spotlight on...sarojaede!

[unregistered]

 

[Sarojaede]

Aah, bummer, still, from what I've read off the backs, I might be tempted to give the Grafton ones a whirl, particularly if I can get the first two at least, to get the general feel.

Thanks for your answers to all the questions.

Quoll, I think you might enjoy the Grafton ones.

And you're welcome.

 

[Sarojaede]

SJ, I've enjoyed reading your thread. I've read Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout but not Olive Kittridge (sp?). I think I'll pick it up.

What course level do you teach? (Freshman/100, Soph/200, etc)

I read that you've encountered many students coming to class unprepared, do you find that they are coming to college unprepared?

Do you consider any books just absolutely essential must-reads for the 16-18 year old pre-college set? Of course there are great books, but some, like Catcher in the Rye I think are over-rated. I'm a lover of great books (and jelly-bean books as well) but lately I find myself wondering if H.S. students should be reading books they choose and writing, writing, writing.

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I've been swamped at work.

I teach first-year comp classes as well as upper level technical writing classes. What I have on my plate really just depends on the semester.

I teach at an open enrollment university, which basically means there is no standard for admission that students have to meet to attend the university. The standards of admissions are associated with the degree program. So, for instance, a student could get into the university (as part of the general college) with a 1.0 GPA (or less), but to be admitted to certain programs in the College of Business he/she would have to have a 2.5 or higher (this is all program dependent, not necessarily College dependent.)

So, yes, I find that many students are totally unprepared for college. And I don't just mean unprepared academically, but unprepared "socially". They don't actually know how to behave in a classroom. I have a student this semester who breaks out into rap in the midst of my class. He firmly believes he's going to make it as a rapper, so he does no work for my class and simply tells the other students "It's okay, I'll just show her my check". As if his check for his music will somehow translate to a passing grade for my class.

It's not just behavior in the classroom but in an academic environment in general. They yell at each other through the hallways, disrupting other classes even with their doors closed.

They have little to no critical thinking abilities so they have a hard time analyzing anything--a piece of writing, a commercial, song lyrics, a print advertisement.

And by in large, a great deal of them simply want things handed to them rather than having to work for it. Honestly, I could go on all day about this.

The open enrollment at my university, of course, affects the quality of the students we end up with, which may mean that the ones I see both in my class or just in general in the hallways in the buildings are less prepared for college than students at other universities.

I don't really have a list of absolute must reads for 16-18 year olds. There is a part of me that would like to argue they should be familiar with what we consider the literary cannon because those texts are often alluded to in other more contemporary texts or even other media. For instance, when Kobe Bryant was accused of rape and editorial cartoon was run in a few national newspapers and it was picked up by some college newspapers as well. It was a caricature of Bryant wearing a basketball jersey on it with a big red A on it instead of the Lakers logo.

At the time, I was teaching a unit on social and political commentary. So, I brought in copies of the cartoon for students to analyze. I asked them to briefly write about what the cartoonist was trying to say--what point he/she was trying to make through the cartoon. One person out of the 18 in the class got the reference to The Scarlett Letter. One.

However, like you, there are "classic" works that I consider highly overrated; Catcher in the Rye is one of them. I still think that being familiar with the work is important for the purpose of intertextuality.

At the same time though, I know that if you force kids to read things they simply don't want to it can often discourage them from reading, especially if they aren't avid readers in the first place. It's kind of a Catch-22 situation. You want them to read, but you want them to read things they are interested in because they are more likely to do so. However, a passing familiarity with many major classical works (and some of the contemporary ones as well) is beneficial on several levels.

 

[Quoll]

Quoll: I'm not entirely sure that I would recommend them as stand alone. With the Evanovich ones, there are some relationships that are developed that you need to understand because they carry through from novel to novel. Although, Evanovich does a pretty good job of offering a brief recap of the previous novel in the next one.

For the Grafton ones...hmmmm....I'm not too sure about that either. I think they work a little bit better as stand alone novels than the Evanovich series does, but again, there are some things from one to the next that are interconnected that might be helpful to know.

Well I managed to grab Evanovich's Ten Big Ones, (not exactly spoilt for choice) it's good fun.
I'm guessing I wont have any problems until I start listening to the earlier ones, although it's fairly clear there is history between her and Ranger, so hopefully I'll be able to connect the dots even if I am starting in the middle.
She makes a nice change from the serial killers I 've been listening to, thanks for the advice.

 

[JustSkye]

When you hear laughter, what do you think of, what does your mind picture if you cannot see where it is coming from?

 

[Quoll]

When you hear laughter, what do you think of, what does your mind picture if you cannot see where it is coming from?

That's an awesome question sweets.