Random thoughts are exactly what they are, random! Anyone can say random words. It does Have favorable results. His attempts to woo — But never all the way — toward the cliff Conform to something so unlike yourself The other points are pretty valid. It’s A place to jot down information as Questions. For example:…
My students are working on showing and telling. It’s a difficult concept to learn, and I’ve found over the years it’s not that easy to teach. So as part of an upcoming short story assignment, I’ve started to introduce the concept of “pointless showing” to define the practice of avoiding clear language in the misguided…
Amanda Cochran, who was a student in my freshman composition class not too many years ago, went on to be the editor-in-chief of the student paper, and is now in grad school at NYU. She writes about taking on an assignment on short notice. I was nominated to cover the story yesterday by one of…
Good literacy news from the Washington Post: The share of kindergarten students in the county who can read simple books has risen from 39 to 93 percent in six years, according to school system data culled from reading assessments given each spring. Achievement is so high, and across so many demographic groups, that school officials…
I took a little break from evaluating a close reading assignment in order to look into the online chatter about George W. Bush’s interpretation of a painting called “A Charge to Keep.” Bush hung it on his wall because he identifies with the guy out in front, whom he sees as leading a tough climb…
Wired: A leading general and former top military spokesman in Iraq is pleading with the armed services to let troops blog and post to YouTube. Too bad the video site is banned on military nets, and Army rules squeeze military bloggers, hard. Greg Grant notes, politely, that Caldwell’s “recommendation that appears to run counter to…
Yahoo (AP): “Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers,” Ballmer wrote. It has been years since I’ve…
Frontline (PBS). This quote is from one of the producers, Caitlin McNally. There’s not a whole lot there that’s new to me, but it looks like the show will be good introduction to the subject. The majority of teenagers we talked to expressed good-natured exasperation that their parents “didn’t know how to work a computer”…
Jennifer Howard (Chronicle) The guidelines recommend 12 methods for achieving those goals. “Extensive and diverse reading requirements” leads the list. Instructors should also make sure their students study literary terminology and critical approaches, and that they practice critical reading as well as doing their own creative and critical writing. “Close reading of literary works and…
Jenna Wortham (Wired): Wednesday is International Delete Your MySpace Account Day, an online protest geared at uniting users eager to ditch the popular social networking site. Similar:Tales from the Antiquities Theft Task ForceA shot of Kim Kardashian leaning ag…AestheticsHarvard revokes admission of several students for posting "offensive" memesThe First Amendment of the constitution …AcademiaIrony in Blakes7…
While walking an introductory class through a close reading of “The Defense of Fort McHenry” (better known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,”) I noted that a student had wondered whether the appearance of “In God We Trust” on US currency had anything to do with the inclusion of a similar phrase, “In God is our Trust,”…
This message arrived in my in box today. The author gave me permission to answer it here. It must have been fate that led me to your site which I perused with great interest. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a 57 year old male, separated after nearly 27 years of marriage, now…
Non-Gamer: Why is it called “Dance Dance Revolution?”Me: Because the demographic wouldn’t go for “Dance Dance Establishment.” Similar:Daughter doing a thing. Interviewing the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s Randall Miller for Bur… Academia‘There’s a certain madness to it’ … fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years l…The organ composition is called “As Slow…AestheticsThe…
A close professional contact who regularly takes on student interns shared this list of guidelines, which she has found necessary to include when orienting a new intern to the routine of office work. Although the site is a non-profit educational organization, and thus the environment is more relaxed and forgiving than it might be in…
The Lego brick system was patented 50 years ago today. Gizmodo offers this timeline. Similar:The bots are coming. And they have poems. Yet in a circle pallid as it f…CybercultureOrson Scott Card Builds an EmpireVideo games are a viable storytelling me…CybercultureHow do you spend your last week of summer break?AcademiaRediscovering History’s Lost First Female Video…
Some thoughtful development of a powerful meme in cyberculture studies, from Henry Jenkins: Talking about digital natives and digital immigrants tends to exagerate the gaps between adults, seen as fumbling and hopelessly out of touch, and youth, seen as masterful. It invites us to see contemporary youth as feral, cut off from all adult influences,…
Great satire from The Onion. Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot Similar:Blender 3D UpdateHoly ray-tracing, Batman, it’s a Blender…AestheticsA hedge fund’s ‘mercenary’ strategy: Buy newspapers, slash jobs, sell the buildings For Alden and its subsidiary, the Gann…BusinessBuzzFeed plagiarism, deleted posts: Jonah Peretti explains.In 2012 my former Slate colleague Farhad…BusinessBoston bombings:…
Filed away to read on a rainy day (after I’ve cleared some big projects from my to do list): Jonathan Bate The original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s works do not survive: the sole extant composition in his hand is a single scene from Sir Thomas More, a multi-authored play that cannot really be described as ‘his’.…
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!!!! Wired Gulf Middle School resource officer John Nohejl didn’t have porn on his MySpace profile, and he didn’t link to porn. But one of the 170-odd people on his friends list, which seems mostly populated by students at his school, had a link to a legal adult site. Now…
Of course it’s not scientific, but it’s fun. Virgil Griffith: Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, “Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that.”? I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality.…