Well we made it. In the beginning of this course I said that I wanted to expand my horizons and that has most definitely happened. I was planning on only doing 11 books but I was a little trigger happy with the X’s and ended up contracting for 12. So I read quite a bit this semester. I don’t know about you guys but there was definitely some late monday nights finishing books and writing blog posts. But for all that I really did enjoy a lot of these books. I was definitely confident going in that I would “get” the books and was faced with some serious culture shock in the form of Aragon and Moravia. But after the first few weeks it definitely got easier. I’d say overall my favourite part of the class was definitely the freedom in both the reading and writing. Being able to both choose the books I though most interesting and then having the freedom to just write was really enjoyable. As for a favourite moment, meeting Norman Manae was fascinating and just a really cool opportunity. His extra commentary and context when discussing the meaning of the trenchcoat really helped me understand the text more.
Overall I really enjoyed this course and I think I definitely read outside my comfort zone. There was a wide variety of novels, authors, and topics that I otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to. My only real comment/ suggestion is that maybe there could have been some variety in the weekly work, although I liked the blog posts some other form of work would have been a bonus. My question to your guys is then did you get tired of the blog format? If so are there other forms you think would work well interspersed with the blog posts?
Hi Ross,
Personally, I preferred the stability of the weekly blog posts and comments. However, another format I could suggest would be a discussion forum similar to the “Discussions” tab on Canvas. This way, students can post, read, and respond to each other’s comments all in one place instead of having to check individual blogs.
– Aliyah Khan
Hi Ross,
Great final blog post! Honestly for me I loved that I wrote blog posts every week since it was a way for me to reflect on the texts in class and see other people’s thoughts. If I had to choose, other than blog posts, maybe there could be some form of weekly reflections that are given as assignments.
-Muskan Shukla
Hi Ross! To answer your question, I really enjoyed the blog format every week. It really made me feel like a little blogger every week. I especially appreciated that we could customize our blogs, which was fun! I found it interesting reading everyones take on the books in this format and be able to comment as well!
-Tamara Vukota
Hey Ross!
I form emotional attachments to random things and I have become so invested in my blog that there’s a bittersweet feeling that we’re finishing this course. Each week, I enjoyed adding to my blog the same way that I would with a personal project. It was cool seeing my blog become fuller and prettier each week! I personally loved this format although I wish that the blogs were easier to use (maybe WordPress was just the wrong option…). I think if there was any change to the format, audio podcasts would have been interesting although Professor Beasley-Murray did mention that we could record our posts rather than write them. However, I never saw any of those and I personally wouldn’t have chosen an audio or video version because I would cringe at my voice watching/hearing it back. Also, sometimes I flip through the posts to find a question I resonate with and feel I can answer well. I think that if we were all to collectively agree to move our comments to the start of our blogs, it would have reduced the time finding which blog posts we wanted to read. That being said, I think having to open each blog allowed me to get more insight than I would have with the format I just suggested.