More Promotion

The Mitten Mavens the Lansing Roller Derby League is having a fundraiser at Noodles and Company on May 5th from 4-9pm. By mentioning the Mitten Mavens 25% of the sale will go to the Mitten Mavens. Please support these women as they do what they love. I know this has nothing to do with YAL but their are many women who fighting for some of the themes we have discussed. These women are figures of women empowerment and breaking gender stereotypes. So please support them soon after our final :)

Amy Huntley visits today

Just a reminder that we'll be meeting in Erickson 252 for class today. Amy Huntley will be talking to us about The Everafter, so bring your books and questions!

Spartan Dischords concert this Friday

Sorry -- this doesn't have much to do with YAL.



On Friday, April 30th, MSU's premiere a cappella group, the Spartan Dischords, won't feed you, but we will put on a damn good show! "Eating Out with the Spartan Dischords" is coming to the Pasant Theatre at the Wharton Center. The concert is a celebration of young people everywhere eating out. So, get some friends, or maybe a date, and head over to Applebee's, and THEN come see the Spartan Dischords at Wharton! The show will, as always, feature some great new music, including songs by Jay-sean, Edwin McCain, Michael Buble, and Jason DeRulo. Along with that comes all the normal Dischordial hilarity!


We know exams start the next week, but seriously, we promise you will not be studying on Friday night! Have some fun with the Dischords, then get up and be productive on Saturday! (or not)


The show starts at 7:30 pm in the Pasant Theatre (inside Wharton) and tickets are on sale NOW. They're only $5 for students, and they include the concert AND the absolutely kickin' after-party. You can't beat that for a Friday night!


Here is the link to the ticket page, you can buy them here or at the Wharton ticket office. On the web page, make sure you change sections by clicking LEFT or RIGHT as the center section is soon to be sold out and it'll make it look like the whole show is sold out.

http://whartoncenter.com/boxoffice/performance.aspx?pid=970


We still have tickets available but this show is very likely to sell out, so please don't count on getting tickets at the door! Get them online or at the Wharton Center box office beforehand!


Get more info about the concert by joining the event on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109923892358647&ref=ss

Graphic Novels with Homosexual Characters

This is mostly for Brandon, but if others are wondering where are the superheroes of the GLBT community I have a suggestion. DC Comics makes a wonderful superhero series called "The Authority." Two of the main superheroes Apollo and Midnighter are openly gay characters who are married to one another. They also raise Jenny Sparks (on and off again), who is another member of the superhero team whose age fluctuates over the course of the series. Might be something worth checking out if you are examining queer theory for your final project.

Bright Ideas Conference - Teaching with Graphic Novels

Hello everyone. I recently worked on a project for the NCTE Bright Ideas Conference about teaching with graphic novels. My co-collaborators were Danielle Peck, a fellow student in the secondary English program who will be interning at Waverly high school next year, and Samara Napolitan who will be working towards a master's degree soon. Together we created a website to encourage the use of graphic novels in the classroom. On the site are pedagogical reasons for teaching graphic novels, some basic vocabulary you would need to teach and discuss this kind of text, as well as three graphic novels from the three different grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school) and how they could connect to the Michigan State Standards. Please feel free to take a look, and if you have any questions or comments send them my way! If you are interested in teaching graphic novels, but need some advice about where to find a particular novel or even just ideas for different novels you can always contact me as well.

www.wix.com/daniellepeck/comics

Final paper/project conferences

I'm going to post my conference schedule for next week to the "Lessons" folder on Angel. If you would like to reserve a time, email me and I'll add you to the schedule. If none of the open slots work for you, email me a couple of other times and we'll work something out.

I'll also have my regular office hours this Friday from 1:00-3:00.

Unless we make special arrangements, all conferences are in my office: Bessey 243.

In the Interest of Self Promotion

Please check out Amy's Wish presented by the Holt Dimondale Community Players. I was the assistant director on this play and I'm very proud on how it turned out. The show opens on April 22 with shows also on April 23, 24, 29, 30 and May 1 all at 7 p.m. at the Holt Junior High. I believe tickets are $10 but I'll edit the post tonight with the confirmed price.

I hope you can make it. I know we are all busy with end of the year semester stuff :)

If you liked Crank...

... you might check out this site that lists other YA novels that are written in verse!

Final project proposals and conferences

Final project proposals (Due on Tuesday, April 20)

Your assignment for Tuesday is to write a 1-page proposal that outlines your plans for your final project/paper. (Particularly if you are doing the project option, I suggest you reread the requirements in the syllabus.) I understand that this will represent where you are now in your thinking and that the project is bound to change as you do the work. I would still encourage you to use this as an oportunity to do a layer of writing/thinking that will contribute to your final piece! 

Here are some suggestions about what you might include:

• Which option will you do? For projects, what form will it take?
• What question will focus your paper/project?
• What theory will you use? (If any.) How does this choice connect to the question/theme described above?
• Which texts will you use or are you considering?
• What type of support or feedback do you want from me or your classmates at this point? What questions do you have?

On Tuesday you'll have a chance to get feedback from others in the class and then I'll collect them and respond by Thursday.

Scheduling an optional conference:

Since I teach two beginning composition courses, my office hours tend to fill up quickly near the end of the semester. I've set aside several large blocks of time in the last couple of weeks of school as extra office hours.

If you think you might want to meet about your final paper between April 26- and our final exam session, I would suggest reserving a time on the schedule that I'll bring to class next Tuesday and Thursday. Bring your schedule/calendar to class! Conferences can either be in person (my preference) or by phone. You can sign up for either 20 or 40 minutes. :-)

Most Challenged Books

Linked below is an article I found on Yahoo News discussing the most challenged books for 2009 released by the ALA. The IM series by Lauren Myracle topped the list and for the obligatory Twilight reference, Twilight took
5th.

`Twilight' series on list of challenged books

Crank Deconstruction

At first when I started reading Crank I was just flying through the book. I was reading at a very surface level in the sense I was just reading the words on the page. I did notice of course that the words were disjointed, that they sometimes formed shapes that seemed to correspond to what was being talked about on that particular page. But I didn't really do much deconstructing of the text and the language beyond that.

I unfortunately missed the Deconstructive Theory presentation, but I'm sure it was wonderful. So I had to do some digging through the chapter to get caught up, and I helped myself out, as it is a pretty hefty complicated theory, with some useful Wikipedia advice. I found the following on Wikipedia: "Deconstruction generally attempts to demonstrate that any text is not a discrete whole but contains several irreconcilable and contradictory meanings; that any text therefore has more than one interpretation; that the text itself links these interpretations inextricably; that the incompatibility of these interpretations is irreducible; and thus that an interpretative reading cannot go beyond a certain point" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction). That made it a bit easier for me. So after doing that I changed the way I read Crank about halfway through. I started reading for these different interpretations that were parts of a whole. This made the reading so much more interesting in ways. For example, on page 195, the chapter called "I slithered down the hall," could be broken down using deconstructive theory. I read the whole thing first as a complete text. I then read just the words on the left hand side of the page. There were gaps that my mind filled in, but really were missing words that made it seem incomplete. The emphasis on the left, the message I got was the story of a girl washing in a shower, her leg infected, and she is angry and sad. If I opened the book just to this page and read, it would be unclear as to whether the angry purple welt she describes is a bruise from being beaten by Adam, an old wound of sorts, or something else (like the tattoo that we know it to be). But the interesting part for me was when I read just the words on the right hand side of the page: "shed...skin...found...Kristina...beneath" (195). Taken in context with the title of the page, it was like a mini poem of a metaphor of a girl to a snake. In context with the story this made the fragmentation of her mind even more profound. She was Bree in Albuquerque, but she takes a shower in Reno, and literally washes that self away with the dust and dirt and everything else.

I continued to read the story in this way, picking apart the different meanings and constructions behind the language. I didn't go so far as to decipher individual words, and what their meaning could be, what we assume their meaning is, and then the other meanings that may linger behind that which add layers to the understanding of the story and the message, but I found this as a really interesting, if not overwhelming at times, way to read a text. I would be intimidated to teach this particular theory to secondary students myself without some further instruction and help getting a handle of the theory, and I would worry that they would find it time-consuming and tedious and horror of all horrors...boring. But I really liked the text, and liked experimenting with the theory.

Crank: How it scared me

I appreciate Crank, I've never taken so much time and thought about how frightening the state of addiction is. At first I thought the story would be hard to follow. The strangely designed prose, I thought, might throw me off and the idea that short, poetic pieces could relay an entire stort wrought with so much pain and tragedy was not something I could immediately grasp. But it became clear the story would be easy to follow and, the book, a quick but greatly impacting book.

The deconstructive theory group's presentation offers a strategy to put the sometimes oddly laid out sentence/stanza structure in perspective. When the words are randomly strewn across the page, or seemingly randomly strewn, I get the feel for a state of chaos. Or, when one word is set apart, the focus becomes greater for that word. If the four lines before it all culminate with one WORD, then obviously that is done to make some sort of point. In other cases comments by separate characters would be paralleled in the writing. Chase's comments and Bree/Kristina's would be placed juxtaposition to show their parallel similarity and inherent differences.

But the thing about this book that I will remember was how hard it hit me. Addiction, it seems worse than solitary confinement in the world's most hardened prisons. The way it can ruin a life without the person even taking a step back, then the clear vision of hind sight only serves as a kick in the ass to remind you of the turmoil you let your life descend into. I really felt a little frightened after reading the book. This was a girl with a cushy life. All that changed were her influences, a summer around the wrong people and a little self-consciousness went a long way in the wrong way.

Crank

I am glad that the Deconstructive Theory group presented before we read this book- I think that it helped me while reading the text and it also helped me to analyze what exactly I was reading.

Before I read the book, I was not sure about how I was going to like it. The cover seemed different and it was not something that I would have gravitated towards if picking my own book. However, I was very impressed at how well the book held my attention and how quickly I read the book.

I really liked how the author not only had crank represent a drug, but crank also seemed to be another character in the novel. For me, this helped to solidify the idea that this drug played a part in almost every area of her life.

Another part of the book that at first I was disappointed in, but later appreciated, was the ending. I was expecting Kristina to have her baby, come clean and represent more of a success story. While some of this was true (she had the baby and had, for now, come clean) it did not seem as if she would remain a drug-free person. Unfortunately, this is normally the case in real life. Many teenagers who use drugs end up in situations such as this and they often battle with this monster for the rest of their lives.

I think that this ending was very appropriate because I think that it teaches students the reality of things- you cannot just start using addicting drugs and quit when you want to. The fact that Chase went off to college and Kristina was home, raising a baby on her own hits home for many high schoolers- they don't want to be the ones sitting at home while their friends are away enjoying college.

I would definitely recommend this book for high school students. I think that it would be something easy for them to relate too and I think that it also teaches them that choices have consequences and they cannot always be fixed easily.

Deconstructing Crank

This is kind of in response to what Steve commented earlier about how the mother of the girl addicted to meth wrote Crank... which is something that I found really interesting. Right away this gave me a lot to think about in terms of deconstructing the text- the fact that we are getting the mother's perspective not only of how the drug is affecting the decisions that her daughter is making, but also of how she views her daughter both on and off the drugs. You can argue through the text how she is attempting to understand both her daughter's plight as a teenager by including small descriptions of how she perceives herself (i.e. "three zits a month", hormonal, etc), and also of her plight as a drug addict, and as a drug-addicted teenager. You could argue that each of these has a separate identity in the book but they are still not mutually exclusive of each other. All of these different things make this book a very interesting read and a good text to deconstruct in my opinion!

Katie Pizarek's response to Crank

"Crank" works well as a young adult novel. It casts the main role to a fifteen year old narrator, named Kristina. Kristina is subjected to many adversaries that some students, while hopefully not the majority, are subjected to. While Kristina turned from the straight A student to the drug addict, many other teens face problems that take them down as well (not necessarily drugs) so they would be able to somewhat relate or assimilate to Kristina and her life. They could read the novel more metaphorically. A possible problem that adults may have with their teenage children reading such a novel as "Crank" could be the rawness that Hopkins used in her writing. Although Hopkins highlights many "lows" that follow the use of drugs, she also adds in some highs that may make such an unhealthy "hobby" appealing. "Crank" does however provide the much needed emphasis on the already known fact of , "you are who you hang out with" for it was Kristina's new friend Adam who introduced the "monster" to her. This being said "Crank" is not only a novel for young adults to read, but also a great one for parents as a reminder to watch who you kids are associating with. "Crank" is also a novel for young adults to read because it deals with the "uncomfortable" discussion of rape. Teenagers need to know that it is so important to get help and go to the authorities if they are ever, god forbid, placed into that situation. Being raped is nothing for anyone to be ashamed of. All in all "Crank" was an extremely powerful book written ingeniously in verse. It highlights on the power that drugs hold over their users by use of their addictive nature. It showcases to teens everywhere (as well as to adults) how very fast drugs can take a person down and keep them there.

Deconstructive Theory Presentation

Hello everyone! Our slides from our PowerPoint Presentation should be on Angel as soon as I figure out how to upload them.

I think our presentation on deconstructive theory went really well, especially considering the theory is one that is difficult to conceptualize. We wanted to make sure the class understood the idea behind ambiguous language and I really think we accomplished that. We also tried to make that part of the lecture entertaining by demonstrating how deconstructing a sentence could be fun. The headlines at the end of the lecture especially drove that point home.

If we could go back and do some things differently, I think we should have handed out a hard copy of our reading so the class could visually follow along and use it as a tool to try deconstructive theory. I didn't realize how helpful having the text physically in front of you was until we did the reading and discovered the class had issues remembering enough to deconstruct.

By the end of the period, though, I think the class had a basic idea of the theory and how to apply it. It was really fun working with the group and then teaching the class about our theory. I'm also glad I was in the deconstructive group because this theory is so interesting and you never know where your interpretations will take you. Please comment with your thoughts ...

Crank Structure

When I first began reading Crank I thought I would be incredibly annoyed by the way the text was shaped on the page. However, once I got into the book I couldn't stop reading it, literally. I found that the text construction gave the book a flow that my mind couldn't break out of, so I just kept reading until I was nearly finished in one sitting. The shapes of the text give each page a different flow and show the reader that certain sentences, words, or phrases should be given more emphasis than another. I chose a few pages as examples of how I interpreted the text.

On page 69 each line is only one word, making a straight vertical line down the page. When I first read this I read it word by word, sounding like I couldn't put a sentence, or even a phrase, together. I think that this depicts Bree's (or you could say Kristina's) feeling while she's on the drug. I just pictured her mind running a hundred miles an hour, her thoughts completely changed from her normal state, and this is what could come out of her mouth. Especially at the end of the page the last four words "you crash real hard" are all double spaced and bold. I found this page a successful way to show the effects of the drug on her mind and body.

Another passage I was interested in was pages 88 and 89. There are five words that are indented to the right, while the rest of the text is indented to the left. I really liked this passage because you could read the five words indented to the right, "coaster car climb drop monster" as its own entity. Through these words you can still get the meaning of the passage, that the drugs make Bree rise then fall and crash like a roller coaster, without reading the whole description. Another example of this that I liked was on pages 326 and 327.

The last passage I want to mention is from pages 405 to 407. This is a perfect example of using the movement of the text to describe the meaning on the page. Pages 405 to 406 demonstrate the rhythm her life used to have before she did drugs, with the words on the page having a pattern of five descending words in a line. Then, on page 407 when she discusses getting high all the words are scattered around the page, showing that she has lost rhythm of her old life before the drugs.

I really enjoyed the different textual patterns throughout the book because the text's meaning could change depending on how you decided to read the words, which changed from page to page.

What were some of your favorite pages?

Past theory events on campus

MOVIE: The tempest (1979)
April 15, 7pm
MSU Main Library: North Conference Room W449
Admission: Free
Sponsored by the English Department and Early Modern Studies
**Postcolonial themes, gender role deconstructions, and a gothic setting are combined in Derek Jarman's unconventional interpretation of Shakespeare's classic.

Pride Week
Pride week is the primary LBGTQ community celebration, planned, implemented and sponsored by the various MSU student LBGTQA organizations. Many of the events listed here are educational, but there's plenty of fun, too!

Sunday April 11: Picnic and Gaymes -- Join us in the Student Services garden from 2-5pm for food (including
vegetarian options) and fun gaymes! Sponors: Spectrum/PRIDE

Monday April 12: Speaker: Patrick McAlvey -- Alliance sponsors an opportunity to learn about ex-gay therapy in Holmes, C106 at 7pm, from a Lansing native who sought help from a counselor at the age of ninteen. Hear about Patrick’s quest after therapy to embrace his sexuality and overcome the horrors or therapy.

Tuesday April 13: Safeschools Seminar -- 4-5:30pm Erickson Hall Room 252. A seminar lead by local high school students and teachers discussingthe role of GSAs in their school environment, along with general GLBTQQIA issues in schools. Sponsored by SafeSchools.

Facepainting and Tie-Dye -- on the Brody lawn, from 5-8pm. Sponsored by LIGHT.

Wednesday April 14: Nervous but Excited -- 7:30pm in the Williams Great Hall (West Circle). Based out of Michigan, Nervous but excited is a self-proclaimed Pleasantly Agressive Folk Duo and MSU is proud to welcome them back for the second time in 3 years! Sponsored by PRIDE.

Thursday April 15: Transforming Theatre -- 3-4:30pm in Room 6 of Student Services. The Transforming Theater Ensemble is a new initiative that combines live performance and audience participation to foster dialogue around topics that involve diversity and inclusion in the workplace, classroom, and residence halls. Sponsored by TransAction, RING, and the LGBTRC.

Friday April 16: Day of Silence -- Recognizing those in the community that are silenced.

Poet: StaceyAnn Chin -- 6pm Fairchild Theatre. Sponsored by the LGBTRC, Women’s Council, RCAH, Office of Inclusion and Inter-cultural Identities

Drag Show -- 8-11:30pm. Enjoy performances by some of your favorite drag queens such as Moltyn Decadence, Eva Angelica, Delicious, and our ever popular host, Hershae Chocolatae. Sponsored by UAB, RING, and RHA.

Saturday April 17: Pride Week Prom -- 8-11pm, Union Gold Room A/B. This is your night of magic under the stars at prom! Elegant light refreshments, a beautiful photo station, prom favors for the first 100 people, and dancing the night away. Sponsored by PRISM.

Sunday April 18: Dodgeball Tournament -- Join all the LGBT Organizations for a round-roubin tournament to see which caucus team will take the title of the undisputed “Dodgeball Champion!” Light Refreshments will be provided for all participants! 1-3pm at IM Circle. Sponsored by RING.

Deconstructing Crank

Thanks to the Deconstructive Theory group for introducing the class to the theory today. I can't emphasize enough the impact this new way of thinking had on how people in all disciplines think about the (im)possibility of objectivity, the relationship between language and thought, and the potential benefits of playing with uncertainty. I was glad that the group made the point that this theory doesn't just "rip things apart", but is a tool to create new ideas, meanings, insights, etc. Here are two examples that have sprung to mind since class:

• Consider Locke's use of "for your own good" and the ways that one person imposing his/her will on another is in tension with the possibility of the recipient "owning" that good.
• Sometimes the "/" (vergule) is used to indicate the instability of categories. For example, talking about "dis/ability" suggests that: 1) disability and ability are always in relation to each other, 2) disability and ability might coexist, 3) we might consider disability "or" ability, etc. (Anderson & Merrill, 2001).

For those of you who want to try a hand at this type of analysis, let's do that here. Some techniques might include:

• Find a very short piece of text and read it multiple ways. You might try out the dictionary activity Peter described in class or generate your own meanings. To use a common deconstructive metaphor, how does the language/meaning "slip"?
• Make a statement about the surface ideology of the text--the meaning that, for the moment, seems "obvious" to you. Then find ambiguities in the text or counter-evidence. What contradictions can we find? What do you now consider to be the sub-text?
• 
  Play with different ways of reading the verse. What happens when you treat the shape of the words on the page in different ways?

These are only a few suggestions. Have fun!

Optional: The Case of the Purloined Paper

You may remember that when we initially discussed the syllabus, I mentioned that I had included Schulte's "The Case of the Purloined Paper" in the coursepack, but hadn't assigned it to any particular week.

I included this article because I think that, for those of you who will be teaching literature, it is important to discuss and think critically about how the availability of on-line reviews, papers, etc. might be shaping students' willingness and even ability to develop their own responses to literature.

I'm curious to hear people's responses to the article: Have you seen this as a problem? Have you seen teachers who have found creative responses to encourage students to do their own writing and/or use outside resources appropriately?

Crank and Censorship

One of the reasons that we are reading Crank during the same week as our discussion of censorship is that last fall the book was challenged and Ellen Hopkins became very vocal about the issue of censorship.

Hopkins wrote a play-by-play on her livejournal, beginning with an entry on September 17 and extending through the next several months. After reading the book and Hopkins' entries, what do you find to be either persuasive or not persuasive about the school's choice to cancel her visit? What issues and values are at stake?

You might also browse the American Library Association page on censorship for more information on the history of censorship in schools, intellectual freedom, and concrete steps teachers, librarians, and other community members can take if a book is challenged. Are there any resources or ideas that might help us make sense of the challenges to Crank?

Crank discussion

Here are several interlated questions to get us started discussing Crank:

• In what ways is Crank YAL? How does it work as a "problem novel"?
• What did you find powerful, surprising, or troubling? What made it so?
• What was the ideological message of the text? To draw on our discussion of deconstructive criticism, any mixed messages? If so, what do we (re)make of them?

As always, try to refer and/or quote specific passages in the text as support or to generate discussion.

Censorship, selection, and YAL

MacLeod provides a historical overview of censorship and children's literature. What values, beliefs, and constructions of childhood (or young adulthood) are at stake? Where have the tensions existed in both socially liberal and conservative pressures to select or restrict access to books based on "socially morality"?

You might read our second articles as more of a contemporary case study of censorship and selection in schools. Curwood, et al.'s, article explores the need to include books with GLBTQ content in the curriculum, some of the reasons teachers hesitate to do so, and how to be proactive in selecting literature and preparing to justify one's professional choices.

If you would like to do some outside research, The American Library Association and the NCTE's pages on censorship have some great resources that might help you think about both the values at stake and the realities of how teachers, librarians, and other community members negotiate disagreements around books.

Where do you stand on these issues? Should young adults have access to all books? Is there a place at which you would draw a line in the name of protecting young readers? If so, how and who should decide what the criteria for selection is? Any quotes strike you as worthy of further discussion? Post them!

Week 13: On-line class (Tuesday) and Crank discussion/activity (Thursday)

I'm sorry for the late notice but, as I said in class, I will need to miss class this upcoming Tuesday. Instead, we'll do an on-line discussion.  So...no face-to-face class Tuesday, 4/13. 

On-line discussion:
Your on-line participation will take the place of the 1-page critical reflection listed on the syllabus.

• Read Crank by Ellen Hopkins and the articles in the coursepack on censorship/selection. 
• I will post several "discussion starter posts"  to focus discussion.
• Before Tuesday, choose a discussion strand that interests you and write an initial comment that responds to a facet of the prompt. If you want to discuss a topic that doesn't seem to be captured by any of these posts, feel free to write your own post to start a new strand of discussion.
• Return to the blog sometime between Tuesday and Thursday, skim the discussion strands, and respond to at least 2 other people's comments.

Remember that comments don't have to be lengthy, as long as they are responsive and substantive.

For Thursday:

Please bring your copy of Crank. We can spend a little time extending the discussion we will have started on the blog, but we'll spend the bulk of our session exploring how the text is shaped by the fact that it is written in verse. We'll use a modified form of Reader's Theater to explore the questions: What changes when we attend to the shape and sound of the poetry, rather than reading it silently to ourselves? What does this say about language? Meaning? (Deconstructive theory) Although I have already selected some of the poems from the book that we might use for this activity, if you have particular favorites, please mark them as options for your group to present. 

I know some of the content in the book may be more or less comfortable to members of the class and that everyone has different comfort levels "performing" in front of groups. I've structured the activity in a way that I hope everyone will be able to make participation choices with which they feel comfortable. Despite the fact that I've just used the word "comfort" three times, I also hope people come willing to take some risks!   

A little post-colonial satire

How to Write about Africa

The Danger of the Single Story

Here's a link to The Danger of the Single Story. I'll also post the transcript on our Angel site under "Additional Readings" in case you want to read it.

The Sparrow

One of my all-time favorite books are The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God, by Mary Doria Russel. They came to mind today because the author wanted to explore what it would be like to encounter a new culture: Is there the possibility of exploration and encounter without one civilization colonizing the other? Have we learned from the past?  Given current globalization, she set the story in the fairly near future and began with the idea that humanity "discovers" a new world and alien race.

I know that not everyone is into science fiction. For what it's worth, I once read this with an adult book club and even those who initially protested my choice of text for "my" month, ended up loving it.  

NYT article on where the "adults" are in YAL

The Parent Problem in Young Adult Lit

Hilarious critique of Pocahontas.

In light of today's presentation, I realized that this awesome post-colonial/Disney critique of Pocahontas would be completely relevant! Um...some dialogue is NSFW (Not Safe For Work). I highly recommend watching it, though.

Just in case the embedding doesn't work: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/1880-pocahontas

Post-Colonial Theory Group Presentation

Hello everyone. The slides from our presentation should be up soon. Please feel free to shoot us any questions if something comes up that you didn't think of in class.

I was really happy with how our presentation ended up coming together. I learned a lot about Post-Colonial Literary Theory and I feel like we were able to share some of its main ideas and components with the rest of the class. One thing that I think we would go back and change was to mix-up the lecture part with the practicing with texts parts a bit more. It was heavy lecture in the beginning and then a lot of activity at the end. Our intention behind this was to make sure everyone knew and understood the theory before attempting to practice with it. But it could have been interesting to see how our opinions of the texts, and how we read them changed as the class discovered more about the theory itself (a bit like we did with the Invictus trailer).

That being said, I really think the components of the lecture stuck with everyone. In my small group at the end of our presentation we viewed the lyrics to "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley and it was fantastic to hear how all of the group was able to breakdown the lyrics using post-colonial theory. If I were assessing understanding from a teaching perspective I would have felt confident that the lesson worked simply by hearing the rich discussion that I was a part of. My group was using the terminology of this theory and really digging apart the language and message with this lens. It was also neat to hear how additional ideas that I hadn't thought of came up throughout the discussion, such as the World Bank documentary and how Jamaicans are forced to sell food they produce domestically so that they will import and buy food. What a great world connection!

I had a great time working with my group members and overall I was really happy with how the presentation turned out. Please continue to post things on the blog that pertain to the presentation today (Thanks to Brandon and Chris for your recent posts). I will definitely use the information that I learned throughout this project and apply it in my own classroom someday. Thanks for being such great listeners and participants!

Becky

Bach to Africa

I know the video quality is horrible but It will still get the point across and if you want a copy of the cd just let me know :)

The World Bank & Jamaica

During small group discussion, we mentioned this film. It's a pretty interesting perspective to witness and can relate to post-colonialism theory:

http://www.lifeanddebt.org/