Literary Kinds

skindeep, rachelr and I decided to do our final presentation on moving from labels to framing. At the start of this class we spent a considerable amount of time discussing labels. Then we related labeling to genres and after long discussions on genre we have landed on discussing framing.

In class, we handed out a piece of paper to each member of the classroom and asked them to put down a word that either they label themselves with or a label that they have been labeled with. Then, everyone held up their label. Using our hands, all of us created frames and looked at others holding up labels.

 For our final performance, aybala50, skindeep, and I wanted to talk about two overarching themes of the class- labeling (or genres) and framing. First we gave everyone a strip of paper and had them write a word on it that they had been labeled with or would label themselves with. We then had the class hold up their labels at the same time and to look around at everyone else's labels. We wanted the class to discuss how seeing these labels affected how they now saw each other, but there was little participation. We then asked half the class to hold up their labels while the other half made blinders with their hands so that they had a limited view of the class.

For our project, sweetp and I made a presentation on our evolution in this class as it pertains to technology.  We made a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the differences between our approaches to computers and the internet, adding humorous pictures to our slides to make them visually engaging.  Sweetp talked about being a technophobe in a class where much of the assigned work was done on the internet and how she has learned to use the internet much more usefully and efficiently since the beginning of the semester.  I focused more on how this class helped me to focus on the reasons why I liked the internet and spent so much of my time on it.

Play House Bingo while reading our script!

From: http://users.livejournal.com/_thickasabrick/3867.html

Here is the script for our performance today of House M.D.

Below is the script for our (teal, rmeyers and sgb90) final performance entitled "The Genre Monkey." Again, this was only possible because of all of you and all your wonderful posts! If we can create a dialogue out of a collage of posts from this class, imagine what we can do with the dialogue taking place across the globe. It's been great having class with all of you! Best of luck and have a wonderful summer.

The Genre Monkey: A Collective Dialogue in 3 Acts

ACT I

 the conversation yesterday got me thinking about how the format of the t.v. show "House M.D." is really made to make the viewer feel as if they are in House's head. Now that I reflect on it, my watching experience of the show had me believing that I was with House for the 45 minute span of the show. Part of that sense was created by the camera never zooming out to take in the expanse of characters and places in the show. The show features House's viewing perspective.

As was (I think) suggested in class today, I watched the last episode of Season 5 of House ("Both Sides Now"), in which House overdoses on Vicodin, hallucinates most of the episode's events, and is finally checked into a psychiatric hospital, and moved on to the first episode of Season 6 ("Broken"), which follows House's adventures in detox and then in the long-term psychiatric ward.

 This may seem completely random, but looking back at the amount of time I've spent on Serendip, both reading other people's posts and blogging myself, I really wish there was some version of a "like" button on posts. Sure, maybe that's an indication that I spend far too much time on Facebook, and it could cut down on comments. But for the rest of us who want to acknowledge what a user has to say, but don't want to repeat what other commenters have written, have a "like"button would be a really useful tool. Also, the poster themselves could get much more feedback, because they know that what they wrote is actually being read.

Maybe something to think about in the future?