Course Reflection

Here we are, the last day of class this year, my last class at this school. Quality Projects have been successful. And it's time for some reflection. In addition to the formal reflection you're writing about your project, I'd like you to help me think about the work I've done as your teacher. Please respond thoughtfully to the following prompts:

1. What is something about the class that I should definitely keep doing, and why?

2. What is something about the class that I should not keep doing, and why?

3. What is something that we did not do in this class that I should think about including next time?

4. Anything else?

Biggest Mahalos for a great semester!

Stuck on "Stuckness"

Last week in class, we worked through an excerpt from Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in an effort to more fully engage with the Quality part of the Quality Project. I readily admit that it's taken me several years of rereading those three pages to really start to internalize and practice living and working with Quality, being at the "leading edge of experience", the "zero moment of consciousness". What about you?

Spend a paragraph and comment on this post? What did you think about the excerpt? Did it make sense to you? What did you take away? How did you apply the ideas to your work on your own project? Or other parts of your life? Be specific.

Quintessence

As you know, most of our class time is set aside for independent work on your Quality Project. But each cycle, we spend one class reading, thinking, and talking about an element of Quality that, when applied to your own project, will lead to more depth and breadth of thinking and work. Last cycle, we talked about our responsibility to others. This cycle, we're talking about Quintessence.

Your task:

1. Follow along with the examples I show you from this page. Look at more on your own.

2. Visit soph student blogs of the past (links from our class blog) and check out even more Quintessence posts.

3. Choose an item, find a picture (cite it in your post), and describe the particular qualities of your item that give it its Quintessence.

4. Share


My example:

Moleskine: The Quintessential Notebook
As I know you know, with prolonged use, most notebooks end up in shambles. There's no way you'd be able to revisit and reflect on thinking and writing from several years past. That's not to mention that danger of puncture wounds from the wily spiraled metal or the choking hazard from those little flakes of paper left after extracting a page. With the Moleskine, none of these risks exist. Bullet-proof binding keeps your notes intact for a lifetime, why else would great writers like Ernest Hemingway trust Moleskine with their poetry, prose, and innovative ideas. With the Moleskine, a scholar is not limited by horizontal lines. If you have an artist's inclination, get blank pages, or, if you're like me and think in all directions, get the graphed pages, begging for brainstorms, lists, diagrams, sketches, and well-crafted sentences. Finally, perfectly weighted paper holds the ink and/or lead of any pen or pencil without letting your ideas bleed.

Creativity, Compassion, and You

So, you should be well on your way with your Quality Projects. As I've said several times in class, you're all going to be moving in different directions, but each cycle I'm to have a big question that relates to developing your project and includes something to read together.

This cycle, I gave you Zell Kravinsky's "The Gift," which, I think, we could make a lot of comparisons to Kristof's NYTimes piece from last cycle. Let's do that. But that's a pretty easy comparison. I want to crank it up a notch: here's something to watch.

After viewing the talk, comment on this post with:

1. In your own words, what is Zell's thesis, and what is Sir Ken's thesis?
2. How and where do they connect and intersect?
3. What are the applications to your project?

Two Birds With One Essay: Final Poisonwood Assignment

I don't like to think of a final assignment/test/project/paper as an ending. I like to think of it as a bridge or transition to whatever's next, as well as an opportunity to deepen and extend our thinking about the big questions/ideas/concepts. So you're going to plan and compose and SAT-style essay (timed and about an ethical question), based on The Poisonwood Bible and a short, NYTimes Op-Ed piece that I think you'll find interesting. Here are the details:

* Plan and compose an SAT-style essay comparing PWB and "What Could You Live Without," in the context of our essential questions: what kind of world is this and how should we live in it?
o If you need a more direct prompt, here it is:
+ With privilege comes great responsibility to self and others. Is it more effective and ethical to try to change others or to try to change yourself? What are the implications and effects of both? Use specific examples/quotes from both PWB and "WCYLW."

This is timed, so use whatever works most efficiently for you: Paper, word-processor, blog. The blog would be nice because then we can all read each others essays. Also, keep in mind that you're writing on command for time, I do not have an expectation of perfection.

Finding a Reference Point for Quality

Today in class I've given you some time to look at past Quality Projects. The idea is not that you should do something exactly like these projects or that these projects represent perfection. Instead, I want you to think about and discuss where and why parts of these project represent Quality.

Your assignment:

1. Look through as many projects as you can.
2. Add a comment to this post describing a project and how you think an element of it represents Quality.
3. Respond to other comments.

Quality with a Capitol "Q"

Here we are: fourth quarter, almos' pau with The Poisonwood Bible. And we all know what's next: The Quality Project!

In this post, I want to do two things:

1. Give you an overview of how I'm going to schedule class activities, work days, supplemental readings, individual conferences for the rest of the quarter. This might sound logistical, but what I'm really talking about here is not a schedule of days but a purposeful and exploratory learning process.

Process:
Cycle 22: Passions and Proposals
Cycle 23: Another Brick in the Wall - Lit Reviews and Ethical Questions
Cycle 24: Universal Standards and Quality
Cycle 25: Meat and Potatoes of Project
Cycle 26: Meat and Potatoes of Project
Cycle 27: Sharing and Celebrating Successes
Cycle 28: Reflections


2. Provide you a framework for your project proposal, really it's a framework for the entire project. Really, it's a framework for all academic/scholarly inquiry and work. Really, it's a framework for anything you intend to do well in life.

-Guiding questions
-What will you read?
-What will you write?
-What will you do?
-How will you share?
-Who will you serve?
-What do you hope to learn?
-What do you hope to contribute?

Poison Onion

...because onions have multiple layers and so do characters, perspectives, ideas, and questions. Today, you're working on a cycle paper that explores the way characters in The Poisonwood Bible answer our essential questions:

What kind of world is this?

How should I live in it?

The next layer of this exploration is to identify the assumptions underlying these particular perspectives and your own agreement/disagreement with these perspectives. See Moodle for the specifics of the cycle paper.

Post to your blog

Due today!

Here's Another Quick Read On Texting Etiquette

This article is from a great site called Slate.com. Enjoy!

Read This Over Spring Break Because I Know You'll Get Bored With All That Free Time

Here's an article from the NYTimes discussing several new books that deal with the impact of social media on language, stories, and copyright.

Cast of Characters in Congo

At this point, you have a really good idea who these characters are. We've looked at the assumptions that shape their perspectives. We've been attentive to how their use of language further shapes their perspectives and personalities. We've examined how each characters responds to trauma and change. We've thought about how the characters fit together and interact to shape a whole story. All these leads to a fun (if I say so myself) activity today.

You are going to cast actors to play the roles of the characters in Poisonwood Bible:

1. Choose a character from PWB. It can be anybody, doesn't have to be a narrator.
2. Think about and write about the distinguishing characteristics of your chosen character.
3. Brainstorm a list of possible actors and the reasons they might fit well with the PWB character.
4. Find a number of youtube clips of your possible actors. Watch the clips with an eye towards matching the characteristics your listed for step #2.
5. Cast your actor.
6. On your blog, post the following:
-Intro of the activity in your own voice
-List of distinguishing characteristics
-Embed the most fitting and appropriate youtube clip of your actor
-Describe how this actor is perfect for the role, make direct comparisons
-Direct PWB quotes get you extra credit (only if cited properly!)

Here's my example (shorter than what you'll put together):

Nathan Price:
-"Father"
-Quick with Biblical Banter
-Confident to a fault
-Confrontational
-Unbending in beliefs

Young Harrison Ford is perfect for the role of Nathan. In this clip from Mosquito Coast, we see his ability to portray an increasingly scary sense of confidence and belief (in this case against religion). We also see him fully embrace his role as "Father." And so on...

20% Time Take 2

Here we are at F-day. We've been through some reading, writing, thinking, and speaking activities this cycle, and we've turned a very significant corner in The Poisonwood Bible.

Today, it's 20% time, and you should be slightly more self-directed than you were last F-day. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Can you continue where you left off last F-day, work towards more depth and breadth?
Are there other class blogs that you're dying to read and comment on?
Is there some new idea or question that you'd like to use today's time to explore?

Remember the required format/structure for 20% time:

1. Plan
2. Start
3. Document
4. Publish

You can also review my first post on 20% time, which includes more detailed rationale and instructions.

Extra Credit! Wha...? That's Right.

1. On your iPhone or iTouch, get the free app "words with friends"
2. Look me up: watsoncommon
3. Start a game with me
4. Play for a little extra credit
5. Beat me for a little more than a little extra credit

(Bring it! I hope you have a dictionary and make use of visualthesaurus.com)

Poiswood Bible on a Plate: Writing Kingsolver's Recipe

I recently joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). Every Monday, at the Kindergarten drop off my family picks up a big box of fresh, organic produce from Ma'o farms. Because we never know exactly what'll be in the box, we've had to adapt our cooking and eating habits. Every Monday, it's a planning exercise that involves: seeing what's in the box; using the internet and our network of fellow CSA members to figure out how to cook and prepare these particular veggies, herbs, and roots; and, combining the produce with the food we already have in the fridge and cabinets.

You might be wondering, at this point, what my box-o'-veggies has to do with English class? Everything! Remember, we're at the point in the year when we purposefully shift our attention as readers, writers, and thinkers to the connections between the parts and the whole. Inside of those connections are the observations, inferences, and assumptions that we all make and carry around. The more we exercise them, the better we'll be at thinking critically and creatively. And, you guessed it, the Quality Project will demand this kind of flexible, connective, adaptive thinking.

So today, you're going to write a recipe for PWB:

-take a look back at the ingredients you have already in the Poisonwood bible;
-you're going to consider the personal connections/questions/reactions/ideas (what's already in the cupboards);
-and combine them in ways that you think creates a healthy and tasty dish (a good story)

Think about this as you work on your recipe:
"What would you have to do to create a story that has these features?"


Ingredients need to include:

* characters
* events
* symbols
* quotes

Steps need to include:

* connections
* ideas
* elements of storytelling

Process needs to include

* accurate and precise language about how the ingredients and steps come together

Post to your blog

20% Time

Today is going to be interesting and fun. F-day activities from here on out are rehearsals for the kinds of self-directed learning and work that you'll be doing during your Quality Project.

Here's some rationale that I think will make good sense to you. First, consider that you can measure your (or somebody else's) values in terms of time. For example, if you value playing guitar really, you will spend a lot of time practicing, playing, performing. So today, I'm giving time to something the English department and I value very much: you working towards self-directed learning for learning's sake. You might also think about how my main goal for you is to be good at learning, thinking, reading, writing, and speaking. What you learn, think, read, write about is less important than how you do it, in general. Today you have time to dedicate to something you value, and you're going to practice the skills that we value in English class.


To get good at using this time, you should start by thinking about the different pieces of a work day like this:

1. Have a plan. What are you interested in working on? What divergent questions can you generate that will lead you to deep and broad explorations?

2. Have a starting point. Whether it's a particular website, idea to start writing about, something to read, know where you're going to start. And you should be open to following leads in different directions. Be open.

3. Document your thinking. Use a "map" (you know how to do these by now), and outline, or just a plain old narrative of what you're doing. Use Diigo to bookmark and annotate webpages. Collect quotes.

4. Publish something that represents what you worked on today. With critical and creative thinking and the power of technology, what you publish to your blog can take many forms. Here are a few good ones, please add to the list:

-Photo essay
-Series of drawings
-Experimental writing
-Poems
-Writing about reading with quotes and discussion
-A video (check out TED.com to start) and discussion
-List of interesting weblinks
-What else?

Speak Your Mind

Today is a discussion-based class. You're considering the changes that are happening in each of the characters. By extension, you should also be exploring the changes that we all go through as we continue to make observations and judgements about the world around us.

During the last few minutes of class, you need to post a discussion reflection to your blog. Consider: what did you group talk about? did you agree/disagree with your groups ideas? what ideas/questions are you still wondering about?

Secondly, you are going to be posting your first cycle paper to your blogs. Think about a couple things: how does it look visually? is it easy to navigate and read? is there a connection to your previous posts? have you left the door open for comments?

Literary Somalie: Reading For Changes and Connections

Now that you've got your blogs up and running (writing), you should have an introduction that outlines your ideas and questions and reasons for writing (centers of gravity), and you should be posting your first cycle paper today!

In class, we're looking at three poems that I think have some interesting connections to what's happened in our recent readings in "The Judges" section of Poisonwood Bible. Your task is to play a bit of a matching game with language from the poem and language from PWB.

Here's how to do it:

1. Read the poems, take some notes on what you think the general ideas/questions are in the poem. (do this by yourself)

2. Go back into the most recent reading of PWB, and find sections that you think have similar ideas/themes/questions. ( also do this on your own).

3. On your blog, start a new post titled "COG matching." In this post list pairs of properly cited quotations: one from one of the poem and one from PWB in each pairing. Number them so it's nice and visually organized. You might want to pose some specific comparative questions with each pairing, but this is optional.

4. I will assign you blogs to visit during class. Each of you needs to visit each others' blogs and leave comments about how each quotation pairing seem to be related. You should even try to add another connected quote if possible. The more explanation the better.

*Read and comment on at least one pairing on the two blogs listed below yours on this page.

5. On your own blog, you need to reply to the comments left by your classmates. The challenge is to see if you can extend the connections even further. What are the implications?