Teaching Journal IX

Week 9

If we were still on quarters, we would be finishing up next week. Long live the superior quarter system!!

ahem...

This week my goals were to improve my class discussions because I had been feeling down about my discussion leading abilities. I believe I achieved my goal, but that the old nuisance of authority is once again rearing it's ugly head. That is, my attempt to get them to talk more involves me getting more informal with them. I figure it's better to have them talk (even if it's off topic, because I can steer them in the right direction) than have the dead fish look and behavior. But then I think it undermines my authority. Should I get my own conversation shark that I've heard so much about? This is my goal for week 10.

Monday: Today their peer reviews were due. It seemed like the handout really helped to ensure that each student but in a minimum standard of effort, but of course there are always exceptions. I told them that their project 2s were due on Friday (which I eventually extended to Monday 10/29). I introduced Project 3 as well. As usual, they were pretty silent with questions, but I think it is always a little overwhelming for them. I thought it maybe helped that they read Swales first before I introduced Project 3 formally, since Swales is really a framework for the project. We began with a free write and then defined terms. I started every class this week with a free write and terms. I think it works okay, but I always worry about things becoming repetitive (which is also why I had stopped doing group work every class period for a bit). I also had them do Carrie Ann's activity of simplifying the 6 criteria. This didn't work out like I hoped because some of the criteria are straightforward while others like genre are more complex. Overall, I'm not sure how I like the Swales piece. I first was emphasizing how important it was for Project 3, but then it became clear as we read more in this unit that they didn't have to follow his criteria to a T. I'm with my students that all the different views on discourse communities is confusing, and I'm not sure how useful it is for them to get them all; it might be better to just focus on a few.
     We then talked about discourse communities. I started as I like to do with some pop culture: tv shows (office space from Ch. 4 Intro, The Office, Community, The League)- workplace, study groups, fantasy football leagues. Also fans of tv shows can form a discourse community. Fans of sports teams, fans of a musical group (warped tour/Phish), gaming.  They got these but when I asked for some, they were unwilling to look outside their own lives for examples. I think my group lacks imagination. I'm also having trouble getting them to go outside of their own lives for a Project 3 DC. I keep telling them how rich the Athens community is, but I think it falls on deaf ears. Then we talked about Glenn briefly, focusing on the two different DCs (factory farm industry and PETA/animal rights groups) and how language is used in both (Doublespeak).

Wednesday: Gee discussion. We began with a free write asking them to identify some DCs or Discourses they are a part of or that play a part in their lives. I used these responses as guidance for their project 3 (I collected them and commented on them). Some of them were interesting (one student belongs to some fashion club here at OU), others were repetitive (sororities), or boring (sports team). Again I try to steer them to investigate one by going through The Post together and seeing how many Discourse Communities we can identify. The next activity we did was the most successful of the week (maybe the class): I had students come up and write what they think are the key terms of the Gee piece on the blackboard. The usual suspects were up and willing and the rest had to be called on. I think the physical act of getting up did wonders. I can't explain why it worked so well, but it got them moving, battled "The Fog" that surrounds them. They didn't do the best defining these terms, but there were a lot of them, and they attempted to define them, which I think is also important. There were a lot of wrong answers this week, but I appreciated the attempt. I think the students are very comfortable with each other after Project 2, and so they aren't afraid to be wrong in front of each other. But of course I want them to answer correctly, so I give them some time to flip through the article to refresh their memories. Ultimately, we didn't get through the Gee discussion; they got stuck on "metaknowledge". Because we have to write our lesson plans now, I write extensive plans. I include probably too much stuff because my class goes pretty fast through things and sometimes things don't work out the way I plan. This was the first time we had to continue a discussion into the next class period.

Friday: The. Kids. Were. Rowdy. Today. It also didn't help that I brought in candy today (their Halloween is Saturday, not the 31st). As soon as I began to write their homework on the board, I was greeted with so many moans! I told them that I'm SURE their other classes assigned homework and that I had EXTENDED the due date to Monday, so if they didn't want to work on it over the weekend, they should have turned it in on Friday. One group did turn it in "early" today. I guess now is the time they start negotiating the readings? Too bad. We only meet 3 times a week, not everyday like my freshman comp. class. They also asked why I never cancel class, which was met with a .................... reaction from me. I also don't have any sympathy for that because I am never absent from my classes; I value every class period.
      The free write I had them do asked them to think about their personal identities or Discourses, showing Gee's example ("being an American or Russian, a man or a woman..."). Then they were to identify them as primary or secondary and dominant or non dominant. This was also my chance to explain that Gee doesn't categorize Primary Discourses as dominant/nondominant but that he does believe that some pDiscourses yield power. Then we transitioned into discussing how Alan's Discourses affected his enculturation. I thought Alan was the easiest approach to the Wardle piece. The offering of candy helped with some of the participation, but it was still the usual suspects. Then in 3 groups they each took on engagement, imagination, or alignment and discuss what Alan did wrong and what he should have done. They all though Alan should have tried to negotiate rather than retain his identity. I didn't get to show the My Fair Lady clips, which I really wanted; I'm not sure it was essential, anyway. The last 10 minutes I brought in a hat with some terms from this unit (primary Discourse, Discourse, enculturation, etc.) and they had to identify both the author and define the term or give examples. They would get candy for answering. When I was choosing terms, I thought that it would be too easy, but they actually didn't do well at all with this (even stuff we had just talked about!) I'm not sure how to deal with their apparent inability to retain information. I get that some of this stuff might overlap and be confusing, but they can't even remember what non dominant Discourses are or that they come from the Gee reading? They do synthesis for every reading response!

Next week will apparently entail combating complaints against "boring" readings that are "too long." According to their reading responses, they already thought the Devitt et al. reading was too long, so they'll hate the Malinowitz reading. I also found the Devitt reading very helpful in terms of clarifying some things for Project 3, but they disagree that it was useful or interesting.