Matt’s Class

No audio today, but I just wanted to let everyone know that the new reading list is available: LINK

Oh, you know. Some more talky-talky.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 46:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (3)

Hey-oh.

I’ve been having some technical difficulties over the past couple of days. Mostly with my brain, forgetting to turn on the recording equipment and all. But I have a good excuse: My face hurts. I got a cold a couple days ago, and this cold has expressed itself through a face ache. It’s a little distracting.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of what we’ve done if you’ve been gone:

1. We brainstormed topics for the first writing assignment. (You can see the complete assignment via the link over there on the right-hand side of the page.) The main challenge with this was getting topics that were narrow enough. The topic “whales” won’t work for this paper, but the topic “the blowhole of the whale” might be perfect. Think about the kinds of things Melville focuses his little chapters on, and think on that small scale. Also, the topic doesn’t have to directly relate to the sea or whales. This book has big, spiritual, metaphysical, mythological types of themes that can accommodate almost any topic you choose if you get creative with the connections.

2. I introduced the new vocab list, which consists of terms we’ll be using for literary analysis of the book. You can come get the list from me in class. We also started making cards for the latest round of the famous party game, “Go Fish (Yourself),” which I personally think is a stupid waste of time, but other people seem to like. Whatevs. You can all go fish yourselves.

That’s it. Today (Friday), my goal is to remember to hit Record, so you can get a few more instructions about the draft due today, as well as some more reading and discussion.

MT

So here’s the full explanation of the writing assignment. You may want to listen to this again if you’re still confused and trying to get this done at the last minute. We also worked as a class to break down a typical chapter in the book to mine it for ideas of how to pick a topic and then expand it into a full analysis and make up some allegorical meaning. And last, but not least, we read a few chapters with some really very naughty-seeming language in which a dude almost drowns by falling into the reservoir of a decapitated whale’s head.

Yawn. Right?

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 61:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (13)

Here you get the explanation of the course syllabus, as well as some exciting reading and discussion. At the end of today’s reading, the boat’s all covered with dead whale heads.

Score so far:

Pequod: 2

Whales: 0

Don’t give up, whales!

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 58:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (5)

Alright. This didn’t work out so well. Actually, in the class period before this was recorded, this discussion turned out pretty great. But the one I got on tape is scattered and inconclusive.

This discussion was the result of a little experiment. First, we did a day of general “awareness” kinds of meditation. Then, the next day, I read for the entire class period without stopping for discussion or explanation. Then, today, I tried to mine the class for ideas so that, all together, we could put together a general theory about what the day’s reading had actually been about. No individual really knew, since the reading was long and complicated. But I was reasonable sure that as a class, they could piece it all together.

Some classes were able to do that pretty well. The discussion I recorded is a bit scattered and inconclusive. Running discussions like this is such a crapshoot. When it works, it’s beautiful. When it flounders and dies, you think you’ll never regain the class’ interest and enthusiasm.

Oh! The travails of the modern teacher of Language Arts!

Behold:

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 55:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (4)

America! If you find yourself sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair in front of a picture window hurling obscenities at all people under the age of 40 driving over the speed of 20 down your quiet suburban road, then you may be the type of person who has a poor impression of our nation’s youth.

Well. Today’s discussion proves that while our young citizens may, in fact, be crazy, they’re not stupid. Listen to how many plausible theories about the overall meaning of Moby Dick the class comes up with all on their own. (After the discussion, we read to the end of chapter 63).

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 22:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (17)

Where have we been these past few days? Let’s play a little catch up:

– Wednesday and Thursday, we read up to page 300 and gathered two pages of possible writing prompts stemming from those days’ reading

– Friday was a short day and I used the time to introduce a few more books from the reading list in order to get people “pumped” for the final push towards next week’s 700-outside-reading-page deadline

– Today, Monday, we wrote the final in-class essay, essay #6, which you can find posted over there in the 11th Grade Writing Assignments area

Here’s some more readin’ ‘n’ talkin’.

The assignment was to locate possible “prompt” topics in today’s reading, and write them down in your notebook for future use (i.e., on next week’s timed writing). Remember that a few weeks ago we discussed the features of a good prompt–things like, it should be open-ended, opinion-based, it should relate to real life and real people, it should be a topic of general interest/curiosity, etc. I’ll be checking notebooks one more time next week.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [ 57:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (15)