Hello again edu-tech enthusiasts!
If you have not checked out the USTREAM website yet, I highly recommend sitting down with it for a while. From what I have learned while playing with the utility thus far, USTREAM is an online utility capable of broadcasting live video & audio from any compatible computer (basically, anything relatively new with a webcam) or mobile phone (a bit more limited to newer, higher-end smart phones). Once "broadcasters" create a live feed (or "show" in the USTREAM vernacular), additional viewers can "tune in" and converse about the live content via a USTREAM-hosted chat room, all occurring live, in real time. Furthermore, USTREAM records and archives live feeds for later viewing, as well as allows users to upload archived content to additional video hosting and social networking utlities such as YouTube and Facebook.
There are definitely some interesting possibilities here - students could create, broadcast, and / or view shows ranging across various topics, classes could be broadcasted live to absent or distance-based students, and the list goes on and on.
Bellow is my personal USTREAM feed embedded into this blog posting (did I mention that it is very, very easy to embed video, audio, and chat feeds in external sights?!?). I'm going to be tinkering with this utility quite a bit, so don't be surprised if you run into some live streaming randomness in the window bellow.
Online video chat by Ustream
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
CI 5410 Final Project
The bellow link leads to my self-developed, wiki-based final project for CI 5410. It was a pleasure working with all of you!
http://teachingfictionandpoetrymanual.pbworks.com/Teaching-Fiction-and-Poetry%3A-a-Short-Repository-of-Useful-Resources
Take care!
http://
Take care!
CI 5410 - A Throwback to Poetry; Exploring Tone Through Performance
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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While browsing the interwebs to help me brainstorm ideas for this week’s assignment, I came across the following page utilized by Susan Somers-Willet (a writing instructor at the University of Texas - Austin) to help facilitate her poetry and performance class. In addition to publishing assignment ideas specifically related to performance poetry, Somers-Willet has crafted assignments applicable to many other poetic genres / styles.
http://www.susansw.com/318performance/assignments.htm
For this week’s assignment, I would like to appropriate (and of course modify) Somers-Willet’s “Performance Poem #1” assignment which you can find about 2/3 of the way down the page:
“Performance poem #1”
For your first performance assignment, you will perform a poem by someone else. The poem you select should be one by which you think both you and your audience could benefit. Your performance should last at least 1.5 minutes long and should be memorized (although you may have a partner on book during your performance). For some tips on memorization, read "Memorizing a Poem" in SLAM pp. 50-55. For this assignment, think of the poem as a script for performance.
You will be graded on (in order of importance):
• Your performance and interpretation of the poem. You can fulfill this by simply addressing the question, "What separates my performance from a mere recital of the poem?"
• Your use of performative aspects that don't involve props, costumes, or other "outside" assistance--such as voice, tone, sound, rhythm, use of space, and gesture (you will get the chance to use props or costumes in your other performances). The key here is to strive to engage the audience in your understanding and experience of the poem.
• The effort you have put into understanding and interpreting the poem's performative aspects. Your audience can easily tell when you've put in the time and effort to not only memorize the poem, but to understand what the poem means to you and sharing that with an audience.
Now that you have the basic foundations of this performance-based assignment…
-------
MY SPECIFIC MODIFICATIONS
-------
Materials: Copies of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Song’s of Experience.
Time span: About 2-3 class periods.
Although I am fairly confident that an upper-class, college student could successfully engage Sommers-Willet's extremely open task (after all, the course is a 3XXX level English course), I highly doubt that a middle and / or high school student could independently negotiate the
-wide open selection of ANY poem to perform
-isolation of intended meanings / purposes to guide their performance
-performance of the poem in a way that clearly and effectively communicates an intended interpretation / meaning to their audience.
The following modifications are designed to incorporate necessary scaffolding by re-framing the activity around the communication / consideration of tone across William Blake’s Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence. Per usual, further modify this activity to YOUR unique learning context.
1.) Begin by exploring the specific differences between performing a poem and reciting a poem. To do so, the following question set may be useful:
-What sort of meanings can you communicate when you recite a poem? Perform a poem?
-Are there meanings that a performance can communicate that a recital may not? How so?
-How would you characterize a recital? A performance? What specific features might you notice?
-What are the potential effects of a recital on the listener? What are the potential effects of a performance on the listener?
Further probing questions?
-How might you talk when reciting / perform a poem?
-How might you move when reciting / perform a poem?
In addition to the discussion you and your class generate, a simple YouTube search will yield further multi-modal examples of performances and recitals.
Whatever is generated, conclude on the following core concepts:
*People perform poems to amplify and / or create meanings that the text alone may not necessarily be able to communicate.
*Tone can be greatly amplified / created / emphasized / revealed when a poem is performed vs. simply recited.
2.) If your class is not familiar with the concept of tone, provide them with the necessary background contexts re definitions, uses, and so on.
*More important to this activity, discuss how tone is created (in poetry AND every day life) via the complex interactions between:
a. ) the base meanings of specific words we chose
b. ) the additional meanings created when we VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g., the inflections we use, the intensity or lack thereof in our voices, and so on)
c.) the additional meanings created when we NON-VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g. the way we stand, move, our facial expressions, and so on)
d.) the surrounding social, cultural, political, and so on contexts we are located while communicating.
Again, in addition to the discussion that you and your class create, a simple YouTube search will yield TONS of rich examples to further explore the creation / communication of tone.
3.) Distribute examples of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence to ½ the class, and Songs of Experience to ½ the class.
NOTE: the idea here is that these poems have DRAMATICALLY different tones which can be further amplified / revealed via the specific decisions students make while performing them.
4.) As a class, in groups, and or individually, have students read their poem and identify a.) WHAT specific tone it creates and b.) HOW, specifically, the text alone creates this tone.
5.) Once students have identified both the specific tone, as well as how the text contributes to the establishment of this tone, have them explore the following question set:
-How can I amplify / emphasize / reinforce / reveal the tone of this poem?
-What specific word choices / phrases contribute to the tone I want to amplify?
-How, specifically, might I perform them? What sort of energy, or lack their of, might I use? What sort of inflections might I use in my voice?
-How will I act / look / move when I perform? Will I look angry? Sad? Happy? Depressed?
6.) In class and as homework, have students further consider the decisions they will make and rehearse.
7.) In class the next day, have students perform their poems, potentially switching back and forth between examples from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
NOTE: again, the idea here is to clearly show your students via co-performance the nuanced ways in which specific performance decisions can greatly influence diverse tones that are communicated to audiences.
8.) As a sort of post analysis / reflection activity, have students write a short paragraph responding to the following questions:
a.) What SPECIFIC decisions did I make during the performance of my poem that were successful / communicated my intended meaning / purpose / tone?
b.) Why SPECIFICALLY do I think this / how SPECIFICALLY could I tell?
c.) If I were to perform this poem again I would change the way I _______ because _______.
d.) If I were to perform this poem again I would note change the way I _______ because _______.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
While browsing the interwebs to help me brainstorm ideas for this week’s assignment, I came across the following page utilized by Susan Somers-Willet (a writing instructor at the University of Texas - Austin) to help facilitate her poetry and performance class. In addition to publishing assignment ideas specifically related to performance poetry, Somers-Willet has crafted assignments applicable to many other poetic genres / styles.
http://www.susansw.com/318performance/assignments.htm
For this week’s assignment, I would like to appropriate (and of course modify) Somers-Willet’s “Performance Poem #1” assignment which you can find about 2/3 of the way down the page:
“Performance poem #1”
For your first performance assignment, you will perform a poem by someone else. The poem you select should be one by which you think both you and your audience could benefit. Your performance should last at least 1.5 minutes long and should be memorized (although you may have a partner on book during your performance). For some tips on memorization, read "Memorizing a Poem" in SLAM pp. 50-55. For this assignment, think of the poem as a script for performance.
You will be graded on (in order of importance):
• Your performance and interpretation of the poem. You can fulfill this by simply addressing the question, "What separates my performance from a mere recital of the poem?"
• Your use of performative aspects that don't involve props, costumes, or other "outside" assistance--such as voice, tone, sound, rhythm, use of space, and gesture (you will get the chance to use props or costumes in your other performances). The key here is to strive to engage the audience in your understanding and experience of the poem.
• The effort you have put into understanding and interpreting the poem's performative aspects. Your audience can easily tell when you've put in the time and effort to not only memorize the poem, but to understand what the poem means to you and sharing that with an audience.
Now that you have the basic foundations of this performance-based assignment…
-------
MY SPECIFIC MODIFICATIONS
-------
Materials: Copies of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Song’s of Experience.
Time span: About 2-3 class periods.
Although I am fairly confident that an upper-class, college student could successfully engage Sommers-Willet's extremely open task (after all, the course is a 3XXX level English course), I highly doubt that a middle and / or high school student could independently negotiate the
-wide open selection of ANY poem to perform
-isolation of intended meanings / purposes to guide their performance
-performance of the poem in a way that clearly and effectively communicates an intended interpretation / meaning to their audience.
The following modifications are designed to incorporate necessary scaffolding by re-framing the activity around the communication / consideration of tone across William Blake’s Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence. Per usual, further modify this activity to YOUR unique learning context.
1.) Begin by exploring the specific differences between performing a poem and reciting a poem. To do so, the following question set may be useful:
-What sort of meanings can you communicate when you recite a poem? Perform a poem?
-Are there meanings that a performance can communicate that a recital may not? How so?
-How would you characterize a recital? A performance? What specific features might you notice?
-What are the potential effects of a recital on the listener? What are the potential effects of a performance on the listener?
Further probing questions?
-How might you talk when reciting / perform a poem?
-How might you move when reciting / perform a poem?
In addition to the discussion you and your class generate, a simple YouTube search will yield further multi-modal examples of performances and recitals.
Whatever is generated, conclude on the following core concepts:
*People perform poems to amplify and / or create meanings that the text alone may not necessarily be able to communicate.
*Tone can be greatly amplified / created / emphasized / revealed when a poem is performed vs. simply recited.
2.) If your class is not familiar with the concept of tone, provide them with the necessary background contexts re definitions, uses, and so on.
*More important to this activity, discuss how tone is created (in poetry AND every day life) via the complex interactions between:
a. ) the base meanings of specific words we chose
b. ) the additional meanings created when we VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g., the inflections we use, the intensity or lack thereof in our voices, and so on)
c.) the additional meanings created when we NON-VERBALLY communicate said words (e.g. the way we stand, move, our facial expressions, and so on)
d.) the surrounding social, cultural, political, and so on contexts we are located while communicating.
Again, in addition to the discussion that you and your class create, a simple YouTube search will yield TONS of rich examples to further explore the creation / communication of tone.
3.) Distribute examples of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence to ½ the class, and Songs of Experience to ½ the class.
NOTE: the idea here is that these poems have DRAMATICALLY different tones which can be further amplified / revealed via the specific decisions students make while performing them.
4.) As a class, in groups, and or individually, have students read their poem and identify a.) WHAT specific tone it creates and b.) HOW, specifically, the text alone creates this tone.
5.) Once students have identified both the specific tone, as well as how the text contributes to the establishment of this tone, have them explore the following question set:
-How can I amplify / emphasize / reinforce / reveal the tone of this poem?
-What specific word choices / phrases contribute to the tone I want to amplify?
-How, specifically, might I perform them? What sort of energy, or lack their of, might I use? What sort of inflections might I use in my voice?
-How will I act / look / move when I perform? Will I look angry? Sad? Happy? Depressed?
6.) In class and as homework, have students further consider the decisions they will make and rehearse.
7.) In class the next day, have students perform their poems, potentially switching back and forth between examples from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
NOTE: again, the idea here is to clearly show your students via co-performance the nuanced ways in which specific performance decisions can greatly influence diverse tones that are communicated to audiences.
8.) As a sort of post analysis / reflection activity, have students write a short paragraph responding to the following questions:
a.) What SPECIFIC decisions did I make during the performance of my poem that were successful / communicated my intended meaning / purpose / tone?
b.) Why SPECIFICALLY do I think this / how SPECIFICALLY could I tell?
c.) If I were to perform this poem again I would change the way I _______ because _______.
d.) If I were to perform this poem again I would note change the way I _______ because _______.
CI 5410 Week 11 – Assignment; The School Newspaper Muse
INTRODUCTION
In their introduction to exercise #41 titled “The Newspaper Muse: Ann Landers and the National Enquirer,” Bernays and Painter (2005) quote Joyce Carol Oates’ treatment of the everyday newspaper as a rich source of fictional fodder:
“…it is the very skeletal nature of the newspaper, I think, that attracts me to it, the need it inspires in me to give flesh to such neatly and thinly-told tales, to resurrect this event which has already become history and will never be understood unless it is re-lived, re-dramatized” (120).
Although there exists a virtually infinite pool of easy to access and transport print AND digital news material at your fingertips to use for this sort of activity (just think of your own used newspaper that you would otherwise throw away and / or the myriad of online local, regional, and national newspapers!), I argue that students often feel relatively dissociated with local, regional, and / or national events to which they may perceive little to no personal proximity. Whether influenced by adolescent egocentrism and / or the seemingly universal human tendency to pay less attention to information one perceives to hold little to no influence over their lived experience and / or identity, I argue that the creative potential of Bernays’ and Painter’s (2005) intriguing exercise could be negatively compromised if students perceived their available pool of news stories to likewise hold little to no relevance to their own lived experiences and / or identities. After all, when readers don’t personally know the individuals involved, incur any personal costs, and / or incur any personal benefits in relation to a given news story, what is their incentive to care? If my students are anything like me, they frequently have a difficult time finding an incentive to read on and / or “do” anything with the news stories they consume.
Therefore, this assignment will require students to
1.) identify
AND
2.) “give flesh to”
the “neatly and thinly-told tales” found in their school’s own newspaper to which they ideally perceive a higher degree of relevance to their own lived experiences and / or identities.
PROCEDURE
-Acquire enough copies (and some extras just in case!) of your school’s newspaper to ensure that EACH student has their own copy to work with.
NOTE: although I imagine that students will logically perceive larger degrees of personal association with coverage of more vs. less recent news, feel free to dip back into the archives and acquire a diverse range of newer and older editions of your school’s newspaper (you never know what exactly will trip a student’s creative trigger!).
NOTE 2: also, because “school news” isn’t reported / doesn’t occur in a vacuum, encourage students to consult outside news sources for more information if an event or issue trips their curiosities. In other words, although the “school news” should be a rich enough ecosystem in which to navigate this activity, encourage students to explore other news ecosystems if they wish.
-After acquiring and distributing school newspapers, students will
**NOTE: Before jumping into the creative portion of the activity, it might be necessary to establish some ground rules re what is / isn’t appropriate when utilizing familiar people, places, and things as writing catalysts. For example, clarify with your class that it is NOT acceptable to use their fiction as a guise to ridicule and / or harass other students, teachers, administrators, community members, etc. In other words, create and enforce rules re your own unique learning context.**
In their introduction to exercise #41 titled “The Newspaper Muse: Ann Landers and the National Enquirer,” Bernays and Painter (2005) quote Joyce Carol Oates’ treatment of the everyday newspaper as a rich source of fictional fodder:
“…it is the very skeletal nature of the newspaper, I think, that attracts me to it, the need it inspires in me to give flesh to such neatly and thinly-told tales, to resurrect this event which has already become history and will never be understood unless it is re-lived, re-dramatized” (120).
Although there exists a virtually infinite pool of easy to access and transport print AND digital news material at your fingertips to use for this sort of activity (just think of your own used newspaper that you would otherwise throw away and / or the myriad of online local, regional, and national newspapers!), I argue that students often feel relatively dissociated with local, regional, and / or national events to which they may perceive little to no personal proximity. Whether influenced by adolescent egocentrism and / or the seemingly universal human tendency to pay less attention to information one perceives to hold little to no influence over their lived experience and / or identity, I argue that the creative potential of Bernays’ and Painter’s (2005) intriguing exercise could be negatively compromised if students perceived their available pool of news stories to likewise hold little to no relevance to their own lived experiences and / or identities. After all, when readers don’t personally know the individuals involved, incur any personal costs, and / or incur any personal benefits in relation to a given news story, what is their incentive to care? If my students are anything like me, they frequently have a difficult time finding an incentive to read on and / or “do” anything with the news stories they consume.
Therefore, this assignment will require students to
1.) identify
AND
2.) “give flesh to”
the “neatly and thinly-told tales” found in their school’s own newspaper to which they ideally perceive a higher degree of relevance to their own lived experiences and / or identities.
PROCEDURE
-Acquire enough copies (and some extras just in case!) of your school’s newspaper to ensure that EACH student has their own copy to work with.
NOTE: although I imagine that students will logically perceive larger degrees of personal association with coverage of more vs. less recent news, feel free to dip back into the archives and acquire a diverse range of newer and older editions of your school’s newspaper (you never know what exactly will trip a student’s creative trigger!).
NOTE 2: also, because “school news” isn’t reported / doesn’t occur in a vacuum, encourage students to consult outside news sources for more information if an event or issue trips their curiosities. In other words, although the “school news” should be a rich enough ecosystem in which to navigate this activity, encourage students to explore other news ecosystems if they wish.
-After acquiring and distributing school newspapers, students will
- identify ONE headline off of which to develop a story
- write said headline at the top of a sheet of paper as a sort of tentative title / lens to help them frame their story
- develop their story! (I’m thinking about 1-2 pages as one night's homework here, but like always, the assignment parameters and drafting times you chose depends on your own unique learning context!).
**NOTE: Before jumping into the creative portion of the activity, it might be necessary to establish some ground rules re what is / isn’t appropriate when utilizing familiar people, places, and things as writing catalysts. For example, clarify with your class that it is NOT acceptable to use their fiction as a guise to ridicule and / or harass other students, teachers, administrators, community members, etc. In other words, create and enforce rules re your own unique learning context.**
CI 5410 Week 10.2 – Chapter 4, exercise 23; “An Early Memory, Part Two: The Reminiscent Narrator”
The following creative example is in response to PART TWO of Bernays' and Painter's (1990) exercise titled An Early Memory: The Reminiscent Narrator.
In PART ONE of the exercise, B&P challenge writers to recollect and recast the event on the page via the perceptions and emotional tones appropriate for a child. As a result, B&P argue that writers will run less of a chance of intentionally influencing reader's perceptions of what is written, and simply report the basic "facts" of the memory instead. In PART TWO of this exercise, however, B&P challenge writers to re-color the same event, but this time through perceptions and emotional tones appropriate for an adult. As a result, the objective of this exercise is two-fold:
1.) explore the underlying "meaning" of the memory that writers simply "reported on" in PART ONE, and
2.) do so by recasting/recoloring the memory in a perspective, point of view, and overall emotional tone appropriate for an adult.
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The Neighbor's Moat
Impulse control, as I’ve heard some psychologists call it, has never been one of my strong suits. When the feeling of not knowing makes my skin crawl, I do not have the control to push it aside and focus even for a second on the other things in my life that I desperately should do, or desperately need doing. In comparison to the mountains of fly-infested dishes piling gradually higher in the sink, to fixing the relationships corroding in the acid bath of my decisions, I cannot or will not tolerate being so uncomfortable in my own skin.
When I was seven years old, I received the first glimpse I can recall of what I am capable of when confronted with the impossibility of not knowing. As I kicked a favorite soccer ball back and forth in the open lane of grass separating the reclusive neighbor’s house from my childhood home, I noticed that some sort of construction was taking place in the adjoining back yard – the majority of grass had been completely removed, and a deep, freshly-dug, moat-like trench lined the rear of the house. Propelled by my impulse via the guise of accidentally kicking my soccer ball closer and closer to the curious scene, the ball suddenly vanished from my sight, followed by a quite, yet noticeable, splash. As I peered into where the ball had disappeared, I noticed that the trench was filled with a rather high volume of water, most likely from the combination of the intense rain we’ve been having that summer, as well as the contractor’s inability to understand the concept of adequate drainage.
The trench wasn’t just moat-like, but a real moat in every way that I could logically discern. Like a real moat surrounding a castle, this moat-like trench surrounded a structure that could need guarding if the owners wished. Like a real moat surrounding a castle, this moat-like trench was deep and filled with dangerous looking water, deep enough and watery enough that it could trap an intruder for later judgment. But, I could not figure out if it was indeed a real, honest-to-God moat, or a fake moat-like substitute. Because I have never seen a real moat, I was worried that my comparative criteria were flawed, and I decided to test my hypothesis further. If it was a real moat, a real intruder would indeed become hopelessly trapped, I concluded.
Having devised a reliable experiment, I began to brainstorm possible subjects, focusing on my younger friend and adjacent neighbor Kevin, who I thought best fit the profile – like me, he couldn’t resist a construction site. But unlike me, he wouldn’t be calculated enough to immediately perceive my designs for him.
Kicking the ball briskly through my yard to Kevin’s, I did my best to look like a normal child at play. But, my twists and turn did not even carry me half way through the yard until I was intercepted by my mother shaking out the foyer rug on the front steps, and placed under the lens of her scrutiny.
“Why are you so dirty?” she immediately demanded, noticing the physical most indications of my plot.
“Just playing,” I returned, doing the best to focus my attention on clumsily dribbling the ball at my feet than her eyes carefully assessing me. “Can I go over to Kevin’s?”
“You look like you are up to no good,” she turned over over in her mind. As she continued shaking out the rug, the increasing cloud of dust, dead skin cells, and dog hair masked any potentially remaining tells. Finally, her struggle with the rug had won her immediate attention, and she sent me on my way with nothing more than a warning to not get my clothes any dirtier than they already were.
Kevin’s dad answered the door, and I asked if Kevin could come out and play. Flying out of the front door, Kevin stole the ball at my feet, and I engaged him in this play to keep up appearances.
“Hey, you wanna see something really, really cool?” I asked after quickly growing tired of our game of cat and mouse.
“What is it?”
“I found a giant hole in their backyard that looks like a moat.”
“Like a castle?”
My heart raced so suddenly at the quick progression of my experiment that I found it nearly impossible to speak. But this was a different type of racing heart than getting yelled at for getting my clothes too dirty, or running from the adjacent neighbor’s German Sheppard that we shot it with the hose. This was the first taste of the racing heart that now runs me.
“Just like a castle,” I managed to choke.
I reenacted my initial surprise and curiosity at discovering the neighbor’s construction site, and Kevin continued to fall hook, line, and sinker, just as my father would say after returning home with the latest piece of electronics that he didn’t really need. After allowing Kevin several victories in king of the hill atop the construction site’s small, scattered piles of dirt, all conditions but one were in place to initiate my the final stage of my experiment – Kevin was still much too far away from the edge of the moat-like trench.
As fate seemed to have it, Kevin had a stronger kick than he expected, and the soccer ball plummeted into the watery chasm of the moat-like trench following a final victory kick. As he leaned over the moat-like trench to recover the results of his miscalculated contact with the ball, the final condition of my experiment fell into place. As if out of instinct, my impulse immediately reacted, and the accelerating momentum of my seven-year-old form sent Kevin falling head first into the watery prison bellow, his screams to my back as I retreated to assess the outcomes of my experiment.
From a secure vantage point behind the utility shed in our backyard, I could hear Kevin’s cries bellow hopelessly from the moat-like trench. Although I could see an occasional hand desperately brush the rim of what was once merely a moat-like trench, Kevin was not exiting the hold of the honest-to-God moat under his own power. As Kevin’s mud-covered hands continued to rake back and forth across the edge of the now-confirmed moat, the sheer joy of knowing surged through me, my impulse tearing my body from the safety of the utility shed and sending it running and skipping around the backyard. If anyone was watching me, they would have seen the normalist, happiest child in all of Oakdale.
As I tumbled and zigzagged my way home, my mother was already lying in wait for me in the open threshold of the front door, hands on her hips, telephone in hand, my father standing slightly behind her with arms sternly crossed on the now dust, skin, and dog hair-free foyer rug.
“Kevin’s father is on the phone,” she yelled frantically at me as I approached. “Did you push Kevin into that hole in the neighbor’s backyard?”
“Yes.”
“Why on earth did you do that?” She was begging now, completely bewildered by such a guilt-free affirmation to such a dreadful question.
As I excitedly explained that Kevin helped me to test if the moat-like trench in the neighbor’s backyard was indeed a real moat (and that it had passed the test wonderfully), she rudely interrupted, simultaneously informing me that I was not allowed to play with Kevin anymore because I hurt him so terribly, and apologizing to Kevin’s father for my behavior.
Uncomfortably shifting his position on the foyer rug, my father asked me a question that I have pondered in various tenses and terms ever since the day I discovered the neighbor’s moat –
“Was it worth it, son?”
More than you or anyone else can possibly imagine.
CI 5410 Week 10.1 – Chapter 4, exercise 22; “An Early Memory, Part One: The Child as Narrator”
The following creative example is in response to Bernays' and Painter's (1990) exercise titled An Early Memory, Part One: The Child as Narrator. In this exercise, B&P argue that although the phrase "write what you know" has become completely cliche, it does hold extremely true: "Your own life - and your memories of it - have an intensity and immediacy that are useful in creating fiction" (64). However, B&P argue that it is integral for writers to explore and consider their proximity to their own memories, more specifically, the idea that "it's not just what you know, but how you see it, shape it, and enhance it with your imagination" (64).
In part ONE of this exercise, B&P challenge writers to recall and write about an event in the most objective voice possible, working to NOT color the recollection with current/adult perceptions, feelings, wishes, and so on. In other words, B&P challenge writers to present the "facts" of the recollection as accurately as possible, coloring the event with perceptions and emotional tones appropriate for a CHILD. As a result, the recollection should present the narrative "without nudging the reader or in any way explaining what she has written" (65).
-------
I lose sight of my favorite soccer ball as it bounces down the big field of green grass between the two backyards. As I run to find it and kick it back up the field, I see that the neighbor’s backyard looks really different – there was a huge field of grass yesterday, and now there are tall mountains of dirt all over the place. I pick up my ball and run into the yard. I have to run fast because mom and dad wouldn’t let me go over there. They would say that I would just hurt myself.
What I find looks like a big, brown castle – a huge trench is dug around the back of the neighbor’s house, and it is filled with muddy water just like a moat. I kick the ball around in the dirt for a while and climb all over the dirt hills. The ball bounces off of one of the huge mountains and falls down into the muddy water, and I wonder if this moat works like a real moat. If real moats are used to trap people and keep them out of castles, a good way to test the realness of this moat would be to push my friend Kevin in and see if he got stuck.
I walk over to Kevin’s house with my ball under my arm and see my mom on the front steps shaking the dust out of a rug. I try to walk by without her seeing me, but she stops me and asks,
“Why are you so dirty? You look like you’re up to no good.”
“I’m just playing,” I say bouncing my ball off of my knee. “Can I go over to Kevin’s?”
“Sure,” she says waving the dust out of her face. “Just try not to get any more dirt on your clothes.”
Kevin’s dad answers the door and I ask if Kevin can come out and play. I wait on Kevin’s front steps bouncing the ball off of the side of their house, and Kevin's dad tells me to stop it. After he sees my ball, Kevin comes outside and steals it from me.
“Let me show you something really cool,” I say.
“What is it?” he asks kicking the ball past me.
“I found a big hole in their backyard,” I say pointing to the neighbor’s house. "It looks like a moat."
“Like a castle?” Kevin asks.
“Just like a castle,” I say. I feel good that I am able to get Kevin to come without him knowing what I am going to do to him.
Kevin runs ahead of me with my ball, and we both wave at my mom as she shakes the dust out of another rug.
After we kick the ball around in the dirt and play king of the hill on the mountains for a while, I tell Kevin to look at the moat. As he leans over the hole, I run up behind him, push him as hard as I can, and run. I hear Kevin splash into the water and start crying as I cross into our yard and hide behind the side of our house. At first, I feel good because I proved that the moat was a real moat, but then I get scarred and run home because Kevin doesn't stop crying. I can still hear Kevin crying my entire way back.
As I walk up our front steps, mom is waiting for me with her hands on her hips and the telephone in her hands. Dad is standing behind her in the house with his arms crossed.
“Kevin’s father is on the phone,” she says, pointing the phone at me. “Did you push Kevin into a hole in the neighbor’s backyard?”
“Yes,” I say, spinning my ball in my hands.
“I knew you were up to no good,” she yells. “Why on earth did you do that?”
I tell her that I wanted to see if the neighbor had a real moat or not, and Kevin helped me test it out. Mom tells me that Kevin's dad is really mad at me and doesn't think I should play with Kevin anymore.
“Was it worth it?” dad asks from the inside of the house.
I drop my ball and start crying.
CI 5410 Week 9.3 - Chapter 3, exercise 13; "Funny - You Don't Look 75"
The following reflective example is a response to Bernays' and Painter's (1990) exercise titled Funny - You Don't Look 75. In this exercise, B&P discuss the reader's need to "know" certain basic facts about characters, including their general appearance and approximate age (39). To practice communicating the aforementioned details to readers, B&P challenge writers to list the subtle ways in which basic facts about their characters can be conveyed (41).
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Non-physical markers of age:
-Type of car driven
-Smell(s) inside of house and / or car
-Pictures on display
-Technologies found in home and / or on person
-Furnishings
-Types and styles of food stocked in cupboards
-Medications / health / hygiene items stocked in medicine cabinet / bathroom
-Music displayed / listened to
-Literature displayed / read
-Amount / type of nick nacks
-Presence / amount of stairs
-Stores shopped at
-Social locations frequented
-Activities / hobbies interested in
Physical markers of age:
-Walking speed / gate
-Posture
-Hair color / style / pattern
-Reflexes while walking / driving
-Personal style
-Overall physical shape
-Overall physical health
-Complexion
-Most / least frequent topics of conversation
-Most / least frequent tones of conversation
-Personal lexicon / vernacular
CI 5410 Week 9.2 - Chapter 3, exercise 14; "Naming Your Characters"
The following creative examples are from Bernays' and Painter's (1990) exercise titled Naming Your Characters. In this exercise, B&P caution writers against simply pulling names out of a hat when naming their characters. Instead, B&P challenge writers to carefully consider how the names they give their characters help convey a sense of a particular character's role in your fiction (42). To practice this calculated selection of character names, B&P challenge the writer to assign names that "fit" the bellow character types.
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A petty, white-collar thief who robs his boss over several years:
- Marcus Conroy
- Seth Pierce
- Gordon Chilling
An envious, bitter woman who makes her sister miserable by systematically trying to undercut her pleasure and self-confidence:
- Carolyn Bender
- Danielle Lynche
- Selma Thorne
A sweet young man too shy to speak to an attractive woman he sees every day at work:
- Miles Quinn
- William Greene
- Rick Filipkowski
The owner of a fast-food restaurant who comes on to his young female employees:
- Lou Piles
- Frank Boyle
A grandmother who just won the lottery:
- Mable Bodewell
- Beatrice Sykes
CI 5410 Week 9.1 - Chapter 2, exercise 9; "Mining Memory"
The following reflective examples are in response to Bernay's and Painters' (1990) exercise titled Mining Memory. In this exercise, B&P encourage writers to view their lives as far from boring and dull. Instead, the authors suggest that writers take the time to "store away for future use the odd, funny, sad, and suspenseful things" that happen to them (28). After all, you never know what little thing can spark a detailed story!
-------
Over about the past week...
Things that pleased me:
1.) The observation that all morning doves (at least I think they're morning doves) sing the exact same two note tune.
2.) Ginger "asking" me to let her outside by barking and spinning in a little circle vs. just peeing (or worse) in the house.
3.) Annie "asking" Ginger to play by barking and moaning like a board little child, only to be completely ignored as Ginger simply isn't in the mood.
4.) Ginger looking at me in complete bewilderment (or is it defiance?) when I throw her the ball.
5.) Hearing hidden frogs croak over the noise of "Dancing Nancies" playing on my iPod.
6.) Tasting my first home-made, grilled "No Name" steak of the Spring.
7.) Paying less money for a delicious imported beer than I would for a mass-produced Diet Coke at the Kitty Cat Klub's daily happy hour.
8.) The cashier at Trader Joe's double-bagging my groceries without my having to ask.
9.) Being offered a small gig at the Dunn Bros. coffee near my home.
10.) My machinist father fixing my broken iPod case vs. myself having to replace it.
Things that made me angry:
1.) Annie biting at bees (and usually getting stung in the mouth at least once) EVERY Spring since I've had her.
2.) 65 pound Annie getting herself hopelessly tangled on a tiny stick, bush / tree branch, and / or one of her own turds.
2.) Ginger trying to "sneak" rabbit turds, even though I repeatedly yell at her for eating them.
3.) Waiting for at least one dozen cars before I can cross Hadley Avenue.
4.) Teenagers vandalizing the Oakdale Nature Center - MY suburban getaway.
5.) Walking into any Walmart in the United States. Enough said.
6.) Facebook status updates fishing for sympathies.
7.) Getting furiously passed by BMW man while stuck in a traffic jam on Highway 36.
8.) Listening to how much money has been offered to MN Twins player Joe Mauer.
9.) Getting "no-showed" by a client who begged me to fit them into the schedule.
10.) Not being able to find pre-made hamburger patties at Trader Joe's.
Monday, March 1, 2010
CI 5410 Week 7.1 - Place-based Poetry
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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Kowit (1995) encourages practicing poets to draft an “object poem” in the third chapter of our course text; in other words, a poem concerned with rendering some sort of object (no matter how idiosyncratically obscure, arbitrary, or absurd) AND its larger meaning(s) to the poet and / or reader via extremely vivid detail and reflection. For this week's assignment, I would like to transform Kowit’s (1995) “object poem” into a “place poem;” as you’ve probably guessed, a poem concerned with rendering some sort of place (again, no matter how idiosyncratically obscure, arbitrary, or absurd) AND its larger meaning(s) to the poet and or / reader via extremely vivid detail and reflection.
I offer the “place poem” as a paired activity to the “object poem” and / or a standalone activity as such a task requires students to exercise similar skills with manipulating and managing vivid detail and reflection to render / make concrete otherwise abstract emotional, idiosyncratic associations with specific places.
Much of this assignment will refer to some unique detail management vocabulary ("snapshots" and "thoughtshots") created by writing instructor Barry Lane. Although I will be as detailed as possible with this vocabulary throughout the following assignment description, feel free to consult Lane's the formative source (cited bellow), as well as a wiki chapter regarding his work that a group and I created in our
CI 5461 writing method’s class.
Lane, Barry. After THE END: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1993.
Wiki chapter:
http://ci5461teachingwriting2009.pbworks.com/After-THE-END%3A-Teaching-and-Learning-Creative-Revision
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PREPARATION
-------
Lesson duration:
To account for adequate pre-writing, drafting, peer workshopping, and revision time, I recommend stretching out this activity over the course of 1 full week and really getting into it! However, feel free to adapt to your unique learning context.
Materials:
Some sort of handouts teaching the detail management vocabulary necessary for the lesson. Check out the example-laden handouts I found online as they should do just the trick!
Handout 1
Snapshot
Snapshots allow the reader to be drawn into the story and for the story to come to life. Snapshots are used when the writer zooms in and looks closely at details. It is especially important to pay attention to more than physical details. Students often focus only on sight, but remember that there are 5 senses which play a part in creating a scene or a mood in a story. Challenge your students to appeal to several of the reader's senses rather than focusing only on one. In the example below, look at how the mood is created by the details provided.
“I went inside. The smell of hot cocoa flowed throughout the house. The fire crackled in the small red and brown bricked fireplace. My mother was stirring the beef soup. My two year old brother was quietly playing with wooden blocks that had little letters carved in them. My father sat playing a slow, sad song on his beautiful country guitar. I took off my parka an hung it on the brass coat rack. My mother gave me a bowl of hot beef soup and cocoa. The broth felt warm running down my throat. The feeling of warmth spread all over me.”
Original URL - http://www.wku.edu/3kinds/rjpssrevise.html
Handout 2
Thoughtshots
Thoughtshots are another way to include detail in your writing. A thoughtshot allows the writer to pause and reflect on a particular event or a detail. For example, you could write
My mother always sat down in front of the television after dinner.
But a thoughtshot would be far more interesting to read. Here is an example:
“I don’t know why my mother always sat down in front of the television after dinner. Perhaps it was the only time she really had for herself. My sister and I always had to do the dishes. My step-father usually went out to the garage to work on the old Buick that he always thought he could get up and running someday. Maybe Mom just liked being alone with her game show. She always watched Jeopardy with Alex Trebeck. I think she thought Alex was handsome and smart. Maybe she dreamed that Alex would come into our living room one day and swoop her off to game show land. Mom knew a lot of the answers on Jeopardy, and she’d call them out to the television as if those contestants could hear her. “Where is China!” she’d yell. I always thought it was sort of dumb, and I remember one time my best friend Angela was over at my house. She heard my mother and looked at me like I was weird.”
Original URL - www.granadateachers.com/mason/docs/essays/thoughtshots.doc
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Procedure
-------
STEP 1: CREATE A WORKING DEFINITION OF "PLACE"
Begin with creating a working definition of what counts as a “place.” As students offer different places, write them down on the board, grouping them into categories such as macro (cities, states, countries, and so on) and micro (their rooms!) places. By the end of this step, come to a class understanding that a “place” can be…
A.) Far as well as near
B.) Big as well as small
C.) Natural as well as man-made
D.) New as well as old
And so on and so forth. For this activity, my only recommendation is that you confine “place” to the concrete / physical realm vs. abstract emotional states of being (at least for this step!).
STEP 2: PREWRITING
In their journals, have students list places that they have been, yearn to go to, love, hate, fear, and so on. Encourage students to cross and otherwise not be confined by the categories that you have created earlier. Also, require them to record ONE concrete / physical detail appealing to the 5 senses they associate with each place. If they get hung up on one place for more than a few seconds, tell them to move on and keep going (this is just an exercise to get the poetry juices flowing!).
Next, come back as a large group or break off into small groups and have each student pick ONE place with which to share…
a.) ONE concrete / physical detail associated with it
b.) how the place makes them feel
As students share their prewriting, record emerging patterns and relationships between the emotions associated with each place and associated sensory details. If all goes well here, you will be able to uncover some striking and fun associations between abstract reflections and the sensory details used to support / validate such reflections.
If this desired pattern doesn’t necessarily emerge, be sure to state the following concept:
“Poets carefully combine sensory detail and explicit reflection to build scenes and SHOW vs. TELL readers their understanding of people, places, and things.”
STEP 3: TEACH CONCEPTS OF SNAPSHOTS and THOUGHTSHOTS
After students are comfortable with the larger conceptual frameworks (see earlier handouts for your assistance), have each student choose ONE place that they have brainstormed either during or since the prewriting activity to “zoom in” on and write their "place poem" about.
Start the “zooming in” process with writing as many snapshots as possible. Again, emphasize mining ALL of the 5 senses! If you wish, create a sort of chart and / or graphic organizer to help students manage this process.
Then, continue to “zoom in” by writing as many thoughtshots as possible. Spark thoughtshots by asking questions such as…
-What does this place remind you of?
-When in your life were you exposed to this place?
-How does it make you feel?
-What did you do in this place?
-Where you alone in this place? Or was someone with you?
-If you were not alone, what was the other person’s relationship to you?
-How did they make you feel?
And so on. Really, the sky is the limit!
STEP 4: DRAFTING
And now to the fun part… After you have reviewed the handout examples (as well as other examples you find), have students begin to combine and re-combine snapshots and thoughtshots to create their “place poems.” For their first draft, don’t worry about purpose too much. Instead, just let them go!
STEP 5: WORKSHOPPING
After students have a draft (even if the draft is nothing more than a more thorough collection of disassociated snapshots and thoughtshots), put them into peer review groups and have them explore patterns that they “see” emerging. To assist groups, supply them with guiding questions such as…
-What is the main idea of the piece?
-What sensory details help build and support this idea?
-What is the tone of the piece?
-What sensory details help build and support this tone?
Whatever prompts you wish to use, come to the following class-wide understanding by the end of the workshop:
“As poets combine sensory detail and explicit reflection to illuminate a person, place, or thing, they DO NOT haphazardly through details and thoughts around; instead, the decisions they make about what details and commentary to include work to build and support a specific purpose! In other words, they carefully craft their details and thoughts to reveal something specific about a person, place, or thing!”
After your class is comfortable with this conceptual framework and have reviewed many textual examples of purposeful use of snapshots and thoughtshots, have students revise their poems around a specific purpose. For their next revision, have them “weed out” the snapshots and thoughtshots that do not help build / support a purpose, and further develop the snapshots and thoughtshots that do.
STEP 6: RE-WORKSHOPPING
In peer review groups, continue to have students identify their purposes and scrutinize the effectiveness and relevancy of their supporting snapshots and thoughtshots.
STEP 7: FINAL DRAFT
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat until you want students to submit a final draft demonstrating keen use of snapshots and thoughtshots to build / support a purposeful poem. For instructor assessment and student self-reflection purposes, consider requiring an “author’s statement” in which students articulate a.) their guiding purpose and b.) the specific decisions made re their use of snapshots and thoughtshots to support their guiding purpose.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
Kowit (1995) encourages practicing poets to draft an “object poem” in the third chapter of our course text; in other words, a poem concerned with rendering some sort of object (no matter how idiosyncratically obscure, arbitrary, or absurd) AND its larger meaning(s) to the poet and / or reader via extremely vivid detail and reflection. For this week's assignment, I would like to transform Kowit’s (1995) “object poem” into a “place poem;” as you’ve probably guessed, a poem concerned with rendering some sort of place (again, no matter how idiosyncratically obscure, arbitrary, or absurd) AND its larger meaning(s) to the poet and or / reader via extremely vivid detail and reflection.
I offer the “place poem” as a paired activity to the “object poem” and / or a standalone activity as such a task requires students to exercise similar skills with manipulating and managing vivid detail and reflection to render / make concrete otherwise abstract emotional, idiosyncratic associations with specific places.
Much of this assignment will refer to some unique detail management vocabulary ("snapshots" and "thoughtshots") created by writing instructor Barry Lane. Although I will be as detailed as possible with this vocabulary throughout the following assignment description, feel free to consult Lane's the formative source (cited bellow), as well as a wiki chapter regarding his work that a group and I created in our
CI 5461 writing method’s class.
Lane, Barry. After THE END: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1993.Wiki chapter:
http://ci5461teachingwriting2009.pbworks.com/After-THE-END%3A-Teaching-and-Learning-Creative-Revision
-------
PREPARATION
-------
Lesson duration:
To account for adequate pre-writing, drafting, peer workshopping, and revision time, I recommend stretching out this activity over the course of 1 full week and really getting into it! However, feel free to adapt to your unique learning context.
Materials:
Some sort of handouts teaching the detail management vocabulary necessary for the lesson. Check out the example-laden handouts I found online as they should do just the trick!
Handout 1
Snapshot
Snapshots allow the reader to be drawn into the story and for the story to come to life. Snapshots are used when the writer zooms in and looks closely at details. It is especially important to pay attention to more than physical details. Students often focus only on sight, but remember that there are 5 senses which play a part in creating a scene or a mood in a story. Challenge your students to appeal to several of the reader's senses rather than focusing only on one. In the example below, look at how the mood is created by the details provided.
“I went inside. The smell of hot cocoa flowed throughout the house. The fire crackled in the small red and brown bricked fireplace. My mother was stirring the beef soup. My two year old brother was quietly playing with wooden blocks that had little letters carved in them. My father sat playing a slow, sad song on his beautiful country guitar. I took off my parka an hung it on the brass coat rack. My mother gave me a bowl of hot beef soup and cocoa. The broth felt warm running down my throat. The feeling of warmth spread all over me.”
Original URL - http://www.wku.edu/3kinds/rjpssrevise.html
Handout 2
Thoughtshots
Thoughtshots are another way to include detail in your writing. A thoughtshot allows the writer to pause and reflect on a particular event or a detail. For example, you could write
My mother always sat down in front of the television after dinner.
But a thoughtshot would be far more interesting to read. Here is an example:
“I don’t know why my mother always sat down in front of the television after dinner. Perhaps it was the only time she really had for herself. My sister and I always had to do the dishes. My step-father usually went out to the garage to work on the old Buick that he always thought he could get up and running someday. Maybe Mom just liked being alone with her game show. She always watched Jeopardy with Alex Trebeck. I think she thought Alex was handsome and smart. Maybe she dreamed that Alex would come into our living room one day and swoop her off to game show land. Mom knew a lot of the answers on Jeopardy, and she’d call them out to the television as if those contestants could hear her. “Where is China!” she’d yell. I always thought it was sort of dumb, and I remember one time my best friend Angela was over at my house. She heard my mother and looked at me like I was weird.”
Original URL - www.granadateachers.com/mason/docs/essays/thoughtshots.doc
-------
Procedure
-------
STEP 1: CREATE A WORKING DEFINITION OF "PLACE"
Begin with creating a working definition of what counts as a “place.” As students offer different places, write them down on the board, grouping them into categories such as macro (cities, states, countries, and so on) and micro (their rooms!) places. By the end of this step, come to a class understanding that a “place” can be…
A.) Far as well as near
B.) Big as well as small
C.) Natural as well as man-made
D.) New as well as old
And so on and so forth. For this activity, my only recommendation is that you confine “place” to the concrete / physical realm vs. abstract emotional states of being (at least for this step!).
STEP 2: PREWRITING
In their journals, have students list places that they have been, yearn to go to, love, hate, fear, and so on. Encourage students to cross and otherwise not be confined by the categories that you have created earlier. Also, require them to record ONE concrete / physical detail appealing to the 5 senses they associate with each place. If they get hung up on one place for more than a few seconds, tell them to move on and keep going (this is just an exercise to get the poetry juices flowing!).
Next, come back as a large group or break off into small groups and have each student pick ONE place with which to share…
a.) ONE concrete / physical detail associated with it
b.) how the place makes them feel
As students share their prewriting, record emerging patterns and relationships between the emotions associated with each place and associated sensory details. If all goes well here, you will be able to uncover some striking and fun associations between abstract reflections and the sensory details used to support / validate such reflections.
If this desired pattern doesn’t necessarily emerge, be sure to state the following concept:
“Poets carefully combine sensory detail and explicit reflection to build scenes and SHOW vs. TELL readers their understanding of people, places, and things.”
STEP 3: TEACH CONCEPTS OF SNAPSHOTS and THOUGHTSHOTS
After students are comfortable with the larger conceptual frameworks (see earlier handouts for your assistance), have each student choose ONE place that they have brainstormed either during or since the prewriting activity to “zoom in” on and write their "place poem" about.
Start the “zooming in” process with writing as many snapshots as possible. Again, emphasize mining ALL of the 5 senses! If you wish, create a sort of chart and / or graphic organizer to help students manage this process.
Then, continue to “zoom in” by writing as many thoughtshots as possible. Spark thoughtshots by asking questions such as…
-What does this place remind you of?
-When in your life were you exposed to this place?
-How does it make you feel?
-What did you do in this place?
-Where you alone in this place? Or was someone with you?
-If you were not alone, what was the other person’s relationship to you?
-How did they make you feel?
And so on. Really, the sky is the limit!
STEP 4: DRAFTING
And now to the fun part… After you have reviewed the handout examples (as well as other examples you find), have students begin to combine and re-combine snapshots and thoughtshots to create their “place poems.” For their first draft, don’t worry about purpose too much. Instead, just let them go!
STEP 5: WORKSHOPPING
After students have a draft (even if the draft is nothing more than a more thorough collection of disassociated snapshots and thoughtshots), put them into peer review groups and have them explore patterns that they “see” emerging. To assist groups, supply them with guiding questions such as…
-What is the main idea of the piece?
-What sensory details help build and support this idea?
-What is the tone of the piece?
-What sensory details help build and support this tone?
Whatever prompts you wish to use, come to the following class-wide understanding by the end of the workshop:
“As poets combine sensory detail and explicit reflection to illuminate a person, place, or thing, they DO NOT haphazardly through details and thoughts around; instead, the decisions they make about what details and commentary to include work to build and support a specific purpose! In other words, they carefully craft their details and thoughts to reveal something specific about a person, place, or thing!”
After your class is comfortable with this conceptual framework and have reviewed many textual examples of purposeful use of snapshots and thoughtshots, have students revise their poems around a specific purpose. For their next revision, have them “weed out” the snapshots and thoughtshots that do not help build / support a purpose, and further develop the snapshots and thoughtshots that do.
STEP 6: RE-WORKSHOPPING
In peer review groups, continue to have students identify their purposes and scrutinize the effectiveness and relevancy of their supporting snapshots and thoughtshots.
STEP 7: FINAL DRAFT
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat until you want students to submit a final draft demonstrating keen use of snapshots and thoughtshots to build / support a purposeful poem. For instructor assessment and student self-reflection purposes, consider requiring an “author’s statement” in which students articulate a.) their guiding purpose and b.) the specific decisions made re their use of snapshots and thoughtshots to support their guiding purpose.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
CI 5410 Week 6.1 - Poet Presentation; Eireann Lorsung
Link to Google doc of presentation handout:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Acd1iDMEKW-IZGQ0Mjlkc3FfNzB3bnh6cnZkeA&hl=en
Prezi presentation:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Acd1iDMEKW-IZGQ0Mjlkc3FfNzB3bnh6cnZkeA&hl=en
Prezi presentation:
Friday, February 19, 2010
CI 5410 Week 5.2 - Poem #4; "Real Job"
Real Job
“I hope you’re doing this for the right reasons.”
She told me.
“And not just trying to put off getting a real job.”
A real job?
A real job?
What job is more real than using what little I have
to give something
to give anything
to another?
And I’m not talking about giving money
or toys
or fashions
or anything that one may use as ammunition against another.
I’m talking about giving freedom
hope
love
safety
a future
even if it’s only for 50 minutes a day.
What job is more real than using what little I have
but seeing the same things day in
and day out?
racism
hatred
discrimination
even when people say that it’s not intended.
Nah
It’s fake
Baby
Just as fake as the real world that you live in
So if it makes you feel any better
I’ve made it all up
Just like I’ve made up my mind.
“I hope you’re doing this for the right reasons.”
She told me.
“And not just trying to put off getting a real job.”
A real job?
A real job?
What job is more real than using what little I have
to give something
to give anything
to another?
And I’m not talking about giving money
or toys
or fashions
or anything that one may use as ammunition against another.
I’m talking about giving freedom
hope
love
safety
a future
even if it’s only for 50 minutes a day.
What job is more real than using what little I have
but seeing the same things day in
and day out?
racism
hatred
discrimination
even when people say that it’s not intended.
Nah
It’s fake
Baby
Just as fake as the real world that you live in
So if it makes you feel any better
I’ve made it all up
Just like I’ve made up my mind.
CI 5410 Week 5.2 - "Penny for Your Thoughts"
Gemineye's "Penny for Your Thoughts" effectively challenges various gendered stereotypes concerning sexuality / sexual relationships; mainly, the assumption that men are more preoccupied with and / or take more pleasure from participating in carnal acts of sex vs. forming intimate emotional relationships.
The primary poetic "device" that Gemineye utilizes to challenge the aforementioned gendered stereotype is a sort of semantic "inversion" or "twist." In other words, just as he begins to form a rather vivid, sexually explicit scene, he quickly and creatively inverts his meaning to reinforce a sense of emotional vs. carnal intimacy:
"Getting intimately closer as we approach the
Climatic altitude of nude, mental, sensational… conversation.
Because I’m trying to get to know everything about you
From the neck… UP."
Via the first portion of the above "stanza," notice how Gemineye begins to construct his scene via utilizing words that connotatively resonate with a sense of explicit sexuality (e.g., "climatic," "nude," and "sensational"). However, just as the listener assumes / expects Gemineye will complete his scene with a final serving of sexually explicit detail (e.g., the "typical" male attitude / response), he redirects attention away from the carnal body, to the emotional mind. Similarly, just as the reader assumes / expects Gemineye to be interested in his partner from the neck down (carrying further implied sexual connotations via drawing attention to the stereotypically sexualized female organs), he again inverts his meaning to draw attention to the symbolic center of his partner's emotional vs. carnal self.
However, via the use of these semantic inversions, notice how a sense of explicit sexuality is not purged from how Gemineye conceptualizes his relationship with his partner. Instead, I argue that Gemineye's use of this sort of poetic inversion effectively allows this raw explicitness to transition from his partner's body to her mind, losing absolutely no power as this border is crossed:
"I want to lick every inch of every crevasse
So I can get an oral fix from each orifice
And taste you passionate... IMAGINATION."
Again, when the reader assumes / expects Gemineye to complete this scene via referencing some sort of carnal, sexual act, he immediately shifts this sense of explicitness away from his partner's physical body, to something that is not physical. In short, I argue that this poem would not be nearly as effective if Gemineye completely purged it of it's sense of explicit sexuality. Instead, this sense of explicit sexuality creatively exoticizes and sexualizes the emotional characteristics of his partner, characteristics that men are typically assumed not to be interested in forming a truly intimate and / or satisfying relationship with.
Gemineye's use of this semantic inversion would not be NEARLY as effective if "Penny for Your Thoughts" was simply recited vs. performed:
"I’m penetrating every entrance… to your mind."
For example, the pause denoted by the ellipses does not guarantee that the listener will stop and process for the necessary amount of time for the inversion to "work." However, when performed, Gemineye consciously pauses, gives the listener adequate time to process part one of the semantic inversion, and then proceeds. As a result, the silent "rests" created by these pauses can be interpreted as the "loudest," most meaning-dependent features of the poem. In short, if not performed, the core quality of Gemineye's poem would be rendered ineffective.
Although Gemineye's use of this semantic inversion is definitely creative, effective, and admirable, I found the aggressive, intense tone that he utilizes to perform his poem to strangely contrast with his intended purpose. Via the utilization of this aggressive, intense tone, I argue that Gemineye perhaps unwittingly reinforces the potentially destructive gendered stereotype that men are inherently aggressive, angry beings. Although Gemineye's focus shifts from the body to the emotions across his semantic inversions, his aggressive, angry, and intense tone remains static. While his tone remains unchanged across these semantic shifts, I feel as though Gemineye is sending the message that male anger cannot be diffused; instead, it can only change forms and "must" otherwise be directed at something.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
CI 5410 Week 4.3 - Poem #3: "R.I.P."
R.I.P.
When I am dead, my dearest,
don’t you dare dance upon my grave;
my heart has grown rigid,
rests from your wandering gaze.
Though death now keeps my conscience,
dance far away from me;
don’t chance my bones collecting,
an essence of a beat.
When I am dead, my dearest,
don’t you dare dance upon my grave;
my heart has grown rigid,
at last enjoying peace.
When I am dead, my dearest,
don’t you dare dance upon my grave;
my heart has grown rigid,
rests from your wandering gaze.
Though death now keeps my conscience,
dance far away from me;
don’t chance my bones collecting,
an essence of a beat.
When I am dead, my dearest,
don’t you dare dance upon my grave;
my heart has grown rigid,
at last enjoying peace.
CI 5410 Week 4.2 - Assignment #3; "Dude, your poem sucks because _______"
-------
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
Although the following activity is a bit of a knock-off of the “A Difficult Poem” exercise as found on page 145 of our course text, I argue that the following modifications stand to render the overall task more analytical in nature.
Due to the creatively terrible writing required of this task (more on that in a moment!), I imagine this activity to take 2 class periods (introduced / assigned as HW on day ONE, reflected upon on Day TWO).
------
SPECIFICS
-------
After you and your class have started to get a working handle on the formal elements of poetry (perhaps after you have completed the “Poetry Scavenger Hunt” activity), require that your students complete the following:
DAY ONE
1.) Have each student select ONE (or TWO maximum) formal elements of poetry to critically “spoof” / “suck at.” (e.g., imagery, general clichés, meter, alliteration, assonance, and so on).
2.) Swear them to secrecy / do not let them share their selected target elements! (They will critically identify / discuss what is being “spoofed” / “sucked at” on Day TWO).
3.) Using targeted element(s) as the meta-purpose guiding their writing, have students write a poem of any length in which targeted element is creatively “spoofed” / “sucked at.”
4.) Remind students that EVERYONE’S poem will absolutely “suck.” Model / set the worst possible example by selecting an element to “spoof” / “suck at” and create an atrocious poem of your own. Then, read it aloud and have the class tell you what SPECIFIC formal element of poetry you are “spoofing” / “sucking at” and WHY.
5.) Remind everyone to keep things appropriate!
6.) Whatever is not complete in class, assign as homework.
NOTE: I can foresee a large portion of students selecting elements potentially easier to “spoof” / “suck at” than others. For example, I would argue that it would be easier for students new to exploring formal elements of poetry to consciously write a terrible simile than a terrible rhyme scheme. To prevent this uneven undertaking of elements, consider assigning quadrants of the room and / or groups specific elements that they will be required to target in their poems.
DAY TWO
1.) Either as a class and / or in small groups (again, whatever you deem appropriate to YOUR unique class and learning context), have students read each other their poems, critically listen, and complete the following sentence:
“Dude, you’re poem SUCKS because ____________”
…in which they will complete the above sentence via identifying a.) which specific element(s) are being “spoofed” / “sucked” at, and b.) how / why they can tell / "suck" so bad.
Other variations of this critical analysis could also include bringing in typed / written copies of the poems to physically mark on (the presence of marking on a physical may appeal to some learning styles, but wouldn't necessarily have to be required).
2.) As a class, critically select the poems that represent various formal elements of poetry best (er… worst!), and publish them in a “Suckiest Poems” anthology.
Have fun!
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
Although the following activity is a bit of a knock-off of the “A Difficult Poem” exercise as found on page 145 of our course text, I argue that the following modifications stand to render the overall task more analytical in nature.
Due to the creatively terrible writing required of this task (more on that in a moment!), I imagine this activity to take 2 class periods (introduced / assigned as HW on day ONE, reflected upon on Day TWO).
------
SPECIFICS
-------
After you and your class have started to get a working handle on the formal elements of poetry (perhaps after you have completed the “Poetry Scavenger Hunt” activity), require that your students complete the following:
DAY ONE
1.) Have each student select ONE (or TWO maximum) formal elements of poetry to critically “spoof” / “suck at.” (e.g., imagery, general clichés, meter, alliteration, assonance, and so on).
2.) Swear them to secrecy / do not let them share their selected target elements! (They will critically identify / discuss what is being “spoofed” / “sucked at” on Day TWO).
3.) Using targeted element(s) as the meta-purpose guiding their writing, have students write a poem of any length in which targeted element is creatively “spoofed” / “sucked at.”
4.) Remind students that EVERYONE’S poem will absolutely “suck.” Model / set the worst possible example by selecting an element to “spoof” / “suck at” and create an atrocious poem of your own. Then, read it aloud and have the class tell you what SPECIFIC formal element of poetry you are “spoofing” / “sucking at” and WHY.
5.) Remind everyone to keep things appropriate!
6.) Whatever is not complete in class, assign as homework.
NOTE: I can foresee a large portion of students selecting elements potentially easier to “spoof” / “suck at” than others. For example, I would argue that it would be easier for students new to exploring formal elements of poetry to consciously write a terrible simile than a terrible rhyme scheme. To prevent this uneven undertaking of elements, consider assigning quadrants of the room and / or groups specific elements that they will be required to target in their poems.
DAY TWO
1.) Either as a class and / or in small groups (again, whatever you deem appropriate to YOUR unique class and learning context), have students read each other their poems, critically listen, and complete the following sentence:
“Dude, you’re poem SUCKS because ____________”
…in which they will complete the above sentence via identifying a.) which specific element(s) are being “spoofed” / “sucked” at, and b.) how / why they can tell / "suck" so bad.
Other variations of this critical analysis could also include bringing in typed / written copies of the poems to physically mark on (the presence of marking on a physical may appeal to some learning styles, but wouldn't necessarily have to be required).
2.) As a class, critically select the poems that represent various formal elements of poetry best (er… worst!), and publish them in a “Suckiest Poems” anthology.
Have fun!
CI 5410 Week 4.1 - Assignment #2; "Poetry Scavenger Hunt"
-------
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
Before diving into any specifics surrounding the following assignment idea, I would like to share a confession with you – even though I’m an English teacher, I loathe, and I mean LOATHE, the study of formal poetic elements. Although I absolutely delight in discussing / manipulating arguments, language, and multimodal text, I have always perceived the breaking down of poetry into its myriad of constituent parts to be an EXTREMELY painstaking, unfulfilling, and otherwise anxiety-filled process. This sort of process reminds me of deconstructing / solving a complex math problem, where pluses, minuses, and multiplication symbols are substituted with iambs, troches, and feet (and believe me, I am B-A-D at math!). As a cumulative result of such focused study of these elements, I feel as though I do not have the time (let alone mental energy) to make sense out of and / or appreciate any beauty that a given poem possesses. In short, where some people find delight / beauty in discussing / manipulating these formal elements of poetry, I find anxiety, fear, and frustration; emotional responses presumably shared by many students undertaking such a task!
As I engage in further self-reflection in the attempt to figure out WHY, specifically, I have such a negative attitude toward the study of formal poetic elements, I feel as though the anxiety and distaste I experience stems from how I was expected to learn these elements as a student; through the largely decontextualized, non-authentic “decoding” of some random poem forced upon me by the teacher. Although our course text does a nice job of clearly exploring these poetic elements, as well as contextualizing them via the selection of some fairly beautiful / good poems (at least by my subjective criteria / opinion), I did not have a choice in this matter! I did not have the choice to handle a collection of poetry that I was fascinated by and was able to identify with forever whatever reason! I wasn’t able to flip through pages and select a poem that I found meaningful at the time, a poem that resonated with ME! I was not able to reap the benefits of others co-engaging / coaching me through the process (other than the author of the handbook, that is).
As I argue that many of our students perceive the study of formal poetic elements to be similarly decontextualized, non-authentic “decoding” exercises of random, arbitrarily selected poems that they cannot / do not personally identify with, I urge you to consider the following assignment.
Before I further jump into any specifics, I argue that this activity should take 2-3 class periods as I argue that authentic, potentially “dirty / gritty” exploration is crucial to the activity’s overall effectiveness. But more on that in a moment (again, adjust to YOUR unique learning context).
-------
SPECIFICS
-------
Materials needed
As you are no doubt a committed teacher of literature, you ideally have not only a shelf, but an entire ROOM stocked absolutely FULL of diverse texts; poetry and prose, old and new, traditional and non-traditional, English / American and world-centric, male and female, textual and visual, and so on and so forth. In other words, you will ideally have a large library of literature reflective of the diverse students and learning styles that walk into your classroom each day. If you feel as though your library is lacking, take the time to “stock up” before considering this activity (for a quick fix, see what you might be able to borrow from other teachers). Ideally, you want to have a textual selection that you are at least relatively confident that each and everyone one of your students can sift through and eventually find something that they identify with and find meaningful for whatever reason, even if they cannot articulate that exact reason to you!
If you feel confident that you have the library I so dramatically describe, on to the next steps…
-Make a textual mountain in the middle of your classroom however orderly or disorderly (sometimes this sort of study is messy business) you desire.
-After constructing and distributing some sort of simple worksheet / graphic organizer, quite literally set your students “loose” on the mountain of texts. Although the specific expectations you design are of course dependent upon YOUR unique learning context, I imagine requiring students to…
a.) find textual examples that somehow exemplify a range of specific formal poetic elements (e.g., iambic pentameter, imagery, alliteration, assonance, and so on)
b.) record them on their worksheets or journal pages
c.) state specifically HOW / WHY the example they isolated reveals some sort of desired poetic element
NOTE 1: You’re of course going to have had to give your students at least some pre-instruction to formal elements of poetry prior to beginning this activity for obvious reasons. However, I do not think that this pre-instruction has to / should be very intense. Again, my meta-rationale for this activity is that students will have an easier time / take more pleasure in exploring formal poetic elements if they have much more agency in the process; the agency to select their own texts, uncover the elements in the order they desire (almost a sort of self-scaffolding as they potentially work themselves up from easier to more difficult elements to uncover).
NOTE 2: AND THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT! If you simply turn students loose on this task without your guidance, I am very confident that this task will fail miserably. Instead, I suggest you keep the following actions in mind to keep students on track and provide them with the necessary guidance and scaffolding:
-Mill around the room, keeping an eye on who is having trouble. If they are having trouble with a Shakespeare text, suggest something that you believe they might identify with more closely (again, hopefully you are aware of your textual selection, as well as the personality and identities of your students).
-As groups begin to uncover poetic elements, STOP, verbalize the discoveries to the rest of the class (to fight the craziness of noise, perhaps schedule large-group check-ins every 10 minutes or so), and co-explore with your class the following:
1.) What, specifically, a group uncovered passage-wise (you can further read, act, and verbalize the passage).
2.) How / Why a given textual selection is a good example of a given formal poetic element.
-And finally, embrace the chaos!
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
Before diving into any specifics surrounding the following assignment idea, I would like to share a confession with you – even though I’m an English teacher, I loathe, and I mean LOATHE, the study of formal poetic elements. Although I absolutely delight in discussing / manipulating arguments, language, and multimodal text, I have always perceived the breaking down of poetry into its myriad of constituent parts to be an EXTREMELY painstaking, unfulfilling, and otherwise anxiety-filled process. This sort of process reminds me of deconstructing / solving a complex math problem, where pluses, minuses, and multiplication symbols are substituted with iambs, troches, and feet (and believe me, I am B-A-D at math!). As a cumulative result of such focused study of these elements, I feel as though I do not have the time (let alone mental energy) to make sense out of and / or appreciate any beauty that a given poem possesses. In short, where some people find delight / beauty in discussing / manipulating these formal elements of poetry, I find anxiety, fear, and frustration; emotional responses presumably shared by many students undertaking such a task!
As I engage in further self-reflection in the attempt to figure out WHY, specifically, I have such a negative attitude toward the study of formal poetic elements, I feel as though the anxiety and distaste I experience stems from how I was expected to learn these elements as a student; through the largely decontextualized, non-authentic “decoding” of some random poem forced upon me by the teacher. Although our course text does a nice job of clearly exploring these poetic elements, as well as contextualizing them via the selection of some fairly beautiful / good poems (at least by my subjective criteria / opinion), I did not have a choice in this matter! I did not have the choice to handle a collection of poetry that I was fascinated by and was able to identify with forever whatever reason! I wasn’t able to flip through pages and select a poem that I found meaningful at the time, a poem that resonated with ME! I was not able to reap the benefits of others co-engaging / coaching me through the process (other than the author of the handbook, that is).
As I argue that many of our students perceive the study of formal poetic elements to be similarly decontextualized, non-authentic “decoding” exercises of random, arbitrarily selected poems that they cannot / do not personally identify with, I urge you to consider the following assignment.
Before I further jump into any specifics, I argue that this activity should take 2-3 class periods as I argue that authentic, potentially “dirty / gritty” exploration is crucial to the activity’s overall effectiveness. But more on that in a moment (again, adjust to YOUR unique learning context).
-------
SPECIFICS
-------
Materials needed
As you are no doubt a committed teacher of literature, you ideally have not only a shelf, but an entire ROOM stocked absolutely FULL of diverse texts; poetry and prose, old and new, traditional and non-traditional, English / American and world-centric, male and female, textual and visual, and so on and so forth. In other words, you will ideally have a large library of literature reflective of the diverse students and learning styles that walk into your classroom each day. If you feel as though your library is lacking, take the time to “stock up” before considering this activity (for a quick fix, see what you might be able to borrow from other teachers). Ideally, you want to have a textual selection that you are at least relatively confident that each and everyone one of your students can sift through and eventually find something that they identify with and find meaningful for whatever reason, even if they cannot articulate that exact reason to you!
If you feel confident that you have the library I so dramatically describe, on to the next steps…
-Make a textual mountain in the middle of your classroom however orderly or disorderly (sometimes this sort of study is messy business) you desire.
-After constructing and distributing some sort of simple worksheet / graphic organizer, quite literally set your students “loose” on the mountain of texts. Although the specific expectations you design are of course dependent upon YOUR unique learning context, I imagine requiring students to…
a.) find textual examples that somehow exemplify a range of specific formal poetic elements (e.g., iambic pentameter, imagery, alliteration, assonance, and so on)
b.) record them on their worksheets or journal pages
c.) state specifically HOW / WHY the example they isolated reveals some sort of desired poetic element
NOTE 1: You’re of course going to have had to give your students at least some pre-instruction to formal elements of poetry prior to beginning this activity for obvious reasons. However, I do not think that this pre-instruction has to / should be very intense. Again, my meta-rationale for this activity is that students will have an easier time / take more pleasure in exploring formal poetic elements if they have much more agency in the process; the agency to select their own texts, uncover the elements in the order they desire (almost a sort of self-scaffolding as they potentially work themselves up from easier to more difficult elements to uncover).
NOTE 2: AND THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT! If you simply turn students loose on this task without your guidance, I am very confident that this task will fail miserably. Instead, I suggest you keep the following actions in mind to keep students on track and provide them with the necessary guidance and scaffolding:
-Mill around the room, keeping an eye on who is having trouble. If they are having trouble with a Shakespeare text, suggest something that you believe they might identify with more closely (again, hopefully you are aware of your textual selection, as well as the personality and identities of your students).
-As groups begin to uncover poetic elements, STOP, verbalize the discoveries to the rest of the class (to fight the craziness of noise, perhaps schedule large-group check-ins every 10 minutes or so), and co-explore with your class the following:
1.) What, specifically, a group uncovered passage-wise (you can further read, act, and verbalize the passage).
2.) How / Why a given textual selection is a good example of a given formal poetic element.
-And finally, embrace the chaos!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
CI 5410 Week 3.1 - Assignment #1; "From the Wolf's Perspective"
Assignment #1; "From the Wolf's Perspective"
-------
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
For my first assignment idea, I would like to share with you a wonderfully creative activity focusing on teaching / manipulating PERSPECTIVE. I was initially exposed to this idea during my licensure program's dedicated writing methods class, and it has stuck with me ever since.
Again, the primary focus of this activity is to teach students how to consider (as well as practice manipulating for themselves!) the idea of PERSPECTIVE across textual and / or visual texts. I do not see why this activity could not be applicable to students across ages, cultures, AND learning styles – more on the potentially universal nature of this activity later. Lastly, although of course highly dependent on YOUR unique learning context(s), I imagine this activity to take approximately 1 - 2 class periods.
-------
SPECIFIC PROCESSES
-------
Materials
In preparation for this activity, stock up on a number of popular / common children’s fables. Although you definitely have a TON of options to work with here, the following common tales immediately come to mind:
-The Tortoise and the Hare
-The Three Little Pigs
-Jack and the Bean Stock
-The Ugly Duckling
-Hansel and Gretel
-Little Red Riding Hood
-Goldilocks and the Three Bears
-Humpty Dumpty
Basically, any pop culture children’s fables that the majority of students in your class are likely to be familiar with are game!
If you wish, bring in Xeroxed, text-centric print-outs of these stories, or if you dare (and have the access), try to bring in REAL children’s books filled with the child-like images / text with which these stories are commonly communicated. Basically, I argue that the more you can encourage personal identification with these stories (after all, many children were read to out of these children’s books), the more effective this activity will be.
Procedures
DAY ONE
-Split students up into small groups, assigning ONE fable per group.
-While in their small groups, have students read fables out-loud to their fellow group members. Encourage students to express the language in child-speak (e.g., how mothers / fathers might adjust their voices to represent different characters when reading to children – a harsh voice for the bears and a high voice for Goldilocks). Also, encourage students to take in and experience any accompanying visuals that may be present.
-Once groups have read their fables, have each group present responses to the following question set:
a.) Whose perspective do you believe YOUR GROUP'S fable is written from (e.g., Goldilocks or the Three Bears?).
b.) What SPECIFIC features of the text do you believe reveal this perspective (in terms of possible language and / or accompanying visuals).
c.) What SPECIFIC “lesson” is being taught via said perspective (e.g., re: Hansel and Gretel - you shouldn’t trust strangers).
-And now the fun part! Either starting in class and / or assigned as homework, have students re-tell their story via the perspective of ANOTHER character. For example, re-telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood via the Wolf’s vs. Red’s perspective. NOTE: Depending on YOUR unique learning context, you could have students complete this task collaboratively as a group, or require each student to work independently. However, due to maintaining individual accountability, I recommended each student be required to complete their own independent re-telling.
DAY TWO
-Have students re-form the SAME groups that they worked in the day before.
-Have each student read their re-told stories out-loud to the remainder of the group. Again, encourage students to really get into it and utilize different voices to represent unique characters.
-Reflecting on their re-told stories, have students individually respond to the same question set as the day before:
Again:
a.) Whose perspective do you believe YOUR fable is written from (e.g., Goldilocks or the Three Bears?).
b.) What SPECIFIC features of the text do you believe reveal this perspective (in terms of possible language and / or accompanying visuals).
c.) What SPECIFIC “lesson” is being taught via said perspective (e.g., re: Hansel and Brittle: you shouldn’t trust strangers).
-Within their small groups, have students discuss how, SPECIFICALLY now, they accomplished their changes in perspective via SPECIFIC language and / or images they decided to utilize. Furthermore, have them discuss how these changes in perspective influences the meta-lesson that their re-told story suggests to readers. For example, if re-told from the Wolf’s vs. Red's perspective, I would argue that the common fable of Little Red Riding Hood would teach a significantly different sort of lesson to readers!
Accommodating for Diversity and / or Learning Styles
If you have students in your class that come from different, rich cultures, DO NOT waste such an opportunity; instead, proactively utilize students' diverse experiences as yet additional learning opportunities for your class. Although other students’ cultures might not share the SPECIFIC fable of Little Red Riding Hood, you’re in luck; childhood fables of some sort are more or less universal across ALL cultures! In such a case, just imagine what sort of teaching and learning would take place if students from other rich cultures shared THEIR unique, culture-specific fables with their group members! In short, I argue that this activity could be very easily modified to include the re-telling of not only American-centric fables, but fables from across the many rich cultures with which your students might have valuable “insider” knowledge.
Furthermore, this overall activity is very conducive to visual learners and writers as well. For example, if students do not wish and / or have the ability to to re-tell their stories via text alone, or if they simply have a natural talent for creating images, encourage them to consider and re-tell their stories visually. After all, I don’t think I have ever scene a purely text-centric children’s book! In addition to having students think about how perspective can be communicated via text, do not neglect exercising their ability to consider the building of perspective via visual elements, too.
-------
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-------
For my first assignment idea, I would like to share with you a wonderfully creative activity focusing on teaching / manipulating PERSPECTIVE. I was initially exposed to this idea during my licensure program's dedicated writing methods class, and it has stuck with me ever since.
Again, the primary focus of this activity is to teach students how to consider (as well as practice manipulating for themselves!) the idea of PERSPECTIVE across textual and / or visual texts. I do not see why this activity could not be applicable to students across ages, cultures, AND learning styles – more on the potentially universal nature of this activity later. Lastly, although of course highly dependent on YOUR unique learning context(s), I imagine this activity to take approximately 1 - 2 class periods.
-------
SPECIFIC PROCESSES
-------
Materials
In preparation for this activity, stock up on a number of popular / common children’s fables. Although you definitely have a TON of options to work with here, the following common tales immediately come to mind:
-The Tortoise and the Hare
-The Three Little Pigs
-Jack and the Bean Stock
-The Ugly Duckling
-Hansel and Gretel
-Little Red Riding Hood
-Goldilocks and the Three Bears
-Humpty Dumpty
Basically, any pop culture children’s fables that the majority of students in your class are likely to be familiar with are game!
If you wish, bring in Xeroxed, text-centric print-outs of these stories, or if you dare (and have the access), try to bring in REAL children’s books filled with the child-like images / text with which these stories are commonly communicated. Basically, I argue that the more you can encourage personal identification with these stories (after all, many children were read to out of these children’s books), the more effective this activity will be.
Procedures
DAY ONE
-Split students up into small groups, assigning ONE fable per group.
-While in their small groups, have students read fables out-loud to their fellow group members. Encourage students to express the language in child-speak (e.g., how mothers / fathers might adjust their voices to represent different characters when reading to children – a harsh voice for the bears and a high voice for Goldilocks). Also, encourage students to take in and experience any accompanying visuals that may be present.
-Once groups have read their fables, have each group present responses to the following question set:
a.) Whose perspective do you believe YOUR GROUP'S fable is written from (e.g., Goldilocks or the Three Bears?).
b.) What SPECIFIC features of the text do you believe reveal this perspective (in terms of possible language and / or accompanying visuals).
c.) What SPECIFIC “lesson” is being taught via said perspective (e.g., re: Hansel and Gretel - you shouldn’t trust strangers).
-And now the fun part! Either starting in class and / or assigned as homework, have students re-tell their story via the perspective of ANOTHER character. For example, re-telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood via the Wolf’s vs. Red’s perspective. NOTE: Depending on YOUR unique learning context, you could have students complete this task collaboratively as a group, or require each student to work independently. However, due to maintaining individual accountability, I recommended each student be required to complete their own independent re-telling.
DAY TWO
-Have students re-form the SAME groups that they worked in the day before.
-Have each student read their re-told stories out-loud to the remainder of the group. Again, encourage students to really get into it and utilize different voices to represent unique characters.
-Reflecting on their re-told stories, have students individually respond to the same question set as the day before:
Again:
a.) Whose perspective do you believe YOUR fable is written from (e.g., Goldilocks or the Three Bears?).
b.) What SPECIFIC features of the text do you believe reveal this perspective (in terms of possible language and / or accompanying visuals).
c.) What SPECIFIC “lesson” is being taught via said perspective (e.g., re: Hansel and Brittle: you shouldn’t trust strangers).
-Within their small groups, have students discuss how, SPECIFICALLY now, they accomplished their changes in perspective via SPECIFIC language and / or images they decided to utilize. Furthermore, have them discuss how these changes in perspective influences the meta-lesson that their re-told story suggests to readers. For example, if re-told from the Wolf’s vs. Red's perspective, I would argue that the common fable of Little Red Riding Hood would teach a significantly different sort of lesson to readers!
Accommodating for Diversity and / or Learning Styles
If you have students in your class that come from different, rich cultures, DO NOT waste such an opportunity; instead, proactively utilize students' diverse experiences as yet additional learning opportunities for your class. Although other students’ cultures might not share the SPECIFIC fable of Little Red Riding Hood, you’re in luck; childhood fables of some sort are more or less universal across ALL cultures! In such a case, just imagine what sort of teaching and learning would take place if students from other rich cultures shared THEIR unique, culture-specific fables with their group members! In short, I argue that this activity could be very easily modified to include the re-telling of not only American-centric fables, but fables from across the many rich cultures with which your students might have valuable “insider” knowledge.
Furthermore, this overall activity is very conducive to visual learners and writers as well. For example, if students do not wish and / or have the ability to to re-tell their stories via text alone, or if they simply have a natural talent for creating images, encourage them to consider and re-tell their stories visually. After all, I don’t think I have ever scene a purely text-centric children’s book! In addition to having students think about how perspective can be communicated via text, do not neglect exercising their ability to consider the building of perspective via visual elements, too.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
CI 5410 Week 3 - Poem #2
Gravity
Sinking into the flower-print, down cover, the depression created by our weight on the soft mattress is unwilling to separate me from the words escaping her lips in quick, breathless movements. “You and I are just too… different,” she chokes as we both sink deeper into the growing pit, struggling to inhale the stale air bellow. Crashing into a subterranean pool of memory, she reminds me of the instances where I am too logical, too scientific, and too practical to accept the life that she has laid out for us. As she uses our confined supply of air to argue one last time that the earth was created in a cold, calculated, seven days, a grin crosses my face in the dark. “What’s so funny?” she breathes into my ear, struggling unsuccessfully to sit up straight. She definitely would not accept that physics might have a will of its own.
Sinking into the flower-print, down cover, the depression created by our weight on the soft mattress is unwilling to separate me from the words escaping her lips in quick, breathless movements. “You and I are just too… different,” she chokes as we both sink deeper into the growing pit, struggling to inhale the stale air bellow. Crashing into a subterranean pool of memory, she reminds me of the instances where I am too logical, too scientific, and too practical to accept the life that she has laid out for us. As she uses our confined supply of air to argue one last time that the earth was created in a cold, calculated, seven days, a grin crosses my face in the dark. “What’s so funny?” she breathes into my ear, struggling unsuccessfully to sit up straight. She definitely would not accept that physics might have a will of its own.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
CI 5410 Week 2 - Poem #1
Powerball
15. 32. 43. 44 -
46.
61.1 million dollars.
.1?
What does.1 even mean?
It means that all of our pain and worries are gone.
Ferraris, cigarette boats, and mansions.
Whatever we want.
That’s what it means.
As my heart begins to force the morphine through my already numb veins,
my faint pulse sighs a cold breath of relief;
for now, the marrow-spout at the base of my spine slowly ceases to throb.
With each slow heartbeat, the morphine attempts to convince my body that it will win;
for nearly a fraction of a second, I am able to forget the numbers that are the only honest voices I can trust.
The doctor whose face is usually stretched into a longer grimace by the morphine looks different today.
The motors of the hospital bed complete the work my broken body cannot,
placing me in a polite position to hear the results of this week’s marrow harvest.
He begins in his usual manner of gruffly clearing his throat and pointing at the beginning of my results with his index finger.
As his cold, analytical interpretation of my insides begins, I notice something that not even the morphine can obscure;
He looks at me while he reads my results.
His eyes don’t simply follow his moving finger.
“Your body is producing 1 X 1011 platelets.”
“Well within the normal range,” he clarifies as my radiated brain struggles to recall the word.
There are plenty of different numbers yet to fear.
It’s not time to hope yet.
“And, your body is producing about 10800 blood cells per liter of blood.”
“Well above the normal range,” he clarifies as he sharply taps his index finger on my lab report, the morphine inverting his grimace to some semblance of a grin.
As he continues to decode my fate,
the morphine slowly begins to retract its claws from my soul.
My few remaining hairs stand on end.
“What does all of this mean?” I whisper slowly.
The bed motors cannot work fast enough to get me closer to his voice.
15. 32. 43. 44 -
46.
61.1 million dollars.
.1?
What does.1 even mean?
It means that all of our pain and worries are gone.
Luxury cars, boats, and houses.
Ferraris, cigarette boats, and mansions.
That’s what it means.
15. 32. 43. 44 -
46.
61.1 million dollars.
.1?
What does.1 even mean?
It means that all of our pain and worries are gone.
Ferraris, cigarette boats, and mansions.
Whatever we want.
That’s what it means.
As my heart begins to force the morphine through my already numb veins,
my faint pulse sighs a cold breath of relief;
for now, the marrow-spout at the base of my spine slowly ceases to throb.
With each slow heartbeat, the morphine attempts to convince my body that it will win;
for nearly a fraction of a second, I am able to forget the numbers that are the only honest voices I can trust.
The doctor whose face is usually stretched into a longer grimace by the morphine looks different today.
The motors of the hospital bed complete the work my broken body cannot,
placing me in a polite position to hear the results of this week’s marrow harvest.
He begins in his usual manner of gruffly clearing his throat and pointing at the beginning of my results with his index finger.
As his cold, analytical interpretation of my insides begins, I notice something that not even the morphine can obscure;
He looks at me while he reads my results.
His eyes don’t simply follow his moving finger.
“Your body is producing 1 X 1011 platelets.”
“Well within the normal range,” he clarifies as my radiated brain struggles to recall the word.
There are plenty of different numbers yet to fear.
It’s not time to hope yet.
“And, your body is producing about 10800 blood cells per liter of blood.”
“Well above the normal range,” he clarifies as he sharply taps his index finger on my lab report, the morphine inverting his grimace to some semblance of a grin.
As he continues to decode my fate,
the morphine slowly begins to retract its claws from my soul.
My few remaining hairs stand on end.
“What does all of this mean?” I whisper slowly.
The bed motors cannot work fast enough to get me closer to his voice.
15. 32. 43. 44 -
46.
61.1 million dollars.
.1?
What does.1 even mean?
It means that all of our pain and worries are gone.
Luxury cars, boats, and houses.
Ferraris, cigarette boats, and mansions.
That’s what it means.
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