Culture Swap: What Would You Do?

Write a letter of 300-400 words to your Chinese pen pals commenting on some aspect of the Wife Swap clips we watch in class, and you can add comments about the What Would You Do episodes as well if you have not already done so.  Share connections you can make to your own life, how you think these clips accurately portray us, what they might leave out, your own experiences in situations like these, etc.  Think about what you'd like the Chinese to know about us as Americans and/or you as an individual.  What are we proud of when it comes to our way of life?  What would we like to do better or see in our future?  

Ask some good questions about what the Chinese students thought of the clips, what those shows might look like if they were filmed in China, something else you'd like to know...

Share your letter in a New Post on your blog, please, and send your letter to your pen pals.  You can send the same letter to both of your pen pals if you have more than one.

Kevin sent me a copy of his lesson he used with the Wife Swap episode.  Here's some of what he said about how he introduced the show and some of the issues/concepts they're working on...

Hey! I've attached my lesson for Wife Swap for what it's worth. Maybe your students would be interested to look at what (I make) the students do in class. We covered fifteen phrasal verbs for this show because phrasal verbs are insanely difficult for non-native speakers, and we use them all the time. Take is used, for example, in dozens of phrasal verbs in the show, and even the single phrasal verb "take off" has several meanings. So these are really important for them. 

I used the second slide to elicit the name of the show and introduce a game. They then look at the last fifteen slides and have to look at the two pictures and come up with the phrasal verbs that correspond to the pictures and write the verb phrase on the blanks on the worksheet. After the phrasal verbs are all elicited, we work on meaning and pronunciation. This is tricky, too, because for a phrase like "count on," most Americans drop the /t/ in count, so it winds up sounding like cow-non; using the /t/ sounds unnatural and throws off sentence rhythm. 

When we watched the show, we focused on phrasal verbs in the first ten minutes of the show and then sentence stress in questions in the last ten minutes. I also paused quite a bit to talk about gender roles/politics. One of the husbands is a self-proclaimed redneck and he says things to his "new" wife like "I'm thirsty." My students don't understand the implicit meaning (go get me a beer).

Finally we watch the show and they answer the discussion questions. The circle with four lines at the bottom is for a freer speaking activity. I asked them to put their name in the circle, and write four facts about themselves or interests using only one or two words like "Chinese" or "pizza" or "dog." Then they mingle and ask each other questions, ideally mimicking the stress patterns we just covered.

This is long-winded.. Sorry! Your students are awesome, and my students are loving this. Thank you and be in touch soon!

It's Not Just an Assignment; It's Real Life!

I hope you know how important your email responses are to our Chinese students.  If you only knew how important the email project is to the Chinese students, you'd be quick to answer their email or to help others in our class who need help to get theirs going!  It is really endearing to see how deeply they care about hearing back from you.  There are still eight Chinese students who have never gotten an email from us, so they asked Kevin if their words were wrong or if they had done something wrong.  They are very appreciative of your time and look forward to your reply.They see this as a matter of pride, and they relish your words. They truly don't see our exchange as just an assignment.

On Tuesday we will meet again in room 185, but we will reconvene after lunch in the library outer computer lab where you will refer to a "To Do" list to get EVERYONE caught up.

Next, the class blog is intended for YOU to see what other students are doing, to see comments or get help on your own work.  It should be a platform for you to individualize your site, to express yourself, to connect with each other, and to expand your readership.

This class and every class is set aside for our Creative Writing class.  Just because it requires a computer with internet access to do a lot of your work doesn't mean to travel wherever you'd like online or to do work from other classes!  Please be respectful of our time.

You'll be handing in your "To Do" list at the end of the class today to receive points for your workshop time.  Take advantage of this time to your credit!

What Would You Do? : A Cultural Exchange

As we watch the episodes of What Would You Do? how might you respond to your Chinese student correspondent?  In writing any kind of opinion, it is important to avoid sweeping generalizations with words like always, never, everyone, no one, and other all inclusive descriptors.

For example, you may have noticed in the gay adoption episode several people spoke up to the nosy actress who was harassing the young pregnant actress about her adoption choices.  As you explain what you viewed, you can also offer whether you think it's likely this would actually happen in real life.  Is this an issue Americans disagree about or that someone would really go to this length to air a personal opinion?  You might ask if the scenario might happen in China.

In the episode about the Muslim woman needing help, you might also explain the scenario and whether or not you think it could happen in our part of the country.  Is this an issue in China?

The final episode we may not have time to view together is "Child Predator Targets Young Girl He Meets Online."  As you comment on this episode and explain what you see, you may also include how likely this is to happen in America or in our part of the country.

This should be an interesting exchange, and you do not have to give your personal opinion necessarily.  You should explain the situation and how you view the authenticity of the scenario.  You might also ask how this would play out in China.

Email Exchange and Due dates for the week of March 21st!

Replies to China - TODAY!
Wednesday - In class discussion of TV episodes What Would You Do? and new email reply.
Friday - 5 pages writer's notebook due (front and back)

We will start this week by responding to the letters and writing our Chinese friends.  You should have received letters back from 2 of Kevin's students and also an object-inspired piece (or some other writing?) from them.  Please do the following today:

1:  Reply to the letters the way you would any other email or correspondence.  Answer the questions you were asked, ask questions of your own (about something the student has said or mentioned or maybe something else you're wondering about in terms of school, culture, family, interests, China, etc.), update them on what you've been up to since last writing.  You want to keep the conversation going so give the students something to respond to and maybe even ask that they write back when they can.

2:  Respond to the writing piece the students sent you in a positive, helpful way.  See Kevin's thoughts below on the kind of feedback that might help.  You don't need to "FIX" the paper, even if the student asked you to. What I would suggest is this:

• a greeting thanking the person for sharing and naming something you enjoyed about the piece
• 3-5 questions that could aid in revision/expansion of the piece
• close by naming something else you thought really worked and a statement of encouragement

If you're comfortable with it, I'd love for you to copy/paste the letters with your replies on a New Post on your own blog and copy/paste the students' writing pieces with your feedback to separate New Post on your blog.  

Please reply to both letters and both pieces today, so if you didn't finish in class, you'll need to work on your own time, maybe after school or if you can't access the internet, then during Endeavor.   Either post your work on your own blog or show me what you have done.  If you can't finish in class, please do so on your own. Your correspondents are awaiting your reply.  If you have time, check in on your classmates' blogs and see what their Chinese students sent them.  Thanks so much!

A message I got from Kevin today :

Hello PHS Creative Writing class:

My students are loving this project and working hard--hope their writing shows it at least a little! I believe the last round of emails ought to come in the next day or two. It'd be awesome if your students could ask my students questions that might indicate areas of confusion, vague, or incorrect language in their writing. Also my students would be thrilled to field any questions your students might have about China, college life, etc.

I know at least a few of my students directly asked yours to "correct" and "fix" their English, and I know that probably puts your students in a really awkward spot. So if my students are using gibberish maybe asking questions is a less direct approach. I talked to my students about error correction and tried to convey the idea that correction isn't the nature of the exchange. 

I was also thinking it might be really fun for all parties if students exchanged ideas about TV shows. This week we're going to watch three segments from What Would You Do? and my students will be fascinated but also flummoxed. They aren't aware about common American attitudes towards gay adoption, racism, etc., and the shows do a great job bringing those attitudes to light. Anyway, is it possible to exchange ideas if both our classes watch the same episodes? I found them on YouTube when I was home and included the titles in the attached document. Are you allowed to access that site while at school?

Please let me know what you think, and honestly, if your students respond to my students by asking questions or sharing thoughts about my students' ideas, that'd be great. Thanks!

Memorable Passage From The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

I first read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle ten (or so) years ago.  I saw it on Oprah's best book list, and I bought it because I love dogs and was intrigued with the story line, which centered around a young deaf boy who runs away from home with three dogs he raised (from a fictitious breed of dogs his family owns).   It was a first book for the author David Wroblewski, and I loved his insight into a dog's psyche and the beautiful language he employed.

This passage reflects Wroblewski's clever insight when Almondine (now Edgar's dog) mourns the death of his father, her beloved master.

To her, the scent and the memory of him were one. Where it lay strongest, the distant past came to her as if that morning: Taking a dead sparrow from her jaws, before she knew to hide such things. Guiding her to the floor, bending her knee until the arthritis made it stick, his palm hotsided on her ribs to measure her breaths and know where the pain began. And to comfort her. That had been the week before he went away.

He was gone, she knew this, but something of him clung to the baseboards. At times the floor quivered under his footstep. She stood then and nosed into the kitchen and the bathroom and the bedroom-especially the closet-her intention to press her ruff against his hand, run it along his thigh, feel the heat of his body through the fabric.

Places, times, weather-all these drew him up inside her. Rain, especially, falling past the double doors of the kennel, where he’d waited through so many storms, each drop throwing a dozen replicas into the air as it struck the waterlogged earth. And where the rising and falling water met, something like an expectation formed, a place where he might appear and pass in long strides, silent and gestureless. For she was not without her own selfish desires: to hold things motionless, to measure herself against them and find herself present, to know that she was alive precisely because he needn’t acknowledge her in casual passing; that utter constancy might prevail if she attended the world so carefully. And if not constancy, then only those changes she desired, not those that sapped her, undefined her.

And so she searched. She’d watched his casket lowered into the ground, a box, man-made, no more like him than the trees that swayed under the winter wind. To assign him an identity outside the world was not in her thinking. The fence line where he walked and the bed where he slept-that was where he lived, and they remembered him.

Yet he was gone. She knew it most keenly in the diminishment of her own self. In her life, she’d been nourished and sustained by certain things, him being one of them, Trudy another, and Edgar, the third and most important, but it was really the three of them together, intersecting in her, for each of them powered her heart a different way. Each of them bore different responsibilities to her and with her and required different things from her, and her day was the fulfillment of those responsibilities. She could not imagine that portion of her would never return. With her it was not hope, or wistful thoughts-it was her sense of being alive that thinned by the proportion of her spirit devoted to him.

As spring came on, his scent about the place began to fade. She stopped looking for him. Whole days she slept beside his chair, as the sunlight drifted from eastern-slant to western-slant, moving only to ease the weight of her bones against the floor.

And Trudy and Edgar, encapsulated in mourning, somehow forgot to care for one another, let alone her. Or if they knew, their grief and heartache overwhelmed them. Anyway, there was so little they might have done, save to bring out a shirt of his to lie on, perhaps walk with her along the fence line, where fragments of time had snagged and hung. But if they noticed her grief, they hardly knew to do those things. And she without the language to ask.” 

I still choke up when I read that passage and I remember the sweet pets I've had.  Wroblewski's sensitive writing seems to capture exactly what a loyal pet might think/feel at the loss of a master. You all know Katie, my golden retriever I lost several years ago.  She's still all around my classroom and even on the blog. She is, in fact, my display name still; I never had the heart to change it.  She had an amazing bond with all my family.

Book critics compared the plot of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to Shakespeare's Hamlet - a jealous man who murders his brother and sleeps with his wife, complete with ghosts and intrigue.  It was Wroblewski's language, though, and obvious love for dogs that kept me glued to his book, unable to put it down.

In giving you the "memorable passage" assignment, though, and thinking about this book, I realize I must read it again.  I hope you find a good read, too.

Post a passage (probably no more than a paragraph or so) from a book that was memorable to you. Type the passage in word for word and add some of your own thoughts (250 words or more) before and/or after, explaining why this particular set of words caught your attention or has stayed in your memory.  Title this post Memorable Passage.  Include an image with this post, too.

It's really nice to write quite a bit about what you read, if nothing else just to remember, but often to reflect on words that strike you.

Books That Matter

Moving on...Books that mattered

We will be moving on to a new theme, but I'd like all the emails to China shared with me (along with your significant object) before you do anything else.  Our new theme revolves around reading like writers. 

For those of you who have already composed your email, polished your significant object piece, and shared them with me on one GoogleDoc (bjames@sps.org), you may select an independent reading book if you don't currently have one and use this time to read and also enjoy the link below.  

As we do some thinking about how what we read inspires or influences what we write, I thought it might be fun for you to check out a website I've seen that analyzes a bit of your own writing and tells you what published author your writing is similar to.

I tried it with one of my blog posts and evidently I write like Mark Twain. Interesting.  I also found this interesting tidbit which confirmed my suspicions that there wasn't much heft to this particular tool, but hey...

Go to I Write Like and try it yourself. 

You should also try the profspro quiz to see what author you are paired with.

Leave a comment on this post telling us your results (and what you think of them) when you do.  You might have to look up the author for more information if you don't recognize the name.  

For class on Thursday, please bring 3 books that matter to you in some way.  These could be books from childhood, books from school or classes, books that were read to you, books you've enjoyed recently.  Be prepared to briefly share your books with the class and tell us why they matter to you.  Thanks!