Post for Dec 10:
In my ideal classroom, students could read “Twelfth Night” as a whole class and maybe even in book club settings. I would like to have students read the text, and then view a few pivotal scenes of the play by watching an assigned scene of a more traditional film version of the play. In advance of their viewing, it would be cool to assign students into 5 different “production groups” where they talk about how they would stage a pivotal scene, what kind of costuming they would use, props, camera angles. The students would be asked to think about why they made the decisions they did for their assigned scene. Then they could watch the scene that they discussed and use VideoAnt to make annotations on the scene (they will share this with their peers) about the similarities and differences between their imagined production and the production they watched.
Then, the teacher and students could think about transferring the play into modern terms. The teacher would ask the students to take what they know about the characters and the plot line, and then to think about how they would modernize it. Students could work again with their “production group” and decide how they might modernize the particular scene they viewed earlier. I would have students then watch “She’s the Man”, a modern film that is based on “Twelfth Night”, in its entirety. It’s amazing the similarities between “She’s the Man” and “Twelfth Night”—the names of the characters, the name of the locations, the general plot line. The nice thing about the movie is that it’s extremely contemporary, funny, and relatable to a large audience since there is both a male and female main character. The teacher could give students some sort of graphic organizer which asks them to take general notes about costumes, actor actions, modern language, etc at the 5 scenes that were viewed by the production groups.
This would allow students to: 1) think creatively about how they would stage a scene, 2) view a traditional adaptation of the play and 3) think about and view a modernized version of the play. Students would be engaged because their learning is constructivist and done in groups, they get to make predictions, they get to remediate a canonical text, and they have a say in thinking about how they would stage a scene.
Post for Dec 3:
I would say that I listen mostly to rap, hip hop, and what I will term, “classic easy catchy pop.” Hehe…that made-up term makes me smile! In other words I mostly listen to B96, KDWB, and KS95. This may sound funny, but I have certain times when I listen to certain music. For example, in the car: rap and hip hop almost exclusively. In my bedroom: KS95 almost exclusively. I LOVE hip hop and rap for its quick-pace, its beats—instrumental and synthesized, and its soul. For some reason hip hop and rap just moves me—I was actually on the hip hop dance club (although not very good!) in college. I listen to KS95 in my bedroom as background music usually when I am doing homework or getting ready in the morning. At these times during the day, I am looking for something softer, less intense, and I really focus in on the words more than the beat.
I am 22 years old and have officially only been to two concerts: Justin Timberlake and Josh Groban. Actually, Josh Groban was even a last-minute thing since my friend got free tickets. I admit this to you, dear reader, hoping that you won’t think I am some sort of music loser. I just have never really been jazzed about the ideas of concerts. As my mom says, I am a “music repeater.” I listen to a song over and over and over again. No joke. During car long rides I have been know to listen to the same song on repeat the entire time. Let me tell you, that’s a lot of repetition during, let’s say, a 7 hour car ride. You just can’t do that at a concert. I think I enjoy listening to a song so much that I know all the words, all the beats, etc. Either that or I am in the early stages of OCD :>)
My absolute favorite song currently is “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z, featuring Alicia Keys. I like the repetitive catchy beat throughout and the “do do do” piano downward progression. Jay-Z’s part is fast, almost drumlike talking, and there’s a heavy emphasis on the rhythm and the words themselves. Alicia Key’s part is the chorus and her words are considerably more repetitive. She sings in her chest voice and her vocals are reminiscent of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.” I like that Jay Z and Alicia Keys are collaborating on the song—this seems to be a fairly common trend in hip hop/rap currently.
I definitely have personal associations with songs. Hearing a song can instantly make me think of certain friends, certain moments, etc. For example, as I type this blog I am currently listening to Michael Fronti’s “Say Hey” on KS95. Every time I hear this song it instantly reminds me of summer car rides, my friend Desiree, and playing Monopoly. Summer car rides because I drove a TON this summer, and always heard this song on the radio. The song reminds me of Desiree and Monopoly because I first heard it while playing Monopoly with Desiree. A lot of songs I hear have some sort of association in my mind.
Blog for Nov 18:
I watched the documentary Supersize Me. I had a lot about it from friends who had watched it and were extremely grossed out by Morgan’s transformation. Essentially, the documentary is about Morgan, the director of the documentary. He attempts to eat only McDonalds for three meals a day, every day, for exactly 30 days. He went from being a man with above average health, to someone who was destroying his liver, putting on weight, and feeling lethargic all the time. It seems that the primary purpose of the documentary is to inform consumers about the health issues of eating fast food, put pressure on fast food corporations to change their practices, and expose the loyalties of the government and stock holders that seem to favor McDonald type restaurants because they financially benefit. Morgan sarcastically says at the end of his documentary, “why should [stock holders] change” their loyalties when they are benefiting from the relationship.
The entire film, Morgan seems to be building his case. At the beginning, he proves to his viewers that he is above average physically. He meets with several doctors, a dietician, and an exercise physiologist and they each give him the seal of approval for his one-month experiment. As we watch Morgan eat three square meals of McDonalds every day for a month, he does an effective job of showing multiple different perspectives. He interviews people off the street who know the McDonald’s slogan better than the American pledge of allegiance, and children who recognize Ronald McDonald faster than a picture of Jesus. He also interviews several lawyers/law professors, at least 100 dieticians, a former U.S. surgeon general, the U.S. Secretary of health and human services, owners of major food companies like Baskin Robbins and Nestle. He even calls a representative from McDonald’s several times before he finally is able to talk to her and she replies to his question with “I don’t know.” When Morgan shows this lack of communication on McDonald’s end, it seems to say that McDonalds has no justification, and means of excusing their poor product.
All the while, Morgan is accumulating worse and worse health symptoms and his doctors continually tell him that he should abort his experiment. Not only do viewers begin to understand the negative physical and emotional side effects taking a toll on Morgan, but we also kind this sense that he is a representative martyr for a larger fight against the big bad corporation. We start to think of Morgan as the good guy fighting against the “big bad” guy: McDonalds. Morgan is effective in persuading his audience because he offers so many different perspectives, and the perspectives are of generally the voices of well-educated, well-trained, or highly respected individuals (such as doctors, lawyers, dieticians). He is gaining credibility in the eyes of his viewers because he invites them to see his own experiences, and because he calls upon authorities in the field. Additionally, Morgan utilizes a lot of visuals to give viewers a real sense. For example, we see charts, animations, pictures, and even jars of lard to represent how many pounds of fat he has consumed. We hear and see statistics that reinforce his message. Additionally, we hear the music he uses with lyrics that often satirize obesity, food, corporations, etc. Finally, Morgan divides his documentary into sections with rhetorically loaded titles such as, “Sue the Bastards,” “The Toxic Environment,” “The Impact,” “Addiction,” “Nutrition,” and “It Affects the Kids.” Additionally, we see several instances where Ronald McDonald is portrayed in the documentary in an illustration or cartoon; the illustration and music make the clown seem somewhat creepy, like he has some sort of hidden agenda. This is a way to more subtly tell documentary viewers that McDonalds is not trustworthy.
I think Morgan’s documentary was, at least originally, made for the independent film community. My guess is that viewers in this community tend to be more anti-big corporations, and tend to have the money to buy organic and healthier foods. For these viewers, this documentary serves as a type of reinforcement of their beliefs. In general, I think a lot of the people who eat fast food frequently tend to be persons who are in the lower SES class because the food is cheap and quick. If the purpose of the documentary is education, I would hope that it is reaching a wide range of viewers. At the end of the documentary, Morgan mentions that “It is up to you [meaning, the consumers]” to choose not to eat fast food and support fast food corporations.
All in all, I really enjoyed this documentary. I do still have questions about how representative Morgan’s experiment is, considering that he is just one man. Anyone who knows anything about statistics will tell you that a sample size of one is hardly sufficient. Additionally, how come we never actually got to see his logs? We saw him occasionally filling out the logs during his documentary, but is it possible to view the entire log somewhere? Also, who were the doctors that Morgan sees during his documentary and what are their biases? How do we know that they don’t have some sort of alliance with Morgan and, therefore, are willing to medically report what is convincing to propel his experiment? Although these questions are somewhat cynical, I think it is important for viewers to critically analyze any type of text they read.
For my future students, I think it would be beneficial to have them study documentaries. I think they should first learn about what a documentary is, and about how documentaries (like any text) have an inherent bias. Students could watch a documentary in class keeping in mind questions of bias, purpose, audience, assumptions, values, message, rhetorical devices, agenda, etc. I would ask students to do a bit of additional research on who funded the film, how successful the film has been, where is film is being shown (indie or mainstream), etc. It is important for students to step back and think about the larger picture of how this documentary is created for a purpose, by a director who has an agenda. Additionally, I think it would be cool to have students identify issues within their own school or community that they would like to explore further and create a documentary about. Students would be asked to either create a documentary about this topic if they have time, or create the plans for the documentary if time is more limited. If students are simply creating the plans, they would think about who they would interview, what kind of images to show, music to play, dialogue to include, etc. Then I would have each student review a classmates’ plans for the documentary . The students would look for the assumptions, values, messages of their partner’s documentary. Often times I think we are so linked to our own ideas that we can’t even identify the bias of our own work. I think it is good for students to realize that everyone—everyone—has a bias of some sort. It is also good for students to think about how to make a documentary that is effective, persuasive, and engaging.
I don’t know yet about what exactly I am going to do for my final project. I am meeting with my cooperating teacher for student teaching tomorrow and will hopefully get a better idea of her curriculum. From what I can tell, she teaches some journalism classes, so maybe I could prepare a lesson plan(s) that aligns with those classes and incorporates technology.
Post for Nov 12:
I have watched the local news hundreds of times before, but it’s amazing what you notice when you actually keep a log of the kind of news stories, content of the news, etc. See my complete log below.
I thought it was nice that Kare 11 focused so much on Veteran’s day. It was interesting that the kick-off story for Veteran’s day was about an Iraqi veteran who is a “glass half full kind of guy.” It seems like the news station wanted to interview him in an effort to set the tone of respect for those who have served and risked their lives, while simultaneously showing someone who has been able to maintain a positive attitude. On the other hand, in the next news story where they talk about veteran PTSD, they interview Al Franken who talked about the courage of the soldier, etc. In this case, it may have seemed safer to interview Franken instead of an actual soldier who suffers from PTSD. Finally, they showed a clip of Obama in the final Veteran’s day story; it seems only appropriate to show the president on a national holiday.
I found the next three stories to all be interesting. Each of the three stories talked about men of color. Each of the three stories presented the men’s involvement with crimes or deaths. Kare 11 continued to use the word “allegedly” which seems to reflect the American notion that someone is innocent until “proven guilty.” The pace of these stories was relatively fast, changing from one story to the next. The pace of this seemed to almost say “these are stories we just want to get through” and “yep, here’s yet another and another story about a minority male who was involved with xxx.” Finally, the Burnsville fire story served as a wrap up to this section of the news. The fire was “accidental” and then they interviewed a white sergeant. Perhaps this story was chosen to end the segment because it was less threatening than the previous three since it was “accidental” and a white cop “came to the rescue”?
In general, I was completely surprised by the number of commercials shown in general, the number of local commercials shown, the number of commercials that talked about sales or price reductions, and the overall lack of racial diversity in the commercials. So many of the local commercials showed white males talking about the store; the only explanation I can to explain this is that often local commercials (to save money) just have the owner talk about the store. Perhaps most of the owners are white males? Additionally, the commercials seemed to reflect the general tone of the American economy by trying to get Americans to think about coming to their sale.
This next section of news seems to be “lighter” news since they talk about the baseball stadium and robotic hamsters. They spent considerably more time talking about and describing these “light” news stories than they did the “hard” news stories I talked about above. The content of these stories was considerably less threatening in general. The voiceover even compared the Twins stadium to heaven, and claimed that we need to “scurry” to the store to buy our own robotic hamster. Additionally, these stories reflected a higher SES since they showed a multimillion dollar stadium and an Edina target. Also, they interviewed white contractors, a white Target employee, and an Asian Target shopper. These races tend to be stereotypically associated with higher SES.
I was totally blown away with the amount of time spent on weather and sports. Not only did I hear about temperature and precipitation, but I also heard about windiness, cloud cover, and the various temperatures throughout the day. Whew! That’s a ton of info. I get a kick out of Kare 11 attempt to make their station seem more “local” by having Belinda step outside for the weather into her garden. The garden is decorated with pumpkins and strategically placed leaves. The sports section is practically the longest section of the entire news! I think it funny the intensity used to address sports—statistics were presented, strategy discussed, and players interviewed.
Finally, the last news story we see is talking about a Christmas tree. This story seems to reflect the relatively Christian feel of the station overall. Furthermore, not only are all of the news casters white and upper SES, but they also all contributed to the conversation about “their Christmas plans.” Had this been a story about a Jewish holiday, for example, the news reporters probably have taken more of an outsider’s perspective to their comments. Additionally, Kare 11 works really to make their reporters seem like good “local, home grown” people. We always see them laughing together at the end of each news report, and I have seen Kare 11 commercials before that show the reporters BBQing with their family, laughing together, etc. Kare 11 is trying to make their reporting staff seem more approachable, with good, white, Christian, family values.
The media texts that I typically use on an average week:
–Television shows: Online site www.mtv.com (Viacom) or fancast.com (Comcast)
–Television shows: Occasionally watch football on Fox (News Corporation) or ESPN (Disney); Bravo, TLC, VH1 (Viacom),and MTV (Viacom)
–Internet Sites: U of MN, U of St Thomas, Google, Youtube. Facebook, MTV, Fancast, Mapquest (Time Warner) and Gmail
–Radio: KDWB, B96, KS95, Cities 97
–Newspaper: Star Tribune
–Magazine: Reader’s Digest, The Economist, and Cosmopolitan
–Internet access: Comcast
Teaching Critical Analysis of News: I would really like to have my students read Feed as part of a larger discussion about news/media texts. Along with this, I think it would be interesting to have all of my students keep a week-long log of all of the media texts they use on a daily basis, whether in school, at home, or at work. Students would be asked to keep a log recording the television shows, internet sites, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, etc they use throughout the week. Then students would be asked to figure out the corporations that own those media texts that they have logged. I think asking students to think what the media texts they use on a regular basis would 1) force them to realize the large extent to which they are exposed to media texts on a daily basis, and 2) allow them to see how our media is controlled by so few corporations. Additionally, I would ask students to critically analyze some piece of media that they used during the week. It could be a television show, a commercial, a print ad, etc. For this analysis, students would look at images, word choice, the rhetoric of the text, as well as the values and assumptions of the text. Finally, I would have students compare their own lives to the lives of Feed characters in a final unit paper. They could discuss issues of brainwashing, reliance on media, ownership, consumerism, the impact of media text, etc. Students would be asked to discuss whether they think a world like the one presented in Feed is a far-fetched concept, considering where our society is currently.
MY LOG : I watched the Kare 11 news Wednesday—Veteran’s day—at 6:00 pm. The line-up went something like this:
- News Story: Veteran Story—Kare 11 interviewed an Iraqi veteran who got burned when he was serving. However, the veteran definitely had good attitude about life. Voiceover commented that he is a “glass half full kind of guy” (1:30)
- News Story: Al Franken talking about war veterans who are suffering from PTSD. There was a bell ringing for veterans today at the State Capitol (45 sec)
- News Story: Obama visited a veteran’s grave site (20 sec)
- News Story: U of MN football player allegedly got into argument with a woman over (xxx don’t know xx). Showed blurred-out face of the woman as she talked (30 sec)
- News Story: MN Somali men who allegedly helped to finance Somali extremist actions in Somalia (20 sec)
- News Story: Hispanic man dead (20 sec)
- News Story: Burnsville fire, accidental. Interviewed a white sergeant (30 sec)
- Then went back to the news casters who told us that “coming up” would be stories about the new Twins park, hamsters, and weather from Belinda (30 sec)
- Commercial: Warner’s Stellian warehouse St.. Paul sale (local)
- Commercial: Wellington windows $100 off sale (local)
- Commercial: Grand Casino—shows 2 daughters and a mother bonding as they play slots at casino (local)
- Commercial: Orphium is showing “Grease” (local)
- Commercial: Menards “Save big money at Menards” (local)
- Commercial: Dodge car commercial
- Commercial: Warner’s Stellian (but not the same commercial as before)
- News Story: Target Twins field is “on target” and 90% complete. Voiceover said, “No, it’s (meaning, the ball park) not heaven, it’s MN.” Interviewed 2 white male construction workers, 1 white female construction worker. Talked about lights, plumbing, grass at new stadium (1 minute, 15 sec)
- News Story: A new toy is selling out in stories. The “Robotic Robot” looks and acts just like a real hamster. Interviewed Edina target worker who said, “you better scurry to get one” for $7.95. Also interviewed female Asian customer who was high SES. (40 sec)
- Coming Up: News at 10:00. Students need a reality check, and have to decide between needs and wants when purchasing items (20 sec)
- Coming Up: Weather and Sports
- Commercial: Hom furniture’s “seasonal concepts” sale (local)
- Commercial: Batteries Plus
- Commercial: Entertainment Tonight show on later
- Commercial: Dodge ad, showed American images, from point of view of truck talking
- Commercial: Window Concepts (local)
- Commercial: “Tonight on Jay Leno…”
- Commercial: for Agrisure plant feed. Used rocket imagery and sounds to show a plant “taking off” with growth
- Commercial: Hom furniture (but different commercial than before)
- Weather: With Belinda. Talking about state summaries for Sept and Oct for tempt, precipitation, etc. Finding how MN compared to other states. Then she artificially walks out to her garden, perfectly decorate with pumpkins. Look at temps, winds, precipitation, cloudiness, etc for today and forecast for tomorrow (3 min, 30 sec)
- Sports: Randy talking about Vikings and their odds for winning the football game. Interview Jared Allen (white), Bryant McK… (black), Chad G (white), Chad, and then Bryant. All the while showing Vikings and Detroit footage “You can’t overlook any team.” Then shifted to talking about Timberwolves playing tonight. Then talked about Ashley Whitman, senior in high school, who signed with U of MN volleyball team today. Interview her. (4 min, 30 sec)
- Commercial: Fleet Farm ad for dog and bird food (local)
- Commercial: Rainbow Foods (local)
- Commercial: Children’s hospital. “The Best” for high risk newborns. At Children’s you’re “part of our family” (local)
- Commercial: Midwest Home Show—demo show (local)
- Commercial: Chrysler Mini Van—oddly out of season; showed beaches
- Commercial: Entertainment Tonight
- Commercial: Gave a list of NBC’s Primetime Lineup for rest of night
- Coming Up: News stories for tonight at 10:00. Story about television viewer ship, and about a mom who was drunk driving
- News Story: 50 yr. old spruce donated by a MN man for a tree lighting ceremony (30 sec)
- Laughing among themselves; talking about Christmas
- OVER.
Blog for Nov 5 (continued)
Part 1 (My parody ad)— BELOW you can see that I created a print ad poking fun at Loreal hair color. I played off the expression that “blondes have more fun” and the idea that the beauty industry is constantly targeting younger audiences. My cousin is in third grade and her mom recently let her get blonde highlights. When I asked my cousin the reason why she wanted the highlights she replied, “because blondes have more fun.” I wondered to myself how a third grader can already believe that how she looks is not “good enough” in the eyes of society. Ads are telling us that we need to look like xx so that we will buy their products. Then it becomes a vicious cycle because the more people buy the products, the greater liklihood that other people will begin to feel like they need to buy the product too. When our society places such a large emphasis on physical beauty, it’s no wonder women and men alike rush to the store to buy, buy, buy. Ads make beauty seem easy and as if it’s an overnight transformation; this perception that “perfect” beauty is easily attainable can leave some people feeling frustrated if they do not look like a celebrity with perfect hair and the perfect body. How can we compete with a beauty industry that brings in team of professionals to make the models look good, and relies heavily on digital touch-ups?
Part 2 (Looking at a TV ad)—Check out my VideoAnt which annotates an actual Loreal hair color commercial. The underlying assumptions of the commercial are similar to what I mentioned above. Namely, the beauty industry is telling us that their products are the fix-it and lead to beauty perfection; the way someone looks naturally is not good enough. These commercials are clearly effective because the beauty industry is so successful.
Check out my VideoAnt: http://ant.umn.edu/vav.php?pid=60149383182135
Part 3 (Ideas for the classroom): I really LOVE the idea of having students make a parody ad, and could totally see myself having my students do something similar. It really forces students to think critically and ask the big questions like: What are the values of the society I live in? What are the values of this ad? Why is this ad effective? Can I critique this ad by looking at it through a critical lens? Etc. I think it is important for students to realize the rhetoric of an ad, and know that the company is trying to sell them something. The ad is telling the consumer that something—namely, that particular product—is missing in their lives and they need to buy it ASAP. Having students make a parody advertisement would not only allow them to think critically about an existing ad, but it would force them to turn the assumptions of the ad on its head by using satire. This class project could be done in several ways. Students could either initially pick an overarching societal assumption (like, beauty is skin deep) and then find existing ads that align with that assumption (like, a Loreal commercial). Or, students could begin by initially picking an ad and then considering its societal assumptions second. Either way, students could then make their own ad by using a program like gifninja or gimp, or using photoshop like I did. After students have finished making their own satirical ad, they would then write a short reflection paper and share with the class. The reflection paper would ask the student the address the assumptions of the original ad, and how the student choose to purposefully satirize that ad. Then students could either share the original ad and their satirized ad with the whole group, or within small groups, depending on time. If the teacher gave students a lot of time in class, students could take this project one step further and create a videoant the critiques an existing commercial, and then use imovie to create a satirized version of the commercial.
Blog for Oct 22—
Most Minnesotans are familiar with the long-standing football rivalries between the Vikings and the Packers, or the Gophers and the Badgers. For these games, the fans are loud, proud, and virtually seem to crawl out of the woodwork. But have you ever seen a Tommie/Johnnie football game? The University of St Thomas (my undergraduate alma mater in St. Paul) and the University of St Johns/College of St Bens (my sister’s college near St Cloud) have had an enduring rivalry for years in virtually every sport, especially college football. Since my sister is now a freshman at my rival school, I figured it would be fun to ruffle her feathers and attend the Tommie/Johnnie football game with her this past weekend.
Like every year, the stakes for winning are high. There is an immense amount of pride associated with winning in general every year, and to add to the drama, the game literally came down to the final seconds last year when the Johnnies pulled off a win. The game attracts a wide range of spectators: students from both schools, young families, and lots of former students. When I asked my sister why she was going to the game she said, “What kind of a question is that? I have to go. It’s like a rule. It’s the event of the year.” When I asked the same question to some Tommie fans in the bathroom they echoed a similar response, “We are here because we’re fans. Everyone goes to the Tommie/Johnnie game. Everyone. Even if your best friend from high school is a Johnnie, you give them grief for the day.” Or as Frank, a 70-something year-old man who sported a Johnnie sweatshirt said, “I come for the energy. There is something so fun about the Tommie/Johnnie game every year.”
Well, as Frank predicted, there were certainly a lot of fan energy at the game. Everyone dressed in either purple or red to support their team of choice. Some college students wore more elaborate costumes to show their school spirit, and one guy walked around with a foam “tomcat” mascot in his arms. The stadium was literally bursting at the seams and thousands of fans sat on the sloped grassy hill to watch after all the bleachers filled up. Despite the sheer numbers, the most surprising thing for me to see was the mob mentality the rivalry produced. You would not necessarily expect things to get out of hand considering that this was a division three football game between two Catholic schools. However, my sister didn’t even get to the game until half time because she took the shuttle from St Bens (the sister school of St Johns a few miles away) to the stadium at St Johns. Clearly it was mad chaos at the shuttle pick-up since Hannah got to the shuttle pick-up at 12:00 for a 1:00 game start, and didn’t actually get to the game until almost 2:00. The mob mentality was so intense at the shuttle pick-up that parents and students from both teams began yelling at each other, and pushing to actually get on the bus. Hannah said that a few of the parents yelled at the students saying, “Parents and Tommies should get on the bus first since we’re the guests” and several Johnnie students replied “This is our school!”
I drove separately from Hannah since I came from Minneapolis. I was only a few miles away from the St John’s campus at 12:00 but got stuck in a line of cars several miles long. It took nearly an hour to actually move through the line and park. As I waited, several cars of Johnnie fans said rude comments as they drove by. These fans knew nothing about me besides the fact that I was wearing Tommie purple, and yet they decided they had a license to be rude to me.
It amazes me how quickly people begin to identify with a shared common identity. The shared Tommie identity is constructed by members of the “Tommie” group and the shared Johnnie identity is constructed by members of the “Johnnie/Bennie” group. I had countless Johnnie supporters throughout the game say to me “Well, you are a Tommie fan but…” statements. For example, “Well, you are a Tommie fan, but I suppose you can use our restroom” or “Well, you are a Tommie fan but I suppose I can sit next to you.” Of course their comments are said in jest. However, it goes to show how a relatively arbitrary division leads people to classify others around them as either “in their group” or as an “other.” So quickly we create a “we/they” polarization. My dad was at the game too and he is also St Thomas alum. My mom, one the other hand, went to Augsburg and therefore does not really have ties to either St Thomas or St Johns. However, she wore red to support St Johns and my sister. Despite very little connection to the Johnnies, even my mom began to quickly take on the Johnnie identity. She cheered when they scored, and continued to tell my dad and me that our Tommie team was “going down.”
This sense of identifying with a group is really strong. So strong that people would want to wait in line for several hours, dress up in all purple or all red, storm the field when their team wins (which, in fact, the Johnnies did after (ugh!) their team won again in the last few seconds), and call obscenities to the person next to them in line from the other team. Seeing this “we/they” polarization between groups leads me to believe that this is a major reason for violence and wars between peoples. We so strongly identify with a group of people, that we begin to see every one else as “others” who are not like us.
So yes, I admit it. The Johnnies beat us again this year. However, there’s always next year, right? I asked a few Tommie fans if they would attend the game again next year even though their team has been beat again. They said confidently, “Of course. This will only make for a better game next year when we cream the Johnnies!” That’s right. We will cream you Johnnies next year. In the meantime, I will continue to wear my purple proudly. Go St Thomas!
Paragraph about Voicethread program….
I think this voicethread program is super cool—and it’s even better that it’s free! I like that it allows students to do text (like I did) or verbal comments, based on what they are more comfortable with. I could totally see myself using voicethreads with students to have them analyze print ads. Students could think about authorial intent, intended audience, what is literally stated vs. what is implied, whether or not the ad is successful (do you want to buy the product?), how they personally respond to the ad, whether or not they think the ad demonstrates any particular critical lens, what are the ethical implications of such an ad, etc. Students and teacher could discuss these questions in advance and apply them to several examples during class. Then students could work on making a voicethread that allows their individual voices and ideas to be heard. It’s awesome that this program allows students to comment on eachothers’ projects and create an on-going “dialogue.” I think it is important for students to feel like the audience for their school work extends beyond just the teacher; this program allows them to not only think critically and “read” various images, but it also invites dialogue and reaches out to an extended audience of fellow classmates and others.
