Fidget

I'm starting to really think through the English 102 class I'm teaching in spring. We have to choose a theme for the course, so I chose "Identity" and am teaching Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, Mark Doty's Firebird, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Fae M. Ng's Bone, and Yvonne Melanson's Looking for Lost Bird. Essay 1 will be a visual and written auto-ethnography in order to 1. get them to think of how they both define and represent their selves/identities and 2. to realize that they have a critical voice about themselves and they world they live in, and their voice needs to be foregrounded. We'll read Kaysen and think about how often how we are perceived and the social expectations surrounding our gendered or classed identities often collide with how we see ourselves. As part of the process leading up to Essay 1, I'd like them to come up with their own "Post Secret" (after introducing them to the project and web site), shuffle them in a big bag, and then pass them out randomly and have them write on who they think the person is and how they think their "secret" has been socially framed.

Essay 2 will ask them to identify a thematic thread between 2 of 3 text choices: Morrison, Doty, or Kaysen. Essay 3 will ask them to do a compare and contrast between the protagonist in Bone and one other character from any other text we've read. More specifically, it will ask them to compare and contrast how these two characters deal with family and generational gaps and bridges. Essay 4 will ask them to consider the "big picture" of identity and community, both being accepted and rejected in differing ways in a number of communities. They will be asked to explain what they think forms it, and I will ask them to consider Melanson's narrative (about a Jewish woman finding out she's actually adopted off of a Navajo reservation and is full-blood) as a starting point. I'll ask them to think about self-determination, community, family, race, ethnicity, language--all the big guns we will have discussed during the term. I am excited about the class....

My 101 class is very similar to teaching 1C at UCR or 1A at RCC. A few additions will be Chappelle's Show and Dexter, and an episode of Strangers with Candy, called "Trail of Tears," which situates Jerry as finding out she's Indian and having to go to camp to learn "how to be an Indian" from camp counselor Will Farrell. Total satire.

If any of my teacher friends reading this have any suggestions on other texts or critical essays to supplement my 102 plan, I welcome them!

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On an unrelated note, here's a view of the Cascades from my place, which is much prettier and clearer if you click on the image (which then blows it up):