In addition to information provided on Catalyst and your syllabus, please read the following instructions to ensure you are staying on track for this week. I will provide tips for success and reminders here to help you succeed.
After week 1, I will assume you are familiar with the course structure and that you do not need reminding each week to complete assignments explained in your syllabus and on Catalyst. (Be sure to study the syllabus and my add/drop policy carefully.) Since this is the first week, I will provide extra help to you.
Quiz 1 (Q1)
Quiz #1 is due Thursday by 5:00 p.m. This quiz covers ALL of the assigned readings for the week. Always be sure to check Catalyst to see if any readings have been added that are not listed on your syllabus.
Please note: You must read CAREFULLY and annotate the readings well in order to answer the quiz questions.
One quick time through each piece will not be enough for you to score well. Review the pieces multiple times, and mark them well.
Please be aware that you must complete the quiz BEFORE 5:00 p.m. on Thursday to ensure your quiz is transmitted on the server in time to get credit. If you click “Finish and Submit” exactly at 5:00 p.m. your quiz may not transmit in time. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Q1 will open on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. to give you a 24 hours window to take it.
Also remember that your quiz is timed. You have only 5 MINUTES to complete the quiz.
The quiz is CLOSED-BOOK. You are not allowed to use reference materials of any kind when taking the quiz.
You can not receive help from the internet, the course readings, or other classmates when answering questions.
Journal 1 (J1)
Clear instructions are provided on Catalyst for how to complete this journal. Simply click on J1—the last entry of the week—and read the instructions CAREFULLY. Post your journal directly to the forum. Journal #1 is due
Friday by 11:55 p.m.
To provide you with some inspiration on how food reflects our identity, I have posted some photos for you to look at under week 1. The first two photos are of my mother with 72 boxes of cereal—YES, 72 BOXES that she just happened to have in the house she shares with just my Dad. We all know my Mom has a cereal obsession, so when I went there on a visit, I said to my mom, “Let’s pull out every box of cereal you have, just to see what the count is.” She reluctantly agreed, though embarrassed. The total number surprised even her. While Alexander’s mother loved butter, my mother loves cereal (or perhaps hoards is the right word).
You may be asking why a woman who has only a husband to feed would have 72 boxes of cereal in her house? If
I were to try to psychoanalyze my mother’s obsession with cereal, I might talk about how she was raised quite poor and sometimes didn’t have enough to eat. I would talk about how a woman who came from little, married a man who also came from little and had eight children—yes, EIGHT to feed. Even though money was tight, my
Mom could find good cereal sales and stalk up. It takes a LOT of cereal to feed 8 children. And we had to watch our pennies growing up since we lived in Orange County (Southern California), my Dad was an elementary school principal, and my mom did not work outside the home. Cereal, in fact, was more expensive than homemade, hot breakfast, which my Mom made for us 5 days a week. So we were only allowed to eat cereal on
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Saturdays and Sundays as a special treat. And then we were limited to one bowl of sugar cereal. If we wanted more cereal after that, we had to eat the healthier kind, like Cheerios and Wheat Chex.
So, take poverty and hunger, add 8 kids to feed on a budget, throw in my Mom’s love of cereal….and there you have it…..72 BOXES!
Can you see how food and our relationship to it reveal our background, our economic status, our traditions, our history, our longings, our sense of security???
As another example, I have shared some photos of me with my food obsession. Back in the day when I was single, my niece came out to visit. We were going to bake some cookies. My niece was shocked as she pulled out bag after bag after bag of chocolate chips. She decided we should pull every chocolate item out of my cupboards and look at my stash.
Just as my mother was surprised when confronted with the reality of 72 cereal boxes, I was surprised to find that I had 35 POUNDS of pure chocolate in my cupboards and pantries. 35 POUNDS of straight chocolate in bar or chip form—as a single woman with no mouths to feed other than my own! In addition, we also pulled out all my cocoa powder, hot chocolate, pudding and brownie mixes, etc. and the pile grew and grew. I felt like my mother.
Perhaps food and our relationship to it is also passed down through family—through nature, through nurture?
So, if I were you….I know what my food poem would be about….CHOCOLATE……the darker the better!
Anyway, hopefully this information about my Mom and me: 1) shows you how crazy I am and 2) provides some inspiration for your own journal.
By the way, maybe you aren’t a huge food person? (Gasp. Horror.) That’s okay, I guess. I mean I don’t understand that at all, but you are you, right?
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Your poem could be about a food you hate or the ridiculousness of food obsession or your battle with weight loss. Basically any food related topic you feel passionate about is fair game for this journal. Make it meaningful to you and it will be interesting to your audience.
Remember that failure to submit more than one assignment in the first few weeks of class is grounds for dropping you. You MUST complete both Quiz 1 and Journal 1 to remain in the class
ALWAYS LOOK AHEAD TO THE NEXT WEEK TO ENSURE YOU ARE PREPARED
FOR ASSIGNMENTS DUE THE FOLLOWING MONDAY.
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