We felt that our theory presentation on Marxism went well and that the class learned and comprehended the main points we were trying to teach. We began with a class discussion that focused on what the class already knew, or what they thought they knew, about Marxism. We thought that this would be a good idea because it would help generate ideas from the class and get the students thinking about the topic. Getting the students to talk about what they knew started off a little slow at first. However, when students did speak up, their ideas generally focused around political ideas and communism.
After, we presented a PowerPoint presentation that included information from the book, along with YouTube videos that we thought would help the class understand the concepts and ideas that we were focusing on. The PowerPoint, especially the YouTube videos, really seemed to help the class get a better hold on what Marxism. The clips from Aladdin really seemed to resonate well with people. After the PowerPoint, many students pointed out various concepts of Marxism that they saw within the movie. Some of these ideas included: “the power struggle and that the upper class/ ruling class held the most power”, “no mix between classes”, “potential idea of marriage as a possible economic institution”, “Aladdin had no power because he was a “street rat”. Idea goes back to what class you were born in”. These ideas proved to us, as a group, that the students seemed to be understanding the basic ideas of Marxism.
Following this exercise, Lauren did a read aloud from the popular series, “Gossip Girls”. This seemed to help students a lot because many students could easily comprehend the difference between classes and what specific views and actions separated the members of each class. Some ideas that students expressed were:
§ Consumerism and Capitalism
· Blair does not want to be part of anything but the upper class
§ Labels- associated with the upper class
§ Blair separates herself from people in her own class- depending on where your money comes from and how you spend your money also matters.
After this read aloud, we divided the class into small groups, each focusing on one group and one idea: i.e. some of us brought videos, others comics, read alouds, and advertisements. Each group member’s recollection and evaluation of their group time is talked about below.
After groups discussion we came back together as a class just to regroup and review the main points discussed.
The things that we felt worked best in our presentation were the videos and modern examples of Marxism. These examples seemed to help students better relate to the concept, even if they really had no introduction to it before.
The things that we would have done differently would have been to have a few introduction points to help students “get the ball rolling” at the beginning of class so the discussion did not start off as slowly.
After reading through the four quick writes I collected from the members of the small group discussion I led, there are a few things that became apparent to me about how our presentation went, what we could have done differently, and what concepts stuck with our classmates.
ReplyDeleteThe responses in my quick writes all focused on how there was a separation of classes and strong sense of commercialism in the reading. A few examples:
"Blair clearly views herself as of a higher status than the other girls..."
"The tour girl is one of the middle class who may be eager to achieve a bourgeoise status"
"This text was critiquing and reinforcing a classist agenda..."
The class as a whole seemed to grasp the concept of class separation and how it operated in the text, which was definitely what was singled out in our reading selection. I thought that our large group discussion on the reading further demonstrated the class' understanding of class separation and the existence of ruling class power. I felt that by having the class write about their ideas before discussing them allowed the develop their own understanding of the concepts, which can be effective for future teaching.
In my small group, I used The Big Lebowski as my literature sample. Unfortunately, only two of the four had seen the movie before, and it was pretty hard to hear the trailer in the classroom, So I would definitely plan ahead next time to make sure everyone could hear or understand the movie.
I felt that examining the movie critically from a Marxist perspective would reinforce the connection between economic and social power. What I found out from my group was that they all felt they understood Marxist concepts, but were unsure of how to critique literature using them. I think that an important concept we may have missed in our larger discussions is the fact that the Marxist critique is not necessarily using the text to support a marxist agenda, but rather utilizing the concepts that framed Marx's theory to examine how a text is functioning. I believe Valerie said that it was discovering how a text appeals to someone under the framing of those concepts.
All in all I felt like our presentation was successful. We had great support from the class as well as what I felt was a good plan for how we wanted our lesson to go.
I really felt our presentation was successful, however I think the class may have benefited by being exposed to more examples of marxism within text. Perhaps even making a worksheet with a small quiz or prompt would have been helpful too.
ReplyDeleteThe class seemed to have connected the concepts well through their responses in their quick writes. The specific papers I read through generated opinions of the relation between the text and Marxist theory. A couple of quotes from some of my quick writes:
"The close attention Blair paid to the brands and styles of student's clothing also hinted at the consumer-focused, capitalist society of America."
"The text really reflects the difference in classes and how the upper class is very happy with the way it is."
"The Bourgeois looks down on the proletariat and Blair is in this cycle."
My small group analyzed an ad featuring two models posing as celebrities on a red carpet. The ad was trying to sell a perfume called "Very Hollywood" by Michael Kors. My group understood the concepts of Marxism and was able to relate and critique the advertisement. They were quick to recognize the celebrity role within society and it's similarities to a monarch or idolized class. Also, the group connected the perfume and its name to being a status that the rest of the population aspires for.
I think the overall presentation was successful in creating a group/community atmosphere and teaching the corners of Marxism. Next time, a couple more examples and perhaps a comprehension quiz would have made the experience more beneficial.
While reading through the quick writes I received from my small group it is evident that the class picked up on the concepts of Marxism. A few examples of what the talked about in their quick writes was:
ReplyDeleteThe difference between North and South money and which one holds more sway
The emphasis on designer names and what that means in the world of the rich and
Middle class suburban girls trying to "court" those with more money and power.
In the class discussion we had following the read aloud the class seemed to really get into discussing what about the book was Marxism and what wasn't. They seemed to pick up on the ideas of class separatism really well and that capitalism controls a lot of things.
In my small group discussion we talked about another part of the read aloud where a character is described in great detail and talks about why he doesn't want to leave New York and everything he has there. It was very clear that he was rich and could have whatever he wanted, just didn't want to be inconvenienced by anything. Everyone was quick to point out that he was obviously very used to living the rich lifestyle and really didn't have any worries besides maybe having to redo his new apartment. It was also made clear who held the power and why exactly they held the power.
Overall I think our group did a good job explaining Marxism. The class probably would have benefited from a few more modern examples and maybe a break down of how someone would critically analyze a text from a Marxist critic view, but it went well for the material we provided the class.
After reading through the quickwrites that my small group did, I feel that they were really able to capture the main ideas that we had presented on earlier in the class. Many were able to pull out good, key examples from the "Gossip Girl" read aloud such as, Blair wanting to only belong to the upper class and the very blatant idea of separation of classes.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading how they were able to pull out real life examples and how they feel they would react. They said that while they feel they would not change, the reality in today's society is that many people aspire to be part of the upper class, while those in the upper class fully enjoy the status and power they have. These are some good, strong ideas of Marxism.
I printed out a few comics that related back to Marxism- one dealing with the idea of "Big Money" taking away from the lower class and holding enough power to not give back, and the other with the idea of the "American Dream". The students in my group were able to connect many themes that we had talked about earlier back to these comics. Also, they talked about if these comics painted a realistic picture of today's society.- many said that they did.
If I could have done my small group again, I may have brought a small read aloud as well because towards the end I felt students ran out of things to talk about. However, I was glad to see that they had absorbed the information we had presented earlier, and that the comics I chose were good examples of Marxism.
During the group discussion I led the group made many valid associations about Marxism. Specifically, they made strong connections between Marxism, economics, and capitalism. From the texts I gave them they recognized the link between job and social status which is what I was hoping for. The discussion went further in depth about how some jobs are considered good or bad based on importance or how much money a certain job makes. The character in the text was told to become a nuclear physicist, and this lead our discussion to America and power. Then we were talking about America as a ‘social class,’ comparative to other countries. Overall, I think the discussion went well. It contained the core components of Marxism I was hoping to see, and the group members were trying to ‘read’ the ‘text’ through a Marxist lens by following the questions the slide put forth.
ReplyDeleteMy groups quick writes also reflected a good understanding of Marxism. They made connections that the text “established Blair as an upperclass girl through the representation of her lifestyle, like in hotels and with fashion.” Beyond that they also recognized some underlying effects of Marxism, like the “middle class always wanting to be part of the upperclass.”
Overall, I think the presentation went well. I agree with my fellow presenters that if we had more time in class we could of fit in more examples, or a break down of critical analysis. I think it could have been beneficial to show a modern essay that utilizes Marxist criticism.