Jose's ENG 304 Blog

Process Journal #2

mondraje — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:08:12 +0000

The main event in my process actually occurred on Thursday, when I had that “Eureka!” moment that was randomly triggered during class. I’m not too enthused about letting the cat out of the bag, so I think I’m going to resist doing so while still managing to talk about what I’m up to with this assignment. Naturally, my big idea didn’t decide to line up perfectly with any of the indicators or standards or whatnot….but I’m gonna make it work regardless. Might take a liberal interpretation, might not. We’ll see what the final thing looks like.

Regarding actual content, this is fun: it’s a lesson in revision….well, kind of. As much revision as I’m capable of, at least. The assignment’s going to be for upper middle school students (7th or 8th, maybe 9th if I’m not diggin’ the standards and such), and will likely be more of a unit than a single lesson. I think that it’s going to work out just fine. Wednesday is the day of doom, so I have all sorts of fun stuff that’s still taking precedence over my actually writing up the sheet that’ll be going out to everybody – that’s okay, though. I’m merely hoping to not disappoint after talking up my idea as I did last week – I think it can deliver, but we’ll see if the bit of sleep deprivation I’ve had will prevent it from being written up in fully awesome super mode. If nothing else, it’ll be an interesting look into the most recent example of revision that I’ve done with my own writing…

Process Journal

mondraje — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:59:41 +0000

I’d feel a lot better about this whole process journal business if there was more to report. At the moment, progress remains halted on account of one of my other education classes being at the front of the line for work getting done. Illness and timing conspired against me over the break, leaving me in a state unfit to get work done on Monday – a true bother when that is one of my more productive nights. I’ve been pondering a variety of options for this lesson plan, but I’m just about sure I’ll be doing a lesson involving some creative writing, tying in some of the things we’ve looked at this semester (of course). I’m prone to flights of fancy, so we’ll see what ends up grabbing me for good here in not too long.

Some may argue against this being part of my process, but I say boo to that. It’s essential for me to maintain my happy, satisfied state of being in day-to-day affairs to be productive (or at least truly productive). As such, I am often reading things on the side when I should (in theory) be working on assignments. Perhaps it may be so, but I find that I write better and think more clearly when I’m enjoying a high quality book. I have recently decided to go ahead and read through Infinite Jest again (a commitment, to be sure), which will surely provide me with inspiration for these last remaining assignments of the semester and beyond. The gift that keeps on giving, that book. Anyhow, concrete progress should be made shortly – it has to be.

Style!

mondraje — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:04:39 +0000

I don’t know necessarily that I have any pressing questions for Ronald about this bit of writing (or just in general as a response to what was gleaned of her and her writing from this article). To some degree, surely, I’m a bit overconfident in my ability to write…or at the very least I believe in my knowledge of a lot of what is written in texts of this type. That right there is poorly constructed, but it will have to do. Essentially, I recognize that learning occurs through communication of some sort. Yes, texts of this type offer up opinions of a potentially helpful variety…but are they new thoughts?

I dunno…I’ve lost my train of thought. I think what I was trying to say was that I enjoyed this text, but that I don’t think it offered up too crazy an amount of new information. Then again, it was a writer sharing her thoughts and opinions and it was interesting. I think that I’ve got most of her style tips already incorporated into my writing, which left me just thinking “Yep.” to myself about what she wrote. I think that the greatest way for a writer to improve their writing (style and all else) is to write and to read…a lot. It’s really not all that complicated, I don’t think. My ability to write as I do (generally well, if prone to the occasional bit of inconsistency) comes entirely from being a big-time reader. I think it’ll work out a lot better when she’s in the classroom – dialogue should flow far more smoothly.

Case Study, Coding, etc.

mondraje — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:54:31 +0000

I thought it might be interesting to have my friend be the participant in this case study because of his being similar to myself and loving math. Granted, I love writing too, so perhaps it wasn’t the most direct of connections that was being made. All the same, I went forward with the knowledge that I likely would not have been able to find someone else that I would have good enough access to to do this case study. So, onward we go!

To make sense of the data (or code, of course) from the paper he wrote and the interview questions I asked, I’ve tried to distinguish between general feelings on writing and the feelings on writing this paper specifically. I think that understanding the participant in this case study will be much less difficult if I am able to begin with a broad context and then shrink it down to something more specific. The first bit of questioning I did did not produce as much of a response as I’d have liked, so I’m going in for a second round soon that will make use of the knowledge I’ve gleaned since reading his paper.

So far, at the very least, it’s been an interesting process. I think it’s challenging to encounter someone else as a writer, as not many people go about sharing their writing or thinking of themselves as writers. In my participant’s case, he most certainly does not think of himself as a writer and only writes because he has to. Competency is there, but he doesn’t strive for anything more. It’s odd to me that this can happen, but I guess we can’t all be writers…

Class Chaos! (not really)

mondraje — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:21:44 +0000

The teacherless classroom functioned much like the good ol’ Dadas-led one has over the course of the semester. I think the format of this class, the comfort level we’ve established with each other, and just a general tendency towards communication (being human beings and all) all contributed to class running fairly smoothly and involving a good deal of discussion. There was, for a bit, some failure to launch, but I think that had more to do with people not transitioning fully into class mode than any issue with the class topics and teaching themselves.

The actual content of the class was pretty good, I thought. We didn’t go too crazy detailed into the articles that we had to read, but the content and gist was worked nicely into the lesson all the same. I think the lesson prepared by our classmates was effective in provoking thought amongst the class, and there was definitely a smooth transition from one topic to another which helped to keep the class flowing very nicely – I did not believe that it had been close to an hour that we were in class when I happened to glance at the clock (time flies!). I think the discussions we had about researching as a teacher will certainly help us all to keep things in perspective in the future as we begin to teach – the importance of knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing is not something to be understated! The most positive aspect of the class, for me, was having the opportunity to discuss revision and outlining and all that fun stuff once again. I think the class has a greater idea about how I feel on these topics now (certainly as they pertain to teaching), and I just think that’s gravy.

Interlude Dos

mondraje — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:38:06 +0000

Topic was mentioned in class – best author. Who’s your go-to?

Invention!

mondraje — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:26:54 +0000

The part of the Invention chapter from Clark that most grabbed my attention was the bit about writer’s block. It may have just been the Flaubert quote that did it – “a whole day with your head in your hands, trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word.” Phenomenal stuff.

Anyhow, regarding writer’s block…I think this section of the chapter did a fine job of pointing out some of the big-time writer’s block producing factors (accurately). As mentioned, I think a lot of writer’s block will come from writers not quite understanding what it is that they’re meant to write or feeling that they have to write something a very particular way that they are terrified of doing incorrectly. In my personal history of writing for teachers and writing for myself, I’ve generally found that the times I run into writer’s block are when I’ve failed to fully digest the work that lies ahead of me. Somewhere along my writing path, the assignment will click in my head and I’ll be able to steamroll my way through it without too much trouble. For personal writing, I tend to get held up by an inability to write something out perfectly the way I want it – perhaps it might make sense to just write out what I have and fix it later, rather than delaying my whole process…but I’m stubborn, so it’s unlikely to happen.

Back to Clark, I think the other section of the chapter that really caught my eye was the bit about invention possibilities to use in a writing class. That whole section is practical, useful to any teacher who’s going to be teaching writing. There’s certainly nothing wrong with history, but it’s always nice when one can just go, “oh, hey, that works!”

Brainstorming and such…

mondraje — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:03:22 +0000

The group that I chose to look at was that of students who are members of the “advanced” math group. Throughout my academic career, I have consistently been placed in the most advanced math classes (until this whole college business came around, that is), and I feel that this inside knowledge certainly helps me in being able to accurately answer some of the questions posed in the cultural inventory.

I think, as a group, the students in the advanced groups for math (or any subject, really) define themselves in relation to the rest of their peers. Students are aware of where they fall, ability-wise, and this knowledge shapes personal opinions of self and others. Most essential to this group is their ability or intelligence – students are proud of knowing what they know or being good at what they do, and they (correctly) assess that their “being smart” does not prevent them from being cool or ensure that they are “dorky” or possibly “nerdy” in the eyes of others. I think, in some cases, there is an element of embarrassment – this is generated by students not feeling that they’re all that much different from anyone else, and feeling that the “extra attention” that comes with being in the higher ability group is unwarranted.

I think that outsiders think these groups are filled (though not full) of nerds and dorks. Outsiders view them as being “better,” due to a feeling of not being quite as good as the members of this group. Granted, the feeling or thoughts of outsiders will vary…but I do think that there’s a general disdain or envy that outsiders feel for this group.

I’m not too sure what aspect of schooling or teaching I will look into for the autoethnography assignment. I’m thinking that I might tackle gifted students or something random like assemblies. It’s definitely something I need to think a bit more about and hopefully figure out to a greater degree in the near future…

Timeline (Non-assignment interlude)

mondraje — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:15:45 +0000

08/28: Blog created, site has 2 views

09/07: Labor Day, 1 page view

09/08: Jose rambles about writing thoughts, page has 8 views

09/09: Rambling sinks in a bit more, page has 11 views

09/10: “Tirade” begins to wear off, page drops back to 6 views

———————————————————————————–

Average views from 08/28 – 09/07: ~1.6

Average views, post-blabber: ~8.3

Fun.

Booth!

mondraje — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:54:21 +0000

Booth’s bit of writing was a welcome turn from the thoroughly, thoroughly head-mangling work of CoJo. That’s not to say that the last reading was bad – certainly not the case. It merely had some issues that go along with any dense work (i.e. necessitating one’s pondering light to be turned on to the high setting). Anyhow, back to Booth…

Booth’s “Rhetorics” piece was useful for the definitions and historical perspective it provided. There was a sense of knowing how rhetoric is (and has been) perceived by many different individuals or schools of thought. I haven’t fully decided yet one way or the other, but I did spend some time wondering if this article would have been better read before the CoJo one – does the loose, workable piece by Booth work without the base established by CoJo? Not sure yet.

This reading got me thinking about our class discussion on Tuesday a little bit more. I think that this article would do wonders for students more so than the CoJo writing. Students could work with this material – along with a multitude of rhetorical examples – to develop their understanding. I think, given time to work on this subject and to put something together, that there could definitely be some excellent activities and exercises put together for students to develop understanding.

Once more back to Booth, I enjoyed the little bit in the “Obvious Synonyms” section where he mentions the annoyance caused by rhetoricians “stealing” material from other educational fields. It’s a bit silly, really. Sometimes life is baffling in how people respond to things.