Class on 10/5: Delpit and Gee

NOTE:  At the beginning of class you will write a practice essay in response to a question focused on the readings so far. It will be the same kind of question that you will have on your exam.  It will be open book, open notes - and I will give you about 20 minutes.  It will be like the questions on the study guides that ask you to apply, compare, extend the ideas covered in the readings.  It will ask you to use information from several readings to discuss one of the ideas about literacies that we have been developing.

I will collect this essay and give it a grade so you will have an idea of what to expect on your exam.

First presentations: You did a great job talking about Gee and Delpit - and thanks to the valiant groups who bravely developed the first study guides & gave the first presentations.  In their discussion of what would have made developing their study guide + presentation easier => clear communication + planning were at the top of the list.  Make a F2F plan - and use chat.  Divide up the tasks.

Future presentations:  Future Study Guides will be evaluated through the points on the Study Guide Gradesheet.  They will be due Sunday by 6:00 PM.  The will lose 1 grade for each day they are late. Grades will be assigned both by me and through reflective, group assessment.  I will give you a written rubric for developing group grades.

If you have questions - about ANYTHING - send me an email (and ask for help).

Be sure to read the criteria on the grade sheet.  Presentations need to be interactive - and they need to use writing (make a request or give a prompt that requires the class tow write). => According to Gee - your classmates will learn better if the USE the discourse we are learning ( so that means writing it and speaking it).

Discussion of Gee & Delpit.
We covered the main points made by Gee and Delpit in the review of the quiz, and in discussion of the study guides.  If your notes have the main points of this discussion - you are in great shape.  In fact = WRITING those notes (translating "teacher words" into your own language = practicing the academic discourse associated with literacy studies) was an important part of your apprenticeship for being a writer and teacher of writing.  Talking in class is the other half of what you need to do to really "get" what we are doing in this class.  According to Gee - you are learning a new Discourse - and to really "learn" it = you have to "speak" it and "write" it.  Just like you can learn a sport - or a language - out of a book => you can learn the "identity kit" associated with being a "writing studies major" without talking the talk.  So just remember = you paid for this class, and to get your money's worth you will need to participate!  You definitely got your money's worth today!

Delpit challenged Gee - and you challenged Gee, too.  Good questions and points about what counts as racism, about what counts as "teaching" and which kinds of "teaching" were what helped individuals learn new discourses - and about whether any Discourse is ever just one discourse (or many).  Keep thinking about these ideas.

For next class we will be reading Bartholomae + Pratt.  Groups responsible for presentations are listed on the Study Guide Post.

Ideas for interactive presentations: Hit the main ideas from the study guide by asking students to write - but do not go through the guide point by point => the expectation is that your classmates will have spent some time with your study guide to master the material .  If they have questions => they should ask you.

The idea of the presentation is to get students to:

• identify the assumptions and methods that produced the essay; 
• explore connections to ideas by other theorists we have read; and 
• to apply the ideas from the reading to other issues associated with literacy, learning or the world at large.  

For example - both of Bartholomae & Pratt focus on what students how students reacted - what learning strategies & "moves" they resorted to - when "school" required them to step into unfamiliar Discourses.
You might: ask students to write about, share + reflect on their own experiences confronting unfamiliar (maybe even unwelcoming) Discourses at school => you could then see if students in our class used "moves" similar to the moves described in the essays.  Or - you might ask students to write about - or talk about - how or whether learning to read the essays in our textbook is like learning a new Discourse (or inventing the University, or entering a contact zone).  Or you can ask groups of students to create a list of "contact zone" behaviors they have witnessed (or enacted) - then - as a whole group - you can classify and "theorize" those experiences in terms of Pratt's essay.  Etc.  The idea is that your "exercise" should engage students in talking and writing the ideas from your essay.  Good luck!

For Wednesday, October 12:
Read: Pratt (posted on left sidebar) and Bartholomae (Literacies book)