Finally, An Awesome Class (or Two)

Okay, so I was frustrated about the lack of participation in my class and decided, if I couldn't lead the horses to water, I was gonna sandblast those ponies in the mouth with a fireman's hose (pardon the mixed metaphors there). I have been bombarding them with hands-on activities and in-class texts to grapple with, and so far, it's working great.

1. For our character unit, I showed parts of The Royal Tenenbaums in class, which they loved and were able to carry on an intelligent conversation about. Part of this, I think, was in my having them take notes on what made each character distinct from the next. Note to self: make them write for a bit about the reading before starting discussion? Seems like a tried-and-true method, but I'd never really done it before (having hated it when I'd been forced to do it as a student myself). Perhaps a little of mother's medicine really does work.

2. Continuing in the character unit, I had them go outside and do observations of a complete stranger (something I'm fond of in my 101, too.) From their list of observations (which they actually did! I have proof - I have them!), they were asked to construct quirky and individualized characters. One kid wrote about the Devil as a total dork on campus (a la Stacey Richter, though I don't think he's read her). Another wrote about Cinderella getting stoned. All of them were funny, quirky, and THEY PARTICIPATED.

3. To finish my full-on assault, for the dialogue unit, I made them read the plays assigned (David Ive's "The Universal Language" and "Variations on the Death of Trotsky") aloud in class. Whether they read them at home or not, they were forced to grapple with the texts in the flesh in class, and they read, and they laughed, and THEY ACTUALLY TALKED.

4. But while I'm feeling like superteacher, I also resorted to a lame tactic. I can't always play Mrs. Entertainer, and I can't always bring the texts in class to them. Homework exists for a reason: to give us material to grapple with in the classroom that we don't have time to take in there. So I did it. I threatened reading quizzes. Will it work? Who knows? But for now, I'm pretty happy at feeling like I've made some progress in turning everything around.

That being said, do we meet for 609 tomorrow? I can't remember...
M.