Kate McDowell on Storytelling

I am a nerd.  This comes as no surprise to any of you who know me.  My undergrad alma mater, New College of Florida, has just been name the nerdiest school of all:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/princeton-reviews-nerdiest-colleges-2012_n_1452170.html I am so very proud.  In addition, my very own GSLIS is flying its discreet, professional, and amiably top achieving nerd flag: http://www.lis.illinois.edu/academics While searching for my blog, What Kate Reads, I came to have typed the terms "what kate" and google filled in the rest with "what kate wore."  That is not my blog.  Kate Middleton is not a nerd.  But, if you're reading this blog, you might get a kick out of the What Kate Wore blog by means of extreme contrast:   http://whatkatewore.com/ And kudos to Merinda Hensley whose thought-provoking talk on the ridiculously idealistic framework of comprehensive information literacy made for a great Grad College program today: http://illinois.edu/

It has been a few years since I taught our "children's literature and resources" course, and a lot has changed.  For one, we now have frequently taught courses in nonfiction, fantasy, and media as well as young adult literature and history of children's literature.  While I know the books I'll be teaching (list is being formatted, but I'll post it here when it's done), I'm still developing approaches. If I go with teaching book reviewing, then there will need to be some prep for that.  The text by Horning, From Cover to Cover , is terrific, and it's from 1997.  Here's a post from a blogger describing how it has been helpful despite changes over time in the children's book world:   http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/teacozy/2010/09/13/review-from-cover-to-cover/ Many syllabi teach book reviewing, as I have done in the past, but book trailer creation has a similar thought process behind it, only with different creative media. http://ww

When I teach storytelling, I talk about and assign readings about the power of story, importance of story, and its positive uses.  But there are negatives as well, as this TED talk illustrates: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html Chimamanda Adichie presents the danger of a single story that masks the many myriad stories behind it.  The problem with stereotypes, she argues, "is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete."  It's good to wind up my spring storytelling classes with this reminder.  Thanks to N. in LIS409LEA for advocating for this story.

A post of notes in list form... From the book The Multiracial Experience:  Racial Borders as the New Frontier  edited by Maria P. Root "Challenging Race and Racism:  A Framework for Educators" by Ronald David Glass and Kendra R. Wallace (pp. 341-358) from a section on the limits and possibilities of exploring racism through multicultural education 1) cultural difference, based on essentialist constructions of identity 2) cultural competence, viewing diversity as a resource 3) cultural emancipation, with a commitment to economic justice and success and they outline five core values (which I find a big wiggly in definition...): community, mutual respect, truth seeking, compassionate responsibility, justice from the book How Learning Works:  Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Susan A. Ambrose, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha C. Lovett, and Marie K. Norma. What is Learning (p. 3, I'm paraphrasing) 1. a process, not a product 2

I may have just stumbled across the best resource for academics ever.  Built by academics for other academics.  The one piece of advice I noted in a recent thread I read was to "avoid toxic threads."  Academics are good at arguing their points, and relatively bad at thinking at the meta-level about where they want the conversation to go. I've read The Chronicle, but definitely hadn't even notice the forums before.  I found this by searching for some input in the tenure process. http://chronicle.com/forums/ The particular thread I read was about encouragement, specifically, where do you get yours in a work culture where criticism is praise?  The whole thread is worth reading:   http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,88480.0.html Also came across these in my search: http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/01/11/essay-dealing-depression-while-tenure-track http://www.jstor.org/stable/27702243?seq=4

Slowly, the old falls away, and the new comes into view.  In this case, the view is one that I actually had in undergrad.  I proposed to do my undergrad thesis on schools, by which I really mean the emerging area of childhood studies.  The timing would have been perfect, back in 1995, but I didn't know it, and neither did my sociology professor.  Besides, I had a lot of other things to do in the last 20 or so years. Today, I'm posting about what I might read next, in a scholarly vein.  This isn't all of what I have on my shelf for summer.  In fact, I'm not even going to duplicate that shelf (except perhaps in a picture) and, instead, I'm listing Stuff I'm Finding Interesting... A Journal:   http://www.childhoodstoday.org/journal.php Several books requested: And delving into media studies New Media & Society, The Information Society The International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics Communication, Culture & Critique Plus

Two books with one sci-fi premise, long-distance human travel to colonize potentially inhabitable planets, present two very different narratives... Across the Universe by Beth Revis is a comparatively leisurely and internal journey through the experience of Amy, a teenage girl whom we meet as she is being cryogenically frozen.  So that she can be revived, along with her parents, to colonize a new planet.  In about 300 years.  And, of course, it takes awhile before she is revived, and the contemplations of her conscious-yet-static mind occupy many chapters before the reanimated action begins.  One interesting strength of this book is that the chapters vary in perspective, and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out what's going on because of that, especially during the part when she is still frozen.  Once Amy is thawed, the book becomes a combination dystopian fantasy and mystery.   Amy meets Elder, who will become the ship's leader in the future.  She also meets Eldest, t