Experiments in Experience...

For the past week or so, I have been hearing many of you speak about the courses that you were required to take this semester, namely WRI 1301 (Expository Writing) and FYE (First Year Experience).  Both of these courses are in their inaugural year and you all get to be the first students to experience this new “model” that WSSU is attempting to build upon for future students.

At the end of the semester, I will ask you to evaluate this course in the form of a blog or a letter to future students, however for the sake of this blog, I would like some input as to how you think the FYE course is going and what you have heard about other sections of the WRI 1301 course.

• What have your peers expressed to you about their WRI 1301 course? 

• If they have conveyed the strengths and weaknesses of that course, what are they?

• How do you feel about your FYE course? 

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of how the class is structured?  

• Is there a clear structure for the course?  

• Evaluate your instructors of those courses. Do they work “in tandem” or does there seem to be tension?  

• What do you think could be done to improve this course or should it be discontinued?

Feel free to be as honest as you would like in this.  If I would like to share some of your comments with the coordinators/directors of the FYE, I will ask your permission before doing so.

Mr. C

Reminder, this blog is due on November 3 by 11:59 PM and should be at least 300 words.  Comment on this blog – do not create your own on top of this one.

Check 1, Check 2...

Well folks, we are a little bit past the halfway point of this semester and this course. One thing that is always "funny" to me is that some students don't realize that they are in school until midterm grades come out. They make a vow to change and fix their grades, habits, and outlook on their academic performance. They change their ways for about two weeks, then they slip back into the same habits.

I put quotation marks around "funny" because it really is not funny so much as it is sad. The semester usually ends with them going through the stages of grief when their grades are not what they should be. First, they go through denial - "I didn't see this coming. I came to class, I turned in my work..." Second, they go through anger - "I can't believe YOU gave me this grade...I hate you for this..." Then it goes to bargaining - "Is there anything I can do? I was going through a lot this semester." Then the students get depressed before ultimately they accept their fate.

This blog comes out of the many traditional students who don't have a strong sense of why they are in school and why when it comes to their grades they do not, as Beyonce said, "Check Up On It." Why do you think that students run from their grades all semester, then run to them at the end? In your years of school, is this a trend that you have noticed? Why is it that students think that by bargaining, they will get by when their work is not indicative of it? Is this a culture that we as a society have created?

Mr. C

Remember, this blog is due by 11:59 PM on Friday October 20. Remember that responses need to be at least 250 words. Also, make sure you comment on this blog - DO NOT create your own in response to this one. 

Gender Diversity...The Debrief

“Feminism isn't about hating men. It's about challenging the absurd gender distinctions that boys and girls learn from childhood and carry into their adult lives.”

-          Robert Webb

Throughout this unit, we have discussed diversity as it relates to gender.  Instead of talking about it generally, we focused a bit more on the deliberate actions negatively displayed by society related to women, their identities, and the comfortability they have with their own views, bodies and sexuality by first calling them “sluts” and then shaming them in online platforms as well as in public. As Tate (2016) mentions in her article, “Feminists … use social media spaces to subvert traditional conceptions of gender and to present the dynamic self. The dynamic self represents the ability to have multiple and competing identities, allowing individuals to embody apparently contradic­tory positions such as strength and vulnerability.” (p. 38). This quote speaks to the importance that society needs to acknowledge the binaries that are evident in not only women, but all humans. 

You also participated in a project where you had the opportunity to interview the campus community about their views on the term “slut”, what slut shaming is, how it manifests, and the ramifications of it if it continues.  Nigerian author of novels, short stories, and nonfiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, speaks about us all being feminists in the TED Talk we watched in class.  She brings some very appropriate topics to her discussion which focus on just how gender unequal our society still really is.  Based on the article we read in class, the project you completed with your group, and this TED Talk,

·         What are some of your personal definitions of feminism/feminists?

·         Do you think that your definition is solely germane to women?  Why or why not?

·         Have you had experiences/instances (either personally or as an eyewitness) where you showed yourself to be a feminist (based on your own definition and the dictionary definition)? Describe that instance.

·         Adichie tells the story of the inequality of gender in her classroom as a child where she wanted to be the class monitor.  Have you ever experienced anything similar to her situation?

·         How do you feel about women (and even minorities) being overlooked in society because of factors beyond their control (color of their skin, family heritage/background, gender, etc)?

·         Do you feel there will ever be social justice for these marginalized groups?

Mr. C

This blog is due Friday October 6 by 11:59 PM and should be AT LEAST 500 words.  Comment on this blog – DO NOT create your own.