Before you begin to read the questions below, please know, I have no particular response in mind for these questions. I'd like everyone to try his/her hand at every question. It is important we start to feel safe on this blog, or I will not be able to use it. I am trying to make this helpful for all of us. I hope you can see how it is helpful to you, but without your cooperation, it does not work for me.
Respond to the final paragraph of the story please.
A. What is your reaction to it.
B. Why?
C. Explicate it (i.e., explain/interpret it).
D. What is its relationship to the rest of the story?
E. Why is it there? What purpose does it serve?
F. Remove it from the story. What difference would it make if the story ended with
the words "The sum total of these failures had hastened his death."
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A Brief Note About the Hyper-Real + Rudiments of A Potential Teaching Vehicle You May Revise
Brief Note Concerning fiction, reality, truth, lies, shaping of reality, mimesis, simulation, feigning and virtual reality: I would highly recommend you read a small excerpt of the writing of French critic, Baudrillard, a key writer on the way our culture grooves on living in simulated realities and the impact of this life on our minds and ways of being. His language, like many postmodern critics', may be alienating to you, so I will request that, at minimum, you read about Baudrillard's theory of simulation and hyper-reality. I believe that given the generation of our students and the topic of fiction, it is important that we understand these aspects of our culture.
One possible link: http://www.semiotexte.com/
I continue to be surprised when I hear students speak of celebrities, such as Britney Spears, as if they were their next door neighbor or best friend. I cannot quite "wrap my mind" around what this means. I would be interested in comments if any of you have insight into this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rudiments of an exercise for the pleasure of your revision:
I always recommend students take notes on the reading. Here are the instructions I give them on how to take notes. Do not take notes while reading or with the book open. Read the story twice. The first time, do not stop for any hard words or for anything. Keep reading even if you do not understand. Wait at least a day, and read the story again. If you need to look up words, do so. After you finish reading, put the book away, and write down a list of the major characters in the story and main things that happened. Do not put every detail in. What is the main conflict in the story? How is it resolved? If you were the author and were on a major television interview show and the host asked you why you wrote the story, what would your answer be?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to begin working on the essay:
Here are some questions I recommend. I'd like to hear what you think of them, and what other ideas you may have.
1. I like to begin where students are, so I ask them to write down what they know about their topic. After they list what they know, I ask them to go back over each item, and see if they can remember where each part of their knowledge came from and if they can come up with some convincing support for each aspect of their knowledge (but all of this is still in note form).
2. Then, we brainstorm about historical/cultural influences that may be important to the topic they chose.
3. We look over everything we've noted so far, and we decide what is most important and what is less important and make two columns.
4. I ask the students to explain why the "most important column" contains the points they selected and to explain in writing why those particular points need to be the focus.
5. I then ask them to list ways in which their connection to the topic is different than anyone else's in the class or anyone's at all.
6. Then, we go to the stories and look at finding how the stories teach about the topic and exactly where they do so.
7. They pick out the specific examples and, most importantly, explain the connection of these examples to the topic.
8. I ask everyone to write down why they care about the topic at all, and why they think I or any reader should care about it at all.
9. Then come the tough questions: How do you plan to make me, your reader, care about your topic?
10. What exactly are you going to teach me in your paper? What is it you have to say? Why is your paper important? If it's not, you're wasting your time and your audience's time;why bother, and why would Dr. Pruss devote 26 years to teaching this subject if all we were going to do would be is write about things that did not really matter?!!!
One possible link: http://www.semiotexte.com/
I continue to be surprised when I hear students speak of celebrities, such as Britney Spears, as if they were their next door neighbor or best friend. I cannot quite "wrap my mind" around what this means. I would be interested in comments if any of you have insight into this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rudiments of an exercise for the pleasure of your revision:
I always recommend students take notes on the reading. Here are the instructions I give them on how to take notes. Do not take notes while reading or with the book open. Read the story twice. The first time, do not stop for any hard words or for anything. Keep reading even if you do not understand. Wait at least a day, and read the story again. If you need to look up words, do so. After you finish reading, put the book away, and write down a list of the major characters in the story and main things that happened. Do not put every detail in. What is the main conflict in the story? How is it resolved? If you were the author and were on a major television interview show and the host asked you why you wrote the story, what would your answer be?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to begin working on the essay:
Here are some questions I recommend. I'd like to hear what you think of them, and what other ideas you may have.
1. I like to begin where students are, so I ask them to write down what they know about their topic. After they list what they know, I ask them to go back over each item, and see if they can remember where each part of their knowledge came from and if they can come up with some convincing support for each aspect of their knowledge (but all of this is still in note form).
2. Then, we brainstorm about historical/cultural influences that may be important to the topic they chose.
3. We look over everything we've noted so far, and we decide what is most important and what is less important and make two columns.
4. I ask the students to explain why the "most important column" contains the points they selected and to explain in writing why those particular points need to be the focus.
5. I then ask them to list ways in which their connection to the topic is different than anyone else's in the class or anyone's at all.
6. Then, we go to the stories and look at finding how the stories teach about the topic and exactly where they do so.
7. They pick out the specific examples and, most importantly, explain the connection of these examples to the topic.
8. I ask everyone to write down why they care about the topic at all, and why they think I or any reader should care about it at all.
9. Then come the tough questions: How do you plan to make me, your reader, care about your topic?
10. What exactly are you going to teach me in your paper? What is it you have to say? Why is your paper important? If it's not, you're wasting your time and your audience's time;why bother, and why would Dr. Pruss devote 26 years to teaching this subject if all we were going to do would be is write about things that did not really matter?!!!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
English 585/586
We've only had one class so far, and we've covered so much ground, asked so many questions. My head is spinning with ideas, angles, depth, and a variety of colorful thoughts. How about yours? Let me reiterate some of the questions below, and allow you to post some of your kaleidoscopic responses here, and, hopefully, some support for your gut feelings and thoughts too please.
1. What distinction, if any, do you make between fiction and virtual reality? You may want to define fiction and virtual reality, on your own terms, first, before proceeding to answer the rest of the question.
2. When you think about people like celebrities, do you view them as real? Was Michael Jackson a fiction? How did you see him and why?
3. T.S. Eliot talks about the face we put on to meet the faces of others, which I understand as a version of the persona, where does that fit?
----------------------------------------
topic of the week: CONFLICT [particularly around others' expectations of us, whether it be the boss's, school's, families' (plural if you are married and have more than one family expecting things from you), children's, students', self's, society's/culture's, religion's/church's, etc.] a small introduction to differences in voice which will continue across the semester, but teach students to start listening and how to start listening for differences in voice. Most of all enjoy the time teaching your class, and enjoy writing with them, but be sure to maintain order and structure, so it remains enjoyable.
Reminder of LiterActive Texts you can connect to theme of course and to "Girl":
1. Increase Mather's text on witchcraft (listed under Hawthorne)
2. Ted Hughes' text listed under Plath
3. Sylvia Plath's journal text
4. Mother text listed under Amy Tan
See if you can find one or two others and explain in one or two sentences what type of connection we can make to the class theme of types of enslavement and to "Girl."
----------------------------------------
See Post #2 later tonight on beginning to write the paper, and other posts later in the week on the issue of quoting and on thesis statements.
1. What distinction, if any, do you make between fiction and virtual reality? You may want to define fiction and virtual reality, on your own terms, first, before proceeding to answer the rest of the question.
2. When you think about people like celebrities, do you view them as real? Was Michael Jackson a fiction? How did you see him and why?
3. T.S. Eliot talks about the face we put on to meet the faces of others, which I understand as a version of the persona, where does that fit?
----------------------------------------
topic of the week: CONFLICT [particularly around others' expectations of us, whether it be the boss's, school's, families' (plural if you are married and have more than one family expecting things from you), children's, students', self's, society's/culture's, religion's/church's, etc.] a small introduction to differences in voice which will continue across the semester, but teach students to start listening and how to start listening for differences in voice. Most of all enjoy the time teaching your class, and enjoy writing with them, but be sure to maintain order and structure, so it remains enjoyable.
Reminder of LiterActive Texts you can connect to theme of course and to "Girl":
1. Increase Mather's text on witchcraft (listed under Hawthorne)
2. Ted Hughes' text listed under Plath
3. Sylvia Plath's journal text
4. Mother text listed under Amy Tan
See if you can find one or two others and explain in one or two sentences what type of connection we can make to the class theme of types of enslavement and to "Girl."
----------------------------------------
See Post #2 later tonight on beginning to write the paper, and other posts later in the week on the issue of quoting and on thesis statements.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)