Artifact #2
In this introductory lesson to the Narrative Literacy unit of Marquette's course in Academic Literacy (Rhetoric and Composition 1001, Fall 2010), I use the example of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories as a means to explain how a simple narrative can be understood and interpreted in varying ways according to the ethical and cultural milieu of its receiving audience (and according to any given audience's understanding of the culture in which the author wrote).
The goal of this course unit is for students to see how narratives can be usefully employed in the context of an academic essay for promoting a particular thesis. The purpose of this particular lesson was to introduce students to the textual, cultural, and ethical dimensions of narrative and to demonstrate how stories can be variously interpreted based on how one observes the interplay of these elements.
During this lesson, after an overview of narrative literacy, I demonstrated four interpretations which have been urged for Carroll's Alice stories: first, that they are simply a child's fairy-tale; second, that they are a teaching vehicle for Carroll, a logician; third, that they are a feminist criticism against the mores of Victorian society; and finally, that they represent a subversive drug culture. For this last example, my last slide was linked to a YouTube video of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" single.
The import of this lesson as an artifact of my teaching is several-fold.
During this lesson, after an overview of narrative literacy, I demonstrated four interpretations which have been urged for Carroll's Alice stories: first, that they are simply a child's fairy-tale; second, that they are a teaching vehicle for Carroll, a logician; third, that they are a feminist criticism against the mores of Victorian society; and finally, that they represent a subversive drug culture. For this last example, my last slide was linked to a YouTube video of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" single.
The import of this lesson as an artifact of my teaching is several-fold.
- First, it embodies how I endeavor to put course content into contact with students' life experience: a new movie version of Alice in Wonderland by filmmaker Tim Burton had been recently released to video at the time this lesson was composed, and the popular Disney animated version is one that most American children have seen.
- Second, this example illustrates my use of technology in the classroom: I use slide presentation technology frequently as a prop for my lectures (never merely reading from the screen) and to reinforce student learning through various sensory connections (visual, auditory, etc.).
- Thirdly, the artifact is an example (on slide four) of how I solicit student feedback and participation in my lessons: here, I planned a lesson that would only take about 12 minutes to go through directly, but left nearly a half hour so that student discussion could occupy the remainder of the time. Most of this time-frame included students sharing anecdotes of the kinds of stories (narratives) that had impacted their lives.
- Finally, the artifact represents a "less is more" philosophy which informs my lesson planning. When planning with slide presentations, one never wants to have to rush through the end of a series in order to get the content in. At the same time, leaving a presentation unfinished can give students a sense of poor planning and diminish one's image of authority and capability in the technological classroom. I depend greatly upon my students to make class productive. Rather than bearing the weight of providing sufficient content on my own shoulders alone, I endeavor to solicit from the students the valuable contributions I know they have the offer. Thus, I plan modestly and keep myself at the ready to adapt to and work with the curve-balls students are bound to throw, and which ultimately make teaching so worthwhile!