Yesterday’s class followed a similar format to last week’s class. I really liked the in-class writing exercise at the beginning. It was straight-forward, low stakes writing, but was able to draw attention to Alexie’s hook without being overt. The students seemed to enjoy it, and I like that it was a formulaic easy approach to on the spot writing exercises.
For everyone’s viewing pleasure, I stumbled across a reading of South By Southwest wherein Salmon Boy is played by Mr. Potato Head.
I’ve really been curious about the use of visual art and abstraction as a window for discussing the story. The students seem to respond enthusiastically, and are willing to expand the way they talk about craft through this medium. This week’s art was excellent! There were stretching beyond literal interpretations, made some great selections and were able to explain their selections in detail. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s too much time with the 111 students, but this seems like an exceptional group of students. They each seem to bring something unique to the classroom, and are really engaging with the texts. While not every assigned reading resonates with each student they’re reading very closely, which is of tremendous benefit in discussion.
One thing I am struggling with in my own class is leading a discussion. It’s challenging to no longer just fill a participatory role as a student, but to be responsible for what path the discussion takes. I am by nature not a lecturer, but if I let the students take the lead the class is often quick to jump to binary thinking. Meaning they are able to assess whether they think a piece of writing is “good” or not. Things are less grey, and to encourage this close reading without hand-holding is a delicate process. I’ve already gained a lot in watching how David organizes discussion, and in watching him find an angle or “in” that is of interest to them.
One question I have is about the first workshop this week. I am wondering about our role as group facilitators in workshop specifically. Should I be providing handwritten feedback for the students being work shopped? Should I just be doing this for all students in the class? Or perhaps not at all? Or just my group? I am all for the idea behind having multiple perspectives when evaluating a work, but I am just wondering about the weight of our words as graduate students in an undergraduate classroom. I don’t want my impression or feedback to be deemed of greater merit because I’m in a pseudo authoritative role in the classroom. I also have told my group I have no stake in the grading process; I just think it’s a unique situation and am unsure of what my role is in this regard. I’d be happy to look over the writing and am eager to see what they are writing about, but I’m a bit unsure how to proceed. Sarah Jane and Ryan what are your thoughts? I guess part of this is that one of the students in my group has already eagerly emailed me her writing assignments, but they were not sent to the group, so she obviously wants my feedback and I’m holding back for now. Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying the heat wave!
Jennifer
I think that providing feedback for your group is definitely appropriate. I understand some of the concerns you have with some additional weight being placed on your words, but I think that is a really good thing, in that you can use a direct communication between yourself and the author as a way of teaching some tips you have gathered through your experience as a writer. Also, considering that David provides feedback to the students as well, it's not as if the students are working with a level playing field of equally authoritative voices. I think that more voices involved in the critique process is better.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I am keeping in mind, however, is the degree and kind of comments I leave on their work. I think that making suggestions that are very particular (X should be changed to Y, because I said so) is not really appropriate, because it would be an abuse of that authoritative voice - rather, voicing your criticisms as tips might work a little bit better (You may want to avoid using X in excess, as it can sometimes detract from Y). But then again, I could be wrong.
On the issue of discussion, I have been wondering a tad about our role in the class discussion. I, for one, am feeling that my comments sometimes feel a little strange and tacked-on to the conversation. I know that David was kind of transparent about the staged-ness of it all (saying something along the lines of "hopefully it won't have be so formal in the future" meaning he won't have to ask us for our opinions), but I can't help but feel like my comments fall in a strange area.
I think that part of the issue is the way that I am phrasing those comments/moments of dialogue. I think for me it feels like I am somewhere between student and instructor in those moments because I am generally just voicing an opinion on the story itself. A teaching role, in general, I tend to associate with asking questions. I know that in my own 111 class I primarily run discussion through asking questions, and I think that is the way David runs these 371 discussions. So perhaps we need to rethink the way that we are speaking in the classroom and gravitate towards questioning as opposed to stating.
Any thoughts?
Hey, All! Sorry to be joining this conversation a little late. I actually asked David about responding to student stories and in-class comments after class last week. This is his wisdom (if I remember correctly): a) comment on student papers as you would for a workshop (but yes, I think you both bring up a good point that it's good to be aware of the potential weight our comments may have and respond accordingly) 2) he thought it was good for us to hold off a little on the discussions re: the published stories, because that allowed students to make discoveries for themselves and d) for workshop conversations, we should feel free to comment and contribute as we feel led, because he thinks sometimes it helps the quality of discussion.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of leaning towards asking questions in discussion (which I also tend to associate with the teaching/facilitating role), but feel there may be room for sharing insight, as well. Perhaps saying (for example), "This is what I see . . . What do others think/see?" Ahh, always looking for the balance. :)
Also: Free candy bar of your choice to the person who correctly identifies the early '90s movie reference embedded in this response.