Sunday, November 11, 2007
Post-Process Assignment
A post-process assignment that I have used it one that was developed for the Senior Project at my high school. Students had to choose a topic for which they could write an essay and produce a product. There were then several major deadlines that had to be met, including writing a letter of intent, finding a mentor, composing several drafts, spending a certain amount of time on their product, presenting their product, and giving an oral presentation which covered both their papers and products. The choice of topic was left completely to the student. The topics were as varied as the students. Some students chose to write about artists like Chegall or Rivera and then create works that mimicked these artists. Others studied animal reproduction and learned how to artificially inseminate cows or how to raise a healthy animal in a feed lot. Some chose a sport, like boxing or golf, and either learned it or taught others how to participate in it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Composition Video Draft
WHAT AND HOW: With the spirit of Women’s Ways of Knowing as our structure, we will examine the evolution of the academic feminine voice through inter-generational interviews with female graduate students and female faculty members at differing career levels and examine “how they define powerful learning experiences and go about gathering knowledge and making meaning” (10). These interviews will focus on personal narratives of the search for the feminine voice, its place in the academy, the tools to unearth it in our students, and the means to preserve it.
To focus our discussion, the following questions will be posed:
1. Why did you decide to go to graduate school and did that decision empower you as a woman or did you feel devalued in any way because of it?
2. How would you define feminine voice and do you believe that it is different from academic voice? Why or why not?
3. Have you ever experienced or know of an experience of intellectual sexism in academe? If so, what was it?
4. “As one moves up the professional ladder, one observes and increasing defeminization – increasing cognitive and professional authority appears to correlated with decreasing femininity.” –Women’s Ways of Knowing. Do you feel you have or might lose all or part of your feminine identity to conform to the masculine world? Why or why not?We will also include data concerning the graduate program at Texas Tech as it relates to female graduates at the various levels. In addition, we hope to explore the gender make-up of the English department as well.
WHY: To document the evolution of the feminine voice in academia from different perspectives. Yes, some researchers have done so on paper, yet no one has considered the visual.
Research Project: Woman’s Ways of Knowing: Going beyond the B.A.
Group responsibilities:
1. Coming up with a decent title.
2. Creating time and work deadlines.
3. Setting up time to work together on the combination of individual work.
4. Writing the two-three page essay.
Individual responsibilities:
1. Each member will interview four women, graduate students or professors, using only the agreed upon questions. She should make sure the participants have signed a permission slip for use of the video in a class project. She will be responsible to set up the interview times, get all equipment ready, check for room readiness (Room 455 on the white wall), and prep the interviewee by giving that person the questions in advance. (This will take at least 5-6 hours.)
2. Each member will be download each interview, using the Macs in the MOO or Dr. Rice’s classroom, and the I-movie program, in order to have consistency and avoid incompatibility problems between programs and computers. Remember each download takes as long as each interview. A 30-minute interview takes 30 minutes to download. (This will take approximately 3 hours.)
3. Each member will be responsible for editing the interviews to fit time constraints. If we are making an hour video and have ten questions, total response for each question can be no more than six minutes (This six minutes would have more than one answer from an interviewee but cannot have all the answers from all the respondents.). Therefore, each member should only pick the very best answers to put into the videotape. (This may take 6-10 hours.) All interview editing must be completed before Thanksgiving if we want the entire video completed by the 29th.
4. Each member will be required to work with the other members to complete the project in the final editing stages. This may require an entire afternoon (or more) early in the week of Nov. 26, late in the week of Nov. 19, or over that weekend between the two, which is Thanksgiving.
Individual member responsibilities:
Vicki—Create intro, transition, and credit pieces. Find and underscore with music where necessary.
Janna—Provide research information about female grad students.
Beatriz—Demographics from various departments used.
To focus our discussion, the following questions will be posed:
1. Why did you decide to go to graduate school and did that decision empower you as a woman or did you feel devalued in any way because of it?
2. How would you define feminine voice and do you believe that it is different from academic voice? Why or why not?
3. Have you ever experienced or know of an experience of intellectual sexism in academe? If so, what was it?
4. “As one moves up the professional ladder, one observes and increasing defeminization – increasing cognitive and professional authority appears to correlated with decreasing femininity.” –Women’s Ways of Knowing. Do you feel you have or might lose all or part of your feminine identity to conform to the masculine world? Why or why not?We will also include data concerning the graduate program at Texas Tech as it relates to female graduates at the various levels. In addition, we hope to explore the gender make-up of the English department as well.
WHY: To document the evolution of the feminine voice in academia from different perspectives. Yes, some researchers have done so on paper, yet no one has considered the visual.
Research Project: Woman’s Ways of Knowing: Going beyond the B.A.
Group responsibilities:
1. Coming up with a decent title.
2. Creating time and work deadlines.
3. Setting up time to work together on the combination of individual work.
4. Writing the two-three page essay.
Individual responsibilities:
1. Each member will interview four women, graduate students or professors, using only the agreed upon questions. She should make sure the participants have signed a permission slip for use of the video in a class project. She will be responsible to set up the interview times, get all equipment ready, check for room readiness (Room 455 on the white wall), and prep the interviewee by giving that person the questions in advance. (This will take at least 5-6 hours.)
2. Each member will be download each interview, using the Macs in the MOO or Dr. Rice’s classroom, and the I-movie program, in order to have consistency and avoid incompatibility problems between programs and computers. Remember each download takes as long as each interview. A 30-minute interview takes 30 minutes to download. (This will take approximately 3 hours.)
3. Each member will be responsible for editing the interviews to fit time constraints. If we are making an hour video and have ten questions, total response for each question can be no more than six minutes (This six minutes would have more than one answer from an interviewee but cannot have all the answers from all the respondents.). Therefore, each member should only pick the very best answers to put into the videotape. (This may take 6-10 hours.) All interview editing must be completed before Thanksgiving if we want the entire video completed by the 29th.
4. Each member will be required to work with the other members to complete the project in the final editing stages. This may require an entire afternoon (or more) early in the week of Nov. 26, late in the week of Nov. 19, or over that weekend between the two, which is Thanksgiving.
Individual member responsibilities:
Vicki—Create intro, transition, and credit pieces. Find and underscore with music where necessary.
Janna—Provide research information about female grad students.
Beatriz—Demographics from various departments used.
Process
Watching students gather for class, I can see a pattern. First, the students who are 30 minutes to an hour early camp out in front of the classroom. Some pick a seat, slump over and go to sleep. Some read, frantically trying to make up for work they didn't do the week before. Some plug themselves in to their Ipod, and just stare into space. About 10-15 minutes before class, most of the students begin to arrive, taking the last available seats, then the floor closest to the door of their classroom, then standing. They rarely talk. Many times it is quieter than a library.
Finally, the teacher arrives, opens the door and they pour into the classroom. A few stragglers come in right at the time class begins.
I often wonder about the really early arrivals. Why are they there so early? Do they have to get rides? Are they limited to certain kinds of transportation that makes them come so early? Sometimes the Ipod drones give me the creeps. That vacant stare as they listen to music make it seem like they are getting a fix rather than enjoying the lyrics or the composition.
Finally, the teacher arrives, opens the door and they pour into the classroom. A few stragglers come in right at the time class begins.
I often wonder about the really early arrivals. Why are they there so early? Do they have to get rides? Are they limited to certain kinds of transportation that makes them come so early? Sometimes the Ipod drones give me the creeps. That vacant stare as they listen to music make it seem like they are getting a fix rather than enjoying the lyrics or the composition.
Use your inside voice!
When we discussed true voice, I began to think about my own voice. I'm sure most of you think I have a pretty distinctive one, but I know that in certain situations, my voice changes. When I talk to my students, the voice is subtly changed to match the situation, as it is when I talk to my professors, or friends, or even service clerks. I think we all know that different situations call for different language and different voices. As an English teacher, I notice that when I tell people what I do for a living, they almost always respond with "Oh, I better watch my grammar."
Once when I was golfing, I joined a threesome of men to play the back nine holes. When they found out what I did, they immediately began to speak more formally. That lasted until the 11th hole when I hooked my drive into the gunch and uttered (Okay, yelled) a profanity. Things became much more relaxed after that.
We all have expectations of how we should use language depending upon the situation. I find no problem in having different voices for academic purposes, for use with friends, for business use. They are all my true voices.
Once when I was golfing, I joined a threesome of men to play the back nine holes. When they found out what I did, they immediately began to speak more formally. That lasted until the 11th hole when I hooked my drive into the gunch and uttered (Okay, yelled) a profanity. Things became much more relaxed after that.
We all have expectations of how we should use language depending upon the situation. I find no problem in having different voices for academic purposes, for use with friends, for business use. They are all my true voices.
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