tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post203372790366346762..comments2024-03-15T01:11:32.832-07:00Comments on Bardiac: Teaching a Friend's PoetryBardiachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-18844030716618726092016-11-27T20:48:00.272-08:002016-11-27T20:48:00.272-08:00Thank you! It was GREAT having you virtually ther...Thank you! It was GREAT having you virtually there!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-31568977769274445142016-11-23T10:17:16.634-08:002016-11-23T10:17:16.634-08:00This is your guest. I had a fantastic time! It i...This is your guest. I had a fantastic time! It is amazing to see people you don't know giving serious, thoughtful attention to your work. Thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-70572482147739429462016-11-22T07:03:57.307-08:002016-11-22T07:03:57.307-08:00The visit was GREAT! My students were excited and...The visit was GREAT! My students were excited and engaged, and my guest was amazing. So good!<br /><br />(As for definitions, I try to get other students to help with definitions, write them on the board; if necessary, I look up the definition in an on line resource as a model that we need to look up and think about definitions if we don't know them.)Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-70072652698831609632016-11-22T06:12:00.008-08:002016-11-22T06:12:00.008-08:00It does sound wonderful, Bardiac!
My first experie...It does sound wonderful, Bardiac!<br />My first experience with an undefined term was "purple passage" and "set piece"--never defined, just something you were supposed to magically intuit. My life got easier once I figured out that you could substitute "personhood" for "subjectivity" and get the sense of it.undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-70691203255461625772016-11-21T19:59:11.653-08:002016-11-21T19:59:11.653-08:00Thanks, delegar. Having some success with writing ...Thanks, delegar. Having some success with writing over the last year has taught me a lot about what's worked and what hasn't. It's made me a much better teacher. :) Fie upon this quiet life!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12047096700049201873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-54474985760889911352016-11-21T19:13:24.537-08:002016-11-21T19:13:24.537-08:00Fie, those are wonderful teaching techniques, espe...Fie, those are wonderful teaching techniques, especially the creative writing example. I'm impressed!delagarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18197857250240640822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-33023476785215059602016-11-21T11:26:26.493-08:002016-11-21T11:26:26.493-08:00I hated this style of teaching in grad school in w...I hated this style of teaching in grad school in which the professors assumed that you knew what they were talking about. One time, I stopped the class and said, "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. Could someone please define liminality? It's not in the dictionary." People laughed, but the professor did grant my request. After class, two other students came up to me and said, "I'm glad you asked. I wasn't following anything she was saying either." So now, whenever I introduce a topic like liminality or subjectivity I always, always, always make a point of defining the concept thoroughly and talk about why it may or may not be useful to help our interpretation, etc. My undergrads end up being more prepared for grad school than I EVER was. Good for them. <br /><br />Anyway - about teaching your friend's work... I have a friend who is teaching a short story of mine in her class. I came to the class -- it was creative writing -- and talked to the students about that story and the writing process. Then, I gave them the first page of another story that I wrote and talked about how to create conflict in the first 300 words. It was a load of fun. Several of those students have me in Humanities, and some of them asked me about my stories and wanted to know what I was "trying to do" in them. I said, "What do you think the story is trying to do?" They gave me their interpretation, and then I said, "That's really fascinating. I was going for XYZ, but I don't actually believe in fixed meaning. Your interpretation is lots more interesting to me." (I'm a devotee to Barthes's Death of the Author.) But of course, if there's a detail that they missed, then that's something else entirely. Fie upon this quiet life!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12047096700049201873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-88012115741359945162016-11-21T08:39:57.291-08:002016-11-21T08:39:57.291-08:00I wonder if your professor didn't exactly know...I wonder if your professor didn't exactly know what hermeneutics was either.<br /><br />This is probably very mean of me. Never mind.delagarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18197857250240640822noreply@blogger.com