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Thursday, January 20, 2011
Jan. 20th, 2011 11:07 pmThis morning I woke up at 7am since I had a long day ahead and I had to re-read the Jenkins article and come up with Close Reading Assignment. Then as I got up and I was preparing for my day the paragraphs I wanted to chose for the close reading occurred to me in the shower. Inspiration does hit at strangest of places.
Jenkins spends a few paragraphs discussing fair use and copyright and the uncertain place fanfiction occupies and the corporate anxieties about fair use and the lack of legal definitions etc. To me those paragraphs are really easy to understand since this summer the internets were exploding with the discussion of fanfiction and its right to exist and the ideas of fair use and copyright. But it occurred to me that Jenkins never defines ‘fair use’ but assumes that the readers can just talk about copyright. So I’m asking my students to explain what Jenkins means by ‘fair use’ in the two paragraphs he talks about it and why the idea of fair use is contentious in this instance.
We spent some time in class today looking at two other paragraphs and learning how to close read a text – look for key words and breaking a sentence down to figure out the argument. I always have to remind myself that most of these kids don’t read and they don’t pick stuff up from the reading the same way that I do. They did ok in class in group work (they were fine talking in little group but they just got quite if it became a whole class discussion) but they did need a bit of prompting. When I gave them a fairly dense sentence and asked them to paraphrase it for me in their own words, it was fun to see some many different responses. Some had hard time being specific.
I teach two classes back to back, it is the same writing class, just a different group of students. And I think the second class will benefit a bit more this time as I explore the changes in this class from the last time I taught it. But the time I got to the second class, I applied what worked in the first and came up with a better strategy that I think worked a little bit better. I made them write things out a little more.
In the morning, I went to the orientation on the main campus for teachers who taught this class before but a long time ago before the format changed a little. So this was to catch us up on the changes. And it was actually very useful. Plus, afterwards I could run the idea for my Close Reading assignment past the coordinator to make sure it worked. She liked it.
On Thursdays I get to share my office and office hours with my friend Karen and that is really fun. I also get to have the second office hour in the evening from 5 to 6, so that is a good time to work. I was working on my lecture for Monday on Mesopotamia.
In the evening, I tried to do a little bit of everything. I read a little bit, I watched “Community” and “Bones,” I exercised on the Wii for 30 minutes and I cross-stitched. Nice evening overall.
I’m actually happy that “Bones” moved to 9pm since I can now watch “Community” in real time. A few little thoughts on “Bones” tonight: ( Bones )
Exercise: 30 min on Wii. I did the bike Island course – I do really like the bike thing. My thighs are killing me from two days ago but I’m ignoring them.
Cross stitch: pale green and light green for the body suit.
Jenkins spends a few paragraphs discussing fair use and copyright and the uncertain place fanfiction occupies and the corporate anxieties about fair use and the lack of legal definitions etc. To me those paragraphs are really easy to understand since this summer the internets were exploding with the discussion of fanfiction and its right to exist and the ideas of fair use and copyright. But it occurred to me that Jenkins never defines ‘fair use’ but assumes that the readers can just talk about copyright. So I’m asking my students to explain what Jenkins means by ‘fair use’ in the two paragraphs he talks about it and why the idea of fair use is contentious in this instance.
We spent some time in class today looking at two other paragraphs and learning how to close read a text – look for key words and breaking a sentence down to figure out the argument. I always have to remind myself that most of these kids don’t read and they don’t pick stuff up from the reading the same way that I do. They did ok in class in group work (they were fine talking in little group but they just got quite if it became a whole class discussion) but they did need a bit of prompting. When I gave them a fairly dense sentence and asked them to paraphrase it for me in their own words, it was fun to see some many different responses. Some had hard time being specific.
I teach two classes back to back, it is the same writing class, just a different group of students. And I think the second class will benefit a bit more this time as I explore the changes in this class from the last time I taught it. But the time I got to the second class, I applied what worked in the first and came up with a better strategy that I think worked a little bit better. I made them write things out a little more.
In the morning, I went to the orientation on the main campus for teachers who taught this class before but a long time ago before the format changed a little. So this was to catch us up on the changes. And it was actually very useful. Plus, afterwards I could run the idea for my Close Reading assignment past the coordinator to make sure it worked. She liked it.
On Thursdays I get to share my office and office hours with my friend Karen and that is really fun. I also get to have the second office hour in the evening from 5 to 6, so that is a good time to work. I was working on my lecture for Monday on Mesopotamia.
In the evening, I tried to do a little bit of everything. I read a little bit, I watched “Community” and “Bones,” I exercised on the Wii for 30 minutes and I cross-stitched. Nice evening overall.
I’m actually happy that “Bones” moved to 9pm since I can now watch “Community” in real time. A few little thoughts on “Bones” tonight: ( Bones )
Exercise: 30 min on Wii. I did the bike Island course – I do really like the bike thing. My thighs are killing me from two days ago but I’m ignoring them.
Cross stitch: pale green and light green for the body suit.