Q&A Discussion Board for 10 February 2020

2/11/2020

2/12/2020 07:39:42 pm

I got a question from someone about what I meant by a canonical text and what I meant by a bridge text. So a canonical text means a text from the canon of British and American literature. If you think about the classes you take in the English major, things like early American lit, first British, Second British, etc., the texts you study in those classes make up the canon--or The Canon. Things like Shakespeare and Walt Whitman are writers in the Canon. Pretty much, if it's in the Norton Anthology, that's a canonical text.

So Romeo and Juliet is most definitely a canonical text. And it is also in the frameworks as one of the texts you could teach in a classroom--and it is historically a text taught in 9th grade. In the Teaching Discussion for this week, this is the "canonical text" I'm asking you to think about.

A Bridge text is my term. What I'm talking about here are those more popular potentially more recent texts--like, as I say in the prompt, Harry Potter or a Twilight--that students might be more interested in reading. So I'm calling it a text that could serve as a bridge between the student and the canonical text of Romeo and Juliet. What 'bridge text" you use is up to you.

I hope this helps clarify.

2/12/2020 07:52:15 pm

Hey All--

As promised, here are some sample evals from a 300 level English class on a similar, though not identical assignment.

All of these students except for the last one left the class with some version of an A. The benefit of contract and spec grading is that it is the work that is valued--your commitment to it, your effort. The ultimate success of the piece of writing does not dictate the grade alone.

You'll notice that my comments are about improving the writing. All writing can be improved. Even A writing. By being a relatively easy grader, what I earn is the opportunity to really talk to you about your writing.

Here is the link to the pdf: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1pu37aq19if0zu/sample.eval.letters.301.pdf?dl=0

Jess R.

2/13/2020 03:24:23 pm

I notice that a lot of you are able to post replies to other posts on the discussion boards, but I haven't been able to successfully yet. I can post my own, but when I try to reply to others the Robot-checker pops up without allowing me to click verify and continue.
Is anyone else having this problem? If not, I'll ask IT in the library, but I wanted to check in with you all first. Thanks!

2/13/2020 07:54:37 pm

Just to let you know Jess. I contacted Weebly directly about this. They are not sure what the problem is, but I haven't given up.

2/13/2020 07:56:01 pm

It's so funny that as I typed that reply the robo checker thing popped up and, as per usual, I had to click all the boxes and then use the down and right arrow key to get to the unseen box to submit. It's a pain to d that, but it works.

Q&A Discussion Board for 10 February 2020

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