Thursday 11/15

Today's agenda:
An information session on evaluating online sources by our esteemed library liaison, Deng Pan.
I collect the first instructor drafts of your semester-long projects. (Important!)
Those who didn't already sign up for an individual conference time do so.
Discuss the reading in Baghdad Burning (Riverbend 98-124).
Prepare for group podcasts. Distribute instructions for HW 36, which is due by midnight on 11/20.
You will need to get the instructions for HW 37 from outside my office, or get print them out for the website or blog. HW 37, the second podcast, is due at our next regular class meeting on 11/29.
Also due on 11/29, bring your semester-long project for our final peer review
...And actually, you have to bring a copy of your semester long project every day. On 12/4 we will have a proofreading and editing workshop by Center for Writing tutors, and on 12/6, the last day of class, you turn in your projects and portfolios for good. The end is near!

Thursday, 11/1

Today's agenda:

• Handout with instructions for HW 28, 29, 30 and 31 (covers all of next week). Quick discussion of what it means to have a complex and arguable claim/thesis statement in your semester-long project.
• Symposium session signup sheet--our regular sessions of class next week, 11/6 and 11/8, will be replaced by attendance at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium . Students will tell me in advance which sessions they're going to, and then write blog posts about each one. Two are required, a third may be used as extra attendance credit. The symposium will tie in nicely with our work with Baghdad Burning, blogging, and the empowerment of marginalized groups.
• Discussion of first readings in Baghdad Burning. Students share some of their thoughts from HW 25.
• Watch videos about two central characters in our reading, Paul Bremer and Ahmed Chalabi.

11/2/07: Here's the link to the handout for HW 28, 29, 30, and 31. If you weren't in class you also need to tell me which two of the four offered sessions you're going to attend next week. Look at the sign-up sheet handout and then email me your 2 or 3 choices (12 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock). In addition to the ones listed on the sheet I've also added Professor Steve Clark's "Iraq Body Count: Real People, Fake Numbers" to your choices--it's 3:30 to 5:00 on Wednesday.

Baghdad Burning in Bookstore

Good news for stragglers! There are now 12 copies of Baghdad Burning for sale in the college bookstore. (As noted in the syllabus, having the assigned reading material with you when you come to class is a requirement of the course.)

HW 27

Hi gang:
I'm having trouble with the program I use to add documents to my academic website, so I'm going to put the directions for HW 27 here on the blog.

HW 27: Annotated Bibliography Entry for Baghdad Burning
for A Blog of One’s Own: Women and Authorship in the Digital Revolution
The purpose of this assignment is to to encourage pre-reading of a challenging text.
First do the assigned reading for this week, which is the Introduction and first two days of posts in Baghdad Burning (Riverbend xi-7)
Your previous reading assignment was to read the preface and skim the book, reading the first and last paragraph of each chapter or section, and reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Prereading the book also means that you read the front and back cover of the book jacket, and all the other information provided on the first and last few pages of the book: “Advance Praise,” title page, Editor’s Note, credits, information about the press.
Next, I’d like you to create a post in the style of an annotated bibliography entry like you wrote for an ealier phase of your semester-long project.
Write a post of 150-400 words in which you:

• Give all the information you’d give in a works cited entry: full title, publisher, year, etc.
• Describe the book and explain how it fits into your work in the course. Who is the author, how and why was it written, what in general will you learn from reading it, and what benefits and challenges does it present?
• Write for a reader who has not seen the book or doesn’t know it well.
• Spellcheck and give the post a descriptive title which includes "HW 27"

Remember, you can’t truly judge a book or an author until you have heard them out, and that means reading a book all the way through. But a first step in understanding a book and hearing an author out is to give the book a “superficial” reading or “prereading.” This helps you understand the scope and purpose of the book, which aids in your understanding it as you do the careful, thorough reading of the text you’ll do next.

PS: 10/30: HW 27 is now also available on my academic website at http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/KSC.htm .

"Bloggers Without Borders"

Blogger Riverbend posted to her blog, Baghdad Burning, last week--a somewhat rare event this year. She's in Syria and facing the same visa and immigration challenges as many of other of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees living in the country. (I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, but why isn't the US doing more to provide sanctuary for the 2.2 million Iraqis displaced since we invaded and occupied the country? According to a Reuters story today, we have taken in a grand total of 1,608 displaced Iraqis since the conflict began, and "have plans" to resettle 7,000 this year. It seems like drop in the bucket.)

Bloggers Without Borders...
Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is. I say “I think” because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I mistake safety, security and normalcy for ‘beauty’. In so many ways, Damascus is like Baghdad before the war- bustling streets, occasional traffic jams, markets seemingly always full of shoppers… And in so many ways it’s different. The buildings are higher, the streets are generally narrower and there’s a mountain, Qasiyoun, that looms in the distance.
[...]The first weeks here were something of a cultural shock. It has taken me these last three months to work away certain habits I’d acquired in Iraq after the war. It’s funny how you learn to act a certain way and don’t even know you’re doing strange things- like avoiding people’s eyes in the street or crazily murmuring prayers to yourself when stuck in traffic. It took me at least three weeks to teach myself to walk properly again- with head lifted, not constantly looking behind me.
It is estimated that there are at least 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria today. I believe it.

(Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, 10/22/07)

Thursday, 10/25: What We Did & A Word to the Wise for Next Week

Please remember to bring your books to class Tuesday. I will be sending students who come without the material home for their books, and you'll be counted as late or absent without them. We'll be onto Baghdad Burning already...the semester's flying by.
By the way, some of the material in Baghdad Burning may be somewhat upsetting to read. Our country's government doesn't always come looking so good and it's hard sometimes not to feel defensive. Be prepared to practice some critical distance and open-mindedness.
Today the 12 o'clock and 4 o'clock sections of the class will complete peer reviews using the Rough Draft Peer Review method. Once peer review is complete students will spend the rest of the period working on their drafts, so bring your books and handouts. I'll check the drafts in order to credit you for having completed the work.
I'll distribute the handout for HW 25 and 26. HW 25 is the first post about Baghdad Burning. HW 26 is the 10 page peer draft. We'll complete another, faster method of peer review on that draft.
The 6 o'clock section will go to the library for our second session; which will include an introduction to EBSCOhost, Lexis-Nexis, and GenderWatch.

Riverbend Blogging Again

Good news. One of our authors, Riverbend of Baghdad Burning (the blog and the book of the same name), has posted to her blog earlier this month for the first time since April. I had begun to worry that she and her family hadn't made it safely out of Iraq with her family.

The trip was long and uneventful, other than two checkpoints being run by masked men. They asked to see identification, took a cursory glance at the passports and asked where we were going. The same was done for the car behind us. Those checkpoints are terrifying but I’ve learned that the best technique is to avoid eye-contact, answer questions politely and pray under your breath. My mother and I had been careful not to wear any apparent jewelry, just in case, and we were both in long skirts and head scarves.

Syria is the only country, other than Jordan, that was allowing people in without a visa. The Jordanians are being horrible with refugees. Families risk being turned back at the Jordanian border, or denied entry at Amman Airport. It’s too high a risk for most families.

I'm sad that she had to leave her homeland, but glad she is with us still. If you're interested in seeing what other bloggers are saying about her reappearance in the blogosphere, you can search Technorati at http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/riverbend+syria

Or do an "ego search" on Technorati: If you search for "HW 9" AND (Waldman OR Huffington), how many pages do you have to advance through to find your own homework?