My Methods (Maybe)

Like Chris, I found that I have already used several of the methods Bean describes in my 101 classes. This was partly encouraging but also partly frustrating. Most of the methods that I have used in classes have been only moderately successful at best. Some of them failed rather miserably. I was sort of hoping that Bean would be able to offer some magical new method that would refresh my pedagogy. Well, that didn't exactly happen. I was, however, reminded of a few methods that I'd heard of (or been on the student end of) but have not yet used. Also, I think Bean helped me to see how my implementation of some of these methods could be changed to make them more successful.

• Writing at the beginning of class to probe a subject: I've used this method fairly frequently in my classes. I've found that it does help to stimulate class discussions about a concept or article.
• Writing during class to refocus a lagging discussion or cool off a heated one: I really like this idea. I haven't had too many of either kind of discussion problem but I'll be keeping this one in mind.
• Writing at the end of class to sum up a lecture or discussion: I like this idea too. I think it might be an interesting exercise to have students first summarize the discussion and speculate where the discussion might continue the next day. Maybe the writing time could be split between summarizing the previous lesson and exploring a question that will be the focus for the next class period.
• Guided Journals: I've used this method (sort of) and it totally did not work for me. Rachael sold me on using Myspace for class journal postings so I tried it last semester. It felt like busy work even to me. I still like the concept of guided journaling, however, so I'm more than willing to try it again. I think my problem with the myspace idea was that I didn't incorporate student's answers into the class discussions the next day. Also, I gave them purely participation credit and didn't judge the quality of their posts at all. I think sampling the postings would maybe provide more motivation to do a good job.
• Contemporary Issues Journals: I've never used this method before but I think it might be interesting for my dream course. I think the different ways death gets talked about in the paper from coverage of war zones to the health section to the obituaries could lead to some really fruitful discussions. Maybe there is not enough there to do a multi-enty journal, but I think there is enough potential for at least a couple assignments.
• Metaphor Games, Extended Analogies: This sounds kind of cheesy but I still like it. I think people have natural tendency to slide into metaphor anyhow, so why not use it?
• Occasional Thought Letters: Nice. I like having something between totally free-writing and formal essays.
• Small Groups: This is the method that I have used with the most success thus far. I'd like to try extending the groups. Most of the group work I have done has been entirely in-class. I think using more in-depth out of class group assignments would be fun.
• Deliver Narrative Lectures that Model the Thinking Process: I was really taken with this idea because it was one of the few that I'd never seen done before. I think it would be a good one to try in composition classes.
• Classroom Debates: One of my favorite activities that I did as a student was a classroom debate (and maybe also a bit of a meeting of the minds panel) in a literary theory class. All the students got really into it and even showed up to the debate in costume as particular schools of literary criticism. The fact that the debate took the place of a midterm essay or exam made it even more fun. I've got to figure out a way to make this work. . .

WLMA Chapters 14 and 17

Chapter 14 - Language and Power

Before getting to the questions about this chapter I just wanted to ask if anyone else found it strange/interesting to include Hamlet in this section on language and power. It seems to me that a common way to read Hamlet is to read it as an example of the impotency of language. Hamlet's soliloquies (his attempt to use language to find clarity and resolve) don't do much. In the end, it is action (i.e. the duel with Laertes, the poisoning of Gertrude, Fortinbras) that has power while language (i.e. Hamlet's soliloquies, even Claudius's ghost who is capable of language but not action) is ineffectual. With the inclusion of Hamlet in this section, I think Michelle's question of "What are the limits of language's power?" becomes a really interesting question that has a lot of potential depth.

Focus Question

• How are language and power (or language-power) socially negotiated?

Additional Texts

• A whirlwind tour of dictionaries: OED, Websters, the Open Dictionary; The Devil's Dictionary, others? I think asking why some dictionaries are 'credible' and others are not would be an interesting discussion.
• Myths about the origins of language might also be an interesting place to start a discussion.

Chapter 17 - Representations of the American West

Focus Question

• What is a frontier? How does having a frontier shape a society's self-image?

Additional Texts

• I think it is really interesting how other 'frontiers' use so much of the same language and imagery as the American West. Specifically, I'm thinking of some science fiction. Think Captain Kirk as cowboy; Space Cowboys (a supremely stupid movie but it does make the point); The Astronaut Farmer. My favorite example, though, and the one I would use for a class has to be Joss Whedon's short-lived but well-loved Firefly. If you are not familiar with the show, it's basically about a bunch of smugglers who fly around in a spaceship, visit saloons, rob trains, and use six-shooters.