Let the Games Begin!

Oh yes, you heard correctly--I am teaching The Hunger Games in English 120: Composition this semester!


I am only teaching one section of ENG 120: Composition this semester, so you'll have the joy of reading about ENG 100: Writing Across the Curriculum (a remedial grammar and writing course), ENG 201: Research & Applied Writing, and ENG 262: World Lit. II (poetry and drama). You may also have to suffer through hearing about my new office mascot--my kitten, Titan. If you teach at a college or university where you cannot bring your pet to work, I sincerely feel sorry for you.


And with that, bring on the students!

TWO "N" Words?

I was reading this article on The Chronicle of Higher Education this morning and feel that it touches on an issue with which nearly all English professors (and even middle and high school level English teachers) deal. "The Trouble with the Other N Word" I am white. My students, upwards of 97%, are not. The U.S. Virgin Islands are historically black. It is fundamentally wrong to describe my students as "African-American." Why? Oh, let's see: 1. Even those born in the "U.S." Virgin Islands (post our $25 million purchase of the islands in 1917) prefer to be designated as "West Indian" (believe it or not, many "Diversity" surveys include this designation as distinct from African-American); 2. Not ALL of my students are from the U.S. Virgin Islands; in fact, many of them are from 'down island,' Puerto Rico, Dominica, Haiti, or Africa; and 3. The U.S. Virgin Islands is a non-voting territory in the U.S. Congress--that means no vote in the electoral college--and are about as different from mainstream U.S. culture as it gets, so no, my students do not self-designate as "African-American." Having said all that...we read Harlem Renaissance literature, as well as Caribbean literature dating from the early 20th century. Both "N" words are used in both of these. The blatantly inappropriate "N" word (if you have to ask which one that is...) is used by West Indians just as alternately negative and colloquial as it is by mainstream African-Americans (listen to any hip-hop or rap radio station if you don't believe me). Again, let me remind you: I am white. This puts me in a unique position. First, you must realize that I am the minority here--at the University and on St. Thomas. Second, as a professor, I believe that my role is to open up my students to different worldviews--this is not the same as blatantly insulting them. This creates an interesting cultural paradox for me: My students (once they get to know me) trust me to be honest with them. AT. ALL. TIMES. This is a promise I make to them on the first day of class, every semester. I also promise my students that they will not offend me, and while I will not intentionally offend anyone during the duration of the course, I will apologize once and only once in the event I do so unintentionally: "Sorry" (and that's all you get). Even in my composition courses without literature components, we discuss topics that are racially, culturally, spiritually and politically sensitive. (After all, isn't that what college is for--to learn about others' points of view and the way the world works?) I have not asked my students for their thoughts on the current debate over whether to censor the "N-word" out of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn , but a senior advisee from last year did bring it up with me while she was reading it in a capstone Humanities seminar. She has family ties in the Caribbean, but has also lived in a number of places throughout the contiguous U.S. and will be moving back stateside to work on her Master's (so proud!). She was bothered by the use of the "n-word," but when we talked about it, she eventually verbalized that what really bothered her was the ease and innocence with which the word was once tossed about, even in 'polite' society: her discomfort (and no small amount of genuine P.O.'ed-ness) came from the realization that HISTORY, not Mark Twain, was insulting. Once she was able to express this to me (and herself), she grew pensive. I asked her what she thought about publishers who wanted to censor the word from the text...and she thought it would be akin to editing history. I have to agree with her. This still leaves me with the question of whether "Negro" is just a thinly-veiled way of saying the BIG "N" word...but unlike the author of the article, I think I will be able to ask my students their opinion, and proceed accordingly.

Fifty Shades of Rubbish

I would just like to put it out there that if I had Fifty Shades of Grey author E. L. James in any of my composition courses, she would maybe squeak by with a C-. People, we need to stop reading trash! Just because it becomes a "Best Seller" (which only really means that the publisher managed to pre-sell X amount of books to major retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble), Oprah likes it, Dr. Oz likes it, or a friend read it and "like, totally LOOOOOVED" it does NOT mean it is worth the time it takes to suffer through it! Perhaps the moral of this story is that we need better erotica authors, although I tend to think that it's really just that the book industry is going to pot and publishing idiots.

The Anatomy of a Plagiarist

There is more than one way to plagiarize. Did you know that?

The simplest method of plagiarism (and, in my opinion, the dumbest) is simply to copy and paste an essay or article in its entirety. When students go this route, they often neglect to correct minor errors like font differences or embedded links. Slightly more advanced plagiarism involves copying and pasting key sections of essays or articles from more than one site. One of the reasons these plagiarizers are inevitably caught is the lack of transitions, font differences, or complete and utter lack of coherence in the final essay product. The most blatant and unforgivable plagiarism is of the sort that involves an essay mill or a student paying another writer for an essay. A professor who is paying attention and has seen her student's writing style before should recognize fairly readily that the work is not her student's. The (pardon my colloquialism) dumbest form of plagiarism is when a student copies and pastes material, then cites the material either in the Works Cited or with an in-text citation. Citing material does NOT negate copying and pasting. If the materials is an exact quote, it MUST be in quotations and properly cited; otherwise, this is just more plagiarism. Students who "accidentally" plagiarize do not do so intentionally, but still ought to re-do any work in which they made the mistake so as to learn how to avoid even the accidental sort of plagiarism in the future. Bottom Line: if YOU didn't write it, you MUST cite it!

Summertime is here again...

Spring 2012 ended with the predictable, although nonetheless depressing, rash of students who thought plagiarism would help them finish their work. Oh, how so very very wrong they were! Several English 120 students failed major course assignments because they copied and pasted material from websites. One failed the course because she copied and pasted in both her last essay, and her research paper. She plagiarized from essay mills, by the way, and everything she copied had terrible grammar errors and made little to no sense. Two World Literature students attempted to cheat on their final exam and earned big, fat zeroes for their efforts. One World Literature student copied and pasted the vast majority of her essay on Hamlet. I noticed. She earned a zero for the paper. Summer sessions means I am only teaching one course, Monday through Thursday, from 3:20-5:20pm. During Summer I, I am teaching English 120, and English 201 (Research and Applied Writing--which I teach as a gender studies course) in Summer II. One student already approached me to tell me that this is her fourth time taking ENG 120... I am still not lecturing, but I also need to request a classroom change, as my class is currently in a VC (video conference) room, and does not have a big white board. For all my technology use, I still need to be able to write on the board! The summer will continue my efforts to engage and teach without "lectures." I've instructed my students to stop me from talking if I've been teaching, uninterrupted, for more than 8 minutes. We are using more discussion, small group and partner work, Socratic method, and interactive media this semester to keep the "lecture" out of the classroom...more to follow soon.

Not Quite Composition

I am teaching Hamlet in my ENG 262: World Lit. II (Poetry & Drama) course right now. We are in Act II, and while looking for "modern English-friendly" resources for my students, I stumbled upon this hilarious re-working of the play.

I also found a few riotous Youtube videos on Hamlet, but they are mostly funny because I know the play and love Shakespeare, so I will only be sharing one or two with my students.

My department chair is sitting in on my ENG 262 class today, so rather than watching a handsome young Mel Gibson terrorize poor Ophelia half-naked (II. i. 75-98), I'm putting together a small-group activity focusing on imagery and themes in the play.

I'm going to assign a theme to each pair of students (I have 11 in the class) and ask them to find a line in Act II that uses imagery to support the theme. I found a suggestion from a high school teacher to have students write poems using the lines as a starting point, but I doubt that we will have the time.

Article Accepted!

It's time to toot my own horn:

I submitted an article abstract to the the Claflin University Conference on Contemporary English and Language Arts Pedagogy entitled “Regional Dialect and Homophones: Teaching Standard English Composition to Thomian-Dialect Speakers.”

I received an email this morning informing me that my article has been accepted!

I'm honored and excited to be able to contribute.

(I'm also doing a happy dance in my office...with the door closed, so my students don't think I'm even weirder than they already think I am!)