4/10

This morning...not feeling too motivated to work. Just feeling tired. 

I've had some great success with Barbara Benham, Brad's American Popular Culture instructor. She's found her syllabus, her assignments and an explanation of what they read and why. Here is, I think, the assignment to which Brad was responding in his "entitlement generation" essay:

Project A1. Possible 20 points. Bring in a current article or news report that shows American Pop Culture “at play” here or abroad. You can write about the popularity of a latest craze, or a new spin on an “older” craze illustrating the revision of American Pop Cult artforms and how they evolve. The article you’re sharing could be about something that’s being embraced by one group and is being fought by another group (conflict always makes an interesting read :o). You are responsible for
providing a copy of the article for each student (20 copies).
Writing a two page position paper on your analysis. Read this to the class or facilitate a discussion about the article.
Hand your position paper in to me for feedback.

Well, I just went online to see if I could find the article he was supposed to have brought in. Haven't found it, but have found other things. Now, found it.

Okay, so I have two more pieces of data now: 

1. The actual assignment.
2. The article that Brad used to write the essay.

What is there to say?

First, the assignment wasn't a compare and contrast assignment. So, that is going to need to be changed. There are two sentences, that I note from the assignment sheet, that seem important:

• The article you’re sharing could be about something that’s being embraced by one group and is being fought by another group (conflict always makes an interesting read :o).
  
• Writing a two page position paper on your analysis. 
  

Well, in regard to the first item, Brad definitely has conflict here. There are two groups--baby-boomers and the entitlement generation, but they have been translated into the entitlement generation and...? The younger generation?

The second point...a "position paper." This is a term that I'm not clear about and I suppose this is something I'm going to need to talk more with Barbara about. What is, in her mind, a position paper? And, to what extent has Brad fulfilled the demands of this genre? 

This may be the key question--I was calling it a compare and contrast. But she's calling it a position paper. So, has he created a position paper? What is a position paper? 

Another point worth making here: plagiarism is, once again, an issue. The question Brad asks at the top of his essay is not his own essay, but there is no attribution. Also, the way in which he works with Mel Levine is...weak. He doesn't quote where appropriate or attribute phrases such as "coddling parents." He doesn't work well with sources. That is definitely one clear observation. 

If he is taking a position, what is the position he is taking? What he's doing, near the end, is proposing something...

Of course, the other thing that is interesting is that, I'm not sure what they were reading, but, it's not surprising that Brad has taken the assignment and made a connection between a liberal arts type class and assignment and his workplace. I think the question I need to ask Barbara is, to what extent she thought he was successful with this assignment. 

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The second assignment:

Project C1. Worth a possible 20 points. No Paper. Research and class presentation.

Team up or go solo on this research project & presentation called “Presenting a Decade.” Go to the internet. Find out what was “hot” in that decade, cultural signposts that allow later generations to use their imaginations and figure out who these people in past eras really were. How did their current events play out in the popular culture (for example WWII or the Great Depression)? What does their popular culture reveal about what they valued in consumables ? What does this reveal about their values, character and imaginations? Give an overview of the decade and then focus in on one or two signposts such as movies or music or fashion. Cars. Architecture. . . . No paper. Just a class presentation. Visuals help. You can use powerpoint if you’d like. Go solo. Or team up with a classmate who’s interested in the same decade, and you each can focus on different signposts of the era. Each person in the presentation should have 10 or 15 minutes of material ready.

The first thing I notice about the assignment is that the instructions say nothing about the conventions of academic writing and attribution. She writes, simply, "Go to the internet." What was she expecting from this, I wonder. If I tell her that Brad plagiarized the entire presentation, then what? This raises interesting questions about...well, what do those who teach adult students like Brad expect from them, when it comes to issues of citation and originality? Also, unlike the earlier assignment, I don't have her feedback on the presentation. I only have the presentation itself. So, it seems as though a place to begin would be to ask for her appraisal of the presentation. Was it what she wanted? What does she think of the fact that it was plagiarized? Does it matter? 

Bottom line: I think that what I've begun doing here is preparing for my interview with Barbara. There are a few things I need to do, I think:

1. Get her to sign a consent form.
   
2. Get her to talk about the two assignments. Do Brad's documents fulfill her assignments? What about the issue of academic writing--things like working with sources and citing sources? How does she deal with these issues?
3. Show her some of my writing and research and get her feedback.
4. Get her thoughts on professional/academic writing, since she's been teaching adult students for some time. What are her thoughts on the "reverse commute"?

And an emerging question: what should a first-year writing course aimed at adult students do: is it an introduction to academic writing? Is it something else?