Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Learning Analysis I & II: Thoughts, Drafts, Your Two Minutes!

Welcome to the last two weeks of class! Our time to analyze learning and how it works!

May 1 and May 8 we share with each other our experiences of the class and our understanding of what has changed. This is our time capsule to ourselves: we see how things looked to us at different moments during the semester, at different times in the story of the course.

Half the class will speak for two minutes 1 May (who determined by lot using tokens you draw as you enter class) and the other half will speak for two minutes 8 May. EVERYONE WILL TALK! (You won't get full credit otherwise. And you need to be present both days, even if you only talk on one day, to get your full credit too.)

Everyone should have a near-final draft of their learning analysis with them 1 May. You will need it to complete exercises at the beginning of class then. 

The FINAL version of your learning analysis is due 8 May, in hard copy in class with an electronic copy in your dropbox.

That means you can change what you wrote for our first day to make it even better after hearing then what folks have to say, and understanding how analyzing learning works. But two drafts are absolutely essential for this process, and, frankly, for good written work of all sorts! (at least two!) LOGBOOK 4 IS NECESSARY TO GET CREDIT FOR THE COURSE ALTOGETHER! SO DON'T FORGET IT! It should include everything you did and when for the whole semester (or didn't do, please be honest, detailed and careful, it matters), and note any communications that we could lose track of, to make sure you are appreciated properly! 


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We begin for everyone with some exercises, to help us focus and make it a bit easier to share what we have done in the learning analysis. Both days  each person will speak and offer their own unique sense of traveling through the argument or story of the course. Our personal feelings are, of course, a special part of this. But do think of this primarily as an intellectual sharing of analysis as well as of any careful personal details. Celebrating each others' work and our own, and especially thinking together today about the knowledge we each bring into being is the collective project here. So listen as carefully as you speak, because active listening is as necessary to collective thought. If someone else says something you intended to say, then -- thinking on your feet -- find another something to say that is a unique bit of your own work instead.

Focusing exercises for presenting: 

EVERYONE:

1) find your favorite paragraph in the paper. Put a star next to it.

2) write down what you are most proud of in this paper.

3) put an arrow next to the place you think best describes the argument of the course.

4) write down your favorite reading and be prepared to say what element of its ANALYSIS made it special for you.



PICK ONE OF THESE TOO:
=write about a moment in the course where everything seemed to come together for you.

=write about a moment outside the course where you realized you were using something you had learned in the class.

=write about a moment when you discovered something new about how you were included in the argument of the class. 


WHEN IT IS YOUR TURN TO SPEAK:

pick out two of these to share, only one minute for each one. (Have at least two others as mental backups, so that you don't say the same thing someone else says.) Focus on analysis -- of the course, readings, experiences, realizations -- especially, although feelings and politics have important places too. Be mindful of the time -- we want to allow time for everyone in the class to speak -- give some real details: don't be too general. Do show off the hard thinking you are capable of. Make sure what you say is special and unique.


And may we keep running into each other, over and over, in friendship and connection and intellectual community and joyful living!


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