Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Lots of Blogs ... LOTS!!

To tell you the truth, it's been a little hard to keep up with them. Lately, I've spent my spare time adding url after url to the list to the right. While the blogs are still pretty informal, I have asked students to stay on topic a little more this semester than last semester. And I've added my ENG 102 students who have no other option but to write in response to some of the readings. I'm really enjoying the responses so far. Most of them are rather insightful and they seem to be serving the purpose of helping students get ideas from their minds into word form.

On a fun side note, I sent an email to Sherman Alexie's agent so the agent can let him know that students are writing about one of his short stories ("The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"). His agent says he's too busy to respond to all correspondence, but she will pass it on. The possibility that an author of one of the stories we have read in class may be reading students' responses to that story is intriguing. I've dome something similar in the past when I had students read First Blood. Turns out that David Morrell, the "father of Rambo" is a very accessible author; I emailed him directly and he responded directly, answering some student questions about the novel. This semester, my 102 students are also reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Maybe Chabon would like to know this and comment on students' reactions??

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