Day 2

The first day of class went well. I think that the students were apprehensive and hopefully by the end of the class period they understood what is expected of them within this particular writing class. I purposely made it obvious that they understand that feminism is a large part of our writing classroom, and that, in fact, every class period will pertain to feminism regarding Native women. I assigned the same two readings for the first class homework assignment so that I could continue to understand what the students need, want and expect from this semester by assigning two different types of reading.
I feel giddy about teaching 140, Women in America, because it's such a unique class and focused on women--not everyone has the chance to take such a course. I was lucky enough to take this exact course (obviously not the same curriculum) when I was a sophomore here at the University.

Reflecting upon the semester

For the first half of blogging today I asked students to think about what "Toward a New Consciousness" may have with reflection--why would I have assigned this reading? It's a particularly difficult reading for students to do, especially because of the dispersal of Spanish throughout which may throw them off. I really like "Toward a New Consciousness" because it does a good job of summing up Anzaldua's book "Borderlands/La Frontera" by engaging readers in an activism of sorts: we need to come together in order to make progress rather than trying to remain separate. This is a good debatable topic, but I have a feeling students may try to avoid that controversy--if it is a controversy to them at all.

Looking at some of the students' blogs I see that they've ALL progressed quite nicely from the beginning of the semester. Their writing is much more developed and their ability to articulate themselves through their writing is really a privilege for me to see. They're learned how to use different modes and genres in a way that conveys themselves in REALLY effective ways.

Beginning identity through gender and sexuality

“Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.”

For today I have asked students to respond to this quote. I had some problems with the quote because I felt that it generalizes too much, however I think it really gives the students a good starting ground for forming their ideas and opinions to the book Conquest by Andrea Smith.

Last week, on Wednesday, I showed the students a video about wild rice in Minnesota that had Winona LaDuke as an interviewee. It was interesting to see how the students formed their opinions on the research shown/not shown in the video. Many of them were able to articulate that it's not really fair because the other side isn't shown. One student went so far as to talk about grapefruit and mangoes, as he learned in one of his other classes, largely being genetically engineered. I would have liked to spend more time on this (like everything in this class). But, sometimes I feel like I must be brief because I'm trying to give the students a large scope of what's happening currently and historically to native populations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Finishing up Winona LaDukes All Our Relations

Today the students are finishing All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke. I feel like they've made a lot of progress in learning about the environmental and health aspects of Native populations due to industrialism and modern technology.

At the beginning of class I had them watch "Manoomin: A Minnesota Way of Life" that Dr. Grabill let me borrow. Then I asked them to blog about their response to the ways that research may have been conducted, problems they may have had with the research presented, etc.

I look forward to hearing the discussion that will be taking place shortly, about the video. The students have really extended themselves and proven how much they want to learn about the wrong-doings that LaDuke talks about throughout the book and the videos we've watched.

Ending Unit 1/Paper #1

Last night I read 12 out of the 24 drafts of Paper #1. Overall, the students have a grasp on how to write a paper like this. Their audience is their peers so I want them to start the process of writing papers for this class as comfortably as possible, that way, they feel more comfortable (hopefully) in progressing toward Paper #2 which is a research based paper.
The largest problem I see with the papers thus far is that many of them are focusing more on a literature history than an identity autobiography as related to literacy. They need to see identity as the big "thing" and literacy as the little "thing" that I'm looking for within their paper. Perhaps a better way to put that is that I am looking for their focus to be their identity and evidence of it through literacy to essentially "back it up."
I can't wait to finish reading the papers, the students show some real effort in exploring their identities and themselves.
Today we'll begin talking about Unit 2: Identity struggles through land and health. Within this Unit we will be focusing heavily on All Our Relations by Winona LaDuke. Hopefully this will give them a real-world idea of what's still going on within Indian Reservations and around them, impacting their abilities to live and ways of life.

Week 4 Day 1

Last week I was unable to post because I had to cancel class due to my dogs having an emergency. I was at the vet all of Monday. By Wednesday we had so much to catch up on that I was basically answering questions and giving information out while the students worked on their own blogs.
I passed out paper #1 along with the rubric. Students asked some great questions, but it seemed like overall their understanding was clear. Their first drafts are due today and they will be workshopping them for most of the class. I arranged them into groups of 4 that they will meet with for the remainder of the semester. It was a little bit confusing at first especially because I had put them into groups of 3, forgetting that each row had 4 desks. I quickly rearranged those groups so that each row had the group members. They'll be responsible for e-mailing the drafts to each other and then reading over them and commenting thoughtfully. I expect it to take around an hour and a half, so today will be stretched for time.
I asked the students to upload their second draft by tomorrow at 12 a.m. so that I can comment on them and get them back by Thursday evening. This gives me ample time to comment and read through their drafts as well as gives them plenty of time to rework their papers until the due date, Monday at 12:40 p.m.
So far, as the class goes, discussions have been great, but I'm trying out the Wiki for today for the students to talk about their first drafts publically and collaborate on any issues they seem to be having. This is the first time I've tried to use a wiki for such and I'm hoping that it will be beneficial to them as well as to me.

Day 1 Reflection

For Monday I passed out the syllabus and ran through that. There were a few questions, but none that led me to believe that the syllabus was confusing.
I talked a bit about me, but kept it brief.
We talked about what people think of when they think of Native Americans and Native women. The responses were what I expected, for the most part, as many people think of the generic things like teepees, buffaloes, feathered headdresses, Pocahontas, high cheekbones, body art, long black hair, deerskins, babies, etcetera. However, I was quite taken with a couple of responses, particularly a couple of responses: they think of land, murder and tribal symbols.
Then, I talked about feminism. I had them do a freewrite about feminism and what their reactions/thought about it were. Then, using the Oxford English Dictionary, I gave them a definition and then broke it down a bit. Afterwards, we talked about "famous" feminists, many of whom the students seemed to recognize.
So far, participation seems great, students are willing to contribute.