Book Club Assignment

Most semesters, my students choose a book from a list to read together in a small group or “Book Club.” On Book Club days, they bring to class a “thought paper” about the book which they use as a tool to generate discussion. At the end of the project, they produce a paper together based on a mutual thesis and individual drafts which develop that thesis in their own ways.

Here’s how this summer’s assignment went.

New Spice Guy Gets It On In The Library

Some good advice here, New Spice Guy–thanks!

Contract: Behavior for College Students

I’ve been having some behavioral problems this summer in my classes so, with a little help from friends, I developed a contract which I am having my students sign today in class. Below you’ll find an adaptation of that contract.

How about more SHAKESPEARE? Ojai’s Theater 150 Presents… (via art predator)

More opportunities to enjoy Shakespeare under the stars this summer…

It seems like there's  Shakespeare production around every corner and under every rock this summer and Ojai certainly isn't left out. In fact, Theater 150 is producing two of Shakespeare's plays this summer, The Winter's Tale and –although I am not sure whether he would recognize the second… Theater 150's 2010 Summer Shakespeare Festival is being held under the stars in a newly constructed outdoor amphitheater at Chaparral High school which of … Read More

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Ventura’s Rubicon Theater Does Macbeth This Weekend (via art predator)

There’s lots of Shakespeare going on this summer under the stars and in theaters. This performance is in the old church on Laurel street. Check it out and support the young thespians–you might even know some of them! This weekend only! (PS For my Ventura College students, this definitely counts as a cultural or literary event!)

This summer, a group of teens explored a classic play and the results will hit the boards this weekend. Veteran actor Joseph Fuqua directs this year’s Rubicon Acting Intensive class of 17 young actors in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and they promise to illuminate this classic tragedy in a modern context. The show runs this weekend  Thursday July 15- Saturday July 17 at 8pm plus Sunday, July 18 at 2:00pm. Pre-sale Tickets are $10 and it’s $15 at the … Read More

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A Baker’s Dozen of the Most Popular Posts

Except for the home page (8, 470 page views), here are the top 13–a Baker’s Dozen–of the most popular posts in this blog along with their page views. Obviously, readers come here looking for texts and information about them. Click to read.

Brent Staples: “Black Men and Public Spa	6,638
“Little Things” aka “Popular Mechanics”	6,355
Go Forth: Walt Whitman, Levis, & Ellyn Maybe	4,252
Thoreau: where I lived and what I lived	1,293
2 Poems by Charles Bukowski: “Bluebird”	1,180
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I	1,167
Silko’s Ceremony: Notes, Links, Question	926
ideas to consider while considering Ride	896
One Act Play: Riders to the Sea by JM Synge	759
John Muir’s “Hetch Hetchy Valley”	717
Nanao Sakaki: Breaks the Mirror 1923-2009	704
Miracle Glass: poem by Charles Simic	572
Austin Kleon’s Mind Map of John Berger	503

Summertime Shakespeare at CLU: Comedy of Errors & Winters Tale (via art predator)

A great way to expand your horizons, enjoy a summer evening, have fun–and likely earn class or extra credit! For my summer school students, this would count as one of your four cultural-literary-eco events.

Summertime is Shakespeare time as festivals and performances sprout in parks and on outdoor stages across the country and around the world. Watching one of Shakespeare’s plays under the stars or in the shade of a tree, listening to birds or crickets and frogs, relaxing with a picnic and a bottle of wine, is one of my favorite ways to celebrate summer. I’ve enjoyed Shakespeare outdoors at Ashland Oregon, in Colorado, and more recently, in Californ … Read More

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I CAN HAS REZEARCH PAPAR?

I found this image on danah boyd’s blog apophonia; it originally came from  here. I figured my summer school students could use a laugh about now…

Blogger danah boyd was just named as the smartest academic in tech. She’s a researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society who received her PhD from the School of Information at UC-Berkeley and now lives in Boston, MA with her cat (which is NOT pictured at left). Buzzwords in her world include: public/private, identity, context, youth culture, social network sites, social media. She blogs to express random thoughts about whatever she’s thinking.

So I’m now following her on twitter and intend to keep tabs on her blog as well.

US Library of Congress Names W.S. Merwin New US Poet Laureate (via art predator)

Now that W.S. Merwin has been named US poet laureate, I am tempted to focus on his poetry and the poets who influenced him for the literature class I am scheduled to teach this fall.

I am so pleased that the new poet laureate of the United States is one of my favorite poets, the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, W.S. Merwin, who follows Kay Ryan as the nation's 17th laureate and will be paid $35,000. He's a brilliant choice and a brilliant poet who will do a great job bringing poetry to the populace. Merwin, 82, attended Princeton University where he studied with poet John Berryman. In 1976, he moved to … Read More

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