Friday, April 16, 2010

Fin

This is your last chance to get a blog post/comment in for the semester. Use it to tell me what literary text you would like to have taught in BENG 102. Keep in mind that it should be a text that gives students a way to talk about various literary devices (e.g. setting, characterization, theme, symbol, tone) and has thematic content that would facilitate interesting discussion and that people could successfully write about. Give me ideas and explain why you choose them.

11 comments:

  1. Im not sure exactly which text i would recommend but i would choose a text that might be somewhat easier for a student to relate to. I think for many students who do not have a broad imagination it is harder for them to read and completely understand a text like "The Diamond Age." With a futuristic setting and the world being ran with a completely different sense of ruling the text is hard to understand. If the text was about real life problems that actually occur in a reality setting might be easier for many students to understand. Therefore you will probably get more out of a class discussion because many students will have actually read the book and are interested in the text because they can somewhat relate to the material.

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  2. I would like to be taught a book that is to my level so that I can understand what is going on and get into the novel. Also, I like to read books that teach me important and valuable lessons that help me in life. Therefore I prefer non-fiction, or at least books that are based on events that happen in our world. These books are easy to relate to, and what we can learn from these books can be used in our lives. They really make you think about its themes, and how they affect us every day. When a book does this for me, I find it very interesting. And it is so much easier for me to write about a book that I find interesting. It is easier to write about the importance of the setting, characters, theme and all other literary devices

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  3. I agree with Nate and carlos, being given a book like "the diamond age" something that is futuristic and way beyong our years is harder to understand. Most students dont read unless its required and even then they sometimes done do it. So, even though as college students we need to be challenged, something that beyond us is hard to comprehend and understand. Something that can be related to our own lives and draw our attention gets more out of us. When we can relate to it or atleast imagine it the class is easier to understand and so is assignments. therefore finding english contents like theme and setting is easier to do and understand.
    Going back to high school assignements like reading "the great train robbery" and "the kite runner" it was easier because it added history and culture we already knew.

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  4. I agree with all 3 of the above posts in saying that "The Diamond Age" was complicated to understand and relate to and students should be taught with material of the opposite nature. I, personally would have related better to real-life novels with real places as setting and characters who portray real people (from the past or current, not future). For example, most 'futuristic' books have 'made-up' words so to speak, such as ractor or ractive. It honestly took me halfway through the book before I truely understood the meaning of that word(s). It's not like a true word that can be found in Webster's dictionary that you can just look up to better explain it. That novel imparticular was extremely hard to understand and write about. Having said that, you don't need to base it on all newer-age novels. Any novels set in the time period in which students should be familiar with (such as through history class- or current time)will be sufficient. THis will help students better relate to and understand the material they are reading. When you understand something you're reading, you get more out of it and can analyze the story better.

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  5. I agree with everyone’s post on this one. For me the Diamond Age really didn’t attract me so I had a difficult time understanding it. I think it would help if you used a book that was known by other students and that actually would spark an interest in them. Now, I understand that you can’t satisfy everyone, but I know there’s probably one book that can connect with its young readers. I agree with Autumn with how books should relate to real life and real people. I think this generation relates more on the real life books rather than the futuristic, sci-fi books. Of course, that’s just my opinion but I believe real life things connect with many people from the start. Now to recommend I wouldn’t have any because I everyone has their opinions on what’s good and what’s not. Overall, I think a book that would deal with history or real life events would connect a lot more with people.

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  6. I don't really agree with the idea of getting taught literary texts that I can easily relate to or that is current to what is going on in our time. The whole point is to be exposed to new ideas and to learn about things that we would otherwise not be introduced to. For example, I did not know there is a genre called steam punk or what it is. If we had not read that novel I still would not know because my comfort zone or what I normally do every day would not really allow me to come in contact with that. Basically, literary texts that should be taught are ones that are completely out of the ordinary. Ones that students can get the most out of because they have nothing in common with it.

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  7. I think somewhat is true to what Duniel is saying. True, the point is to get us exposed, but a lot of times there is so much confusion with the literary text we read in class. I understand it’s good to read and learn something new, but sometimes we don’t have the time or it just gets too complicated. That's why I was agreeing with the earlier posts because that would seem a little easier on students. Now I agree it’s good that we get exposed to new genres and authors because that’s the point of the class, but like I said sometimes it gets so complicated that we lose track and really don’t learn much. I believe it would be great that we keep some of the literary texts that we are currently using and then also include some other texts from today’s writers.

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  8. I think that everyone has a good point. I think I would of rather read something more modern that I understood as opposed to something like “The Diamond Age”. I never fully understood what was going on in that novel until coming to class and everyone talking about it. Then again, I agree with Duniel, people like me and him never would of known what “Steam Punk” was if we had not talked about and read that book. I think if we would of read an easier novel that we could fully understand by ourselves then it would have been easier to find things like literary devices.

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  9. While I agree with all my fellow classmates that "The Diamond Age" was a difficult read at first, I don't belive that it should have been left out of the class or thrown to the wind just because it was a "hard" book to read. The beauty of classrooms is that we can ask questions to figure out what the author means. I feel that if we would have been able to read any more literature, an easy-going novel at the end of all our readings would have been a nice little break, but that's also not what a college class is for. This is not time for pleasure reading, and no teacher will ever supply you with that. I do agree however, that real life books that were more in our day and age versus the future, would have probably been much easier for most. However, this is still Eng 102, Dangerous Readings. We still must be challanged or else Prof. Bowser wouldn't be doing her job. I enjoyed most of our readings in class, so I'm not the best one to ask what to recommend. In my previous post, for "What is College For?", I spoke of Neil Stephenson and his Uglies series. Those would be my recommendation, as a more modern prequel of "The Diamond Age".

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  10. I also agree that "The Diamond Age" wasn't exactly an enjoyable read, it was still challenging and that's the point of the class. However, there are also ways to make challenging works enjoyable. I'm not sure what I would recommend, but maybe something more current. Also, I will always be an advocate of Harry Potter in a classroom setting!

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  11. I enjoyed "The Diamond Age" being taught, because I found it easy to "close read" the selection. Also, from a professor's point of view, the book HAS nothing online to help lazy students breeze through, you actually have to read the text.

    I feel that "Animal Farm" by George Orwell would be a good text to teach as well. The book has many hidden themes and ideas based on history and politics. The only downfall is that the text is getting old, so there is a gaggle of info available for the book.

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