Thursday, November 15, 2007
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Welcome to TE 448, FS07!
This blog was a class space for announcements, resources, and conversation. As you can see below, each student also developed his/her own blog and contributed to a more public blog that current and future classes are building as a resource.
The current instructor of TE 448 is using this blog, including the language of individual posts, to continue the use of blogging in the course. View another instructor's TE 448 blog.
You are also welcome to participate in Valerie's current TE 348 blog , which focuses on Reading and Responding to Children's and Adolescent Literature.
You may contact Valerie about the development of these blogging projects at struthe8@msu.edu.
Valerie Struthers Walker
The current instructor of TE 448 is using this blog, including the language of individual posts, to continue the use of blogging in the course. View another instructor's TE 448 blog.
You are also welcome to participate in Valerie's current TE 348 blog , which focuses on Reading and Responding to Children's and Adolescent Literature.
You may contact Valerie about the development of these blogging projects at struthe8@msu.edu.
Valerie Struthers Walker
Blog Archive
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2007
(65)
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November
(12)
- For session 13
- Best Books 2007
- What was it like to talk with your group on-line?
- What was it like to meet, in person, out of class?
- "Free" applications/Feed by M.T. Anderson
- Talk on No Child Left Behind
- The Holocaust in Literature
- Child_lit mailing list
- Safe Schools Seminar this Thursday!
- A story you don't often hear about the Holocaust
- Session 13: GLBTQ literature
- Session 12: Jewish American Literature
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November
(12)
Labels
- Blogging (23)
- Sessions (15)
- Community event (12)
- Discussion (11)
- Professional resource (11)
- Current event (6)
- Book review (5)
- Final project (4)
- Questioning the text (4)
- Awards (2)
- Excellence in Teaching (1)
- On-line session (1)
Section 2 Blogs
- (A) Caeth's blog -- Green
- (A) Carrie C.'s blog -- Purple
- (A) Cortney's blog -- Red
- (A) Dana's blog -- Yellow
- (A) Lindsay's blog -- Blue
- (A) Melanie's blog -- Yellow
- (A) Michelle's blog -- Red
- (A) Torian's blog -- Blue
- (B) Abigail's blog -- Green
- (B) Ashley M.'s blog -- Yellow
- (B) Ashley P.'s blog -- Purple
- (B) Caroline K.'s blog -- Red
- (B) Carrie O.'s blog -- Blue
- (B) Christa's blog -- Green
- (B) Lisa's blog -- Red
- (B) Trisha K.'s blog -- Purple
- (C) Catie's blog -- Green
- (C) Erin's blog -- Blue
- (C) Kiera's blog-- Purple
- (C) Krystina's blog -- Purple
- (C) Laura's blog -- Red
- (C) Stacy's blog -- Yellow
- (C) Stephanie's blog -- Yellow
- (C) Tara T.'s blog -- Green
- (C) Tricia R.'s blog -- Blue
Section 1 Blogs
- (A) Adia's blog -- Yellow
- (A) Brittany's blog -- Green
- (A) Jenny's blog -- Purple
- (A) Katie D.'s blog -- Red
- (A) Katie F.'s blog-- Blue
- (A) Lauren's blog -- Blue
- (A) Liz's blog -- Red
- (A) Marie's blog -- Yellow
- (B) Courtney's blog-- Green
- (B) Erin F.'s Blog-- Green
- (B) Jessica's blog -- Purple
- (B) Libby's blog -- Red
- (B) Nealie's blog -- Yellow
- (B) Renee's blog -- Red
- (B) Ryan's blog -- Purple
- (B) Stephanie's blog -- Blue
- (C) Erin R.'s blog -- Red
- (C) Julie's blog -- Yellow
- (C) Mike's blog-- Green
- (C) Molly's blog -- Purple
- (C) Natasha's blog-- Green
- (C) Paula's blog -- Purple
- (C) Sara's blog -- Yellow
- (C) Tara M.'s blog -- Yellow
Posting and Commenting Schedule
The consensus of the group seems to be that people want to try out what it feels like to use a schedule to manage posts. Let's plan to have the person who posts do so in advance of class. The people who respond can do so either before or after class.
Week 10 (Becoming/Latino/a):
B posts, A/C responds
Week 11 (Project/Asian Amer.):
C posts, B/A responds
Week 12 (Confess./Jewish-Amer):
Revised, since we won't be meeting in person. See post.
I'm curious to see what is gained and lost in such a move, so keep track of how the added structure "feels", what it does to your participation, etc.
This schedule shouldn't limit when you read and when you post/comment! We're trying this in hopes that it will enhance our conversation!
Week 10 (Becoming/Latino/a):
B posts, A/C responds
Week 11 (Project/Asian Amer.):
C posts, B/A responds
Week 12 (Confess./Jewish-Amer):
Revised, since we won't be meeting in person. See post.
I'm curious to see what is gained and lost in such a move, so keep track of how the added structure "feels", what it does to your participation, etc.
This schedule shouldn't limit when you read and when you post/comment! We're trying this in hopes that it will enhance our conversation!
Some examples of blogs focusing on diverse lit.
Our "public" site for sharing reviews
Class calendar
About Me
- Valerie W.
- teaches in the English, Teacher Education, and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures departments at Michigan State University. Her current research focuses on representations of dis/ability in adolescent literature, reader response to diverse literature, and teaching literature in K-12 contexts.
14 comments:
I liked the change of scenery posting on the blogs provided. It was similar to class because we all got to add our opinion to the conversation. I think this was a good experience because it gave us a way to write down our thoughts and share them (which, for me, allows me to elaborate on points more clearly). I think this was a good exercise to do in place of having a class discussion because although it was a bit less personal, I was still able to see the different viewpoints of my team members and respond.
I think blogging was a good alternative to an in-class discussion. This way of communicating was different than the usual conversation for many reasons. It seemed like people were able to express themselves and share opinions more freely without fear of what someone may think or respond. (Face to face confrontation can be difficult.) It also gave people the chance to really explain their ideas thoroughly - in class sometimes people don't get as much of a chance to really go in depth. I feel I am able to communicate best in writing, since I can really think through an answer, reword it until it is exactly what I want to say. Often times in class it is difficult to really explain yourself due to time restraints, etc. Responding online also allowed us to think through the questions before responding which we can’t really do in class (time restraint). There was less pressure since we were able to comment at our own leisure.
I agree with Julie in that it was enjoyable to be able to think out your responses thoroughly on a blog as compared to talking in class and feeling constricted for time. I also found it enoyable to read everyone's comments and compare the different readings of the text! I think the blog meetings are a great way for an increase in involvement from the class as well!
Hello TE 448 students!
There's a little known fact about authors, which I will now reveal to you...we're all obsessive self-Googlers. It's not because we're vain - ok at least not all because we're vain - but rather because often it's the only way we find out about what's going on with our books.
In the course of my OSG (Obsessive Self-Googling) I found your discussions of my book, "Confessions of a Closet Catholic".
I'm SO happy that you had your discussion of my book online so that I was able to read everyone's reactions.
As an author I sit alone in my basement "Writing Lair" day after day putting these words on paper and it's just thrilling to see how they've been able to promote so much discussion.
Thanks for allowing me to "share" in the discussion!
Please feel free to e-mail me at sarahdarerlittman at gmail dot com if you have any specific questions you'd like me to answer.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sarah
Wow! Sarah, we're so glad that you found our blogs! Welcome to the discussion!
This is my suggestion to the class--rather than overwhelming Sarah with individual emails, why don't we spend some time next session continuing to debrief the book and drafting some core questions for her. Then we can write as a group.
It's interesting that we haven't really talked about whether having the author "listen in" or participate in the blogs changes anything. :-)
I promise not to be devastated if anything writes that they hate the book. Ok, not *too* devastated. I'll just take to my bed and eat chocolate for a few days, that's all. (The chocolate obsession part of the book is VERY autobiographical... :-)
i think blogging was a good alternative for those who aren't as comfortable speaking in class. sometimes it is easier to type your thoughts and ideas than to speak them. however, i don't think the conversation(s) flowed as well online as they do in person. when talking online the comments seem to be separate thoughts slightly linked as opposed to a large conversation when talking in person
After I saw that Sarah, the author of the book in discussion, had found the blogs I went back and read mine to see if I said anything I might regret... haha. But no worries :)
I agree with Mr. Billings, I liked discussing on line and the different experience of it; however, I thought that there was less of a connection between the thoughts. I noticed myself that I would get off track when responding to someone elses blog. This can be good b/c it opens up more of a discussion but it also can lead to disconnected ideas and not really a "discussion".
One benefit of the blog is that everyone got to voice their own ideas and recieve feedback. Sometimes in class we do not get to hear everyones ideas b/c of time constraints. The blogs allow discussions to take place over time. Also, the blogs give people time to develop their thoughts and perhaps change them over time - its a continual discussion (if that makes sense...)
There are benefits and drawbacks to both discussing in class and online, but I think it was good to experience both sides so that we can make more informed judgments about what to do in the future, especially in our own classrooms.
It was really gratifying to get so many posts on my blog, but I felt like I couldn't guide the discussion, ask for clarification, compare viewpoints on details, etc nearly as well as I could have in person.
Hi! I really liked the option of 'talking with my group on-line.' It was definitely a change of scenery, like Molly said, but it offered more freedom in a way. I feel like a lot of the time discussions either get cut short, and so it offered as much time to organize and respond as we needed. I also like how the blog sometimes seems like an easier way to discuss, and express honest opinions. Being in a face to face setting can offer apprehension for people, so people could use the blog as an opportunity to really think and express their ideas freely. It was also really an enjoyable experience because it gave me insight into what other groups have been discussing, and how their ideas differed from what my group was talking about. It provided an opportunity for more feedback if people felt like they had something to discuss, but also more opinions could be heard because there was no time constraint, and we could search blogs in our own leisure. The only thing it lacked, obviously was the personal touch from a face to face discussion, but its fun to switch it up every once in a while!
I really liked how we talked about the book online. I think that it is a good experience with technology and the blogging site. It was a step farther than what we have been doing so far with just posting on our own blogs. It made us go to other's posts and comment, which for some people in the class, they haven't had the chance to to do that yet. I really liked it, plus it was convient to do it in my house since I had so much going on that week!
I liked having our conversation on-line. It was very convenient and time efficient so that our group did not have to find a time when everyone could meet. But I dont always like posting on-line because you can't read tone of voice and I always find it hard to type everything in a blog and wait for others to post a response.
I love doing the blog responses but I wish there was a way to keep it contained to a few hours or something. The instant messaging chat room idea, seems good but I think it would be even better if it were anonymous. This way, if we wanted to talk about certain subjects, we could use this as a medium that not only gets people that don't really talk to talk about issues without fear of being associated with controversial viewpoints, but would also give people the courage to continue their arguments in a way that doesn't force them to use their voices. As I am a strong proprietor of having group discussions, the anonymous chat room seems like it would present the fairest medium for getting ideas across.
I really liked the online discussion with my classmates! It was definitely a nice change of pace. It would be nice to do this a couple times next semester (after students are more familiar with discussing books/questioning the text papers in person).
Similar to what Julie said, it was helpful to me to write down exactly what I meant. Sometimes its hard in class to express exactly what you're thinking/feeling. And, if my peers sort of misinterpreted what I wrote, I could also post another comment clarifying.
The part I most enjoyed was that people from other groups, or people from outside the classroom, could comment on the blogs.
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