in class this morning

The discussion on Buried Child has been proceeding apace. Let's move it from on line to face to face and see what we can come up with.

As I did before, I'm going to divide the class into some working groups and give each group a selection of printouts. This time it'll be printouts of the postings people made about their reading, and the responses to them -- at least the ones that were there as of early this morning.

What I'm going to ask you to do is read through them and identify a couple of particularly important observations, reactions, or questions (questions are particularly important) in the printouts you have in front of you. Highlight the texts.  I'll ask you to identify them and we'll put the specific texts up on the board so we can consider them.

for next time

"Next time" will be a week from now, as I'll be out of town on Friday. Between now and then, I'd like to organize a process whereby we find out, and share, as much as we can about Mr. Shepard and his play. There's lots to find out -- particularly, there's lots written about the play, its place in Shepard's career, and its place in American theatre history. The challenge is creating a situation in which we don't all "find out" the same thing, because we all go to wikipedia and report what whoever posted last there has to say. What I want is to create a situation in which the fact that there are a score of people looking means we get a wider range of information and ideas, rather than find ourselves bumping into each other and repeating the same things.

Here's how we'll organize that. I have a range of strategies for places to look to read what people have to say about him and his work. After class today, and before midnight, send me (at this address, exactly: Russell.Hunt@stu.ca -- I've set it up so that I can handle them all together) an email with one question about Shepard or the play that you'd really like to have the answer to.  I'll reply, before ten tomorrow morning, with a strategy you should use to find something to read about him and / or the play. You should not expect that you'll necessarily find an answer to your question, but what you should find is something that someone has to say that you find interesting and that you can summarize or explain for the rest of the class.

sharing

We'll use another Moodle forum for this, and we'll use it very much as we used the previous one. As before, the deadline for posting your report on what you found to read will be before Monday morning -- this time, I'll count it as completed if your posting is up by 2:00 am (in other words, do it by Sunday night).

About posting: this time, give your posting a title that will give your reader a hint as to what to expect. At the top, include a clear, complete bibliographical listing of your source. In your text, explain to your reader whatever the source says that you think is interesting. Don't simply recommend that your reader read the source, or not read it: she won't, either way. This is a substitute for reading. this kind of writing is often called an "executive summary," and people are hired to do them for other folks who need to know what's there, but aren't going to read the whole thing for themselves. You don't need to summarize everything, or even everything about Shepard and the play, but you should be as full and clear as you can about what you think worth knowing.

After Monday morning, and before 8:00 Wednesday morning, read as many summaries as you can, and respond to at last three, as thoughtfully and reflectively as you can. Remember, as always, empty praise does no one any good.