"This morning, I woke up feeling brand new, I jumped up, feeling my highs, and my lows, and my soul, and my goals... just to stop smoking, stop drinking, got me thinking, I got my reasons..."
Today's discussion was terrific. We really started thinking critically about the way these films work on a rhetorical level––how they try to persuade us of their vision of war. Still, lots remained unsaid, and you have two opportunities to do that: one, your Rhetorical Analysis paper due next Thursday on the last scene in FMJ, and two, on this blog.
Remember that in this class it is often up to you to create your own assignments and demonstrate that the wheels are spinning. So if you ever make an observation that you wish to expand on and reflect more deeply about, that's usually blog material and we'll all benefit--You don't have to wait until Monday/Wednesday evening to post; or be limited to just two posts per week; that is just the official minimum requirement. Or if you wanted to say something in class today but didn't, you can always do that here on the blog, after class sometime while the discussion thread is still fresh in all our minds. Then reference your post in your learning record, and, voila, it's now evidence of thinking and learning you can use later when you're justifying your grade.
So: tweeting is going well.
Some Netflix converts, which is nice.
Observations you need to simplify and make more objective, more frequent, and less analytical (e.g. I was hesitant to speak in class today but became more comfortable as the discussion warmed up; getting called on wasn't as terrifying as I thought it would be). Or: "I was bored in class today." Then, you can take that observation and reflect on it. Ask yourself, "Why was I bored? And maybe if you write a reflection you'll learn something about yourself and how you can improve... difficulty is what points us toward growth as long as we have the awareness to examine the difficulty in front of us. This last part, the reflection, could be turned into a work sample you can upload to the LR, or a blog post if you think the class would benefit from your insights.
So you can start using the blog to develop some of your thoughts and ideas, not always just the night before an official blog post is due. (At least this is what it would take to be in the B or A learning category; C and D level students don't show much initiative besides doing what is asked of them directly and explicitly and therefore will only blog the evening before a post is officially due). The blog is also a great venue to point out the many ways in which whatever Matt says is wrong.
This is why using Netvibes is useful: you can see quickly whenever somebody has posted something new without actually having to go to the blog page.
Weekend Duties for next week's material: Recommended (but not required) viewing of Saving Private Ryan; read "Saving Private Ryan and the politics of Deception" in course packet; read up to 78 in TYFA; get a head start on RA #1; get a head start on "How to Perform a Rhetorical Analysis" found on the netvibes home page.
Your blog post for Tuesday: anything you want. By that I mean you can respond to the TYFA reading(s) and apply them further to class material; you can say something additional about the two movies; you can comment on the essays you're being asked to read; or you can synthesize something else that's relevant to class. Write about what feels most relevant to you; odds are, that will be what has the most value.
A kick-ass weekend to all.
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