[For my annual Fall semester reflections series, I wanted to share some of the new texts and ideas I encountered this semester. I’d love to hear things you discovered or rediscovered this Fall in comments!]
The texts
I highlighted in the week’s first two posts were ones I assigned in my classes,
if as I said yesterday ones for which in each case it was our collective
discussions that truly opened them up to me. But over the years I have likewise
found ways to get student-chosen texts into many of my courses, and
particularly into my First-Year Writing courses where the papers and units tend
to be especially individualized. That’s especially true of the short third unit
in First-Year Writing I, where students practice the skills of structured close
reading through work with a song of their choice. I hope and believe that
assignment offers benefits for their skills and ideas and writing, but I know
for a fact it has the ancillary benefit of consistently introducing me to new
music! This semester, as usual, that meant two different and equally exciting
kinds of discoveries: new songs by artists I already know, like Billy Joel’s
moving “Vienna”; and
songs by artists who were entirely new to me, like Sleepy Hallow’s “Self Control.” My sons
do what they can to keep me aware of new music and artists, and with great
results to be sure; but this assignment gives me access to so many more
perspectives and possibilities, and helps keep my own perspective and knowledge
fresh in ways I really cherish.
Next Fall
find tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other Fall finds you’d share?
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