Blog #5

Weekly Blog due Wednesday, Oct. 12^th by 11:59pm

(Due to my absences, we will also have a blog 5b this week; keep reading until the end for more information.)

Task 1: Summarize and Respond to a Research Slam Article
Write about 500 words summarizing and responding to one of the Research Slam articles on Blackboard (in the Languages of Power and Resistance folder).  Here are some guiding questions to get you thinking (that is, don't just list out the answers to all these questions):

What new information did you learn?  Which perspectives might be new to you?  How does your own identity intersect with what you learned/read?  How does what you read connect to the Language Tea Party exercise we did in class?  How can teachers help resist dominant language practices in the classroom?  What are some specific challenges that you might face and how might you address those challenges (rather than just accept them)?  How does your article help you think about the curriculum that you might teach?  And how does your article help you think about your upcoming research project?  What do you want your research project to accomplish?  Etc.

Task 2: Incorporate the Pattern(s)-of-the-Week
For this blog, I actually want you to highlight/comment on the patterns that your author uses.  You might not know the official names for these patterns, but do your best to describe one or two of their patterns and the rhetorical effect the pattern has on the writing.

Otherwise, below is one pattern that you can experiment with for your own writing.  As always, please put your pattern-of-the-week sentence(s) in bold, followed by brackets that identify the pattern (example below).

Sample Pattern: Use of the colon to provide more detailed explanation (rather than just a list):  EX: “Lamont’s sketch was stick-figure simple: A red schoolhouse with brown students entering one door and exiting as white students at the other end of the building” (Christensen, p. 208) [what follows the colon both describes the simple stick figure drawing, but also highlights the complexities of the drawing].

Response to Blogs
As always, respond to two students' blogs.  This time, you get to pick.

AND BLOG 5b!  Due by class time on Monday, Oct. 17th
Simply post the references (in MLA or APA citation) for three sources that you might use for your Languages of Power and Resistance Project.  Remember that one should be a scholarly or peer-reviewed source.