Peer Presentations - Slot B
Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have gotten me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors ... and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life. (Malcolm X, "From The Autobiography of Malcolm X," Writing Material 244)
His relationship to books reminds me of my personal essay. I think everyone who can read has experienced that joyous freedom that comes with losing yourself in a good book. I wonder what kinds of books he read while in prison? I imagine there were probably some restrictions.
Stormy Knight
Studies show that the most effective learning environment is one that guides a student through manageable, incremental advances in knowledge. Other studies show that the most effective learning materials are those that offer the student a relatively small proportion of new content. (Hirsch, "'You Can Always Look It Up'...or Can You?", Writing Material 189)
This certainly applies to my own learning. I'm always disappointed when a professor tries to cram too much into a class, because it ultimately forces me to breeze through material too quickly to really appreciate it, or it tires me out so fast that I start to lose all interest in actually learning the material and I just do the work to get it over with. It takes all the fun out of learning.
Leslie Rodriguez
Despite Sledd's legitimate fear that in the information age computers will increase the gap between active text production and routine, alienating, assembly-line text processing, in the United States we live in an enviornment that is increasingly surrounded by text. (Baron, "From Pencils to Pixels," Writing Material 51)
I'm not sure I'd call Sledd's fear legitimate. There's plenty of "active text production" happening online--just look at all the internet news sites, web magazines, blogs, wikis, etc. Computers have, if anything, increased people's interest in writing meaningful material. The Internet is largely a text-based medium, thus in order to use it effectively people from all walks of life--from teenage girls writing in their diaries to scholars posting research papers--have been forced to write (and write well, if they want to be taken seriously).
Comments
I've had similar experiences, Daniella.
I don't mind doing lots of homework, as long as I'm given enough time to do it. There have been a few times throughout my years at Seton Hill when I have been forced to speak up and ask a professor for more time to complete a particularly challenging or time-consuming assignment (however, I'm usually not alone--others in the class will share my sentiments and ask the same). Of course, I don't wait until the last minute and ask for an extension on the day of the deadline; I always try to give a professor a heads-up a week or more in advance if I foresee any problems. The professors are usually understanding and appreciative of the feedback, and more than once they've admitted that perhaps they piled on too much, too fast.
Posted by: ChrisU | February 28, 2008 12:46 PM
Chris, what you said about Stormy's reading last semester when I took Writing About Literature. Dr Jerz was just getting over pneumonia and we had to play catch up and try and cram a week and a half of information back into the class. Because of this, we had to breeze through Jane Eyre. I don't know if you have read Jane Eyre, but it is not a light read and certainly takes more than a week to read through. Had we been able to spend 2 1/2 weeks on the book, I probably would have had a more thorough understanding, From what I remember about the start of the book, Jane and I would have gotten along great.
Posted by: Daniella Choynowski | February 27, 2008 10:06 PM