The idea of using another person's writing as a model reminded me of a part in Finding Forrester when Forrester gives Jamal a piece that he wrote and tells him to copy it until his own words come.
"Indeed this is what individualized learning through transactional co-construction of strategies means--constructing learning in personally meaningful terms through shared transactions with texts, with other writers, and with teachers."
The idea that we can combat over-crowded classrooms with small learning communities that have the power to tailor learning to individual students through strategies and socializing seems like it has powerful implications, however I think it assumes learner motivation and autonomy.
I like the distinction between strategies and formulas because it reminds us that learning is a personal journey, that there's no microwavable option when showing students how to write, maybe more importantly how to think critically.
When students begin use the textbook source of authority and fail to recognize that it has drawn on primary sources material-- that is often contested-- then as the Wiggins and Mc Tighe (2005) state, we may be failing to promote a culture of ideas in the class: "Most textbooks present students with highly simplified view of reality and practically no insight into the methods by which the information has been gathered and the facts distilled. Moveover, textbooks seldom communicate to the students the richness and excitement of the original works." (p. 230)
Wiggins and Mc Tighe claim learning is more effective when we learn through experience. Often Language arts classrooms are occupied with reading and writing (of course necessary!) but what can drama accomplish in the classroom? How can we create experiences using the imaginations our students bring to the classroom to create meaningful entries books and history. Dorothy Heathcote, a renowned drama educator in the UK, using role playing a means to teach students through experiences. As you watch this video it's interesting to see how Heathcote becomes the manager of shoe factory and as well as the teacher of the class. She politely demands that her students use their imagination to go with her into the shoe factory, and learn (mistakes included) as they watch their teacher and peers.
So I was thumbing through Charles Bressler's Literary Criticism (second Edition), a text I used in college for a course on literary criticism, and I found these useful questions he preposes to help us understand how to read a text from a postcolonial perspective:
1) What happens in the text when two cultures clash, when one sees itself as superior to another?
2) Describe the two or more cultures exhibited in the text. What does each value? What does each reject?
3) Who in the text is "the Other"
4) What are the worldviews of each of the cultures?
5) What are the forms of resistance against colonial control?
6) How does the superior or privileged culture's hegemony affect the colonized culture?
7) How do the colonized people view themselves? Is there any changes in this view by the end of the text?
8) What are the characteristics of the language of the two cultures? How are they alike? Different?
9) Is the language of the dominant culture used a form of oppression? Suppression?
10) In what ways is the colonized culture silenced?
11) Are there any emergent forms of postcolonial identity after the departure of the colonizers?
12) How do gender, race, or social class function in the colonial and postcolonial elements of the text?
As a teacher I could imagine myself defaulting to these questions to keep me in focused on a postcolonial interpretation, or using these questions as a scaffold for students to help gain deeper understanding of a text as they unwrap its postcolonial elements.
I also wanted to share a documentary I found on Youtube about Orientalism, a strand of postcolonial thought. It's long but it's really worth the invest in time as it presents some interesting ideas of American perception of the Middle East. Said makes the case that often American's perception of the Middle East are monolithic and informed by media and political agendas, so we're not able to have an informed understanding of the diversity of humanity in places like the Gaza strip. Said shows that perceptions and prejudices towards the Other, in this case Arabs, are not historical attitudes found only in colonial literature, but are real perspectives in contemporary American and Western society. If we can show our students how our perceptions influences our attitudes and worldviews, we can not only help them find different voices within a text, but we can assist them in evaluating their hidden prejudices about a text and about life.
Orientalism: the creation of non-European stereotypes that suggested so-called Orientals were indolent, thoughtless, sexually immoral, unreliable and demented.
"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday." Albert Camus, The stranger (1942) The opening lines of The stranger set the pessimistic tone of the novel, a dark and emotionless world, void of feeling and human connection; the meaninglessness of human existence.
In Suzanne Vega's song Tom's Diner, a similar disconnection is felt through in the song. Watching the video, we can see Vega as an observer of life, watching people and things happen while not "connected" in any meaningful way. I hear echos of Meursault pessimistic view of life: "it doesn't mean anything"
Although there is much to be said about Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times I want to focus specifically on the distant and inhuman connection between actors in the factory scene, as commentary on the mechanistic approach work-place relationships have taken in modern society.
One of the major themes explored in 20th century art is the issue of human connection or disconnection. This post attempted to demonstrate a transfer of knowledge around the theme of disconnection from one piece of art to another. Because often times art influences art, students can and should be able to see how a theme presented in a piece of art is also represented in another and should be able to gain deeper insights into what that artist added to the conversation about a particular topic.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
"A reader makes a poem as he reads. He does not see an unalterable meaning that lies within the text. He creates meaning from the confrontation." (p.39)
How do we understand the role of authorial intent from the perspective reader-response theory? It seems that some texts are inextricably linked to the historical context in which it as written, as such, how much credence should we give to the social context of the text?
Also, one of the most unique aspects of the study of literature is its ability to introduce us to the personality of history; instead of dry facts we give stories, fiction and non-fiction, that give insight to the human experience that is often lost in dry history books. How does a reader-response theorist justify not giving students access to history contained within a text? Or how would we incorporate implementing history into a reader-response discussion?
How would a reader-response theorist view assessment? If there are an infinite number of readings of a text, how do we assess each reading? It seems we position ourselves to evaluate the quality of the reading as opposed to the substance. What are the demarcations of a quality reading from a reader-reponse perspective?
"The aim of many progressive educators is to use literature as a vehicle for self-exploration and expression." (p.6)
When children begin to learn about their world, do they use books? Why have books been given a privileged place in the institution as a means for discovery?
"It is at [his] intersection of text and social context that the explicit study of contemporary literary theory can help adolescent readers make meaning of the text" (p.7)
It seems that contemporary literary theory wishes to withdraw the "funds of knowledge" students bring to the text as a means to understand the text. Every experience the student has is valuable for understanding their reality and also the writer's reality. Once that bridge is crossed, teachers can show how textual analysis, say Marxism, can be used to understand a text; moreover, students can decode their reality, with the tools we've given them, from a Marxist's view; thus, cultivating cultural change or a deep-seated distrust for all things bourgeois.
So by removing a privileged interpretation of the text from the center of the reading and replacing it with adolescent experiences:
we arrive at a place where the lions can tell their story, right?
and hopefully give us a deeper understanding of the world our students live in.
