Reflecting on Thursday’s workshop and your observational reflection

Please take a moment and reflect on last Thursday’s workshop. What did you learn from Thomas’ presentation? What questions or concerns did it raise for you? If you could you further this conversation, what other issues would you want to discuss or see addressed?

Second, reflect on what it was like to write your observational reflection on your experience at Project Homeless Connect. First, explain how the research you did for this assignment differed from the research you did for the first two assignments. (That is, using your assignments, how would you explain the differences between working with texts vs. working from your own observations?) Second, what did you do differently in this assignment to appeal to a more popular, non-academic audience?

Post-Project Homeless Connect Class Reflection

Last Tuesday, we reflected as a class on our experiences at Project Homeless Connect. Here I've collected the ideas that capture your responses:

First, here are the key words that you all generated to describe your experience: connection, generous, worthwhile, optimistic, different perspective fascinating, positive, rewarding, limiting, relatable, upsetting, empowered, and thought provoking.

Second, here are the lessons that you reported learning and what experience anchored that lesson:

Lesson #1: You can’t do it all, especially within time limits. This lesson was learned when my client had to catch his 10:30 bus and had no time to access dental services.

Lesson #2: People are people, regardless of their socio-economic status, or we all share common experiences. This lesson was learned when I walked outside Ritchie Center with my client, and and she told me the story of when she met her husband.

Lesson #3: To be open and motivated, both volunteers and clients. This lesson was learned when I first met with my client, and she said, “I’m feeling positive.”

Lesson #4: The homeless don’t fit one mold; there is diversity within the homeless population. This lesson was learned when I first met my client. She didn't fit the stereotypical image of poor or homeless person.

Lesson #5: We all have a responsibility to each other. This lesson was learned through my client's sense of humor and his banter. He lectured me about valuing my experience at DU and giving back to the community.

What do you think?

Reflecting on writing your literature review

As we start class today, please reflect on your literature review. What did you learn from this writing assignment? What do you think you did well? What was the most challenging part of writing this essay? If you had one more day to work on it, what could you still improve on?

Field Notes from Project Homeless Connect

After you finish your volunteer shift at Project Homeless Connect, record your observations from your experience here as a comment. Record everything you remember from your day and include as many details as you can. Be as descriptive as possible. As you conclude, reflect on what was significant about your experience.

IMPORTANT: Please do not use people’s real names. Use initials or pseudonyms. We want to preserve the anonymity of the people you interacted with.

Preparing for Project Homeless Connect

As you prepare for Project Homeless Connect, reflect on your expectations for Friday’s event. What do you think the day will be like? What do expect to learn? What have you already learned about homelessness or poverty that you think prepares you for volunteering? What did you learn from the volunteer training session? If you’re feeling any anxiety, apprehension, or nervousness about the day, please reflect on these feelings, too. Why do you think you feel that way?

The Knowledge of the Lower Class & Research Tactics

In our last class, we discussed how lower-income workers often know more about the lives of the wealthy, than the wealthy do about the lives of lower-income workers. It seems like a strange paradox that although some wealthy individuals are paid more for their knowledge and expertise, they do not know the nuts and bolts of how society functions. On the other hand, lower-income workers work and experience the system, understand it like the back of their hand, and yet they are paid so little for their labor.

Do you think this is a good or bad phenomenon? Why? How might this ignorance on the part of the wealthy contribute to classism and discrimination in the United States? How might this phenomenon contribute to policies and rules that favor the rich and put the poor at a disadvantage?

When our author ventures to Minnesota, she spends a day interviewing an acquaintance of the lower class that has a few children and squeaks by renting a small home.

As far as research practices go, how effective do you think interviewing is in comparison to Ehrenreich’s immersion? In order to learn more about someone’s way of life, would you rather interview them or try to step in their shoes and experience first-hand what their life is like? Which research tactic is more effective?

Clarifying your topic, question and sources for your qualitative literature review

Please describe the topic you are focusing on for this current assignment and post the question that is guiding your research thus far. Also, tell us about the source you found for today and cut and paste the summary you wrote for today's class into this response.

Reflecting on Ehrenreich’s ethics as a researcher

Near the end of her chapter on her experience working at Wal-Mart, Barbara Ehrenreich describes the scene in which she tells Melissa what she’s really been doing. She writes, “We exchange addresses, including my real and permanent one. I tell her about the book I’m working on and she nods, not particularly surprised, and she says she hopes she hasn’t said ‘too many bad things about Wal-Mart.’ I assure her that she hasn’t and that she’ll be well disguised anyway” (189-190).

I’d like you to reflect on how Ehrenreich informs the women around her that she’s been observing them. Do you think it’s fair that she waits until after her month of working is over to tell them what she’s been doing? What knowledge or insight does she gain as a researcher by informing them at the end of the month? In what ways, though, does she infringe upon their rights as human beings by studying them secretly? How could her study and her writing potentially harm these women? What precautions does Ehrenreich take to alleviate such harm? Is it enough?

Responding to the Workforce

Recently, we’ve been discussing the lower position jobs in the workforce.  Many questions were raised about the reasons behind some job disparities.  Some of us dislike our managers and bosses because they are not doing the physical labor.  Others found that they held close personal relationships with their bosses or managers.  This also brought up the question of who works these low paying jobs.  Barbara Ehrenreich’s book shed some light on the issues at hand.  During her job as a server, she was upset with herself because she failed to help George when he was being accused.  She said this was because of the workforce she was in.  However, being from a more prestigious background, it is hard to tell if that is how someone would truly feel in that position. She also showed how poorly we treat the people who work in our lower paying positions.  We see that there are problems in our workforce that need to fixed.

My Question to you is:  What do you think would help change the current disparity of the workforce to become more diverse and more supportive of lower income families?

            

Responding to Ehrenreich’s Observations

What has been the most surprising observation that you’ve read so far in Barbara Ehrenreich’s account of her work as a waitress or a maid? What was surprising about it? How was Ehrenreich able to make this observation as a researcher? (As you respond, find a quotation from this passage and include it in your response.)

As you conclude your reflection, pose a question to the rest of class about today’s (or last Wednesday’s) reading that you think will help generate class discussion.

After the last blizzard, Before the next one...

Though our class was briefly interrupted last week with that lovely display of Colorado’s finest spring weather (and hey, guess what the weather man said about tonight?? We very well may find ourselves buried under more of the white stuff in a matter of hours, people!), it is safe to say we find ourselves back on track. To briefly review, this week, we have dissected the Alger Myth and discussed its relate-ability to contemporary homelessness. In addition, we began the process of writing our first paper for the course, and began to select topics for our papers. A very hot topic that arose from this week’s discussion came in the form of racial identity and how that plays a role in homelessness. Dalton’s article suggests (well, more than suggests – more like punches the reader in the face with the idea) that by not including race as an element in his story, Alger was fueling racism. Considering the time this story was written and published, we all know that racial tension at the time was strong, and racial questions kept popping up. The question, then, is this – by ignoring race all together, does Alger suggest that other races were insignificant and not worth mentioning? By not saying anything about racial groups that were in fact present in the city at the time, does Alger’s any-one-can-make-it-in-this-world-if-they-try-hard-enough theory exclude these races? What are your thoughts about race and contemporary homelessness? Are these ideas (the challenges to Alger’s theory in reference to race) outdated, or does race still play a large part in the problem of homelessness?
For a quick look at statistics, including race and homelessness in Denver, consider visiting DU’s site for Project Homeless Connect:
http://www.du.edu/homelessness/about-homelessness/

Responding to scholars’ claims about Alger

For today’s class you read two very different arguments about Horatio Alger, his work, and the myth it helped form. I’d like you to pick one of the following statements and use textual evidence from Ragged Dick to dispute the author’s claim or show how you think it is an accurate assessment of Alger’s philosophy. Write a paragraph that presents your response in a thoughtful and persuasive manner.

Position #1: Harlon Dalton obviously critiques the myth the Alger’s writing helped create. He writes, “In a nutshell, my objection to the Alger myth is that it serves to maintain the racial pecking order. It does so by mentally bypassing the role of race in American society” (132). What does Dalton mean here? What passages from Ragged Dick confirms this reading of the text? What parts of the novel challenge it?

Position #2: Michael Zuckerman seems much more interested in showing how Alger’s novels are at odds with the myth that grew out of them. He does not view Alger as a writer who endorsed a mercenary form of free-market capitalism, solely concerned with individual ability and responsibility. Rather, he writes that Alger’s tales “seem overdependent on luck, patronage and the deus ex machina” (192-193), and his characters “all place their bellies before their bank accounts and otherwise set gratification above accumulation” (194). What do you think? Does your reading of Ragged Dick support or challenge this interpretation?

Sources for paper

As we start class today, take five minutes and tell the rest of us what book you found in the library over the weekend. What’s the title and who’s the author? Who published this book? Do you think it’s a scholarly source, or is it from a more popular press?

Also, give us a quick update on what you think you’ll write your first paper about. What do you think your primary text will be? If you haven’t found one yet, what texts are you thinking about writing about? Or, what issue are you interested in pursuing?

Service-Learning, Civic Engagement & Homelessness

Each time I teach WRIT 1133 as a service-learning course, I like to invite you, the students, to reflect on your previous experiences with both volunteering and the issue we’re focusing on in this section—homelessness. To enhance your experience and the writing community that we’re beginning to form, I think we owe it to each other to understand our perspectives on both these issues.

So let me lead by example. All my life, I’ve been engaged in some sort of volunteer activity, some sort of community engagement. (It all started with the Cub Scouts in the second grade …) Looking back on these experiences, I see that they laid a foundation for the values I cherish as an adult. It’s very clear to me that I find meaning in sacrificing for others, in cultivating humane communities that bring out the best in all of us, and in working, even in small ways, to make the world a better and more just place.

But as much as I believe in the importance of this work, I also recognize that perhaps even more important (and more selfish) is the meaning that such works brings into my life. Serving others and engaging in a number of different communities over the years has expanded my worldview and allowed me to confront issues I might never have seen had I remained isolated in my own individual life. And as much as I value this life, I’m fairly sure it’s not enough. Certainly not enough if I want the work I do to enhance our world and improve it (or at least leave it less damaged) for the next generation.

Before class on Tuesday, I’d like you to consider some of these questions and post a comment in response to them: What are your experiences with volunteerism, service-learning, civic engagement or other related kinds of activities? What draws you to this kind of work? What does it mean to you? More specifically, what experiences have you had working with people who are homeless or who are living in poverty? What questions do you have about these issues? What do you hope to gain from our course?

Analyzing character in Ragged Dick

I’d like you to start today’s class by describing Dick’s character. What is he like? What kind of personality does he have? How does act? What are his values? How has being homeless affected him? Then, find a brief passage (a sentence or two) that you think best illustrates your discussion of Dick. Explain how this quote relates to your sense of his character.

Questions to consider for class on Thursday, March 26

After you finish reading the first half of Ragged Dick for Thursday's class, please reflect on the following questions:

• What does it mean to be a child? In the 1860s? In 2009?
  
• What is good character? (In the novel, or in your life?) What creates good character or fosters its development?
  
• What kind of work is considered respectable? (In this novel, in our country, or in your life?)

Post a comment if you like. Or just come to class prepared to discuss these questions and other issues that you think are important.

Welcome to WRIT 1133! Post interviews of your classmates here as a comment.

For your first blog post, please introduce the classmate you interviewed to the rest of us. Write a 250-350 profile that captures who he or she is, where he or she is from, and what he or she likes to do. You might tell us more about this person’s experiences as a writer or his or her interest in service-learning.

Whatever issues you focus on, take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. Have fun with this piece—make it interesting! Use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your mini-profile.

For example, if I were to interview myself and post the result, I might write something like:

Place matters to Professor Geoffrey Bateman, which is why his current research is so important to him. "I think the different regions of our country shape us in important ways," he says. “As a teacher and scholar, I'm interested in studying the literature and cultural history of places, especially the American West."

Having grown up near Portland, Oregon, his interest in the West has evolved since childhood. He grew up exploring everything from the majestic Columbia River Gorge to the misty Oregon coast; he hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and hung out in the quirky urban spaces of Portland and Seattle.

These experiences may help explain his current research on the queer frontier. His dissertation explores the cultural representations of sexuality in the American West near the end of the 19th century.

"It's a particularly rich period for sexuality studies,” he observes. "Sexual identity was not nearly as cut and dried as it became in the mid to late 20th century. And when you consider how racialized identities and gender norms factor into this understanding, you have an explosion of fascinating accounts—both literary and historical.”

But his interests don’t lie solely in the past. Professor Bateman believes strongly that historical research must speak to contemporary issues, especially those that are politically charged.

“Literature and history offers us a way to rethink current problems, and for me, I think the most rewarding I can do historically is to show others how texts from the past allow us to re-imagine our lives today.”

Such engagement means that in his first-year writing courses, he tries to find meaningful ways for students to practice their writing. Ideally, he wants them to connect abstract rhetorical concepts and research methodologies with ideas and problems outside our university context.

“Ultimately,” he says, “I want students to feel confident that what they’re learning in my classroom not only prepares them for the rest of their time at DU, but also starts them on a much larger journey of being an engaged citizen for the rest of their lives.”