Session 8: Preparing for "Al Capone..."

Note: This is the only session for which the Monday and Wednesday sections have different assignments! This post applies to the Wednesday (001) section.

Blogging:

• If you haven't already done so, post the results of your group's award research. Be sure to cite and/or link to electronic resources you found helpful.
  
• Optional: Where do you stand in the awards debate? What purposes do they serve? Should awards be given for particular types of literature?
  

Read:

• Al Capone Does my Shirts
  
• Linton (1998): What does Linton say about the power of language? What terminology do you prefer when discussing this topic? Why? What would it mean to read Al Capone Does my Shirts from a "disability studies framework? What types of questions would you ask about the representations in the text? How would you analyze those questions?
  
• Tal (2001) and Williams, et. al. (2005): In what range of ways have people with disabilities been portrayed in text? What criteria might one use to evaluate books that include people with disabilities? Is there anything you question about the criteria presented?
• Optional: Check out Gennifer Choldenko's website. (I suggest you read the book first.) What do you learn about her? What don't you learn?
  

Write (Everyone):

• Write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the Angel dropbox by 6 pm the evening before class.
  

In class we'll watch part of a documentary in which a woman who is autistic shares a little about her experience and talk about how the film may raise new questions about Al Capone Does my Shirts.

Final project

The final project is an opportunity to practice selecting, reviewing, and researching books on a topic of your choice. More importantly, you'll be sharing your work with a larger educational community!

During session 7 we will read through the directions and rubric for the final project. (You should have picked up a hard copy of these documents in class last week. They are also posted on Angel.)

Here are some links that you might find helpful:

• Sample book review that models the format of the review: MLA citation, book cover, summary of book, critical component, labels. (Remember that "critical" can be a positive or negative evaluation. The important aspect is that you draw on our work in the class to thoughtfully consider the text as a piece of literature.)
• Sample professional/critical resource: Remember that this can be a review of a resource as a whole OR can be a post in which you share a focused idea/question from the resource.
  
• Link to "public site" at which you'll post one or more of your reviews. (Don't worry about this now, I'll provide directions on selecting and posting your final work later in the semester.)
  

Although this is an optional post, you might want to write about why you are focusing on your topic and/or where you are "coming from" as a reader. Here's an example post in which one of your classmates talks about her interests.

Please post questions and comments about this project here. That way everyone will benefit from the discussion and responses that result from your queries!

Teaching Tolerance arrived today!

I just went to my mailbox and my copy of "Teaching Tolerance" had arrived! I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I can already see that there are articles on a number of topics we've discussed in class in recent weeks. The cover story is:

• "One Nation, Many Gods: A California school district learns how studying religion can open minds rather than close debate"

But there are also articles on inclusion, integration, "dismissing stereotypes about people living in poverty", "Christian normalcy", and gender-based bullying.

Blogging idea: Check out the on-line Fall 2007 edition of Teaching Tolerance and choose an article to read. Then summarize it and respond to one of the ideas presented in the article. (Remember, responding can be about elaboration, challenging, questioning, etc.)

Blogging: Which posts seem to invite comments?

As an author of a blog I want people to read my posts, but I also want responses and interaction from my readers!

You might also analyze what has been happening with our own posts. (In a similar way to what I did when I read through the blogs to analyze how we were using them.)

• What moves you to comment on a post? (No fair saying that it fulfills an assignment!)
  
• What do you notice about the structure or content of the posts that seem to provoke comments? (And I mean provoke in a nice way!)
• How might thinking about the genre of blogs/our discourse community shape how you write in the future!

Blogging ideas, take 2

It seems like there's an even split in the class between those who like the very open nature of blogging and those who feel like they need more guidance in thinking of what to write. For those who feel like prompts constrain them, keep writing as the spirit moves you!

For those who want more direction, you might be inspired by what your classmates are doing! Here are a some of ways that I've seen people using the blogs so far:

• Erin wrote a book review
  
• Lindsay and Laura responded to articles that were available in class, but we didn't discuss
• Lindsay and Stephanie commented on current events that they connected to themes of the class
  
• Lisa tried to clarify a term
• Tara extended a class discussion by adding a perspective that we didn't hear in class
  
• Tricia raised a question about an article
• Trisha made a connection to a community event
• Courtney reflected on how discussion changed her reading of a text
• Jessica shared a resource related to a class reading
• Katie made a connection with an idea from class and another text (In this case, a Disney movie)
• Katie D. posed a question about a Habibi that prompted a discussion of gender
• Many students have used a prompt from class to state their position on a key topic (I linked to Lauren's as an example). This one was assigned, but you could do this with any theme from the class. In class prompts and those in the "Sessions" posts might give you ideas.
  
• Mike introduced himself by letting use know about his reading interests
• Molly shared background information on an author we are reading
  
• Paula share questions from her questioning the text paper

Remember that blog posts are generally short and focused. You don't need to take on the world in your post, you just have to share an idea, question, resource, etc.

As people have other ideas, add them as comments! We should be able to build quite a list by the end of the semester!

Community event: Cowboys and Indians

This isn't really a "community event" in the sense of how we've used the term so far, but it is happening in our community...

A friend of mine has a daughter who goes to East Lansing High School. She mailed me today and wrote:

It's homecoming week, 2007. Students dress up every day with a different theme. Yesterday was CEOs and Secretaries. The theme of Homecoming this year is Cowboys and Indians. The seniors are the Cowboys.

What do you think? (I'll weigh in later!)

Session 7: Awards assignment

The co-themes of session 7 will be "practicing close readings of text" and analyzing awards for diverse literature. You'll only need to prepare for the second!

Everyone:

• Read the Aronson and Pinkney articles. What are the arguments for and against honoring books in specific cultural/social categories? What assumptions does each position rely on?
  
• Where do you stand in terms of the debate?
  

Award jigsaw: Research the following information for your assigned award.

• Is there an official website for the award? Are there other resources that provide information about the award? (Sometimes libraries or author blogs feature information not available on the official sites.)
  
• Why and when was this award created? What is the rationale for the award?
• Selection criteria: What books, authors, illustrators are eligible? How are the books judged?
• Who sponsors the award?
• Selection committee: Who chooses the winners? How do you get on the committee? How transparent is the process?
• Bring in books that have won or have been honored by the award. This will mean a trip to the library--you can coordinate this within your group. How easy was it to find the books? Do they have seals or other indications that they are award winners?
• It would be helpful if one person in the group could bring in a computer.
  

In class we'll teach each other about the awards, share books, and talk about the questions that our research raises. The "product" of your group work will be a collaborative post on your award. (Although you'll have time to work on this with your group, most of your research should be done in advance of class.)