Literacies and Learning: August 2011

For Friday, August 26, I'd like you to write about this topic: What were you taught NEVER to do as a writer? Come up with about two or three such mandates, and write some of your reflections about each one. Was this rule a good one? Are there sound reasons for it? Are there times when you can/should ignore it?

For Monday, August 29, I'd like you to find a YouTube video in which you can identify at least two distinctive Discourses. Embed the video on your blog. Then, characterize (in some writing) the different Discourses you see. Are they in alignment? Do they collide? Do they create humor? Something else?

For week of September 7-9, please write one paragraph per idea for your larger class project. Think about what you'd like to study, maybe how you could study it, and perhaps even a key question or two you'd like to answer.

For week of September 7-9 (online) or for September 14 (9 am & 11 am sections): Post up a picture of your practice field notes, and on your blog, write up a response to each of the three questions on page 106: What surprised me? What intrigued me? What disturbed me?

For the week of September 12-16: Study very informally and very briefly a culture immediate to you. Use whatever means you want to gather and record information. This culture might be your family, dorm floor, cohort, etc. Or it might be the same culture that you used to practice taking field notes. On your blog, write a micro-ethnographic account about your chosen culture. Focus carefully on one small part that seems important. Some parts/categories you might consider are things like dress, unique language, habits, etc.

For September 23: Post up a reflection about some material artifact (object) that exists at your site. How might an examination of this thing tell you something important about the Discourse/literacies/culture you are studying?

For September 26 (9 am and 11 am day classes only): Post up a short reflection about the Humanities Symposium event that you attended. Provide a brief description and give a sense of what you took away from the talk.

Week of September 26-30 (online class only): Write a blog post about your spatial map. Relate the choices you made as you drew/organized/labeled it. Explain how it helps you understand the culture in question.

For October 5: Drawing from your interview (and hopefully, selective transcription of the interview), compose a good paragraph or two that relates the interview to one of your larger research questions. In other words, the write-up should try to convey how this interview has value to your study.

For October 7 (9 am and 11 am day classes only): Using some of the principles of cohesion and coherence we discussed, write a paragraph that treats one of the following questions... (a) How are you connected to the culture of your project? (b) How is your project important/significant? (What might it help an audience understand?) (c) What is the culture/literacy/Discourse you are studying? (an overview).

For October 10: Compile a list of words common to the culture you’re studying and post up the beginnings of a Glossary of Terms. You are welcome to draw upon extant glossaries online as long as you note where you’re getting your information.

October 14: After researching any online communities that exist around/for your culture, post up some ideas about how these online sites might have value for your research. Be sure to include links if you want to bookmark the sites for later.

November 14: Post up some initial ideas for your digital short. These ideas can come in script form, in a narrative, in a descriptive piece, whatever. The key notion here is to beginning planning around a clear focus and get some ideas down.

Literacies and Learning