102 - Friday - March 11
I just finished with my 102 class. My students are writing a site description and artifact analysis. The first tenet of the assignment is to give a solid description of the site, including the people, the atmosphere, and the surroundings. I have a student, Archie, who is writing about the kids in an afterschool program and she's trying to describe the school where the program is housed.
She asked me first whether she should focus on one aspect of the site, like the cafeteria, or describe all the areas of the site. I told her she needs to give a solid and complete description of the site, and that probably means looking at all the major areas where the kids hang out. She said okay and headed back to her desk.
About 15 minutes later, she came back to my desk and said, "I'm having a readlly hard time with this. I'm just not sure what you want me to do. I mean, should I describe . . . where I put the toys, or . . . " I told her to take a step back, to write this from a bird's eye view and try to get some distance from the site. She works there, so she is having a hard time moving outside of herself and writing a simple description without herself involved. She went back to her desk.
About 10 minutes later, I was walking around the room and stopped at her desk. She had three or four lines written, and they began, "As I walk into the cafeteria . . . " She said, "um, is this what you mean." I told her to take herself out of the equation, to describe the place as a stranger sees it. Begin, "When you approach Whitehead school, the front doors present a formidable barrier . . . "
Archie is annoying me. I feel like saying, what's the problem, write a description of the fieldsite, one that develops a concrete impression of the place. We've already written a shorter sample description, and read everyone else's description, and talked about which ones did a good job of developing a clear picture and dominant impression. We've done the prepatory work, and, what's worse, what's so difficult about writing a description of a place? It's easy.
I sit here at my desk. The scantron machine outside my door is click, click, clicking as a colleague runs exam sheets through. I spent this morning cleaning the clutter from my desk -- old memos, announcements, student work, journal articles -- in preparation for Spring break.
The office has a buzz about it. Not only is it Friday, but it is the Friday before a week's vacation. There are no teacher's outside complaining about students, but, rather, they speak lighter fare.
And so on.
Students are so keen on doing things right that they forget to take a look at the big picture -- why are they doing these things. I mean, I don't care how they write the site description, as long as it effectively describes the site. I don't care if it's 1st or 3rd person. I don't care if it's linear or jumps around, as long as it creates a technicolor picture of the place.
She asked me first whether she should focus on one aspect of the site, like the cafeteria, or describe all the areas of the site. I told her she needs to give a solid and complete description of the site, and that probably means looking at all the major areas where the kids hang out. She said okay and headed back to her desk.
About 15 minutes later, she came back to my desk and said, "I'm having a readlly hard time with this. I'm just not sure what you want me to do. I mean, should I describe . . . where I put the toys, or . . . " I told her to take a step back, to write this from a bird's eye view and try to get some distance from the site. She works there, so she is having a hard time moving outside of herself and writing a simple description without herself involved. She went back to her desk.
About 10 minutes later, I was walking around the room and stopped at her desk. She had three or four lines written, and they began, "As I walk into the cafeteria . . . " She said, "um, is this what you mean." I told her to take herself out of the equation, to describe the place as a stranger sees it. Begin, "When you approach Whitehead school, the front doors present a formidable barrier . . . "
Archie is annoying me. I feel like saying, what's the problem, write a description of the fieldsite, one that develops a concrete impression of the place. We've already written a shorter sample description, and read everyone else's description, and talked about which ones did a good job of developing a clear picture and dominant impression. We've done the prepatory work, and, what's worse, what's so difficult about writing a description of a place? It's easy.
I sit here at my desk. The scantron machine outside my door is click, click, clicking as a colleague runs exam sheets through. I spent this morning cleaning the clutter from my desk -- old memos, announcements, student work, journal articles -- in preparation for Spring break.
The office has a buzz about it. Not only is it Friday, but it is the Friday before a week's vacation. There are no teacher's outside complaining about students, but, rather, they speak lighter fare.
And so on.
Students are so keen on doing things right that they forget to take a look at the big picture -- why are they doing these things. I mean, I don't care how they write the site description, as long as it effectively describes the site. I don't care if it's 1st or 3rd person. I don't care if it's linear or jumps around, as long as it creates a technicolor picture of the place.
posted by CA Lund at 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting research notes -- I can definitely visualize YOUR site.
Could your student be having trouble w. point of view? Sounds like you've said it can be first or third person, but also told her to take herself out of the picture. That makes sense to me, but so many HS students are drilled to write ONLY in third person that I find they sometimes get totally flummoxed by a personal narrative or observational piece.
Just a possible part of Archie's puzzlement.
Sees to me that anytime I tell a class "DO" or "DON'T DO" I can predict that somebody will turn this into an immutable law and it will come back to haunt me later. (Of course they forget all the IMPORTANT stuff I try to teach -- at least that's how it feels on my "down" days.)
Jane
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