Most of the students really took the spirit of the game to heart, it seemed–especially the jury, who did a good job policing the answers. But, I think the rules of the game need to be a little more defined; it turned into more of a discussion (which is great!) than a game in which points could be easily awarded–I suppose that says something about the give-and-take of discussion vs. the business ecology of the multiple choice test. Something good, that is. Anyway, I was very happy that everyone was such a good sport about it, and I think it can be both entertaining and instructive once I get the parameters down. Sarika suggested a pub quiz format, so I’ll have to look that up, having never participated in one before. Rachelle or Briana (?) mentioned having smaller groups, and Jasmyne suggested giving the group members more time to confer. I think having a sentence-based rule might be useful, both to help hone writing skills and provide a concrete text that can be judged but still allows room for maneuver. I’ll think about it over the weekend.
It also took :45 minutes, which was longer than I’d planned–it threw me off a bit, and I thought classtime was over! Someone corrected me–Samantha? I’m not sure I’ll ever get all the names down!–so the last :30 of class we spent discussing Petrarch’s “Letter.” We didn’t get to spend much time on the sonnets today, but I did go over the paraphrasing assignment briefly. Next class we’ll look more closely at the sonnets, do some sample paraphrasing as I wanted to today, and go on from there.
Things to discuss: Assignment 1, discussion board posts, Petrarchan conceit, the structure of a sonnet, lyric poetry, motif, theme, how to make sense of poetic syntax.
Tonya Howe 