English 1550 (Tuesday, Oct. 18)

1. Class:

* Distributed and reviewed assignment sheet for Project 2 (argumentative essay). Briefly discussed topics.

* Explained techniques for conducting an effective interview. Briefly discussed topics.

* Analyzed examples of worker portraits on the Center for Working-Class Studies website.

2. Class analysis:

Karen couldn't make it to class right at 11, so I had to start and lead today's class. Fortunately, I had prepared an "interview prep" presentation (for the students' worker portrait assignment, or Project 3) and the assignment sheet for Project 2 (which I created using Karen's guidelines). Subsequently, I began class by discussing Project 2 -- and emphasizing the assignment deadlines. I briefly talked about some of the basics of the assignment and noted that students should send their topic ideas and essay drafts to me, not Karen (per her instructions). I'll be responsible for helping students with this assignment and eventually assessing it (with Karen's input, of course). Some students also threw out ideas for their argumentative essay, and I had to remind them that the assignment required a work-related topic.

I used this argumentative essay topic discussion to segue (YAY!) into sources for the worker portrait assignment. Students seemed a bit confused on who to interview for the portrait, so we spent some time discussing appropriate sources. I emphasized that the success of their portrait depends almost entirely on the success of their interviews ... but let them know that tried and true interviewing techniques exist. I used several sources in my presentation: a news reporting textbook, bits of advice from student-journalists (and Jambar employees) and my own journalism experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see students writing down some key points of my presentation ... and just hope that I didn't overwhelm them. I tried to target the lesson to someone who had never done an interview before (and probably wouldn't after this assignment), so my advice was (at least to me) fairly basic. There was a lot more information that I could have included in my presentation, but I think that what I presented gave them a good foundation. The Jambar's assistant news editor told me that she wished someone would have told her what I discussed in my presentation before her first interview. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Karen's discussion of the aforementioned worker portraits available online elaborated on and nicely complemented some of the points I brought up in my presentation.

3. Class implementation:

Bringing your own experience into the classroom, I think, can be extremely valuable (such as my interviewing experiences to add a new, real-life perspective to the news reporting textbook's guidelines). I think it gave my presentation more credibility, since I had actually used the techniques I was explaining.

COMMENTS:

* Guy Shebat: I like that you weren’t ‘thrown’ when you had to pick up the start of class when Karen was late – and I like, too, that way you drew upon your Jambar/Journalism experience to help the students with their upcoming interviews. I think it’s a great idea to try to take one’s own particular ‘passions’ and ‘skills’ and exploit them in the creation of one’s assignments and syllabi (within reason of course!). From what I am hearing in your journal of late, you are going to be more than ready to run two effective (and, to some degree, enjoyable) sections of 1550 next semester.