Live Free or Die Hard......2.0

Another one because I think this one is more valid

sdanielson09 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:02:52 +0000

The title of this entry more refers to the fact that my first entry was not related to this class and another one was not created due to my own forgetfulness so I figured at least seven content related posts would be a good idea. The topic of this final post will actually relate to my first post (well at least what I was aiming for with my first post) and that’s comedy. I’m sure that most people can agree that for the most part they would rather laugh then cry for most of their life and I know that’s how I approach my life. I like watching amusing things and making people laugh. Aside from that I’m starting to think that our best and most applicable political commentary comes from comedians.

So why not take advantage of it? Want to hear someone describe what the Cold War period was like? Why watch another video when you can have amusing indignant clips like this from Lewis Black

Granted this is a little bit crass but I think that it is something that has merit and should be considered.

The side you never hear

sdanielson09 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:13:44 +0000

I know throughout our experience in our class we’ve been talking about methods for analyzing reading and different strategies to use for our content. But how do we choose what to read and whose points of view should we listen to? Strangely enough the thing that got me thinking was this bit by British comedian and transvestite Eddie Izzard. For those of you who don’t know his work Izzard is widely popular around the world and just recently received critical acclaim for his F/X series the Riches. His set called Dressed To Kill won for best comedy program and best writing at the 1998 Emmy’s. He’s a great comedian if you love history.

My primary focus is on the bit about Saving Private Ryan. The more I thought about that bit the more I realized how little I heard about the British when I was being taught about World War I. Truth be told I think it’s a great injustice. So can we as literate teachers take a stand and ask our students to consider these ideas or do we continue to teach what we’ve been told to teach? It’s a difficult question. Maybe we as teachers can’t all be inspirational and thought provoking but I do hope that we can. I leave you with some Ryan Gosling being a teacher I hope we can all be, minus the crack addiction.

What My Grade Should Be

sdanielson09 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:39:07 +0000

I think all things considered I should get around an A minus to a B plus. I believe it was abundantly clear that I had read the article as well as thought numerous ideas for discussion. In addition, I believe that my direction of the discussion was also sufficient as we tended to move along through topics after everyone had their say. One thing that I liked about this discussion in particular was that each group member responded to each question almost like we were taking turns and everyone tended to bounce their ideas off each other. I also feel that I was not hesitant to express my own opinions about the topics at hand.

The reviews from my group members were very positive aside from one comment that my discussion seemed a little unorganized. I can agree that this if anything was a fault in my panel. I had very clear goals for discussion but in terms of ordering questions and clearly directing the discussion and the thinking I was slightly weak. However, the discussion as a whole I think went very well. I made a distinct point of getting people to look at the article in relation to their own contents and not necessarily my own for the entire duration. I also feel that the group brought up a lot of interesting ideas by itself based upon the questions I asked.

Now my attention is turned to my final project. I was wondering if anyone had any particular reading materials (history related) that they found more interesting or more engaging than others. In particular I’m curious about forms of primary source documents. I am open to all suggestions. Something I would bear in mind is that I would consider myself to be a cultural historian so anything cultural would be preferable.

For instance songs such as this one to explain civil rights movements in the sixties.

The best reading quote I have ever heard

sdanielson09 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:06:18 +0000

For anyone who has looked at my blogs this week they’re going to sense a theme of sorts which in this case would be the movie The History Boys. The film adapted from the play of the same name and the film is made with the same cast that was on the original cast of the show. It follows a group of incredibly bright boys as they attempt to get into the prestigious universities of Oxford and Cambridge. One of the boys teachers is the eccentric “Hector” who wants his student to internalize everything they learn in his class “General Studies”.

While the movie focuses more on teaching styles Hector makes one phenomenal quote about reading. He says “The greatest moments in reading come when you feel something that you think is entirely personal and unique to you. Then you look down on the page and there it is. From someone you’ve never met or someone who’s dead. It’s like someone’s hand reaches out and grabs yours.” I think this is the kind of thinking that can motivate someone to read. I doubt that anyone is going to have this reaction to everything they read but if you can force a student to truly look at the words in front of them and truly take them to heart and relate to the material that is when reading will mean the most.

Too often, I think that our society focuses on results and achievement and not about making material meaningful especially with regards to reading. Most classes don’t care if you took the material to heart they merely want you to analyze the themes of the book in a four page paper. I don’t want students to leave my class knowing more but I’d also like them to be more well rounded. It’s a potential pipe dream but I think it’s something to consider.

With regards to the earlier quotation I’d like to argue that music is the same way as music in that regard. Whether it’s the lyrics or the notes being played the right song can inspire us or force us to ask deep questions about our lives. One of my favorite songs does just that. The song is “Show Me” by John Legend and comes off his most recent album Once Again. The lyrics can be found here. As it may or may not be obvious the song is Legend’s own personal conversation with god as he asks why the world around him is like it is and asks him to demonstrate his presence in our world. Aside from my amazement that this song made it on the album, considering the obvious religious implications, it’s a potent song and wonderfully orchestrated. I’m curious how people think a song like this could be used in class.

An Idea

sdanielson09 — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:24:11 +0000

Something that I don’t fully comprehend is how none of the material we’ve gone over has mentioned reading our content material out loud. I know that reading is a mostly visual medium but I think there is great value in reading almost anything out loud. First of all, it adjusts the lesson to more than just one intelligence which a nearly insurmountable amount of research has said is key to enhancing student learning. In addition, it brings new life to material that may otherwise seem stale.

Of course it doesn’t hurt if the people reading the material do it with some enthusiasm so I think that has to start with the teacher. I remember reading Twelfth Night out loud in my English class senior year and not only do I remember that show better I also remember the series of jokes and ways of reading lines that people came up with. One of our classmates decided to rap every line that he had while another person spoke lines like cartoon characters. It let the students it that class express themselves and not be criticized for it.

Those of you in the history department might know Madonna. She’s on leave this semester but she actually taught history through literary works and had groups read plays in front of the class to help us understand it. I was actually hoping to do something like that in my own history classes at some point but we’ll see how that turns out. Please share your thoughts on this idea.

Let’s Make Things Interesting

sdanielson09 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:41:55 +0000

I got reminded recently of my AP English class senior year. My teacher had been teaching the class for years upon year and decided that she wanted to change things up a bit to make it more interesting for the students. Instead of having the entire class read and discuss Beowulf for almost an entire month she gave us a very different assignment. The assignment was simple pick a significant work of American fiction and take the class period to read it and develop a presentation on it for the class. The presentation could be in one of about ten forms including a morality ladder. The book I ended up reading was Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

I had been a big fan of the movie and thought that the book would simply be a nice review of what I had seen. The copy of the book that the school library had even had Jack Nicholson’s picture on the front. Much to my surprise, instead of a third-person all knowing narrator it ended up being the character known as Chief. It was slightly amazing to see the same story from another point of view. As I continued reading I developed a great appreciation for the novel and by the end I, a noted non-reader, had found a favorite book.

I’m not saying that every English teacher should allow their students to do this same exact project, but I think this is a wonderful example of putting the students education in their own hands. I think that methods like this are also quite effective because it allows students who may not enjoy reading to find something they’ll enjoy. The novel I chose was by no means a long one (I had classmates that read Moby Dick), but nevertheless it allowed me to delve into greater themes and characterization.

For The Ones Who Don’t Read

sdanielson09 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:22:21 +0000

One thing that has been on my mind since we started this course is this simple question: How can we make reading meaningful to students that would rather receive their information in another medium? My friends can attest to the incredibly large nature of my movie collection and how much information I can rattle off a number of quotes and, if not stopped soon enough, will talk about certain movies all day. How can I use this to make me a better reader? One possible answer lies within one particular genre of movies: non-dubbed foreign films.

For as long as I can remember I’ve heard individuals complain that they don’t like watching foreign films because they have to read the entire time. To me this means that anyone watching the film has to actually pay attention fully to what is occurring on-screen. I can honestly state that even though I’ve seen most of the movies I own numerous times I remember more of the lines from foreign films not to mention more of the plot.

Recent research says that this kind of reading can make students better readers. A recent study of Finish children discovered that the more younger students did reading related activities outside of class (i.e. comics, subtitles, newpapers), the greater the chances that they would become better readers.

I have always take a constructivist point of view when it comes to an education philosophy and I think this exemplifies my point. The students that were tested were not necessarily reading academic books, textbooks, or books they had been assigned to read. Instead, they were covering material that interested them. I think it’s unfair that our culture often forgets the merit of other mediums that encourage reading. Comic books often have grand overarching themes such as loneliness, self-discovery and debates about morality and I know I’m not the only one that believes that Calvin and Hobbes was incredibly philosophical. I know one thing that drives me crazy is when people either scoff when I tell them I don’t read many books or insist upon telling me that the book that a film is based upon is clearly better. I can understand if a book is more meaningful to someone else than a film is. But to me a good film much like a good book is a work of art and has the same literary base from a well written screenplay.

So how can we apply this to the classroom? I think that the possibilities are endless. If you are reading about mythology and want to see how the modern media interprets it you don’t need to look any further that the origin of the Marvel comics character. We still live in a literary world we simply need to look for it.

How To Avoid Bear Attacks

sdanielson09 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:45:37 +0000

Taking a cue from Stephen Colbert and Dwight Scrute it has become increasingly obvious to me that bear attacks are not only frequent but only pose a great threat to college students. With this in mind (I did not want to say bearing this in mind people would say I was doing it on purpose considering the subject matter), I give you a list of how to avoid bear attacks

-Bears can climb faster than they can run so if a bear is pursuing you just keeping running and do not attempt to scale a tree. The grizzly does not take his time like Winnie the Pooh.

-Polar bears will naturally blend in to their arctic environment so have necessary weaponry on hand

-What Smokey the Bear doesn’t tell you is that he hunts for the people who start forest fires

-Poison darts are not an effective defensive weapon against bears due to their immense girth. Therefore, biological and chemical weapons such as tear gas will be more effective and a wiser investment in general (You never know when someone might try to fill the arch again)

-Bears are not just killing machines. Most North American species have developed into omnivores so preparing a salad to place outside your tent may give you enough time to evade an attack

-Despite what that one episode of South Park might have told you most bear cubs are not looking for someone to come to their birthday party. At their early stages most bears are learning to do what bears do best: KILL!.

-Bears will turn on you at any point in time without mercy or regret much like a partner in the Mafia. The end of the movie Grizzly Man proves my point.

-Pandas are just as cuddly as they look. Just give them some bamboo and enjoy the rest of your day rubbing their big white bellies………if you can find one that’s not in a zoo that is

-Don’t let their size fool you bears are excellent swimmers. Many seals have found this out the hard way.

-If you’re a salmon reading this a number of things I’d like to say. First, you are the most evolved salmon ever congrats. Second, you taste delicious I’m sorry but at least your death occasionally has a purpose. C: Your reproductive cycle is horribly depressing so best of luck and watch out for bear claws swiping at you.