Censorship, revisited

Well, it's after 11:00 and I just got home from class. I was really fired up the whole way home, thinking about censorship and the specific example of "Troy" from class. I had a bunch of questions.

To take a question from my group's discussion, what if someone had written the assignment from the slave's perspective and had brutally murdered the slave-owner? Would we have had a problem with that? Would the student have had to rewrite this assignment then?

If you think that assignment would have been acceptable, would your answer change if that writer was a black student?

If you'd still accept the assignment, don't you think that you'd be accepting a paper equally as racist as Troy's?


What if Troy hadn't derived so much pleasure from the writing? Would it have been acceptable then?
Why can we read terrible stories and gruesome details, but then censor our students when they write them? If we don't have to censor ourselves, why do we censor our students when we don't always agree with them?


Maybe my questions are out there and crazy, and I am in no way agreeing with what the student wrote. I think it's disgusting that people think that way. However, we accept when famed authors write about these horrors and I don't feel that we should censor our students (who could be the next famed author about slavery) when they react to writing prompts.

Twilight and FanFiction

The fan-fiction stories are interesting! It is fun to see how people play with the characters. Some use the same characters but change how they meet, and therefore, the relationships they have with one another. Others pick up where one novel or another left off.

I read "My Own Secret" by FantasyChick101 and felt that this was a pretty interesting story (not commenting on grammar, style, etc.) Fan-Fiction would probably make a good alternative writing assignment for our students--it requires them to be engaged in what they read, to comprehend what they read, and to understand the characters presented in the books so that they can produce "accurate" fan-fiction. (I say "accurate" because you can't write Harry Potter fan-fiction with Harry being a terrible wizard, etc. You have to know the characters to write them.)

The article definitely had some good points about intertextuality. This story can be tied into stories like Romeo and Juliet (because they are from two different worlds and if they give in to their love they could both be destroyed), and others that use this idea of forbidden love.

I actually read a great reaction to this novel and the movies over the weekend. The writer said that really Twilight is just about repressed sexuality. Edward can't give in to Bella because if he does he might kill her, and Bella loves Edward enough to risk it, but decides to wait until he is ready. (This whole idea brought some laughs from my friends who said that you never hear men saying "wait.")

The book itself is a terribly-written good story. The actual events are exciting and push you forward through the book. The writing style is so cheesy and ridiculous that I had some difficulty getting lost in the pages. I was sick and tired of hearing about how beautiful Edward is, and I felt that "Bella's" narration was over-the-top throughout. It could have been simplified to create a more enjoyable read (and one that was about 200 pages shorter!), but I think this is an art that Meyer improves on throughout the other 3 novels in the series.

Blog about the weekend

As promised to a few of you, I wanted to provide a little update about my weekend in Indy! First, you can see our picture on their website (fan photos) by following this link: http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=IndianapolisColts&gallery_id=1834596&image_id=59&pos=60

We made signs (which you can see in the picture) and then got on the big screen at the game too. Apparently, we were sitting in the family section too, but the families must have been those of some of the benchwarmers because they didn't get too excited about anyone on the field.

I'm in the process of posting lots of pictures to my facebook page, but I added some here for fun. They are all taken from our seats, with not a whole lot of zoom.

Let's start off with Dallas Clark. I absolutely adore him.

With the uprights in the background, pregame. Dallas Clark is back there somewhere.

The one end-zone has some fun stuff for fans--you can put yourself at a press conference podium, or on a plane next to McAfee. Here's one with the cheerleaders right before the Colts come out at the start of the game:

It was a close game, but a missed Texan's fieldgoal at the end ensured our victory: 20-17. GO COLTS!

Be sure to check facebook for more pictures, and I will see you in class Wednesday!

Research!

My research inquiry topic is:
Investigating Writing: How can we encourage students to write?

My research questions are:
1) What kinds of writing are crucial for students to learn?
2) How do state and federal standards play a part in the writing curriculum?
3) How can we engage students in writing while helping them meet those standards?
4) How can we prepare and excite students for writing outside of the classroom?

My sources are:
Book: In The Middle. There are great ideas for getting students involved in the writing process and thinking of themselves as characters, narrators, etc. Since I want to teach middle school, I think this is one of the better books to use.
Article: "From the personal to the public: Conceptions of creative writing in higher education" by Gregory Light. This article examines an older age group, so I think it will be interesting to see how the writing process changes/scaffolds from one year to the next.
Article: "The Effects of School-Based Writing-to-Learn Inverventions on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis" by Robert L. Banger-Drowns, Marlene M. Hurley, and Barbara Wilkinson. The article focuses on keywords such as cognitive strategies, learning strategies, and writing to learn.

To be honest, I have not gotten very far on this at all, due to a mixed-up Methods schedule and an unexpected (and quite unwelcome!) illness. I have passages selected from In The Middle but have not yet gone in-depth with my articles. This is something I will look at before class next week and get ideas on. Also, I am going to talk to Brooke about her experience with writing in the classroom, so she will be one of my "interviewees." I am also going to ask some eighth-graders about the writing they do in school and how they feel about it. I think these interviews will add some personal context to my paper.

Graphic Novels and starting a Revolution!

I enjoyed this book-it was well-written and I enjoyed the simple complexity of the illustrations. There was so much going on, and I really liked how everything tied together. Covering this difficult topic in such a "fun" way is exciting for me. I like that it isn't as heavy as some other books (like the one written by the "Fatwa Man" - sorry, I can't remember his name or the title!)

The article did a lot for me but I wasn't sure if there was too much focus on how it helps the writing, and not the reading. The "teachers" gave the students writing assignments and text-less stories, so were they really helping the students become better readers? I think they were effective in making the students good story-tellers, but are they really better readers or writers? It seemed like there were plenty of errors in the writing, but I am curious about whether those errors were corrected in final versions of their stories. I am interested to see what you all thought in class tonight!