At the End of the Day...errr Semester

Throughout the course of this class, I’ve learned a lot about the kind of teacher that I want to become one day. I’ve always known that I want to teach, but I’ve never felt it so strongly as I do now. The whole process of learning is something that I want to facilitate in others. As a capstone class for the English Subject Matter degree, I expected more emphasis on various texts. With a course name like Multi-genre Literature through a Global Context, I expected more global texts. I was surprised to find that the real content of this course was examining the way in which media globalizes society. Though that is a worthy goal, I wish that there had been more emphasis on how this idea of global information should impact our teaching strategies, since the Subject Matter degree is aimed towards prospective English teachers.

Because this is how I went into the course, I had a bit of a challenge getting into the groove of the class. It took me a few weeks to reposition myself into the framework that was presented to me and change my expectations of the class. Once I did this, I was pleased to take advantages of the class discussions that we had over the course of the semester.

My favorite assignment, as far as the content was concerned, was the mythology portion of the class. This was the clearest example of how global texts can be brought into the classroom setting. I had so much fun examining different myths and formulating ideas about the cultures that created those myths. I really enjoyed leading a discussion on sacred places too. That was hard for me during the planning stages because I wanted to be careful not to let the discussion get overly religious which is difficult when discussing sacred places. I loved working with Michelle on the project and thought that we both brought some excellent insight into the specific mythology that we read.

Coupled with the media literacy assignment (which was my favorite assignment to present), I found that I am definitely a teacher who seeks out classroom discussion. Those presentations were much more fun once I was able to get responses from students—regardless of whether they were peers or not. I truly had more fun, learned more, and cared more when the presentations involved some interaction beyond reading off of a Powerpoint presentation.

Finally, the one assignment that I struggled with was the final paper. I had a truly terrible time reading the supporting articles and relating them to my life. Not only were they ridiculously dense, but I had a huge challenge seeing how they were necessary to an English Subject Matter capstone course. It made the movie much more difficult to view because I knew that the information I gathered was incompatible with the supporting material that I had to use as well as the future of my teaching career. I was able to get through it, and I’m quite proud of my final essay (the last essay of my undergraduate career!). I just had such a hard time seeing the initial point. Once I made my way through and received some clarification from Dr. Wexler about what was appropriate for the final work, I felt much more confident.

Ultimately, I’m truly grateful for the experience of taking this class. I really did learn a lot about how I desire to teach, as well as the wonder that multiple forms of media provide for classes. I was amazed by some of the cool ideas that other classmates brought from other classes that they either taught or sat in on. Whether or not it was the class that I expected when I had to register for it, I’m glad that I had the chance to interact with others and learn about a more globalized view of literacy.

Final World Text Analysis

Alicia Rogers

Steven Wexler

Multi-Genre Literacy in a Global Context

13 May 2013

Slumming for Education:

The Value of Real World Knowledge in Slumdog Millionaire

         In America there is a tendency to discount knowledge that is gained outside of traditional education.  People trust it less and, therefore, count it less.  There’s a belief that going to school will lead to a good job and complete success.  It comforts people, especially in this country where we believe that success stems from one’s own efforts; if you just work hard enough, then you have no choice but to succeed.  There are the few lucky people, like Bill Gates, who manage to be successful outside of traditional models, but even they are often distrusted and seen as the exceptions that prove the rule.  Yet as Gayle Gregory and Carolyn Chapman say in their book, Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size

Doesn’t Fit All, ““we all learn in different ways, process information differently, and have distinct preferences about where, when, and how we learn” (19).  In many ways, the film Slumdog Millionaire can be seen as a clear critique on this very issue—especially when coupled with the running theme of globalization.  The film is very much a social commentary on the global aspects of gleaning knowledge through myriad ways—even those outside of traditional models.  

            For Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire, learning took place as it applied to his life rather than through a traditional schooling model.  Even at the beginning of the film, the ideology of traditional schooling is portrayed as an imperialist element. When Jamal and Salim are in school, they are literally beaten over the head with a text from their colonial oppressors.  The symbolism would be lost had they been studying a native Indian text.  This moment sets up the initial conflict, not only with the global issues of imperialism, but also the far more personal conflict that Jamal faces.  Jamal fits into the same framework that Frederic Jameson emphasizes when he says that “we are all shackled to an ideological subject-position, we are all determined by class and class history, even when we try to resist or escape it” (46).  Jamal is shackled to the state of being from the slums of India.  He cannot contemplate a better life for himself because his reality is shaped by the conditions that created him.  His goal in joining “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” was not fame or fortune, but rather seeking out his predestined love.  In fact, the police and the other people in power cannot reshape their reality enough to believe that Jamal can have the knowledge that he has to answer the game show questions.

The whole structure of the movie emphasizes this fact.  As each question is asked, Jamal relies on a concrete experience from his past to determine the answer.  From the opening scene of the film, there is tension because of the aforementioned belief that knowledge must be gained through traditional means in order to count.  Because Jamal did not complete a traditional education program, the police believe that he cannot have the knowledge that he has on the show. Because Jamal comes from the slums, he must be cheating.  The Inspector puts it most clearly in the opening sequence of the film when he bursts in frustration that “professors, lawyers, doctors, general knowledge wallahs never get beyond sixteen thousand rupees…What the hell can a slum dog possibly know?”  This is an extension of the distrust that many people have over non-traditional education and poor people, in general.  It’s an extension of Jameson’s knowledge that our minds our imprisoned “in a non-utopian present” wherein there is no reality of utopia because it resides outside of our life experience (Jameson 46).  The film structure highlights the problems with this framework by undermining the imperialist nature of traditional education.

Jamal’s education is life-based; everything that he knows was learned through a directly applicable moment in his life.  He is a concrete sequential thinker with learning “based in the physical world identified through [his] senses” (Gregory 22).  He notices the details around him and recalls them easily.  It’s the way his brain works to organize information.  Jamal doesn’t need the structure of traditional education; details are openly apparent for him.  Additionally, later in the film, the Inspector mocks Jamal for not knowing an answer that he viewed as easy.  Jamal fights this perception when he asks the police a question that “everyone in Juhu knows…even five-year-olds” (Boyle).  This moment emphasizes the accessibility of traditional education.  Jamal knows the things that apply to his life.  Because he did not have access to traditional education, the things that are typically taught don’t apply to him.  Again, the film highlights the need to make knowledge applicable to each individual student, to individualize it outside of the broad outlines that imperialism dictates.  Jamal’s learning is just as valid as that of a more classic approach; it’s just that it’s individualized and specific.  Not all learners need traditional structures of reading and writing and lecture.  In fact, for many students these methods do not work at all. 

            The global accessibility of information through education is contrasted through the film by the aspects of cultural globalization.  When Maman entices young Jamal to join his group of youth, he presents the poor boy with a bottle of Coke—an American icon.  This is a pure moment wherein “imperialism has returned full throated to the councils of international relations, [while] finance is rarely seated at the table” (Martin).  The life with Maman was still one of poverty.  Yet, the poverty was masked by the American icon of Coca-Cola.  These two images are placed beside each other to mark the contrast between imperial models and real world truths.

            Throughout the course of the film, audiences are led on a journey through the life of Jamal Malik and through the contrasts between a globalized society and real world truths.  This journey directs viewers to broaden their minds in regards to what matters intellectually.  It questions the importance of traditional education and asks readers what answers they have in their own lives—what risks they are willing to take even.  The story of Jamal proves that knowledge only stays with a person insofar as it can be applied to his/her own life.  In fact, Jamal’s seemingly worthless mind held onto the knowledge that eventually earned his livelihood.  More telling than that, however, is the fact that his last answer had to come from his gut instinct—a pure and simple guess—to the tune of twenty million Indian rupees.

Works Cited

Gregory, Gayle H. and Carolyn Chapman. Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size

Doesn’t Fit All. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press, 2002. Print.

Jameson, Fredric. “The Politics of Utopia”. Political Quarterly 24 Aug. 2005: 35-54. Web. 7

May 2013.

Martin, Randy. “Where Did the Future Go?” Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web. 9 May 2013.

Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle. Perf. Dev Patel, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor.

Celador Films, 2008. Digital Stream.

Slumming for Education: The Value of Real Wold Knowledge in Slumdog Millionaire Draft 1

Alicia Rogers

Steven Wexler

Multi-Genre Literacy in a Global Context

6 May 2013

Slumming for Education:

The Value of Real World Knowledge in Slumdog Millionaire

         In America there is a tendency to discount knowledge that is gained outside of traditional education.  People trust it less and, therefore, count it less.  There’s a belief that going to school will lead to a good job and complete success.  It comforts people, especially in this country where we believe that success stems from one’s own efforts; if you just work hard enough, then you must succeed.  There are the few lucky people who manage to be successful outside of traditional models, but even they are distrusted and seen as the exceptions that prove the rule.  In many ways, the film Slumdog Millionaire can be seen as a clear critique on this very issue.  It is a social commentary on the global aspects of gleaning knowledge through myriad ways—even those outside of traditional models.  

            Not all information is best gained through visual and auditory methods.  There are a variety of ways to learn and no single model will fit each learner because “we all learn in different ways, process information differently, and have distinct preferences about where, when, and how we learn” (Gregory 19).  For Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire, learning took place as it applied to his life.  The whole structure of the movie emphasizes this fact.  It’s what the framing conflict relies upon for the cohesion of the film.  As each question is asked, Jamal relies on a concrete experience from his past to determine the answer.  From the opening scene of the film, there is tension because of the aforementioned belief that knowledge must be gained through traditional means in order to count.  Because Jamal did not complete a traditional education program, the police believe that he cannot have the knowledge that he has on the show; he must be cheating.  The Inspector puts it most clearly in the opening sequence of the film at (time sequence goes here) when he bursts in frustration that “professors, lawyers, doctors, General Knowledge Wallahs never get beyond sixteen thousand rupees.  And he's on ten million?  What the hell can a slum dog possibly know?”  This is an extension of the distrust that many people have over non-traditional education and poor people, in general.  Jamal’s education is life-based; everything that he knows was learned through a directly applicable moment in his life.  He is a concrete sequential thinker with learning “based in the physical world identified through [his] senses” (Gregory 22).  He notices the details around him and recalls them easily.  It’s the way his brain works to organize information.  Jamal doesn’t need the structure of traditional education; details are openly apparent for him.  Additionally, later in the film, the Inspector mocks Jamal for not knowing an answer that he viewed as easy.  Jamal fights this perception when he asks the police a question that “everyone in Juhu knows…even five-year-olds” (citation).  This moment emphasizes the accessibility of traditional education.  Jamal knows the things that apply to his life.  Because he did not have access to traditional education, the things that are typically taught don’t apply to him.  Again, the film highlights the need to make knowledge applicable to each individual student.  Jamal’s learning is just as valid as that of a more classic approach.  Not all learners need traditional structures of reading and writing and lecture.  In fact, for many students these methods do not work at all. 

            The global accessibility of information is emphasized through the film by the aspects of cultural globalization.  More support goes here.  The Coke bottle, the hundred dollar bill, etc.

            Throughout the course of the film, audiences are led on a journey through the life of Jamal Malik.  This journey directs viewers to broaden their minds in regards to what matters intellectually.  It questions the importance of traditional education and asks readers what answers they have in their own lives—what risks they are willing to take even.  The story of Jamal proves that knowledge only stays with a person insofar as it can be applied to his/her own life.  In fact, Jamal’s seemingly worthless mind held onto the knowledge that eventually earned his livelihood.  More telling than that, however, is the fact that his last answer had to come from his gut instinct—a pure and simple guess—to the tune of twenty million Indian rupees. 

Works Cited

Gregory, Gayle H. and Carolyn Chapman. Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size

Doesn’t Fit All. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press, 2002. Print.

Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle. Perf. Dev Patel, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor.

Celador Films, 2008. Digital Stream.

Slumdog Millionaire

Viewing Slumdog Millionaire was tough for me. I just really didn't want to do it. I realized too late that it had an R-rating, which I typically do not view due to moral beliefs. However, I didn't want to make a fuss about it with only a few days left to view the film. It was my own fault for waiting so long.

After watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised. There was no nudity, fairly mild language, and the violence was hardly worse than the violence in The Lord of the Rings movies (that are PG-13 and I love). I'm not quite sure how it required an R-rating, to be honest.

In general, I liked the movie. (Although, I still say that the best part is the dancing at the end credits. AMAZING!) I appreciated that it showed how knowledge can be gleaned in uncommon ways. Traditional education does not alway succeed, but real life experience can often give individuals more knowledge than they need. I also liked that it really was a "feel good" movie. Another interesting aspect was the fact that it was a hybrid film, meaning that it had both American directors and Indian directors.

I actually disliked the love-interest aspect of the film. I think it may be that I'm coming at it from a Western sensibility, but destiny did not seem like enough of a pull for me to become involved in their relationship. I wish that there had been slightly more interaction between Latika and Jamal so that I could become invested in that aspect of the film.

The hard part now is writing an essay about it.

Digital Media

One of the greatest things about our modern day is the ease of information access and the ease of collaboration available to us. I really think that we often take this ability for granted. I'm old enough to remember needing to go to the library for information, but my daughter will probably never have to experience this. At three, she knows what a computer is for and how to use my iPhone. She "types essays" on her own toy laptop just like mommy. Odds are that she will never be unable to answer her own questions. In many ways, this is a beautiful thing.

With my group, I'm able to prepare a presentation without ever needing to meet up at a public location. We can easily communicate with one another without even leaving our homes. I fear that this may lead to future generations closing themselves off to deep, in-person connections with other people. I don't want us to lose that as a species. We are, by nature, social and that sociality sometimes needs to be physical as opposed to virtual.

Mythology Should Be Fun!

With all of the stress about mythology presentations, I think people just forgot that mythology can be such a fun subject. There are so many fascinating things about the cultures around us, as well as those cultures of the past. It's amazing to find the similarities and differences between different groups of people.

I have to say that I was at first a little upset to present Myths of Sacred Places, but the material was so much more interesting and applicable than I previously realized. We all, whether religious or not, hold different places sacred. It can be your home, the beach, a public area, a private space. Anywhere! This unit made me so much more interested in connecting with people via the places that they hold sacred. You can really learn so much about an individual that way.

It made me think of all the places that I hold sacred myself. There's the obvious religious places like the LDS Temples that take a strong hold in my heart. But then there are the more subtle places...like birth areas in the hospital and libraries. I hold both of these places sacred as well.

 

Poetry for All

Hello, everybody! I missed class on Monday, so I don't have a class reflection. I do, however, have a few poems that I've been working on. I write in free verse. I just seem to struggle so much with finding creativity in the constraints of closed form.

I can't think of a good name for this first poem...so if you have any ideas...throw them down!

Ophelia of LA by Alicia Rogers

The world is still, a breath caught within the lungs,

soft lungs that collapse into shades of blue and grey.

I can smell the pain. It’s waiting

just beyond the borders of who I am, who I was,

who I am yet to be.

Ophelia. driven to madness in Lake Los Angeles.

But the world isn’t still. It shifts and moves.

It bobs and weaves faster than my hands can reach out and take hold.

And I don’t want to take hold.

Let’s run free

from these conventions, from these expectations, from the bullshit lines that draw our circumstances.

It’s happenstance created by indecision

and revision.

We insist, we chant, we scream “I’m so deep. Look at me, I’m so deep.”

But we aren’t.

This is universal: the overwhelming force of drowning in my own insistence.

The flowers in the lake, the welcome darkness of the water—

ink to blot out what I know too well.

I breathe the water and it breathes me,

dragging me under.

A year from now I’ll know that this was real,

that I was born from the coughing

choking

gagging

screaming

that brought me down to death

Carpe diem.

I’ll seize that day and fall back

to the earth that birthed me into its stillness of grey and black.


And here's the second poem:

After by Alicia Rogers

You promised me shooting stars

that we’d catch on our tongues

as we wove our bodies together.

I promised you the sea, the ground, the foundation.

I gave you permanence.

You gave me flight.

But flying is transitory, and I fell

down

in a different land.

A strange land.

A broken land.

lost

Final Draft of My Poetry Analysis

Alicia Rogers

Wexler

English 495

11 February 2013

Partial Draft

Comfort and Adventure in Death:

A Look at Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”

            It is often said that the only inescapable constants of life are death and taxes.  As mortal men and women, we will always be tied to some form of government to control the masses, and thus, subject to the payment of taxes.  Furthermore, as mortal men and women, we will always be tied to the grave.  Mortality is something that we all share; it is our great equalizer and unifier.  However, none of this makes death any easier to encounter.  This is where art comes in.  Whether graphic or literary, art seeks to negotiate the boundary between life and death and lend some comfort or insight into an experience that we all must face.  Alfred, Lord Tennyson navigates through his own feelings about death in his poem, “Crossing the Bar.”  Through his natural images, his structure and rhyme, and his established conceit, Tennyson finds a place of comfort and acceptance within the deep distress of morbid thought.  

When Tennyson discusses natural images within his poems, he connects back to stability.  The images serve as reminders that humanity, in general, and the reader, specifically, are connected to the world.  In “Crossing the Bar,” Tennyson relies on images of the environment to “gravitate [the poem] towards some inevitable ground” (Tucker 9).  The poem opens with the “sunset and the evening star” which are simple twilight images that people encounter daily, yet their significance intensifies throughout the poem (Tennyson 63).  Just as humanity cannot stop the sun from setting nor the stars from heralding the night, we cannot stop death from coming for us.  It is the way that things were meant to be.  Furthermore, these images are not drawn in fearful colors.  Instead, they are displayed in their simplicity, as facts.  In the next stanza, readers witness the quiet peace of the tide in the sea.  This ocean is “too full for sound or foam” which reflects an air of calmness; there is no tumult here.  The image of the tide also brings implications of being swept away in its midst.  However, the boat that is the narrator uses the tide in order to journey.  This sets the narrator up as “is the tide master, not its victim” (Shaw 10).  Yet, Tennyson also uses this inevitability that the natural world invokes to unite with the power of God.  As the “flood may bear [him] far” to see his Pilot, the narrator recognizes that he is held up by forces beyond himself.  Just as readers cannot escape the world around them, neither can they escape the power of God and death. 

The structure and the rhyme scheme of the poem further emphasize Tennyson’s journey to a peaceful resolution with death.  Just as Tennyson uses the natural world to reflect the inescapability of death, he finds “a semblance of command…reflected in the command of poetic form” (Tucker 14).  Tennyson takes an uncontrollable situation and exerts control over it by fitting the wildness of death into four finely structured and relatable stanzas.  Tennyson uses a simple abab rhyme scheme to further resonate the straightforward goal of the poem and, ultimately, the plainness of the subject matter.  The word choice also echoes this need for simplicity.  Instead of dressing the lines up with cluttered adjectives, Tennyson lets the smallest word count.  The poem is not overly ornate; in fact, it is “poetry of the austere and minimal” (Shaw 9).  This reflects Tennyson’s understanding that death is not an exceptional experience.  It is one that all beings who live must face.   Yet, even within the “deliberately impoverished” style, readers—like Tennyson—learn that it is not desirable to avoid death at all cost.  Tennyson’s “short syntactic units create a sense of urgency” that leads readers to believe that Tennyson looks forward to the journey of death (Shaw 10).  Tennyson even uses the cleanest method of signaling closure with repetition and revision. In his “twice repeated optative—‘may there be no moaning,’ ‘may there be no sadness’—and the final ‘hope’” Tennyson draws his poem to its natural conclusion and its death (Shaw 11).  This continual mirroring of his subject matter leads readers towards Tennyson’s own conclusion that death is not big enough to fear, instead it is another normal step in the process of life. 

Finally, Tennyson treats readers to an extended metaphor that eases both their feelings about death and his own feelings about death.  The narrator of the poem is a boat heading to sea.  This motif of the sea and the boat “permits plenty of action, but action in which the actors are subordinated to some authority outside of themselves” (Tucker 11).  Just as the boat cannot journey without the sea, humanity cannot journey without additional authority.  The “sustained evocation of emotional atmosphere” holds readers to Tennyson’s analysis and urges them to further contemplate the nature of death (Tucker 12).  Additionally, Tennyson creates another metaphor that complements the first.  He uses a natural sandbar to signify the edge of life and the beginning of death.  This bar is the obstacle that must be faced in order to see his “Pilot face to face” (Tennyson 64).  Ultimately, Tennyson finds hope in the journey that his boat must make. He puts his trust in his faith where “God is the guide as well as the goal, for without His Incarnation as the ‘Pilot’ at the outset of the voyage there would be no immortality on the farther shore” (Shaw 10).  Tennyson does not undercut the overarching message that death is unavoidable; instead, he call attention to his confidence that “though he knows he will not make the journey through his own navigating skills” he has hope that he has run the course back to his mooring where he can “trust in his Pilot’s presence” (Shaw 10).  Readers who have followed the poem closely can see that the narrator does not end in turmoil—he may be unsure of the journey, but he knows that it is a natural course; furthermore, he remains ever hopeful. 

In my own life, I have often pondered the relationship between life and death.  I became acquainted with the topic at a very young age.  One of my younger sisters died in her infancy when I was five years old.  More recently, my younger brother died in a snowstorm.  As such, I’ve had years to contemplate and reexamine the subject.  I, like Tennyson, cannot bring myself to fear death.  Instead, I view it as part of the deal we all make when we are born.  It may be a little morbid to think about, but we are all marching at different speeds toward the same end.  All that humans can do is seek for something that makes that march worthwhile—be it God, or Love, or Learning.  

Works Cited

Shaw, W. David. “Tennyson’s Late Elegies.” Victorian Poetry 12.1 (1974): 1-12. JSTOR. Web.

8 Feb. 2013.

Tennyson, Alfred. “Crossing the Bar.” 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed. Philip Smith. NY: Dover

Publications, 1995. 63-64. Print.

Tucker, Herbert F., Jr. “Tennyson and the Measure of Doom.” PMLA 98.1 (Jan. 1983): 8-20.

JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.