Symposium Results

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for engaging so fully during today's symposium. For posterity, here is the venn diagram that resulted from our conversation. Next week, we begin a new unit, and our reading turns somewhat to method and craft, thinking about how to establish a good (and critical) methodology for field observation, how to gain (and give) access to the community you are serving, and how to envision and compose a verbal/visual portrait. Along the way, we'll be strengthening our research methodology for different community-based writing projects. Remember that I am with you each step of the way, as are your peers. Between now and Tuesday, you might browse our Service Learning Materials page, in case any of the information is useful to you.

Happy blogging, and see you on Tuesday,

Professor Graban

Thursday's Service-Learning Symposium

Dear ENG W240 Class,

Tomorrow marks the last of our Community Partner roundtables, and Thursday marks the end of the first unit of our syllabus, in which we have been raising various concepts, issues, questions, and problems that underscore community-based research and writing. This week would be an opportune time to review our FW pages from week one, especially in preparation for the first blog assignment and the Positioning Essay.

On Thursday, we will be conducting a kind of symposium on service-learning, and I'd like to give you some details in advance of that class day. There are three readings scheduled, but I ask everyone to read two. (You are welcome and encouraged to read all three, but it will only be necessary for you to read two in order to participate.) To break the routine a bit, I'd like us to conduct a discursive role play, wherein each of us plays the role of one author responding to another author. By responding, I simply mean that you could speak on behalf of both authors, but that you would be speaking from the vantage point of one author, and thus filtering other ideas through his/her lens. Be prepared to really inhabit that author's subject position, beliefs, ideologies, and claims, even if they are different from your own.

I will have a set of questions to provoke our discussion until it takes flight on its own, but here is how I'd like to arrange the groups:

Heilker, responding to Bridwell-Bowles:
Samantha Adams, Jessi Daugherty, Garrett Montgomery, Alyssa Rudner

Heilker, responding to Franklin:
Michael Wey, Cameray Boyden, Eden Faye, Morgan Metallic

Franklin, responding to Bridwell-Bowles:
Jack Pupillo, Sara Troutman, Alyssa Alley, Maria Ficker

Franklin, responding to Heilker:
Jacob Janicki, Catherine Nichols, Talia Shifron, Chelsey Brunner

Bridwell-Bowles, responding to Heilker:
Kristine Meade, Claire Robinson, Broderick Thompson, Andrew Cook

Bridwell-Bowles, responding to Franklin:
Mollie O'Reilly, Corey Rosenblum, Ashley Thomas, Prof. Graban (if you won't find this too annoying)

This is more or less a random assignment of groups, so if you have strong leanings toward a different set of readings than the one I have suggested above, please let me know.

See you in class tomorrow,

Professor Graban

Community Partner Matchups

Hello, everyone.

I have collated your first and second choices for community agencies and would like to share the list here so that you can let me know if you foresee any conflicts with your choices:

Boys and Girls Club
Chelsey Brunner
Jacob Janicki
Catherine Nichols
Claire Robinson
Broderick Thompson

Girls Incorporated
Kristine Meade
Morgan Metallic
Mollie O’Reilly
Alyssa Rudner
Ashley Thomas

Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard
Andrew Cook
Jessi Daugherty
Garrett Montgomery
Corey Rosenblum

Shalom Community Center
Samantha Adams
Jack Pupillo
Talia Shifron
Michael Wey

Stone Belt
Alyssa Alley
Cameray Boyden
Eden Faye

Maria Ficker
Sara Troutman

It is important to me that you are satisfied with your choices and feel comfortable about the agency you'll serve. If, for some reason, you received your second-choice placement and it is not going to work out as you had hoped, please let me know as soon as possible. Otherwise, feel free to contact your Community Partner as soon as you can, to get scheduled for the earliest possible orientation and training, so that you can begin your service and observation hours right away. Service-learners at Boys and Girls Club, MHC, Shalom Center, and Stone Belt should contact the respective ACE at each agency; service-learners at Girls Incorporated should contact Erin Policinski at Girls Incorporated.

Many thanks,

Professor Graban

Roundtable Questions - Advice for Preparation

Hello, everyone.

I have enjoyed gathering your questions in advance of tomorrow's Community Partners Roundtable with Boys and Girls Clubs and Girls Incorporated. I anticipate some energetic, engaged discussion, not only about what each of our Community Partners does in terms of youth development and gender equity, but also in response to our very rich readings by Joan Brumberg and Jane Quinn.

Some patterns are emerging in your questions that I'd like to address, primarily to offer advice on how to prepare full and useful questions for the remaining Roundtables. To be clear, no question is ever a "bad" question, and our Community Partners will likely have responses to all questions; however, for our purposes, I encourage you to develop specific questions from the readings whose lifecycle extends beyond tomorrow's class so that you can become well-versed in our readings before the Positioning Essay. I offer the following guidelines:

1. Articulate where the question originated for you, i.e., in a personal experience, in another class, or in an article you read for this class. Reference the source of your question as specifically as possible. For example, if your question was inspired by a particular passage or a particular term in Quinn's article, then quote and cite as much of the passage as necessary to help us understand how the question grew from it.
2. Try to avoid asking vague and broad questions, i.e., questions that involve "yes/no" responses, questions that are simple matters of opinion, or questions that you could ask of anyone, regardless of their experience. Instead, try to formulate questions that you think only our Community Partners could answer.
3. Try to avoid asking non-questions, or questions that have obvious answers, especially if those answers can be found in the articles we read for that day. Instead, take this opportunity to notice gaps, dissonances, or unresolved issues that you could only notice because of what you read.
4. Think of your questions as helping to bridge the gap between what you read, what our Community Partners do, and your own curiosities.

See you in class tomorrow,

-Professor Graban