Session 12: Jewish American Literature

We won't be meeting together for session 12. Instead, you will have the option of arranging to meet with your discussion group for a face to face discussion and/or discussing the texts through blog posts.

As is indicated in the syllabus, everyone will read:

• Confessions of a Closet Catholic
  
• Silver (2002): What criteria does Silver suggest for evaluating books?
  
• Kimmel (2003): How does Kimmel understand the "Jewish content" of his stories?
  
• Group C members write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the dropbox by 6 pm the evening before your class was scheduled.

Here are some additional texts for you to consider. (We would have looked at in class):

• Read "The Shoebox" (posted on Angel). Which shoebox do you think the boy intended to take with him? How does this story connect to larger themes/issues related to Jewish identity and history?
• "Jewish book choice" memo. (posted on Angel): This is a letter that I wrote to the team when we were trying to decide which book to use as the selection for this week. After reading about the options, which would you choose for the course? Why?
  
• One of Kimmel's picture books. (Available at most libraries/bookstores) Do you agree that his work includes "positive Jewish content"? Do the stories seem universal in some respects? You might also check out some of the award winners.
  

If you are going to meet in person:

• Arrange when and where to meet with your discussion group. You can meet on campus, for coffee, at someone's house. (Just be sensitive to transportation/$ issues.) In some ways this might be a more "authentic" discussion than an in-class meeting.
  
• Discuss Confessions, the readings, and "The Shoebox", and/or the letter.
  
• Take notes on what you discuss and whether/how this meeting felt different or lead to different types of ideas than a whole class session.
• Post a description of your meeting and 1-2 key ideas that came out of discussion on your blog. You may also contribute a comment to the "what was it like to meet out of class?" post on the class blog.
• You are welcome to read other blogs and participate in those discussions as well!
  

If you are going to have your discussion on-line:

• Cs begin one strand of discussion on their blogs by posting a very abbreviated version of their QTT paper
  
• As and Bs (and Cs, if they want) should begin strands of discussion on their own blogs. Here are some ideas: post a short response to the Silver/Kimmel articles. (This could be an interesting quote, idea, question, connection, etc.), post a response to "The Shoebox" or "Jewish book choice", raise another question related to Confessions, share a profession resource you find on-line, etc. Remember that short, focus posts often lead to focused responses!
  
• Everyone in your discussion group needs to participate in each strand of discussion. You might set up a schedule to decide when the initial posts are made and a "closing time".
• Contribute a comment to the "What was it like to discuss ideas on-line?" post on the class website.

We'll talk about the timing of all of this. Remember that you'll be preparing for session 13 as well, so you'll have to manage your time (especially because some of you will be traveling over the Thanksgiving break)!

Feel free to comment and ask questions (particularly since we won't meet this session!)