Week 2 Module: Everything is in the Language We Use

Welcome to Module 2. This week we are going to dive a little deeper into what “language” means in the context of this class.

Here’s what you need to do this week:

1. Post your introduction to Slack if you haven’t already!
2. For Wednesday 9/2 at noon: This week I’ll ask you to post your first official Blog to the course site. Listen to this poem by Native American poet Layli Long Soldier. The poem takes about 14 minutes to hear all the way through. You can read along. When you are finished, write a >250-word blog post. What did you think of the poem? What did you notice in the way it is read and the language used? How is this poem different from other poems you have read, or have you read something like this before? Think about and write a short blog post about the phrase “everything is in the language that we use.” What is the context of this sentence in the poem? (describe what is going on around that sentence). What does Long Soldier want us to understand here? Post your blog on our website by Wednesday 9/2 at noon.Instructions:
   
   1. 1. Go to Blogs @ Baruch and click on our class site
      2. At the top menu bar of your Dashboard, click “+New” –> “Post” 
      3. Type your response. 
      4. In the right hand menu, scroll down to the “Category” section. Check the box “Blog” to label your post.
      5. Post!
      6. If you run into problems, please email me asap and I can help.
3. For Thursday 9/3 at 5PM: Read through peer blog posts, pick 2 that stand out to you, and leave a comment. The comments should be minimum 3 sentences and engage meaningfully with the post, in whatever way you wish.
4. For Sunday 9/6 at 5PM: Read Paolo Freire “The Banking Concept of Education” (linked on your schedule). Write down 3 quotes that resonated with you, and for each quote, explain why it resonated. You don’t need to turn in this writing, but you will need it for our next Zoom meeting. Then, refer to the list on the second page of the reading, pg. 217, of “attitudes and practices” of the banking model. Rewrite this list with attitudes and practices you’d see in your ideal educational system. Feel free to dream big with this: do you want to do away with conventional grading systems? Do you want to have class on the beach instead of in a school? Do you want higher education to be free, or even to pay students to attend? Write down anywhere from 5-10 bullet points. Title your list with your name, and paste your list in this communal document by Sunday 9/6 at 5PM. 

Introducing Core Assignment 1: Literacy Narrative 

The following is by Seth Graves, and adapted from Join the Conversation.

In Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, the monster puts into words his lonely hope of understanding himself and others:

“And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?’ 

For the first time, and through language, Dr. Frankenstein’s creation begins to consider himself. And, for the first time, he attributes to himself the title monster. The monster realizes in this moment how truly lonely he feels, how desirous he is of someone to talk to–how much communication helps us bear in some way the weight of the world.

What does it mean to pursue knowledge, when knowledge itself could deepen our pain? Knowledge broadens our receptivity to emotion, but with the risk that it opens us up to all emotion–joy and sorrow. This is one of the many timeless quandaries of knowledge, language, and feeling–that not all truths are easy to hear. In fact, they may require action.

In this class, we’ll explore our evolving relationships to language, including how we use and acquire languages in social and global contexts–and the importances of reflecting upon our own learning and language acquisition processes to understand ourselves and others. Language sits at the center of our ability to acquire new knowledge–as it forms the symbolic bridge by which we connect to and identify with things, people and ideas. Like Frankenstein’s monster, acquiring language opens us up to new possibilities for expression–and exposes new layers of meaning and feeling in our lives. 

Language is ever-evolving based on the way it gets used. Language shapes what we perceive to be reality. Leave a comment on this post: what is an example of a word you use that your parents don’t? Language is an adaptive human instrument, and those who use it also shape and determine its future. 

Literacy refers to one’s own knowledge of common language. There are many different kinds of “literacies” that one can adapt and understand. For example, I did not have much digital literacy before COVID-19, and had to learn new skills in order to teach online. Your social environment affects what literacies you acquire and how you acquire them. For example, generally “Standard American English” (SAE) is taught in the American schooling system, but many other forms of English exist alongside it, such as regional dialects or African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). 

With that in mind, please see your way to your first Core Assignment: the Literacy Narrative.

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See you next week!

Remember to check our schedule and syllabus often. Start thinking about the Literacy Narrative this week. Our next Zoom will occur next Wednesday 9/9. No Zoom call next Monday (Labor Day).

Thanks for being patient and engaged. You guys are awesome