Today in class, we read Sherman Alexie's essay about how he found his love of words, and how he feels compelled to share that with people like him in order to "save [their] lives". Tonight, you are to respond to the four discussion questions at the end of the essay (no giant answers, please) and be ready to end the back-to-school introductory section of this course.
Some food for thought from today:
1. Who are your heroes? Who are the people you try to emulate? We fall in love with the idea of superheroes because they seem to be able to do more, be more than us. Is that really true (unless fictitious, of course)? Maybe Alexie is pushing us to go forward and try to emulate our heroes, even if we try and fail. We might surprise ourselves with what we can do.
2. We are "paragraphs". Let's dissect this like we did in class. Alexie said that a paragraph was a "fence that holds in words". Wow...I just think that is such a powerful line to learn from. Just think about how powerful our writing would be if we concentrated our ideas, one at a time, in a single paragraph. THAT is what writing should be. And, even though some of you attempted to encapsulate yourselves in a single sentence, don't you think the idea of 'you' should be fuller? (Sorry, Marina, though you are awesome.)
3. Reading/writing as a life saving measure: Alexie is not the first to write about this. Recording what we know and learning from what we read is exactly how history carries itself. It is so essential to all we do. Shouldn't we do that to the very best of our ability?
By enrolling in this course (and doing that darned summer reading), you are doing exactly that. Cheers to you.
Tomorrow's discussion: violence, and the people that commit it.
Until tomorrow,
Ms. B
Some food for thought from today:
1. Who are your heroes? Who are the people you try to emulate? We fall in love with the idea of superheroes because they seem to be able to do more, be more than us. Is that really true (unless fictitious, of course)? Maybe Alexie is pushing us to go forward and try to emulate our heroes, even if we try and fail. We might surprise ourselves with what we can do.
2. We are "paragraphs". Let's dissect this like we did in class. Alexie said that a paragraph was a "fence that holds in words". Wow...I just think that is such a powerful line to learn from. Just think about how powerful our writing would be if we concentrated our ideas, one at a time, in a single paragraph. THAT is what writing should be. And, even though some of you attempted to encapsulate yourselves in a single sentence, don't you think the idea of 'you' should be fuller? (Sorry, Marina, though you are awesome.)
3. Reading/writing as a life saving measure: Alexie is not the first to write about this. Recording what we know and learning from what we read is exactly how history carries itself. It is so essential to all we do. Shouldn't we do that to the very best of our ability?
By enrolling in this course (and doing that darned summer reading), you are doing exactly that. Cheers to you.
Tomorrow's discussion: violence, and the people that commit it.
Until tomorrow,
Ms. B
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