DISCUSSION #2 Reports & Responses / Replies
Online Hum 211 Discussion Forum Assignment
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Short Cuts: Discussion #2 Report Directions & Report Topic Choices  | Response Directions
Web Post Discussion #2 Reports & Response (or Replies) to Discussion #2 Forum
OR go directly to Hum 211 Discussion #2 Forum:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc2_frm.htm 
Go to HUM 211 COURSE PLAN for Discussion #2 deadlines:
 http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/courseplan.htm 

Discussion #2 Report Directions & Topics
Class Preparation & Participation Assignment -  10 points possible.

Like Discussion #1, Discussion #2 assignment entails a Report and Response (or Replies).  And again you will be given Topic choices for your Discussion #2 Report, but this time you do not have to email Cora your choice for assignment.   Please follow citation guidelines when you cite (quote, paraphrase, summarize) online course materials and/or other "outside" sources--not only to avoid plagiarism but also to enable other Hum 211 students to find and review your sources for themselves.

Cite Your Sources & Avoid Plagiarism:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/cite.htm

DISCUSSION #2 REPORT TOPIC CHOICES

Choose one of the following Topics for your Discussion #2 Report.  Be sure to complete all tasks (A, B, C, etc.) within your chosen Topic.

TOPIC 1:  Olaudah Equiano
    A.  Read the Olaudah Equiano webpage (in the Hum 211 Online Course Pack), and follow links that enable you to read some excerpts from his slave narrative [NOTE: the full title of his autobiography, as first published in 1789, is: The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano,
or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself.  ]
Olaudah Equiano:  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/Equiano.htm 
    B.   Write an "Introduction to Olaudah Equiano" that explains your understanding of who he is / what he did, and why his story is valuable to this unit of our Hum 211 study of the African Holocaust and Diaspora.  Address your introduction to other Hum 211 students who did not choose this topic and do not know as much about Equiano as you now do. 
    C.   "Learn More About Equiano":  Conclude your Report by identifying and reviewing two or three websites on Equiano and/or related topics that you can recommend to other Hum 211 students who wish to learn more.  Be sure to explain why you recommend each website.  (Note: you can choose webpages linked to the Hum 211 Equiano webpage and/or other websites that you have found elsewhere.)

TOPIC 2:  Amistad: The True Story
    A.  Review the Amistad webpage (in the Hum 211 Online Course Pack), visit "Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport" website linked to the Hum 211 Amistad page, and read the true Story, especially Parts 1 through 5.
Amistad: The True Story: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/Amistad.htm
Exploring Amistad at Mystic Seaport: http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/main/welcome.html
The true Story: http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/story/welcome.html 
    B.  Write a Summary of how the Atlantic Slave Trade worked,  based on what you have learned from reading the history of the Amistad Africans (and you may include information gained from other webpages linked to the Hum 211 Amistad and/or Exploring Amistad websites). Address your introduction to other Hum 211 students who did not choose this topic and do not know as much about the history as you now do.
    C.  You have three options for completing Task C of Topic 2:  choose one of the following options for the Task C concluding section of your Discussion #2 Report on Topic #2:

If you have viewed Steven Spielberg's film version of Amistad (1997), identify one or two similarities
and/or differences between the fictionalized film version and your reading of the "true" history of the Amistad Africans.

Apply what you have learned about the "true" history of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to writing one or two explanatory footnotes on selected passage(s) of poetry from Part 1. The Beginning of 
I is a long memoried woman (Part I of the film dramatizes the long memoried woman's experience of enslavement, the Middle Passage, and feelings of dislocation as a slave in the "New World" Americas).
Your purpose is to offer other Hum 211 students background information that will help them better understand
 Part 1 of the film.
1. The Beginning: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/woman1.htm 

Read the Biography: Cinque (Sengbe Pieh) webpage on the Mende captive and leader of the Amistad revolt, who became "a powerful and complex icon of American popular culture."  Follow some of the links to primary documents that record how Cinque was perceived by Americans and/or Britons of the time.  Then identify and write a brief summary of one or two of these primary sources.
Biography: Cinque (Sengbe Pieh): http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/discovery/people/bio.cinque.html 

TOPIC 3:  I Is a Long Memoried Woman
    A.  Read the online Hum 211 Course Pack webpages on I Is a Long-Memoried Woman:
Introduction: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/womanintro.htm
Film Notes: 5-Part script of I Is a Long Memoried Woman (adapted from Grace Nichols' book of poetry of the same title): 1. "The Beginning" | 2. "The Vicissitudes | 3. "The Sorcery" |
 4. "The Bloodling" | 5.  "The Return" 
Accessible from Film Notes Table of Contents:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/womanTOC.htm
    B.  Watch Frances-Anne Solomon's film I Is a Long Memoried Woman, scheduled for Tues., Jan 29, 11:00 a.m., Hitchcock Auditorium; and/or available for in-library (re)viewing from COCC Library Reserve after shown in Hitchcock Auditorium on Jan. 29.
    C.  Write an (1) interpretation and a (2) personal response to the film, or selected parts of the film, addressed both to other members of our Hum 211 class and to the film director Frances-Anne Solomon, who is eager to know what we think of the film (pro and/or con), how we interpret it, what our questions are, etc.  That is . . . 

(1) Interpretation (to interpret = to attempt to make meaning or sense of...the film):  Select and identify
at least two parts of the film that seem especially meaningful to you, and/or that raised interesting questions that you would like to explore further. Then explain how you interpreted or understood the selected part(s) and why the identified part(s) of the film seemed significant; and/or pose questions that the selected part(s) raised for you, propose possible answers to these questions and explain why these questions seem interesting to you.  Understand that you are not expected to offer the single right or definitive interpretation of the film--and you are fully encouraged to pose questions and propose tentative answers for further consideration and discussion in class.

(2) Personal Response to the film as a whole, and/or to selected parts of the film.  A "personal response" is just what it suggests it is: how you personally responded to the film and/or selected parts of the film  (i.e. so long as you respond honestly and thoughtfully, there is no "right" or "wrong" response to the film).
In writing your personal response, be sure to identify what in the film (cite specific passages if relevant) that you are responding to, and try to explain why you are responding as you are.

TOPIC 4:  Religions / Cultures of the African Diaspora
    A.  Read the Religious Cultures of the New World African Diaspora webpage ( Hum 211 Course Pack) and explore some of the embedded links on related topics.
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/DiasporaReligion.htm
    B.  Read the online Hum 211 Course Pack webpages on I Is a Long-Memoried Woman, and note references to religions / cultures of the African Diaspora that interest you:
Introduction: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/womanintro.htm
Film Notes: 5-Part script of I Is a Long Memoried Woman (adapted from Grace Nichols' book of poetry of the same title): 1. "The Beginning" | 2. "The Vicissitudes | 3. "The Sorcery" |
 4. "The Bloodling" | 5.  "The Return" 
Film Notes Table of Contents:
 http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/womanTOC.htm 
    C.  Watch Frances-Anne Solomon's film I Is a Long Memoried Woman, and again note references to religions / cultures of the African Diaspora that interest you.
[Hum 211 film viewing scheduled for Tues., Jan 29, 11:00 a.m., Hitchcock Auditorium; and/or available for in-library (re)viewing from COCC Library Reserve after shown in Hitchcock Auditorium on Jan. 29.]
    D.  In your Topic #4 Report, formulate at least three topics and/or questions of interest about African and African Diaspora Religions and Cultures that I Is a Long Memoried Woman has raised for you, based on your reading/viewing Hum 211 Course Pack webpages and the film. Cite (and thus identify) parts or passages from I Is a Long Memoried Woman to which your topics or questions refer. 
    E.  In the concluding section of your Topic #4 Report, explain what you have learned or theorized from your reading, viewing, and research on African and Diaspora Religions and Cultures, that can help Hum 211 students better understand I Is a Long Memoried Woman--especially the topics/questions that you have described earlier (for Task D above). Be sure to cite your sources of information so that other Hum 211 students can locate and review them if they wish to learn more.

Discussion #2 Response (or Replies)
Class Preparation & Participation Assignment -  5 points possible.

Read all the webposted Discussion #2 Reports after the posting deadline (Thurs., Jan. 31).
Then choose 2 or 3 Reports that interest you, and web post your Discussion #2 Response or Replies to 3 posted Reports (by Sun., Feb. 3).

For more direction on your Response / Replies, review the suggestions given for the Discussion #1 Response.

HUM 211 DISCUSSION #2 FORUM

When you are ready to web post your Discussion #2 Report
or Response / Replies, go to Discussion #2 Forum:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc2_frm.htm 

Questions or Problems?  Please contact Cora:
cagatucci@cocc.edu

HUM 211 Open Campus Course Information - Winter 2002
HUM 211 Home Page Syllabus Course Plan Online Course Pack Assignments  
TV Meetings Printing Announcement
African Links : African Studies & History | Arts & Cultures | Diaspora | Music | Orature & Literature | Women
African Timelines: History, Orature, Literature, & Film

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URL of this webpage:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/Discussion2.htm
Last Updated: 31 March 2005  

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