Here is “Glog” I created on Glogster. It is a fun and creative way to put a lesson together. What I previously put together in a powerpoint for my short practicum could be displayed in a different way for students to explore and engage in on their own. Check it out!
Hello LLED 368,
As an introduction to my presentation this Wednesday, be sure to check out the following videos before class. These videos set up my topic quite nicely and they should give you a further sense of what E-literature is on top of the assigned readings. Enjoy!
The Electronic Literature Exhibit:
E-liteature Explained:
Louise 🙂
Movie Trailer:
The focus of my English literature major’s seminar at UBC (way back in the day – 2008) was literature and film adaptation. For my major’s thesis, I chose to look at the text Memoirs of a Geisha and its film adaptation. I was so excited to take a closer look at the two mediums of art, as it had been then one of my favourite novels and adaptations. However, after days of research and hours of writing a critical analysis on the text and the adaptation, I became increasingly disenchanted with both the text and film. Perhaps therein lies the flip side of critical theory. When you look at some things too closely, you see many things you otherwise would not have seen. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss. This week’s topic takes me back to my major’s seminar where I explored representations of Chinese actresses as Japanese women in a movie filmed in English that attempts to depict an “authentic” story of the lives of geisha (lives of whom are an actually extremely silenced and hidden history) written by a westerner. Nevertheless, despite the question of the historical “authenticity” of the story itself and the perhaps reductive depictions of the Hollywood movie, both novel and film are still wonderfully entertaining for what they are (whatever they are). Take a look at the trailer and news article that I have attached for interest’s sake.
News Article:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=20051211&id=dvxTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sTkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4377,237507
I always perceived writing poetry as a daunting and elitist activity reserved for those who have something profound to say in a profound manner. But this does not always have to be true. We can all be poets in our own rights with some help along the way. In my inquiry seminar with Kedrick James, I have picked up some useful methods that may help teachers encourage students to write poetry. By mixing up the methods I picked up, I have created my own combination of steps to writing poetry:
1. First, get students to do a free writing exercise on a topic of their choice for 10 minutes. However, give them a writing restraint. For example, Dr. James told us we could not use any form of the verb “to be” in our writing.
Here is my free writing sample I came up with in class under this writing restraint. I chose to write about coffee shops.
“Coffee shops relax me because of the smells, the sights, the sounds, and the people within them. The image of a person engrossed in a book, plunked down in a chair, coffee in hand seems calming amidst the bustling world around them. Coffee shops embody the public and the private in a perfect blend of serenity and organization in chaos.”
As a class, we found that not using forms of “to be” enabled us to sound more poetic in our writing. We had to rely or other verbs to enrich our sentences.
2. Next, “cut up” the text to create a poem. To cut up a text, simple cut letters, words, or phrases from the text to form new words or phrases to make up the poem. The restraint is that this has to be done sequentially. The student may not shuffle the letters, words, and phrases. Also, the student may repeat letters, words, or phrases sequentially as well to write the poem. Teachers may change the “cutting up” methods as they like.
Here is my “cut-up” text that helped me write my poem:
Coffee shops relax me because of the smells, the sights, the sounds, and the people within them. The image of a person engrossed in a book, plunked down in a chair, coffee in hand seems calming amidst the bustling world around them. Coffee shops embody the public and the private in a perfect blend of serenity and organization in chaos.”
3. Finally, through this free writing and cut up process under restraints, my poem was writtten:
“Coffee Shop”
Feel
The smells
The sights
The sounds
The people
Engrossed in a book
Plunked down in a chair
Calm amidst the bustling world
Embody the private and the public
Serenity and organization in chaos.
I love coffee shops for the contrasting sensations I experience in them. I enjoy the way I am able to feel a sense of personal calm and serenity in a chaotic atmosphere of the coffee shop itself. It is the perfect place to enjoy a sense of privacy in a very public place. Sitting and reading in a coffee shop is a wonderful way to be a alone without feeling lonely in an urban space.
Through these steps, I found freedom to produce poetry under particular restraints of the writing process. This is a wonderful contrast that I experienced in the writing process while writing about the equally wonderful contrasts I experience in a coffee shop. I then used the poem to form a Wordle, which highlights the words “chaos” and “serenity”. I chose warm colours to depict the comfort of a robust roast of coffee. I find that students will also enjoy plugging their poems into Wordle as much as I did. I hope that you will all try this in your English classes one day for a more accessible approach to encouraging students to write poetry.
Louise Chan
Link to image:
https://plus.google.com/109641290533350643200/posts/Y3jq6CgkB5b
Over the years, United Colors of Benetton has released a series of controversial ad campaigns in order to create awareness about certain social justice issues. The most recent ad campaign from their “Unhate” series depicts manipulated images of world leaders kissing to promote world peace. Until 2000, the man behind the camera for Benetton, Oliviero Toscani, revolutionized the purposes of advertising by combining commerce with social awareness as exemplified in the images above. In Lesley S.J. Farmer’s “I see, I do: Persuasive Messages and Visual Literacy”, she encourages educators to give students the tools to interpret images in a critical way since “mass media producers who understand the language and connotations of visual literacy can manipulate images to elicit desired responses” (Farmer 30). Such critical analysis of images is valuable when reading advertising that is targeted at the consumer’s bank account. However, I find that the process becomes more complicated and challenging when presented with the startling images of the United Colors of Benetton ad campaign.
“Shockvertising” becomes a double-edged sword when the image repulses rather than invites the very consumers or audience that the advertisement is targeted at. Critics have labeled Toscani’s ad campaigns as “shock advertising” due to the shock value used in his images to bring about awareness of social justice issues. It was rumoured that Toscani left the company in 2000 following uproar towards Benetton’s ad campaign surrounding the death penalty in the U.S. Department stores began boycotting Benetton’s products, which led to Toscani’s departure from the company. In a recent interview with CNN, Toscani stated that a shocking photograph does not exist, but rather “there is shocking reality that is being reproduced through photography to the people who aren’t there.” His statement left me questioning the challenging issues that arise in analyzing these images. When does reality become “too real”? Why does reality or “true” depictions of different subjects disturb us?
Depicted against Toscani’s distinct sparse white background, the advertisement that shows a newborn in its most real and unwashed state at birth was the most “shocking” image to me. The image was included in Benetton’s 1991 AIDS ad campaign to raise awareness of child deaths due to the disease. While some have claimed that it was one of the most natural and real depictions of life, the image still remains startling, unreal, and repulsive to me. Though eye-catching, I am not sure that the image invites me to soberly consider the issue of child deaths and AIDS. However, I find that Toscani must be doing something of value as he claims that “people get shocked because they aren’t really civilized yet, because they don’t want to belong or face the problem of civilization. Maybe it’s the duty of the photographer to shock them, bringing in front of them something that they probably don’t want to look at” and “there they are and you have to come down with yourself.”
I have a bookshelf. And it neatly boasts a modest display of books that I have purchased or that others have been given to me over the course of my adulthood. I believe that the books reflect both my literary likes and dislikes as well as potential likes and dislikes. I love owning books I have read or have yet to read. I never fear purchasing a book only to find that I didn’t enjoy it – perhaps it comes from a place of wanting to own that experience as well. However, I will admit there isn’t a single “unconventional” piece of English literature on my shelf.
When we were assigned to read a graphic novel, I felt uneasy. But I found comfort in the excitement I felt when I spotted the one titled “American Born Chinese”. Neither an “ABC” nor a “CBC” (commonly used initials in Asian communities), but still Asian-Canadian, I am always either on the look out for or excited to see representations of Asians in a North American context. I am eager and curious to see how Asians are being represented in various media forms, be it in movies, TV shows, novels, and now even graphic novels. In particular, when I watch a movie or TV show, I’m always quick to notice the “token” Asian actor or actress, and to observe the ways they are represented in the film or TV show. More often than not, I find that in mainstream media, Asians are rarely cast in lead roles, unless the film has to do with some form of martial arts or Asian cultural history.
There were many interesting things that struck me in this graphic novel, but what I could relate to on a personal level was the idea of Jin dating the stereotypical all-American, yellow-haired white girl or white boy in order to validate his assimilation into “white culture” or the erasure of his “Asianness”, which comes into magical fruition when he gets his wish of turning into the handsome white boy from the nerdy Asian boy he once was. When I was a teenager and a new immigrant to Vancouver, I used to tell my friends (and even myself) that I would never date an Asian because I convinced myself that they were unattractive. (What a racist I was!) At one point, I was convinced I was going to marry a Backstreet Boy. But deep down, I felt that dating a white person would somehow solidify my cultural identity as a “Canadian”. Thankfully, I grew out of that and learned how completely misguided I was. Therefore, it’s refreshing and interesting to observe these perhaps cultural-specific, yet universal identity struggles that many youth experience depicted in Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel in an accessible and humorous manner.
Reading this graphic novel reminded me of a YouTube video “Yellow Fever” that I would like to share for your viewing pleasure, which pokes fun at racial stereotypes in a similar vein that Yang’s story did. I’m glad that LLED 368 has given me what I feel is a safe and comfortable space to explore literature that I too often steer away from. My initial prejudices about graphic novels as trivial and reductive texts have been effectively debunked, and it’s now a safe bet that they will be making a debut appearance on my colourless bookshelf.
I have just spent the past two years teaching English as a foreign language in a satellite city just outside of Seoul, South Korea. Thus far, it has been one of the most educational, eye opening, and fulfilling experiences in many aspects of my adult life. In particular, my teaching experience in Korea has especially allowed me to build my confidence in the classroom, and taught me the importance of being culturally sensitive, and self-aware as a teacher. Moreover, I have come to love and appreciate many things about South Korea largely through my experiences with the students I taught. I have learned many invaluable life lessons and I treasure and made significant memories by being immersed in the country and its culture. I will always view South Korea as the place that first enriched my growth as an educator as well as a person.
However, this image represents and embodies my deepest fears about technology and education. Sil-bot is a recent product that was developed by the Korean Institute of Science and Technology. The robot is designed to teach English to Korean children in rural areas of the country. When I first heard about Sil-bot, a flood of questions plagued my mind about my future as an educator and the impact of advancing technology will have on my life and the world. My first instincts towards technology are generally fear and hesitancy and they eventually lead to disinterest. Being born in the mid-80s, and being a part of the older spectrum of the Millennial generation, I have many reservations about new technologies and I am not quick to embrace them. However, I gather that a lot of my fears and disinterests in technology are rooted in ignorance. Therefore, I hope that this course will provide an assuring and encouraging space for me to explore and become familiar with the multiliteracies that are evolving and will continue to evolve our classrooms and our world.
