September 2, 2015 - 15:37
I. welcome back! our avatars are oblique/evocative “representations” of ourselves, not what you will see in the class photos on BiONic, for example, and worth exploring for a few minutes, so...
Go ‘round and play “picture bingo”—identify your classmates by their avatars...what are you learning about them thereby? take a moment to get (@ least some! of) the stories behind the pictures
what did you learn? any surprises? was everyone recognizable? (needing back stories, more explanations?)
look over the images as a group: What sorts of pictures have we used? photographs of selves? “whole”/partial? environments? relation between organism and environment? How “ecological”? How much “connection”? how we see ourselves in the world?
coursekeeping:
checking in re: setting up your Serendip accounts--how'd it go? has everyone signed up/in? post?
Schedule writing conferences
II. weekend plans: 3-pp. writing assignment due by 5 p.m. every Friday; tomorrow (realize that time is short; in the future, we will always talk through, on Tuesdays, the writing that is due on Friday.
But this time 24, just to get you writing, and to get your writing "out there."
Post this paper (or "web event") exactly the same way that you posted your introduction last night:
log in to our on-line conversation, scroll down to "create something!" and "post." If you have created it in Word, post it by using the "W" icon; formatting.
Serendip on web, readable to all; may also choose "private" option (pull-down menu before text box).
not the default; our preference is for you to post so that all can read; and/but we also recognize
that, in a course on identity, there may be some postings that you prefer to keep "private"
(everyone in our group, but no one outside it, can read what you have written).
Also send a copy of it as a word document to jccohen...respond not just to your ideas, but also to the way you are writing...
Bc first essay in response to June Jordan, talk about the details of that project at end of class –
Two other pieces of homework before Tuesday:
1) By 5 p.m. on Monday, posting, describing a "contact" you've had with someone "other" than yourself.
Just a paragraph, a very short story, describing the encounter: how were you different, what happened
2) By classtime on Tuesday, read Mary Louise Pratt's 1991 essay, Arts of the Contact Zone.
--and also watch with two short videos (that we offer as examples of what she is talking about).
Attenborough: the amazing lyrebird sings like a chainsaw!
Israeli attacks on Palestinean olive trees
Pratt's essay is 3x as long as Jordan's, and more than 3x as complicated: family stories, 17th century manuscript written in 2 languages by an unknown man, living in Peru; addressed to King Philip Ill of Spain, but never delivered, and discovered by a scholar, 350 years later.
The point of this story? So: prepare for class on Tuesday: read the text slowly, mark passages that puzzle or engage you; come to class w/ the one passage marked that has the most "heat/energy" for you--
agree with, want to argue with, need help understanding, and mark another passage (or write a sentence of your own) that seems to summarize Pratt's argument.
summary of what you need to do (for us) this weekend:
post and e-mail your prof a 3-pp. paper, by 5 p.m. tomorrow;
post 1-paragraph describing an experience of "contact," by 5 p.m. on Monday;
read Pratt's essay, marking both a point of "energy," and what the argument is, by classtime on Tuesday.
III. June Jordan's "Report from the Bahamas, 1982":
let's enter first on the story level: engaging? Puzzling? How fits/not your experiences?
Now go around: passage stating Jordan's argument?
Discuss: where/how/why do our claims about the claim diverge?
IV. (by 12:40): your writing assignment, due by 5 p.m. tomorrow:
3 pp. reflecting on your identity, and its relationship to others'. Think about Jordan's description of the surprising connections and disconnections amongst us, about where self ends and others begin.
Begin your essay with a quote from Jordan: find a passage that has "heat" or "energy" for you--that is evocative, resonant, or challenging in terms of your own feelings about your identity, in relationship with others.
After that, you can use whatever form you want for this paper: personal meditation, a dialogue with Jordan,
a response to something that someone said in class today; more formal essay, citing other readings…
But start with a quote from her. AND BE CONSCIOUS THAT, LIKE HER, you are using a STORY TO CONSTRUCT AN ARGUMENT (might be helpful to underline your thesis?)
By 5 p.m. tomorrow: log on to Serendip, go to our course forum, upload your
essay the same way you posted your introduction last night--
with one additional bit of instruction: tag this essay "web paper or special event"
(this will help Serendip assemble your portfolio, separate out
your short postings from these longer ones...)
And then send a copy to me. Have fun!