Children’s Literature:
Understanding Reader Response Theory in Flotsam
We should have already read David Weisner’s Flotsam for the reading last night. As you have noticed, Weisner’s picture book has no words to accompany the images the book has. What do you make of this? Why might Weisner have chosen to leave words out? Do the pictures tell a story? What story did the images tell you? These questions ask for you to create a reading of a book that lacks words. As absurd as this may sound, many of you have already done similar exercises in the past.
As we begin learning to read, one strategy is word association. A picture of a dog accompanied by the word “dog” can help us create that word association. I want you to think back to your childhood. Prior to being able to read, did you make your own stories for picture books?
Today’s assignment will ask you to do just that. Take twenty minutes to write out your interpretation of Flotsam, once completed; take another ten minutes to trade with a partner to read their interpretation of the text. Consider how your reading is similar or different from your partners. Once completed we’ll spend the last twenty minutes of class discussing our findings.
Intended Results: This assignment should take place a few weeks into class and will act as my intro to reader response theory. By having my students write out their own words for the story, they should notice that their stories aren’t the same. This will show them that they are taking away different meanings from texts that say the same thing.
Queer Cinema:
Close Reading of a Scene
After having watched Scorpio Rising (Anger 1963), you are to pick a scene from the film that I have uploaded to Youtube. As you are rewatching the scene, pay attention to the aspects of mise-en-scene that we have covered in class. I strongly encourage you to take notes during the scene as to avoid having to watch the scene again and again. You will then take the scene you have chosen and upload it to Mozilla Popcorn Maker. This will allow you to create annotations to appear on the scene as it plays. You are to mark instances where the mise-en-scene (lighting, costumes, aesthetics, ect.) adds to your personal reading of the film. For you, the film may evoke themes of queerness, biker culture, masculinity, religion, or something else entirely. I am more interested in you utilizing the scene to support your thematic argument than you giving a reading that you believe I want. After completing your annotations you are to email me your scene.
While there is no minimum requirement for annotations, I will evaluate your argument based on the evidence you provided. For instances, I will have an easier time buying into an argument that has plenty of evidence, versus an argument that has one or two.
Intended Results: This assignment can be done at home, or in class given technology available. I will do this assignment week two or three, very early into the semester. I want them to start thinking about aspects of miss-en-scene, and gather an appreciation for some of the work gone into editing. Mozilla popcorn maker does just that, as it requires students to start and end their annotations at a certain time throughout the video. Due to how easy Mozilla popcorn maker is to learn, the assignment could be done in class so long as clips are provided beforehand.
Adapted from an assignment by Dr. Anna Froula at East Carolina University
