Rhonda Does Research: first-year composition pedagogy

Showing posts with label first-year composition pedagogy. Show all posts

Monday, August 24, 2015

Am I Ready for College?

Robert College Students in the Forum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My first class starts in less than 2 hours, and after talking with Rebbie, my older sister, over the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure that I really know what to expect. She told me to check and see if my classes had Blackboard pages yet (two of them did), and that's how I learned that this blog is a major assignment for my English comp class. So, having set it up, I'm ahead at this point-- but that's not the way I usually am, and I guess that was what Rebbie was trying to get across to me. It looks like I'll have to make some big changes.

I'm supposed to be introducing myself in this first post, but I think I just gave away a big chunk of info that I normally don't tell anybody. When it comes to school, I can always find a reason to put homework off until the last minute. Rebbie asked me how that was working for me (she's kinda sarcastic, in case you couldn't tell), and I have to admit that it doesn't work too well. I always feel like I'm behind. Now you know something about me aside from my profile.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Get Hexed!

Turned in my résumé project yesterday and started in on Hexed, the next Iron Druid book, as soon as I got off work. My brother came over around 7 (more about that later), so I didn't get to pick it up again until an hour ago.

I canNOT believe HBO didn't pick up on these books when True Blood was winding down. There's lots of nudity, dangerous/scary goddess sex, porn-star looking witches, and a funny dog! What more could you ask for? I'm at the part where Atticus is fighting the German witches, half of whom are pregnant with demonspawn, and he's just decapitated one, losing half an ear in the process. I'm getting a new project tomorrow, so I need to finish this tonight and not start the next one-- I seriously cannot put these down.

Monday, April 20, 2015

By Special Request: More about the Iron Druid

Attila, Irish Wolfhound, propr. Mme Sylvie Saulue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rebbie, my sister, just read my last post and pointed out that (in her opinion) I didn't give enough information about the book. After reading it again, I think she may be right, so here goes.

The book is Hounded, by Kevin Hearne, and its hero is Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2000+ year old druid. In fact, he is the last druid, and over those years he's made some powerful enemies. He lives in Tempe, Arizona, which is kind of a safe zone because it is difficult for his enemies to reach. But it's not impossible, so he is repeatedly attacked by minions of his most powerful enemy, Aenghus Og, the Celtic god of love (who seems to be quite a hater for a love god). Other Celtic gods turn up to mess with his life, but he prevails with the help of his friends, including his dog Oberon, an Irish wolfhound who wants to be like Gengis Khan and have a harem of French poodles.

It's a lot of fun, and I think Rebbie should give it a chance.

Talk about Mythic--Kevin Hearne Has Got it All--and a Druid!

Druid Ghost lite (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In between writing my résumé and waiting to get my critical analysis back, I've been re-reading Kevin Hearne's funny Iron Druid books. After all the work I did on my paper, it's good to see that the myth criticism approach really does work even when you aren't trying to do it! Of course, Hearne is using actual myths (and creating new ones), both the classical and the little-known, so it shouldn't be surprising that I can pick out all sorts of monomyth elements and characteristics of the archetypes in the stories.

Anyway, if you haven't read them, you ought to give them a try, if only for the mind-to-mind conversations between Atticus (the hero) and Oberon (his dog). Hilarious dialogue!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

More on Guardians of the Galaxy: I Was on the Right Track

Star-Lord (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to an item on FlickeringMyth.com today, James Gunn, the director of GotG, said "There’s a lot of stuff I’m excited about in the new movie. Listen, I’m still excited about Star-Lord’s character and where he goes. At its heart, Guardians is a story about families, and if the first film was about him and his mother, this is a story about fathers." The post goes on to point out that this does not necessarily mean Star Lord's father, but I think that's the most likely, what with all the material I found for my paper.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Rap: So that's What It Is!

I just read Adam Bradley's "Rap Poetry 101," which was interesting, but it made me think more about regular (or do I mean traditional?) poetry more than rap. I had an English teacher in high school who was kind of obsessed about poetry, and I remember that she claimed that poetry started to die out as an art form when poets stopped using rhyme and repetition as primary techniques (at least, that's what I think she said). In Bradley's essay, he shows how rap is performed poetry, and he talks about rhymes and the use of a beat (big repetition there). This led me to think about my sister Rebbie's favorite poem, Poe's "The Raven," and I'm starting to wonder how it would sound as a rap song.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

When a student loses steam

"Dr. Toffee" sums up Rhonda's fall 2014 semester:

Those of us who teach first year composition are (sadly) very familiar with students who find themselves in over their heads. The nature of a writing class is grounded in near constant writing, and it takes a while for some students to get up to speed. This last term that happened to Rhonda. Between her family situation, her job, and her courseload, she had a lot to handle. The biggest problem she faced as a student was time management. She tried to complete the major projects, but often forgot about Project 1: her blog. By the end of the term, she found that there was no way that she could catch up and complete the last two projects plus the required number of blog entries. She came to my office hours two weeks before the final, looking for some kind of a solution, but (as you can imagine) it was too late for that. If she had come to see me even a couple of weeks earlier, I'm fairly certain that we could have worked it out, but she just waited too long. She had to drop the course.

Rhonda's problems have had an impact on me-- from now on, I'll be checking in on my students' blogs more often over the semester, and I'm thinking about requiring them to come to my office hours at least once during the first 8 weeks of the term. We'll see how this works out.

As a final note for those who follow this blog, you should know that Rhonda will be taking 101 this spring (doing the whole 2014-2015 school year in reverse).

Related articles:

"10 Common Problems Students Face During College" - the comments here are also useful.

"What are the Biggest Issues Facing Community Colleges Today? New Study has Answers." This article from the Community College Review discusses the issue of college readiness.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

To my First Year Comp Colleagues: The Ongoing Pedagogy Project

(note: Rhonda will be back later today)

Those of you who have been following this blog are already aware that my goal here is both to provide a sample for my 101 and 102 students and to present a method for creating a realistic research paper assignment, i.e. one that is representative of actual assignments in college courses. If you haven't read the initial material, there are links above.
Since my department is shifting to new textbooks this term (Ruszkiewicz, John J. and Jay T. Dolmage. How to Write Anything: A Guide and a Reference with Readings. 2^nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012, and Ruszkiewicz, John J. A Reader’s Guide to College Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014), this seems like a good time for a brief progress report. Over the past few years, the most obvious result has been a decrease in students dropping the course, which has been my greatest encouragement. In addition, the problems I've seen students having are the same ones we all see every semester: writing issues, difficulty with time management, critical thinking skills that aren't yet up to the material, etc (here in Illinois, high schools apparently focus primarily on 5-paragraph essays, with the result that many students can't immediately grasp the reality that those won't work at the college level: for some, it's a kind of security blanket, and they resist the change). All of these are college-readiness issues that should have been addressed before they enter our classrooms, but that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. So, as far as the things I can control go, this project is producing a quantifiable benefit.
New versions of the assignments and critical model packet will be available shortly (links will be on the left).

Finally, my thanks to those who sent condolences after my mother's death. I am very hopeful that the gaps in posts that have marked this year to date will not be necessary again.

And now, Rhonda is up next. She is taking 102 this term, so if you need a 101 example, use the Fall 2011 or 2012 entries.