You may choose five toipc of these topics

I just want you to write five essays of these topics choose that is easy for you by using MLA FORM.

1. Write a reflection on a visit to the Art Gallery in the University Center. Write an overview or focus on 3-5 pieces that you find particularly interesting or surprising.

2. Attend a session or more of silent meditation. How does silence affect you? What is the process of meditaion like?

3. Attend a stargazing session at the Widener observatory. Write what you see, what you learned, what the experience was like. How did that affect your sense of self or space?

4. Watch the TED talks of Michelle Alexander and Melanie Snyder. Summarize and respond to the problems these experts see in the current system of criminal justice and prisons.

5. Review a TV show, film, or piece of music that relates to prison today.

New Prompts:

1. Draw a 4 to 6 panel comic strip that illustrates an event in the news or your life. Consult Jones/Mauer for examples.

2. Read & summarize Timberlake Wertenbaker's play Our Country's Good. What does this play say about the role of art in the life of a prisoner? Which character(s) made the most sense to you?

3. Read & summarize Oscar Wilde's poem, "Ballad of Reading Gaol." What does this poem say about mercy or the role of faith in the life of a prisoner?

4. Listen to Jayne Thompson on WHYY's Radio Times interviewed by Marty Moss-Coane. What does she discuss? How are her stories about her own life related to the work she did with the writing group at Graterford? Why do some of the poems resonate with the writers from prison?

5. Select 2-3 poems by Ethridge Knight. Write one paragraph each naming and summarizing the poem, then another paragraph analyzing the poem (pay attention to repeating words, sounds, ideas, images).

6. 3/23 -- Attend Iain Haley Pollock's reading in Kapelski 1 at 4pm. Take notes as he reads -- what ideas or images seem interesting or important? Why? (In addition to satisfying one of the informal requirements, you will get one absence back for attending the reading).

7. Respond to the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars. What value does theater have for these inmates?

8. Respond to the documentary Dhamma Brothers. What value does meditation have for these inmates?

9. Write a letter to one of the inmates in the documentaries or in one of your sources for your research.

10. In-class writing: What have you learned about in your paper research? What do you still need to do before the paper is due on Friday?