Hello fellow ENGL 7741ers,
Please visit Zach’s and my wiki about our video clip assignment. Also, feel free to leave a comment — but only if you liked it. If you didn’t like, keep it to yourself (kidding, of course).
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June 30, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I didn’t comment on your wiki because I don’t have a wetpaint account (and don’t have time to create one at the moment…) But I LOVE what y’all have done.
The 9/11 video is absolutly haunting. I found myself gasping (even though I’ve seen the footage a thousand times) and I even cried a little (I am NOT a crier.) I think it’s the music that makes the video so haunting. Most everyone is familiar with the SAW films that the soundtrack is taken from, but woven in is also what I assume to be Islamic singing. This really tied the events to horror for me. I think any student who watches this will have a fresh look at what happened. (through an American/Western lens)
I like that you want to examine propagana speeches with students and political writing. This isn’t often done, but I think it is important work.
The only opposition I would have to a project like this is that, for me, I would have to consider the mood that this would create in my classroom. I’m not sure I could spend an extended amount of time studying hate. For the students it is only an hour of their day, but for me it would be day in and day out. I just don’t think I could handle it.
However, if you are able to approach this work is SOME sort of positive light, I think it would really work.
June 30, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Brian and Zach,
Very interesting and compelling work! Ditto on what Courtney said about it being haunting to watch the 9/11 stuff…that’s exactly the right word.
I especially liked the creative writing assignment to have students imagine themselves as one of the children in the mosque. That could lead to a great anaylsis of the not just the language, but cultural pressures instilled from a young age.
My only suggestion might be to be a little more specific in your directions to students. Do the two speeches find to compare have to be videos or simply written copies/transcripts of the speech? Timeline for paper?
On a different note, I watched a fascinating video about a suicide bomber in one of my international affairs class as an undergrad. Zach, I’ll have to look the name up for you because I think it would be great for your whole project…remind me!
Good job, both of you!
June 30, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Courtney – I thought the music was from Requiem for a Dream originally…? I’m using it for my dig video clip.
But anyway,
You guys have done a fantastic job with this. I really think this is a great assignment because it is important for students to see rhetoric used in arenas outside of the political or (positive) social change sphere. I took many a class on rhetoric as an undergrad and I think we focused on those areas too much. It’s just as important to understand how rhetoric has the potential to do great harm as well. I really think it was great to show the video after some discussion and reading/dissecting a speech or two because the visual impact packs a big punch.
I guess the only thing I can think of for improvement would be more specific directions. Not saying students aren’t going to get it – I think they are. Maybe just some more details about assignment expectations.
June 30, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Brian and Zach–There’s so much to say about your work, I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, your choice of texts was incredible. Like Courtney, the 9/11 video impacted me more than I expected. I was absolutely riveted by the music, images, and memories. This lesson will be especially powerful to those students who can remember 9/11 as we do, although I’m sure even students that can’t remember as well will not miss any of the gut-wrenching significance of what they’re watching.
I also really love the idea of examining propaganda speeches. That is such an interesting way to incorporate the importance of public speaking into a class as well as to introduce students to a type of text that they probably will not have been exposed to before.
Zach–this lesson is going to blow people away when you’re finished developing it. Great start to both of you.