Yet once more... to get back to David's original question & to answer Peter, I don't ask students to memorize. I'm awful at it and I'm sure I'd be a better scholar had I that particular discipline, for the reasons many of you point out.
Both Andy's and Heather's methods for getting past embarassment sound great -- I'll have to try letting students uplaod videos to blackboard myself. Up to now I have, like Heather, made it a bonding experience where we all say some dorky passage together (with feelin' as Arlo Guthrie says), and so whenever a student is reading flat I ask her to try it again "with feelin.'"
Another good icebreaker is to do some acting warm-up exercises, if you have time. There's an article in a book collection called "Performance Techniques and Shakespeare's Sonnets" I've found useful; in fact, the whole book (edited by Sharon Beehler or Montana State U, I think?) is helpful. One more avenue I have not yet tried but will try this fall is elocution excercises from theatre.
All best,
Joel
Joel B Davis
Associate Professor
English Department
Stetson University
421 N Woodland Blvd Unit 8300
DeLand FL 32721
386.822.7724
________________________________________
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter C. Herman [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 6:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Teaching question: memorization or performance?
Thanks to Prof.s Stephens, Strycharski, and James for these exceedingly
useful comments. I don't have a class wiki, but I do use blackboard an
awful lot, and that will work just as well. And if I can figure out how
to give extra credit, I will do so as well!
As for the "folksy" setting, I remember once hearing a Shakespeare
sonnet sung as a 12-bar blues.
It changed how I read Shakespeare.
It also changed how I listen to the blues.
pch
Andrew Strycharski wrote:
> A possible way to handle the embarrassment factor:
>
> Largely to make some level of performance possible with large upper
> division literature sections (50 students at FIU), I had students in
> my Ren. Lit. class last fall record "performative readings" (audio or
> a/v, their choice) of lyric poems and upload them to a class wiki.
> (Many students can do the recording on their cels.) Their lyric poetry
> project pages also included a paraphrase of the Renaissance poem and a
> brief analytical essay, which was *supposed,* at least, to underscore
> the choices they made in their readings. Each student was also
> assigned responses to the lyric poetry project pages of two other
> students. When they were done, I chose a few examples of strong
> readings and played them for the class. (Including one by a music
> student who gave his sonnet a folksy setting and sang it with guitar.)
>
> I'll be doing something similar in the Sidney Circle course I'm
> teaching in the spring, so this conversation is quite helpful to me as
> I imagine how to revise the project assignment to get more, um,
> consistency. Thanks everyone!
>
> -Andy Strycharski
>
>
> Peter C. Herman wrote:
>> A question for Prof. Davis (or anyone else): how do you handle the
>> embarrassment factor? Many of my students resisted the idea of
>> reciting a memorized poem because they are terrified of speaking
>> either in front of the class or even in front of me in the
>> semi-privacy (the door is always open) of my office? I'm serious
>> about this question, because I take Prof. Fleming's point and would
>> really like to have all my students do some form of
>> memorization/performance.
>>
>> pch
>>
>
> --
> Andrew Strycharski, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor, English Department
> Florida International University
> [log in to unmask]
>
> DM 453
> 11200 SW 8th Street
> Miami, FL 33199
>
> phone: 305-348-2989
> fax: 305-348-3878
> --
>
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