6 WKs w/o WIKI

I think I'm really struggling to understand some of what's going on in this class. I've finally wrapped my head around "how" to do a wiki. In as much as I know that say, houses can be made from wood. And that people live in houses because they need somewhere to sleep (among other things).

But, what I don't get is WHY I'd want to communicate with a wiki, when I have all kinds of other cool optionsl? Just like I don't really know which building materials would be the best for a house in every case. I mean--I'm pretty sure I don't want to live in a mud hut in Seattle. Okay, screw the annoying analogy!

What I'm trying to say is that I have no real understanding of the wiki as a genre. That's important in Language Arts. I can understand now why some students are completely puzzled by the thought of "how" to write a poem or short story. Having my students put together a wiki would be a great idea, but I just don't get it. Is it merely an extensive encyclopedia entry? Where do you place your commentary? Is it really appropriate? It seems more separate, sterile than some of the other things I would otherwise do.

So far, I've been focusing on the potential technological barriers I would have in mastering and then teaching my students about creating wikis, but now I see that will probably be the least of my issues. It's possible that I just haven't come in contact enough with other wikis to fully understand the genre. My experience is limited to Wikipedia and various wikis that contain information about subjects such as video game or website easter eggs, etc.

How would I use that in my classroom? Possibly each student would create a page about a different poet/author in a certain literary period? Ideas anyone?

Anorexic Beauty

Media Constructions: ProAna, ProMia

When I think about media distortions and representations of daily life I can't help but think of how our problems, illnesses, the worst we have to offer is put in front of us every day. For better or worse, mass communication spreads news more quickly than before. There seems to be more of everything now and of course it's been argued if what's happening is really new at all, or if we're just hearing about it now. (Did you know that 9 out 10 people put their peanut butter on before their jelly? Isn't that cool? I would never have know that if not for the internet.)

Anyway, this week I did some thinking about what MIGHT have been created by the media, and the one thing that came to me was the "pro-anorexia pro-bulimia" trend that has surfaced in the last several years and is still going strong. In this case I can almost see what Beach describes as media creating its own reality. However, I would claim instead, that the distorted message strongly influenced young girls and women who in turn put a new spin of those existing mental illnesses.

There seems to be a strong connection between celebrities and media representations of eating disorders and their victims that makes them very appealing in a way, which has lead to this wave of "pro ana" and "pro mia" groups. In addition, these groups flourish in the cyber-community, yet another facet of how media effects this trend. This probably isn't news to some of you, but I felt it was particularly appropriate for those of us who do plan on educating adolescents who are facing this new trend. I searched around for links I thought you guys might find interesting, which are listed below.

Pro Ana Nation (You can't get into this one without clicking through two disclaimers.)
World's Largest Pro Anorexia Site (This is the name, I don't know if that's true.)
bluedragonfly.org
shiveringnaked.org

Wiki-ty Whack

I am quickly developing a love/hate relationship with creating this wiki entry. At least I no longer "fear" the wiki, right? Is annoyance better than fear?

I don't like:

1. It's obviously easier to click that to type code
2. I hate that people can see what my edits are, so I'm having to totally create my page somewhere else.
3. I can tell there will be more of a learning curve than w/blogging, etc, if I want to add some cool stuff to any future entry.

What I like:
1. It looks like there are a lot of options for making my entry really unique even though it will take me awhile to remember the code, etc.
2. Once I figure this out for myself I'll be able to help my students do it.
3. If I can do this I will definitely feel more confident about creating my homepage, etc, which I am DETERMINED to do by the end of the semester!

So, I'm off to work on the text, which I'll have to write in MS Word. V. annoying to me as I really like that I can start a blog entry and save it as a draft, search for links, info, whatever, come back and polish it up, edit and then post it. When I'm all done I'll post the link here at "home base."

This is my brain on Deconstruction

This deconstruction thing with Beach is killing me. If it doesn't stop it, I may have to jump from my balcony--which wouldn't be very effective because it's only about 10 to the ground.

Maybe I'll jump from the Empire State Building instead. Of course, I'm assuming that exists, but I've actually only seen it represented in the media, so it may not exist because there is no "true and fixed meaning associated with external reality. (45)" True, there is a website that claims it exists. AND it may have looked real in that movie Sleepless in Seattle. But, they were probably filming that in front of some cardboard decorated with glitter and elbow macaroni and held together with Elmer's glue and duct tape. (It's true. You can make ANYTHING out of duct tape.)

Oh, isn't this ironic, I am both reinforcing Beach's argument and showing how clearly bizarre it is!

Seriously, although I'm sure there is a logical fallacy or two in there, I really DO believe that "media representations," as Beach refers to them are connected to a fixed reality. Just because societal norms change over time doesn't mean they hold no concrete truth in this time and place, that is, the present state when we are having our discussion. Right now. As I'm typing. And then, as you're reading this. I'm guessing we're still pretty much on the same page about, say, who the president of The United States is, that the world has 7 continents, etc. (It does have 7 doesn't it? One time I totally forgot Australia during a game of Trivial Pursuit. I was SO embarrassed.) Anyway--it seems ridiculous to me to suggest that messages put forth in any medium created by people who live in this reality are removed from our reality or furthermore, that the messages/ideologies could be considered amoral. The representation can never be completely separated from it root source because outside of each particular social construct it never would have been created. The two are inseparable. Married. You can't divorce them. And there is no reality polygamy going on here, so don't even suggest it!

The conclusion being: applying Deconstruction as a whole to the concept of media studies is a bad, bad thing. And I hate it. You must not do it. I command it!

Regarding the whole "chicken and egg" issue, I'm just going to put my opinion out there because that's what I like to do. (And because Beach clearly states his). Generally speaking, the problem came first, not any media representations. Yes, media effect our lives and values, but they don't directly cause our problems. Social problems existed well before this concept of "mass media." These problems have evolved as a consequence of mass communication. While media, in general, have produced gross distortions of reality because their creators have personal agendas, they are not the direct cause of society's problems.

Avast, ye landlubbers, youtube is da bomb.

It's not just for pirates and/or those of questionable moral values.

Check out this original student film I found on youtube. It's art set to an original dramatic reading of Emily Dickinson's I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.

I've also embedded a video with voice over of Plath herself reading Daddy, which is appropriately titled Sylvia Plath Reads "Daddy" and was posted on youtube.com by mishima1970 approximately one month ago, and has already been viewed nearly 4,000 times.

This is something I would love to do with my students. You could also have them create original work.

With Plath, I've always hoped to pair some of her poems with either Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963 or The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. They explain a lot of the background behind her poems. Particular journal entries can even be paired with some of the poems to explain where her ideas came from.

For example, if I remember correctly Letters Home tells about a plaster cast that was made of her head, which was the inspiration for In Plaster. It was only after reading the letter she wrote to her mother about it that the poem seemed to hold real meaning for me.

Anyway, enjoy the videos, it's definitely a resource I'll be considering in the future.

Homey Don't Play Dat

So, anyone remember this guy, cause I do. And his cousin can be seen in the documentary, Rize, our chosen film for this week's module. (Yes, you will be hunted down as promised, Ben!) The entire first half I felt like I was watching an SNL sketch or one of those tongue-in-cheek Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Best in Show or A Mighty Wind. Alas, Parker Posey made no appearance, so I'm forced to concluded that "clowning" is alive and well and that Rize is the genuine thing.

If I were choosing, I would probably discuss this film using race discourse/ethnic studies or from a postcolonial point-of-view. However, my role this week is to apply a feminist "lens" to this documentary, so I'll try my best.

From a feminist critical perspective one of the elements I found most compelling was the differences in self-expression between the female and male krumpers. The female roles were much more sexualized. This was particularly obvious when the women started stripping off extra clothing and pouring water on themselves during the competition between the clowners and the krumpers. This is definitely something students could discuss in the classroom. They might compare the one male participant who stripped off his shirt and the claims krumping welcomes all people regardless of appearance. (Though not all races.)

I also found the "stripper dance" segment particularly disturbing. It seemed ludicrous to me that the young girl claimed she was unfamiliar with it's origins. Furthermore, I do not agree with the boy who defended young girls (6 or 7 yrs) dancing like that. This would also make an interesting topic for debate for students.

I heart jigsaw

Yes, at first I hated you. I felt you were forced upon me by evil professors focused only on their narrow-minded cooperative learning agendas. But! Now I have come to see the beauty and genius that is you. The truth is just this: understanding one thing is easier than understanding a bunch of things. So, here is a specific idea for this week. Although it is an excellent idea for examining gender/sexist stereotypes, it can modified in many ways.

I recycled this lesson plan from some team-teaching I did last semester, which saved me time, but also because at the end of the course the majority of the students claimed this was their favorite activity. And this was from middle school students who wouldn't write more than 4 sentences for the rest of the course. I had each student deconstruct an ad--not in the evil Derridaesque sense of the word--and create a caricature from the point of view of the ad's target audience.

I had them focus on the outrageous, over-the-top claims, etc., that ads tend to make and tell the "story" of the ad, like picture forms of caricatures that students were more familiar with. This enabled me to discuss more traditional aspects of satire, irony, and sarcasm as well as address the underlying political messages, etc. implied by the ads.

I used this in conjunction with creating an advertising campaign with simple arts and crafts materials. For more of a media studies focus, I would connect this to a unit on media literacy and possibly storyboard a commercial or have students create their own commercial/ad campaign/print ad using a bit more advanced technology. Also the film clip from What Women Want, where Mel Gibson's character dresses up in the women's clothes, etc. to "understand" his target audience is particularly relevant. The film itself addresses both gender stereotypes in the media and the importance in advertising of knowing your target audience.

Here's a PDF of the lesson plan. Am v. excited as this is the first one I've actually written and not just converted, as well as the first one I've personally uploaded. This one is really simple, but there were tons of other cool options I could've included in creating it.

If I have time later in the week I'll hunt down my ad and my sample sketch. I also think I have some artifacts that I'm definitely going to try and post ASAP just so you can see what a great job some of the kids did.

CH. Summary: The Kitchen Sink

Although I have limited experiences with studying film, the critical approaches we discuss this week are analogous to ones I've applied to more traditional print texts for some time. The exciting part for me is that we're now making an effort to bring these approaches into the secondary classroom and that I get to develop some lesson ideas involving Film and Television.

Last semester I read Deborah Appleman's Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents for a course on teaching literature to adolescents. It focuses on applying these approaches to traditional canonical texts and I highly recommend it.

A summary of the critical approaches we covered this week follows.

1. Rhetorical: This was funny to me because rhetorical criticism is just that, CRITICISM. So, if you take that approach you're just looking at the text to formulate an argument. In my opinion, a good argument from any of the other schools of thought should draw upon these elements. 'Nuff said.

2. Semiotic: In short, the study of symbols. In a film: identifying the symbol, what it signifies, and to whom. From there, its implications. I'm thinking phallic symbol. I can't help it. Semiotics is tied to the school of Structuralism, which focuses on the unchanging meanings and structures found in language.

3. Narrative: Applying the plot structures of a particular film genre (i.e., Romantic Comedy) to critically examine how we understand texts and/or how those texts reflect cultural norms. We do this all the time with written texts; it simply mean studying a genre, Sci Fi perhaps, within another genre such as the Short Story.

3. Postructuralism: So, if Structuralists are all about finding this stable language/structure that defines meaning regardless of the particular text, a Poststructuralist argues that's totally impossible because there is no real consistent meaning in words. The argument is that the meanings held by these symbols (words or objects) is culturally-based.

Beach seems to simplify Poststructuralism in the classroom. Although I do think that examining the false dichotomies presented by the media is a worthy classroom exercise, I wouldn't exactly define that as Poststructuralist criticism, even at the high school level.

4. Postmodernism: As described by Beach, we can use this approach to examine the truth/reality of the media texts. Postmodernists would say that the only truth/reality is in the text itself, therefore contradictions found in the text can be used to "deconstruct" the text. Or something like that. I don't know. Maybe. If you know for sure please email me.

Postmodernism is closely related to the school of Deconstruction. Sadly, even proponents of these schools of though have difficulty defining themselves clearly. Are they doing that on purpose to prove their point? How annoying.

If Postructuralism is like stubbing my toe, then Postmodernism is like having it chopped off. By an ugly French man named Jacques Derrida. To me it's freakishly DEPRESSING. Also, this school of thought is associated in my mind with the "this poem means whatever you say it does" movement, which I DESPISE.

That being said, I think some films can lend themselves to a Postmodern/Deconstructionist reading. We talked about the movie Pleasantville in our group meeting last week. I think this is a one example, as the movie is set in an unreal "reality."

Critical Discourse Analysis

Beach makes a distinction between some of these critical theories on the basis that they deal not only with the use of language and symbolism, but also explicitly address specific political ideologies. Among these he includes:

1. Race Discourse, aka, Ethnics Studies
2. Class Discourse aka, Marxist Criticism.


Schools of critical theory I think should also be among this group include:

1. Postcolonial: Sort of self-explanatory; deals with after-effects of colonial rule. This school seeks to include works of marginalized populations in the literary canon. But, beyond that, it also questions the portrayal of colonization in canonical literature, etc. Supports efforts to write about indigenous cultures, which is seen as an effort at "decolonization." Similar to Ethnic and Feminist schools of criticism.

2. Feminist: See other blog entry.

Here's The Beef.

It took forever, but I finally got my commercial storyboard to show up--pics and everything!

Enjoy!

Also, check out the new grammar girl for details on the all-important subjunctive!

Victory Is Mine! Sort of.

I finally figured how to access my server space, so here's the PPT presentation justifying media studies in the classroom. (Yes, I know, last week's assignment.) It's short and meant to be included with my entries from last week, of course, but I thought it was worth putting up. I think I may be able to embed it into the post, but I'm still working on that. (Thus the "sort of" part of the title.) I'm also working on embedding the video clips of the commercial and Prison Break, but that's sort of last on my list because AT LEAST the information is accessible.

I'm still working on getting the storyboard to show up. I think I'm going to have to convert it to a flash file as well since right now it's in a word document. Progress, though. I'm excited because now that I've added some files to my server space I can start working on a home page. Then maybe I can stop doing all my entries on this blog!

Where's the beef?

Sucre, a.k.a. Jean Valjean

So I'm currently obsessed with Prison Break and a couple of weeks ago Sucre's plot line took an interesting twist. It so closely mirrors the plot line from Les Mis that it will--without at doubt--be recognizable to those of you who are familiar with the story. Since you might teach it in class, I thought it would be a good choice!

The setup: Sucre has broken out of prison and is on the run. He's made it to Mexico where he's meeting the beautiful Mari Cruise, but the town where's he meeting her is far away. A nice man offers him a place to stay for the night, which Sucre accepts because he sees that he has a car in his driveway. Although the man is nice Sucre is focused on one thing--getting to Extapa to see Mari Cruse, so he steals the car in the night. Sucre gets caught and is brought back to the man's house by the local police officers.

The audience takes an authorial, third person point-of-view while we watch what transpires once Sucre arrives at his benefactor's house. Although Sucre's "benefactor" speaks to the officers and chooses to confirm Sucre's story that he'd loaned him the car, the use of reverse shots between the two characters creates the illusion of conversation although the two are not speaking. In addition, the use of close up reaction shots proves there is often little need for dialog to convey emotions. Although Sucre speaks only one word during the scene the audience sees him travel through a myriad of emotions: fear, hope, despair, astonishment, guilt. All are evident in his expression during their silent exchange.

Indicative of the action/adventure genre, each pause between dialog or action seems drawn out and creates tension as it builds toward the scene's climax. Each time Sucre's benefactor answers a question he pauses meaningfully. The audience is on the edge of its seat while it waits for the reply to the all important question of whether Sucre has borrowed the car, as he has claimed, or if it is was--as the police are convinced--stolen. Many of the benefactor's answers are cryptic, which makes it even more difficult to discern what will happen. He tells the officers, "I'm glad you brought him back." The long pause leaves the audience wondering, "Why is he glad? Is he going to throw him in jail? Why doesn't he just say something?" He is speaking mainly through with his expression to Sucre, so the audience has no choice but to wait for his words to see what will happen. The pause gives the ordinary line, "I forgot to give him gas money," impact it would not otherwise have.

Lighting also plays an integral role in communicating. The flashing police car lights are the major source of light and flash on one side of Sucre's face while the other face is in shadow. The close up shot of the money, silhouetted in red, when the benefactor reveals he is offering it to Sucre for gas signifies its importance. Then see the the two hands in shadow, illuminated by the red and blue lights of police car while the money slowly changes hands.

Finally, when Sucre tries to apologize--his one word in the scene--his benefactor cuts him off, telling him instead to "Find his girl, then find grace." This line of dialog captures the essences of what has just been expressed visually.

Of course, those of us who have seen/read Les Mis already new what was going to happen. BUT, Will Sucre become a changed man, found a city, lift a cart with inhuman strength, fall in love with a prostitute suffering from TB and raise her child in a convict? Only time will tell!

Humble Pie. Side of Irony, please.

I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath to see my argument to the school board justifying the use of media studies.

Well, here's the hold up: I thought to my "clever" self that I would make a PPT presentation! Now, I am trying to figure out how to put it up here. Yes, this is funny.

All I can say is, we had ONE computer where I went to HS. And I learned to type on typewriters. Also, I blame the weather. That's the real problem here. Yep, nothing like a good scapegoat. I swear I would be a millionaire by now if it weren't for the weather.

The Politics of Media Literacy

When I read Chapter 1 of Beach, I couldn't help but come back to the reality that many of these concerns are political. I'm fairly certain that an administrator who is concerned about students watching films is hardly going to be persuaded to allow students to study media literacy on the grounds that students need the opportunity to examine "how media constructions or representations reflect ideological agendas (Beach, 5)." It seems to me that the All-American, homogeneous facade is just what such critics are trying to maintain.

In addition, Beach's comments that there is no meaning within the texts themselves, but only "in how audiences construct the meaning of media texts within specific social constructs." reeks of deconstructionist literary theory, which makes his theories on teaching media literacy overtly political. Although it might be helpful to look at different forms of media from a deconstructionist point of view, I also feel we should consider more conservative and diversified approaches to critical theories of media literacy. Moving media studies from practical to political is just one source of concern surrounding this conflict.

On the other hand, upon reading the first chapter of Teachingmedialiteracy.com, I am sure I will be more prepared to answer questions regarding my use of media in the classroom. I will both be able to justify to those who might complain, as well as explain to those who might be more interested in the opportunities these new resources will afford us.

As I stated before, I feel the argument for a greater focus on media literacy in the classroom will be a difficult one to make, mostly for political reasons. Although I am ready to accept the social and political influences of the media, many parents may feel it is inappropriate for the classroom environment. (And that is merely one aspect of the debate.) It seems that we, as educators, must prepare ourselves to negotiate and communicate in an open atmosphere. It did really make sense that this isn't an "either/or" concept.

Now, how successful I will be at communicating the benefits of media studies in the classroom is an entirely different issue. Here's what I came up with:

Open the door. Get on the floor.

everybody walk the dinosaur.

When I looked over this week's assignment I thought a wiki might be more appropriate, but soon realized there was NO WAY I was going in to figure that out in the time. All I can say is...working on it, working on it! So, here is another blog entry and will be working on doing a practice wiki for next week! Wish me luck!

For the first time I'm really feeling out of touch with my students! After my years of work experience with XML, I thought I had at least some sort of grasp on things and they would come to me fairly easily. But here's the thing--in my spare time I didn't do any of this stuff! I suppose that's the crucial difference and exactly WHY I need this class. Everyone else is probably thinking, OF COURSE!, but I was more looking at this class as a way for me to connect media with education, not to point out how horribly inept I am!

I hope I don't die off before I adapt.