needed to provide vivid images. -- Try to observe a neiborhood store or a person you know in your community, and describe the store or the person in a descriptive way by using concrete images. --Use selection of details and the conciseness of language that brings a scene alive for the reader.
	Read examples of such writing. Or: Besides the descriptive piece, you may also create an interview story featuring a specific person or an event. --Guidelines for the Oral History Interview --How to Write about an Interview story
	Read an interview story Or: Write a story based on a photo (or photos) by describing the photo and its extended meanings implied .
	Use photographs in writing b. Write a creative piece about your neighborhood, such as a poem, a story, a scene, or an essay etc., such as -your discovery about your neighborhood through the research and visit to the Municipal Archives. --issues that emerged during the research and observations --issues that you would like to bring up to other people living in the community --issues you would like to bring up to the New York society --the most disturbing thing --the most touching thing --the uniqueness of the area --the most pleasant discovery --Write an editorial (Read "Notes on Writng an Editorial")to respond to an article in the New York Times that reports about your neighborhood . Suggested web sites:
	Get some ideas about how to write poems and stories c. Write a reflection ----the most pleasant experience during the process --what worked the most? --what didn't work? --The most difficult part
	If you do not want to follow the project guidelines and would rather create your own assignment, you could use any of the five pieces of writing that you have created during the course of the research and submit them as your final project. Three artistic pieces are also required for the project: 1. Your neighborhood map 2. The collage of your neighborhood (it could be the illustration of one of your written pieces).
	Using pictures from magazines, posters, postcards, or photographs they have taken of the City, students can make a photomontage of New York City. They can include outstanding structures, interesting architectural details, landmarks, and street scenes. Images can be cut up and rearranged in a way that communicates the students' vision of the city. They can be secured with tape or glue on cardstock or construction paper. If they want to upload into the website, simply take pictures of them and scan them into your image file to create a gallery. The student can down load the art work from the gallery onto their web site. 3. Two photos of your neighborhood. 4. You may add any artistic piece of your choice to the project.
	After we finish the project, works will be selected to go into the class anthology and also sent to be published .
	Maybe we can even submit our writing to The Society for New York City History