Tue. March, 9, 2010

We watched "The Listening Project." Kudos to Josh! This movie is an excellent visual supplement to Said, Pratt, and Anzaldua. One student had to leave early, but on his way out he told me he was sorry to leave because he was enjoying the film. After watching half the film, I opened up the discussion. Listening to responses, I could tell the film had a profound impact on everyone's world paradigm due to the thoughtful and insightful perspectives. We didn't have time to finish the film nor our discussion, but we'll do so on Thursday.

Additionally, I handed back 2.1. Reading and commenting on these took a significant amount of time since I sought to offer substantial feedback. I think I put more time into commenting on this piece than any other project in both 107 classes. Many students engaged the prompt and topic from a challenging perspective, grappling with their community, its purpose and message, and how it conveys its sense of identity to others. One student stayed after class and told me this project really offered her a chance to ask herself why she is doing what she is doing. I prefer not to go into details, but she found that although she doesn't question her community's purpose, she sometimes questions the "why" behind it. Needless to say, my heart was gladdened that a project caused my student to significantly question why she was making specific choices. In the end, she found renewed commitment to her choice and community.

Back to the paper... For other students, I wonder how effective my comments will be? This is the last paper--I'm hoping they feel motivated to take my comments and work with them. I ended class ten minutes early and told them to read the comments and if they had any questions, to stay behind so we could talk. Only three students stayed. I was hoping more would stay to discuss where they are. I know it's their grade and life, but I want to motivate them--this will be a question I have for Sunny and Brenda--how to motivate non-English major students to want to improve their writing? I put a lot of time and effort into thinking about and implementing motivational moves in my pedagogy, but feedback from those who have done it for years will be helpful