English, relevant? YES!

 
In this article Mathieu and Sosnoski talk about what they believe is the “dying” field of cultural studies.  This is not to say they think the field is dying or should die, but instead that the theory as we know it is dying.  It is time for a change.  They argue that cultural studies has [...]

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The Return of the Cybrarian…or, Why I Love the Blogosphere

Hey all, just a quick note…when you get a chance, check out the comments for “Sorry Nellen, But…” I think you’ll recognize one of the commenters (or is that commentators).

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Student-centered relevance

Slightly out of chron. order here, but…
Donald Tinney may have been talking about high school students, but I immediately related to what he was saying. The age of the student does not really matter. His message as an English teacher is what counts: “If I am to believe that I am relevant, that my [...]

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Paula’s plan

I think that Paula Mathieu’s essay might be my least favorite thus far in “The Relevance of English”, and I’m not entirely sure why. It might have something to do with the fact the Paula Mathieu referred to herself in the third person, which I find a bit pretentious; or it might have something to [...]

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Sorry Nellen, but…

I just got finished reading Nellen’s article, and I must say I am a bit put off by it. I usually try to give every article a chance and find something beneficial about what the author is saying, but Nellen’s was just…weird.  It seemed disconnected. For such a short article, to spend so much time [...]

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ISO: Plural Commons

Yancey begins her essay with mentioning Alaska, and of course I spent the remainder of my reading time devoted to seeing Sarah Palin’s name somewhere in the text. I was grossly disappointed by the sad lack of Palinisms within the text, and actually, I don’t know if I was disappointed by the text as a [...]

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Word

I kind-of feel like I don’t need to write a blog because I read Nicole’s and I’m in the same place.  I read the same articles she did, and I also teach seniors.  The same laments and complaints that she faces over teaching British Literature are the same ones I face.  As I read Drye, [...]

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Technocentric America

The article by Selfe & Selfe was a good read, insofar as it relates another series of relevant issues within the English curriculum. Once again, an article seeks to add on to the role of the English teacher, and I feel this article was at least as successful as some of the less-engaging treatises that [...]

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Cultural Critique

I found Mathieu and Sosnoski’s chapter on comparative cultural studies relevant to my own classroom.  I assure you that this is not simply due to the book’s title which suggests as much.  The best way I can show its relevancy is to describe a typical assignment dealing with criticism in Mr. Reibsome’s class.  After spending  a [...]

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watching you

A collection of writing that brought some strange reminiscent rememberings back for me.  Subversive teaching- I used to go to work this way.  I began my career this way.  After my first observation in 2000, my administrator told me, “You’re heart’s in the right place Ryan.”  It was Spirit Week, the day was career day, [...]

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Mixed reactions

The articles that I read for this week, by Drye and Nellen, left me both inspired and at the same time a tad depressed.  I enjoyed the articles thoroughly but each one left me questioning where English studies is headed in our highschools and colleges.  Let me explain.
Drye’s article, The Future of English Studies Made Personal, [...]

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This Summer, Schwarzenegger is: The Cybrarian

I couldn’t resist utilizing this as my title strictly for comedic relief.  I figure that it is easier to begin with something off-topic so I don’t have to digress later!
In Drye’s “article” I found myself looking at it as an “article”, with the quotation marks.  Perhaps this struck me more as a biography, reflection, and [...]

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Experiencing a new feeling…

And that feeling is that I am speechless.
To be honest, I can’t really say that I have much of a response to the two essays that I read this week, by Drye and Nellen.
I will deal with Nellen’s article first because it was short, ha!  Seriously, though, I can relate to Nellen’s hesitance to utilize [...]

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Consumerist Catch-22

In Yancey’s article, she quotes Sheldon Jackson’s 1892 explanation of Alaskan education:

It was to instruct a people, the greatest portion of whom are uncivilized, who need to be taught sanitary regulations, the laws of health, improvement of dwellings, better methods of house-keeping, cooking and dressing, more remunerative forms of labor, honesty, chastity, the sacredness of [...]

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Turning them away

“The Future of English Studies Made Personal” – the article by Drye – really resonated with me – more so than any other article or chapter that we’ve read in this class. I find myself struggling on a daily basis to employ lessons that fit nicely into the standards to students who just don’t [...]

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Tinney: Mostly Relevant

I definitely had mixed feelings about the Tinney article. I absolutely loved his enthusiasm and his emphasis on the importance of stories. As a teacher who is obviously passionate about his students and desires to help them develop as strong human beings, he highlights the importance of literature and makes it relevant to the student. [...]

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Expressions of my Eternal Pessimism

In an effort to combine the two articles our group read (the first two), I felt the best way to do so was by coming up with some sort of lacking element in the theories or ideas and then discuss that point.  I’m not sure if it is good or bad that I’m stuck on [...]

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I am woman, hear me roar!

Women in Fox’s class find a voice—this is the most significant thing about this whole article.  The fact that these women who never seemed to have one in their pre-academic lives can now write and share and learn and teach is so awesome!  (Sorry, I am excited…)  I think the reason these women have come [...]

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Foxy lady…I don’t know; I’ve got nothing…

Exploring the nontraditional woman student in freshmen comp. class was an interesting idea…I honestly never thought about them the way Fox explains it. I lie, I do (My best friend is 26 and for the first time entering college. She is a divorced, full-time customer service rep. in corporate America and a full-time student. Plus, [...]

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The Irrelevance of English Models

“Faculty readers have the power to shut down the voices of otherness as they see fit”
(242).
In Comfort’s article, I was surprised to read about many of the travails of women of color within the English discipline, as I had come to believe, perhaps naively, that American academia had progressed past the tunnel vision of its [...]

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