Well, what to address in this article. My first thought took me to a student project for Black Boy by Richard Wright. My student drew a political cartoon which was likely one of the most effective pieces I had seen in years. His drawing astutely captured the essence of problems in our country. The old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words" held true with this particular piece. There was no need for a caption nor for explanation other than the visual presented to the class. I thought of this as a good jump off point into the discussion of multimodal and multimedia presentations of work in composition classes.
If we view the effectiveness of the piece regardless of the presence of traditional writing, then we should not have to over-analyze the need for new assessments: essentially the assessments remain the same. Is the student demonstrating effective critical thinking skills and the ability to convey these ideas in a coherent and effective manner? Are the themes apparent? Is there a particular tone and mood demonstrated? These are questions that we have been posing for film, and there is no reason to get too worked up in using other forms of media to accompany writing. We can assess just as well and walk away knowing that our students applied skills learned in class.
I think of other projects where have assigned written work with visuals in order to enhance the points that the students needed to make. I am always amazed at the effectiveness of this technology. I don't get too worked up over the simple substitutions that students do thinking that they are enhancing their point and their writing; however, this does allow for a great opportunity to discuss the reasoning for using different types of media to enhance the writing. Additionally, we can assign projects where the visual is the primary, and a written work is used to rationalize the choice of the media used in class.
This article did get to me a bit, because I really do get tired of the need to theorize the practical seemingly common-sense application of pedagogy and assessment. This in no way makes me the perfect teacher, because I am sure that the research and theory has its place, but too much is just too much at times.
I did appreciate the sample projects and the evaluations. These gave me some ideas on how I can clearly delineate my expectations to my class. At the same time, I felt that I had to be an art critic half the time in attempting to evaluate some of this material.
I also appreciate the argument or point brought up relating to deciding who would teach this material. So far, my students seem to find the material on their own and appropriately apply the it. I just need to be more savvy about this high tech stuff. Should the ed. tech. classes teach this? Should the mass media or film studies class teach this? It seems that we can do a pretty good job addressing this type of composition so long as we recognize critical thinking and practical application skills combined with organizational and rhetorical skills.
All in all, as with many of the articles we have read for class, this one has given me good food for thought.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Pen
Okay, so where do I begin. I like what the Lawver girl did, and has been doing. Her activities and the subsequent activities and involvement of Harry Potter Readers from all over the world are inspiring and give educators another view into how we might approach the teaching of writing and literature and the application of literary elements and writing to other-than-school activities.
I don't think that our appropriation of this approach would be a bad thing, but simply another way to reach our students. I did get a kick out the author mentioning appropriation of Harry Potter in the Hogwarts Newsletter. Appropriation is such an natural act. Good stuff.
One lesson that we learn from Warner Bros. is that if we stand and fight for what we believe, then we can succeed. Who would want to fight that public relations battle?
So, intellectual property rights. Difficult to deal with. Original ideas? I am not sure. Most every author is influenced by another. How can he/she not be? If media is a business, then you can't argue with the attempt to block others from ruining your company's reputation or profiting from your work. However, the question arises, won't this stifle creativity and the possibility for new and innovative material? Hmmm....
The controversy with values and fundamentalist christian views of Harry Potter really intrigues me. As the grandson of two preachers, and the nephew of many down home hell fire and brimstone Christians, I can safely say that Christianity lends itself to intolerable intolerance of other beliefs and religions and of movements they deem a threat to their religion. This obviously can be easily refuted. However, I am not impressed with the arguments to ban Harry Potter, or any other literature of the like.
It seems that when it all comes down to it, media tends to be considered a vehicle for commercialism as well as a purveyor of cultural values. The question of when a child becomes an active participant and member of a particular culture got me to thinking. It seems that if a child makes connection upon connection and can think critically enough to form a coherent and relevant thought that applies to his or her view of the world, then he or she can certainly be said to become an active participant. I love the idea that a child reads and then looks at his world and says something about the two. My son, who is 12, says things about his books and our world all the time. That active participation doesn't necessarily begin when something is done, but can easily begin with at thought or a word.
I enjoyed the presentation in this article, because in the end, it affirms what I like to attempt in my class in relation to connection to literature and writing and the world, and it gives me some great ideas to attempt in the future. By the way, the writing prompt today for my PEOPLE class was to write a comparative paragraph addressing in-school writing and out-of-school writing. I wonder how they would have responded to this article...
I don't think that our appropriation of this approach would be a bad thing, but simply another way to reach our students. I did get a kick out the author mentioning appropriation of Harry Potter in the Hogwarts Newsletter. Appropriation is such an natural act. Good stuff.
One lesson that we learn from Warner Bros. is that if we stand and fight for what we believe, then we can succeed. Who would want to fight that public relations battle?
So, intellectual property rights. Difficult to deal with. Original ideas? I am not sure. Most every author is influenced by another. How can he/she not be? If media is a business, then you can't argue with the attempt to block others from ruining your company's reputation or profiting from your work. However, the question arises, won't this stifle creativity and the possibility for new and innovative material? Hmmm....
The controversy with values and fundamentalist christian views of Harry Potter really intrigues me. As the grandson of two preachers, and the nephew of many down home hell fire and brimstone Christians, I can safely say that Christianity lends itself to intolerable intolerance of other beliefs and religions and of movements they deem a threat to their religion. This obviously can be easily refuted. However, I am not impressed with the arguments to ban Harry Potter, or any other literature of the like.
It seems that when it all comes down to it, media tends to be considered a vehicle for commercialism as well as a purveyor of cultural values. The question of when a child becomes an active participant and member of a particular culture got me to thinking. It seems that if a child makes connection upon connection and can think critically enough to form a coherent and relevant thought that applies to his or her view of the world, then he or she can certainly be said to become an active participant. I love the idea that a child reads and then looks at his world and says something about the two. My son, who is 12, says things about his books and our world all the time. That active participation doesn't necessarily begin when something is done, but can easily begin with at thought or a word.
I enjoyed the presentation in this article, because in the end, it affirms what I like to attempt in my class in relation to connection to literature and writing and the world, and it gives me some great ideas to attempt in the future. By the way, the writing prompt today for my PEOPLE class was to write a comparative paragraph addressing in-school writing and out-of-school writing. I wonder how they would have responded to this article...
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