today in class
We'll take some time to make sure that everybody's clear about the schedule for the rest of the term and that we've done what needs to be done about getting the folks who need to get to Saint John there for Black Comedy. Then we'll adjourn to the the computer lab, or wherever else you get on line most conveniently.
When we've done what we need to do together in EC G12, I'm going to ask you to go to the computer lab (or fire up a laptop), go back through the Forums in which people posted on their experiences of reading a script, and find the single posting which you found most challenging or enlightening. It will probably be one you responded to. It'll be worth taking some time to compare postings; and, indeed, you may find one that you missed responding to.
When you've found it -- it should take some time, but you should do it before the end of the class period -- write an email to russell.hunt@stu.ca (that's an address which allows me to handle emails in a separate folder) which includes the name of the writer and the play written about, and the URL of the posting (you can find that, while you're reading the posting, in the "location" window at the top of the browser. It will look something like this: https://moodle.stu.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=#### . You can copy that and paste it into your email message. Then, in the message, explain as clearly as you can in a paragraph or two what you found especially challenging or enlightening about the posting. Send your email by the end of the class period -- that is, by 10:20.
We'll talk about these, and your experience of reading other people's writing and learning from it, in class on Wednesday. We'll also hear from the Task Force on Fanshen.
midterm reassessment
I'll pass out, this morning, a document I've assembled which I hope will help you reread your own midterm learning reflection, and be prepared to write a convincing one at the end of the course. We'll discuss it in class next week.
a note
A couple of people have expressed surprise that we've not always spent the whole hour and a half in G12. One of the things I said at the beginning of the term was that for a course organized as this one is, learning as often, or more often, occurs outside the classroom as in it (actually, I think that's true of all classes, but it's especially true in this one). I'm always disappointed when, reading in learning journals, I see someone saying that because she missed class (or because we didn't meet) she has less to report about her own learning. You may remember that the course introduction said:
To make it possible to organize this, it should be clear, pretty much everything about the course needs to be rather different from a conventional course; it will be much more like a research and production studio or small enterprise. Class meetings will not be lectures, or even, usually, discussions: they'll either be working sessions or the venue for presentations by a task force of their research about a play. We are scheduled to meet every Wednesday and Friday morning from 9:00 to 10:15, but we may well not always meet for the entire time; or we may meet in the computer lab or the library; or we may not meet at all if our time would be better spent elsewhere.