Goals

• To understand the main ideas of "The Pleasures of Remembrance" in relation to the other essays we've read so far.
• Practice "going beyond summary" in the act of interpreting a text.

Assignment for Day 11
Reading - In PHG, re-read the section on "Analyzing" on pp. 182-3; In LL, re-read bell hooks, "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" (118-28) [NOTE: YOU CAN FEEL FREE TO HAVE YOUR STUDENTS RE-READ ANOTHER ONE OF THE COURSE READINGS--ONE THAT LENDS ITSELF TO ANALYSIS, THAT IS--IF YOU THINK THAT IT WOULD WORK BETTER FOR THEM THAN HOOKS. IT IS, HOWEVER, IMPORTANT THAT THEY WRITE ON SOMETHING THEY HAVE ALREADY READ AND DISCUSSED, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO SPEND ALL OF NEXT CLASS ESTABLISHING THE BASICS ABOUT THE MAIN POINTS OF THE ESSAY];

1. ASAP: Re-read your Interpretive response in light of today's class, and note any changes that you would make in a revision.
2. Annotate (again) the hooks essay as you read, this time paying attention to particular strategies she uses as a writer--her organization, her tone, her style, her awareness of her reader, etc;
3. Write a 1-2 page analytical response (including a brief summary) to the hooks essay. IMPORTANT: REMIND YOUR STUDENTS THAT ANALYSIS INVOLVES MAKING JUDGMENTS ABOUT THE EFFECTIVENESS OR INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE ESSAY. IN THIS TYPE OF RESPONSE, THEY WILL WANT TO FOCUS ON THE ESSAY'S STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES AS A PIECE OF WRITING, RATHER THAN ON THE QUALITY OF THE IDEAS INCLUDED THERE. ALSO, REMIND THEM ONCE AGAIN TO BRING TWO COPIES TO CLASS.)

Activities:
Daily. You might give your students a short daily writing to do which asks them to articulate (again) the main points of the Jung essay--perhaps a prompt which asks them to get started thinking about the connection of this essay to the "home vs. school language" discussion which is forming.

Discuss "The Pleasures of Remembrance" - One of the benefits of using this essay again is that you have discussed it in a previous class, and (ideally) you won't have to do a great deal of digging to figure out the main ideas here. You might spend about 15 minutes reviewing the content of this essay, then move on to the following activity which asks students to distinguish interpretation from mere summary. One of the purposes of this short discussion of Jung might be to begin making connections to the other essays we've read so far [In the debate over which takes precedence--school (public) or home (private) language, would Jung align her ideas more with Rodriguez or with hooks? Why?]. Asking this type of question will encourage students to begin making connections between essays that are not necessarily directly related with one another. Discussing the readings' relation to one another will help make this activity more natural for students when they are asked to synthesize the readings in preparation for writing the Inquiry Essay.]

Review the Characteristics of an Interpretive/Reflective Response - Ask students to explain what an interpretive/reflective response is, what its purpose is, and what it focuses on. Emphasize once again that interpretation "goes beyond summary"--that it seeks to add to the ideas in an essay by making them more relevant and more easily understood for other readers. Ask students to come up with ideas of how this might be done, and list their responses on the board. [The list might include: using outside observations, personal experiences, comparisons, references to other texts, classes, movies, ideas, etc.] One way I often use to clarify this distinction is that writers and speakers use summary when they are trying to explain the basics of something their listener/reader has not actually read. This same writer or speaker might use interpretation when the listener/reader has read the essay but now wants to discuss it in order to understand it more thoroughly in relation to other more accessible things (like personal experience, pop culture references, etc.) of which he or she has knowledge.

"Workshop" Activity - Have students pair up and exchange responses. Ask them to read through their partner's essay two or three times, highlighting (with their highlighter pen or--if they forgot to bring one--with underlining) all the places where the writer seems to go beyond summary to expand the ideas in the text. Refer them to the list on the board for ideas on what "going beyond summary" might look like, but also note that there might be ways of doing this that the class has not yet discussed. Essentially, they should be on the lookout for those ideas in the response which seem to clarify the ideas in the Jung essay in an original or creative way. As students are doing this activity, be sure to circulate and try to answer their questions (and they WILL have questions) about the distinction between summary and interpretation.

AS STUDENTS ARE WORKING IN PAIRS, GO AROUND AND COLLECT A COPY OF THEIR INTERPRETIVE/REFLECTIVE RESPONSES.

Discuss Examples from the Responses - Ask students to read sections of their partners' essays which seem to effectively "interpret" the Jung essay in a useful, original way. After each example is read, you could ask the class to tell you what it does well. What makes it a good example of interpretation/reflection? Also, when what is read seems to you like an example of mere summary, be sure to point out to the class (tactfully) that this is the case. (You can hope that the other students in your class will do this for you!)

Explain the assignment for next class, emphasizing the distinctive characteristics of analytical response and reminding them (one last time) to bring two copies of their response to class.

RETURN THEIR AGREE/DISAGREE RESPONSES WITH YOUR COMMENTS. If time, mention any common problems you saw in these responses.