Questions for 102 class

What are you trying to prove to your audience?
Who is your audience?
What topics will you write about and in which order?
How formal/informal do you intend to be? 1st person?
Which sources will you use for which portions of your paper? (Go into the blog and start labeling them as such!)
What will you do to remain on target time-wise? Look at the syllabus and plan out specific deadlines for yourself.

Working Bibliography

Jaschik, Scott. "Community Colleges and Graduation Rates." Inside Higher Ed. 22 Mar. 2007. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. Good overview of info from a study.

"A new study on community college graduation rates has a somewhat unusual conclusion: Federal measures of the graduation rates are as bad as critics claim, but when those measures are corrected, colleges' results compared to other institutions don't change very much."

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=498 This is the study cited in the above source. I need to check out this CCRC site more fully. Lots of stuff there and it is highly authoritative.

Oh Happy Day because of happy students

I've gotten some interesting positive feedback from students this week. Yesterday, I asked my 096 students to give me anonymous feedback about how the class is going and if there is anything they'd change. I'll spare the details, but what I learned from them is they are genuinely happy to be in my class. They like what we're doing, they like that their learning and they like how I treat them. Wow. How refreshing!

Then today, one of my 102 students wrote on Facebook that she always likes her English teachers even though she does not like English as a class.

All of this positive feedback has made me realize that, you know what?, I like my students this semester. They are really personable. And it's not just one class. The 9 a.m. class has so many students in it who are clearly trying so hard to do well. They ask great questions. They interact well with one another. (And the class meets in the room we used for the learning community, so it brings back good memories) My 11 a.m. class is just so real. The students in that class have distinct identities. And the the 12 o'clock class is so openly friendly. Some of the students in that class are just sweet. Others are sociable and, I don't know, just more awake than I'm used to. They make me kind of hyper and then they laugh with me (at least I think it's with me; it may very well be at me, but, again, they are paying attention!).

And then today the 102 class gave me great hope for interesting research papers this semester. Some of the students have really embraced the opportunity to work with one another and the give and take of ideas. I'm hoping they rub off on some of the other students (yup, I'm looking at you, Fantasy Sports guy).

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I read this book in early December. I should probably say that I reread this book.

I love this book! It is considered to be the first English detective novel. The brilliance of the book is that it is written in several first person narratives. There is a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a huge yellow diamond (the Moonstone of the title). The diamond is an important cultural artifact in India and it was taken by an Englishman during a conflict. The diamond is said to bring misfortune to anyone who keeps it away from its important spot in a statue. The man who took it ends up bequeathing it to his niece in order to get back at his sister. Anyhow, that's just the opening chapter or two.

What keeps me returning to this book is the way that it was written. Usually mysteries are not very interesting once you've discovered "whodunit." This one is still because of the realistic character development. Even supposedly minor characters are fully drawn in the narrative. Many characters get the opportunity to speak for themselves in their own portions of the book. Gabriel (I'm probably misspelling this) is the old butler who gets to write a significant portion of the text. He's probably my favorite. There's also a hilarious section of the book written by a religious zealot. She ends up leaving religious pamphlets in bizarre places in order to help save the souls of those around her. That doesn't help advance the plot in any way, but it is an example of how Wilkie Collins sprinkles real life into the book so effectively that it's like the reader is watching a real life story advance rather than reading a mystery novel.

One thing I noticed on rereading the book is that the character names give the reader the very first impression of how they should be received. For example, Gabriel Betteredge is a favorable character. He is supposed to have a "better edge" on what's happening than others. In reality, he is very observant in that he notices tons of details and picks up on characters' reactions to things. The comical part is that though he notices the details and reports them to the reader, he often misinterprets them. He is a trusty narrator in that we the reader trust him to be a good person. In all actuality, though, his in an untrusty narrator because we can't 100% believe his view of what happened. That sort of complication is what makes the book so wonderful and enjoyable even on a third reading.

Why the posting silence?

Ok, this blog has been woefully neglected. I've been meaning to get back into the blogging for some time now. Last semester was just horribly draining on me. When I started the semester in August, I was 5 months pregnant, and of course, I only got more pregnant as the semester went on. Add to that, I was teaching 3 sections of English 102 and 2 sections of 101. That grading load was intense and I was just tired!

But now I hope to get back to blogging. My plan is to at least blog about books I am reading for fun. Maybe I'll also blog about my 096 class since this is the first time I am teaching it.