Class Notes 8/31

Important Announcements:

***** On Friday, we’re leaving to be fingerprinted at Bon Air at 2:30 in the transportation center in the commons. Make sure to bring your completed forms with you. You DO NOT need to bring $10 like one of the forms says.

Feel free to post on this blog with things you think are important about any of the readings we will start to look at. This includes questions you hope to be answered and things you took away from the text. This is a good way for students who don’t like to talk as much in class to add their opinions and include themselves in discussions. While writing blog posts do fall under the class citizenship points section of your grade, it is not “required” so to speak.

4 forms for the fingerprinting process were passed out in class today: if you have questions email Professor Dolson and she will post answers to those questions in a coming blog post.

Class Discussion:

Summaries about the class syllabus and Story Corps were handed back and discussed.

• We spoke about voice when it came to our different summaries
  • The summary about the class policies was more direct and to the point. Very organized and structured
  • The second summary about story corps discussed the different qualities of the subject. More conversational and flowing. Less linear than the former.
• Important to note that a summary shouldn’t be your interpretation. It’s more of the “bare bones” facts of the piece. This is our first step on our way toward an analysis which will be completed for next week’s class.

 

Campfire article

• “What’s the article really about?”
  • The study on how socializing around firelight expanded our ancestors’ minds
  • Article contains link to the study for readers to go more in depth on the subject
    • http://www.pnas.org/content/111/39/14027
  • Fire changed our ancestors’ chemical nature which changed the way they lived and how we live now
• Ideas brought up in our discussion
  • Maybe nighttime is just a time to relax? Does this really have to do with the fire?
    • At night you’re finished with your work, so you’re more willing to tell your personal stories
  • Facial expressions
    • Everyone is focusing on the fire. Even with light from a fire, you can’t see those around you as well as you would if the conversation took place during the day
    • Fire gives a different perspective of faces. Can this cause you to think/behave differently?
    • Are we drawn to firelight because it hides or shields us in a way?
  • Firelight makes a more intimate/relaxed setting
    • Could this allow one to retain the story better?
    • Increases vulnerability- allows one to tell stories more easily
  • Lack of sight heightens listening skills

 

“The Stories Our Parents Tell Us” article

• Ideas brought up in class
  • Parents shape our identities
    • You are who you are because of your parents
  • Can’t remember what happened as an infant
    • Disturbing in a way
  • “Identity is the task of adolescence” (Peterson).
• Shared our earliest memories from when we were young to the person next to us
• What can you classify as a memory? Does just a snapshot of a time and place count or does it have to be a full out narrative?
  • Connection to place and feeling when it comes to memory

 

Quotes I took away from class

• “Real writing is re-writing… Revising is more than editing” (Dolson).
• “Identity is the task of adolescence” (Peterson).