ENGL 3400 April 5

Today I discussed Dr. Carolyn Kyler's Roundtable Pedagogical Device with the class. She presented this method at the College English Association 2010 Conference in San Antonio. I explained the activity & created a handout applying this method to Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Here is my handout
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Using the Round Table Model to teach cultural context for Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Readings that would be put in a hat and drawn by students:
1.Chapter 5 “Classroom” of Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience by David Wallace Adams
2.“Indian Education” from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
3.“Indian Love Call” in Me Sexy by Drew Hayden Taylor: Native Americans and the romance novel
4."The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship to substance abuse: A Lakota illustration." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart
5.“Federal Indian Policies and the International Protection of Human Rights” by Sharon O’Brien in American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century edited by Vine Deloria, Jr.
6.“The Disastrous Policy of Termination” in Custer Died for your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
7.“Anthropologists and Other Friends” in Custer Died for your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
8.“Indian Humor” in Custer Died for your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
9.“Indians Today, the Real and the Unreal” in Custer Died for your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
10.“Counter Culture Indians and the New Age” in Playing Indian by Philip Deloria
11.“On Romanticism” in Everything You Know about Indians is Wrong by Paul Chaat Smith
12.“Land of a Thousand Dances” in Everything You Know about Indians is Wrong by Paul Chaat Smith: Native Americans and representation in film
13.“American Indians are People, not Mascots” by Charlene Teters http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm/index.html

Student Preparation
Reading: Read the assigned section of Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (1-151) and your assigned article. Take notes of points you may want to raise.

Written Work: Prepare a two page written response to your article that includes the following:
1.Describe purpose of your article. What does it objectively communicate?
2.How is this purpose important to the primary text?
3.What sorts of complexities might your secondary text reveal about a character(s) perspective?
4.How does Alexie stylistically communicate these complexities?
5.How does your article’s issue or topic affect Arnold?
6.Does the primary text suggest any argument about the main issue of your secondary text? For example, does Alexie embed an argument about Indian humor in this text? (If your were reading “Indian Humor”)


Roundtable Questions

1.Why might Alexie consider reservations “death camps”?
2.Discuss Arnold’s educational experience in terms of cultural dominance.
3.How is education a negotiation of cultural power?
4.Discuss the significance of Ted’s collecting Indian artifacts.
5.How does Alexie revise the romanticized image of the Native American?
6.What are interracial relationships like in Alexie’s text?
7.Discuss Alexie’s use of humor. What purpose does humor serve in The Absolutely True Diary?
8.Discuss which character to whom your article seems most applicable.
9.Give an example of how your article informs a character(s) perspective.

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The discussion went well. We talked about how to modify this for different class and grade levels. I think this would be a particularly applicable model for the ENGL 1102 classroom wherein I teach research skills. A few students--Heather, Jess--came up with a graduated method where the provided list of secondary texts really introduces students to the use of research. The second roundtable day could focus on the process of creating that list--a library day--where I model and we all practice doing the actual research. Finally, on the last roundtable day students would find their own articles to bring to the discussion. I want to do this. It seems like such an effective tool for introducing composition students to confident research.

We are going to actually do this activity on Monday next week. Tomorrow I'll photocopy all the articles and prepare for the distribution of reading assignments on Wednesday. Also, I'll give Dr. Insenga a copy of the secondary sources and discussion questions on Wednesday.

I also prepared discussion questions for a talk on exploring Alexie's representation of the reservation, which we didn't have time for. I might be able to open this discussion on Wednesday. Here is a copy of my discussion planning:
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April 5, 2010

Discuss “The Roundtable”: Present concept
Applied to Alexie text
What sort of purpose does it serve?
Could this be modified for a lower level classroom?
How low could we go with this?
How might it be different?
What types of texts might be on the list?
Is there a way to modify the reading list to go even lower, like middle school?

Concepts of Reservation: geographic reservation
Let’s look at the language Alexie uses when he describes the reservation:

30: “My reservation which is located approximately one million miles north of Important and two billion miles west of Happy”

33: The world’s smallest reservation drawing

43: picture of reservation: road sign says hope: geographic location & mental location
“you have to leave this reservation [. . .] No, I mean you have to leave the rez forever”

“You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation”

Why does Mr. P tell Arnold to leave the reservation? Everyone has given up.
So leaving the reservation also means leaving desperation.

The language that Alexie uses when describing the reservation: hope, happy, sad.
Do those describe geography? What does this language really describe? Mental interiority. How does this language change our ideas about where the reservation is?

So Arnold’s leaving the reservation is also a mental journey, or a developmental one.
So since Arnold’s move away from the reservation is a developmental move, then how does art and literature fit in to his journey?
A tool for change.

What sort of a case does Alexie make about reading and creativity for adolescent readers?

6: So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation.

Drawing and literature / poetry:
95: Reading: “Wow, this dude was a poet. My cartoons weren’t just good for giggles; they were also good for poetry. Funny poetry, but poetry nonetheless. It was seriously funny stuff.”

How might we link this text’s argument about literature with what we already know about adolescent development?
If students were to see themselves in this text, what might Alexie be persuading them of?

Using this theme,
Could we bridge to Blake’s “London”?
Could we bridge to The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass?

London
by William Blake
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

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I will grade papers this weekend mostly and plan to meet with Dr. Insenga before I return them. That will hopefully be on Monday April 12. Wednesday would put me at two weeks past the due date, and I consider that my absolute latest.