EDU 320,

Class- related reminders:

Assignments:

Please post on the Discussion Board any past due/ pending posts such as LSOS/ Library etc. If you attend story time or book-related events, posting on the DB any lessons learned that related to our class will earn you extra credit. Any LSOS events or tomorrow’s Author’s Tea can count towards this.

Book Cards – Set 1 due next week on the DB. If there are issues with formatting, create a google document, and post the link to the DB with permission for us to view (but not edit)

Events:

Friday February 3
Authors’ Tea at the Global Village Project
2PM
Required for all GVP Students (optional as extra credit for others)

BOOK CLUBS:

Your book clubs should be meeting now. By now, you have a set of regular meeting dates and “how to conduct” our meetings guidelines decided. Please meet regularly to begin planning to present your book to the class. Let me know if you have any questions that come up.

 

GROUP Projects:

I wanted to share with you some important guidelines:

Each group has an equivalent workload and time commitment. Even if it appears that one group has fewer contact hours, please remember that in teaching, the planning hours are often more than teaching contact hours. For instance, I spend many hours outside of class preparing each class session.

The WSA group is currently selecting books that they will begin facilitating/ leading reading groups with. Even if they are not going to the class every week yet, they are spending a lot of time preparing and planning for their project. Similarly, the LSOS group is working hard to coordinate the logistics of reading aloud for the kindness project. They will research books, curate a shelf, and actually conduct read-alouds for the public in March and April.

In summary, please do not compare your workloads with one another. All groups are working hard, and in their own way.

Class Social:

Please suggest dates when we can meet to share books on a particular theme. I will provide cookies and we will read out loud together. Good days/ times for such a class social?

Class Resources:

I often post new links, resources and even TED talks to our Resources page. Please visit it each week to view the new posts. If we don’t have any time in class for something, I often look it up and post it there to avoid sending you too many e-mails.

 

Office Hours:

Please come visit 10-11 am every Wednesday and by appointment.

Questions? Send me an e-mail.

Wishing you comfort and inspiration in reading,

GSethi

This POEM by a YA Author really spoke to me:

Autopsy

Last night, I dreamed that my passport bled.
I dreamed that my passport was a tombstone
For our United States, recently dead.
I dreamed that my passport was made of bone—

That it was a canoe carved out of stone.
“But I can’t swim,” I said. “I will drown
If I can’t make the shore. I’ll die alone
In the salt. No, my body will be found

With millions of bodies, all of them brown.”
I dreamed that my passport was a book of prayers,
Unanswered by the gods, but written down
By fact checkers in suits. “There are some errors

In your papers,” they said. Then took me downstairs
To a room with fingernails on the floor.
I dreamed that my passport was my keyware,
But soldiers had set fire to the doors,

To all doors—a conflagration of doors.
I dreamed that my passport was my priest:
“Sherman, will you battle the carnivores
Or will you turn and abandon the weak?

Will you be shelter? Or will you concede?”
Last night, I dreamed that my passport was alive
When it entered the ICU. It breathed, it breathed,
Then it sighed and closed its eyes. It did not survive.

© Sherman Alexie 2017