Cinnabar and Alabaster

because this is an observational write-up of a colleague worthy of dignified treatment, i will not say anything connecting tim from his student-run "we want to change voting access in new york!" organization to head lice in homeroom.

i will simply move beyond tim, and the polite introductions dave made for the class of him and me and the class's brand new student (who would have been # 12 had someone else not been missing), & get to the part where dave prefaces the day's activities by explaining & contextualizing their homework assignment--not just what to do, but how it's like & unlike the last assignment (they're writing another in a series of summaries, but this time specifically not looking for a scholarly source, trying to find something produced by mass media for its necessarily wider audience. he also gives them some guidance as to how to do this, suggesting (while they're at the screens to see them) specific databases & database categories to search to find the kinds of sources they're looking for.

next, he "gathers them around the boardroom table" (009's perk) to talk about the handout. he does the vast majority of the talking, but not for lack of trying--he asks good questions, he gives them time to read back over the sheet & think, he's incredibly patient, in that silent room, w/the wait-time, & when he eventually does give in & start calling names, the agreeable tone of their responses suggests to me that they're relieved to have the silence broken too, but had forgotten how to do it.

once he pulls the first few teeth, they extract really insightful gems, make non-obvious comparisons between the different research-models the handout presents & at least a handful of them are willing to discuss the relative merit of those models for their own thinking. bridget says "in burke you're more passively listening & you just fall in but in the encounter model [adapted w/permission from anne & margaret's pre-publication intro] there's more active seeking-out of relationships and meaning." danielle says "the parlor looks more unchangeable, whereas the encounter loks more like you can change things, have opinions--it's more free-flowing." carla says in her research she starts in a place like the parlor model, & then moves more towards the other. dave's wrap-up gloss of her & others' contributions: "the 2nd one puts you in the driver's seat; the parlor model is relatively static--it's a physical room you're sitting in, it's contained. the encounter model explodes that 'space.'" he added connections to technology & the web changing space-metaphors & then bridged the handout to the work they've been doing with readings & the database searching they're supposed to do next.

then they get back into the groups they were in before (he adds emily, the new girl, to one) to workshop drafts, looking specifically at their work with outside sources. their tasks:

• list purposes other than agree/disagree people have for using others' voices
• list other possible purposes you/they could have
• find & eliminate hanging quotes
• notice/create/improve language used by the writer to connect outside sources to each other
• & what became the homework question: choose 1 place in your paper where you bring in another author's voice, cut & paste it into an e-mail to dave, & explain what your purpose was in this instance & how it connects to your larger goal in the essay.

what was really smart & cool: using the room's technology in a way i hadn't ever thought of. he put the questions in a word-doc on the main screen & through the projector so everyone could see them, gathered responses the way in a "normal" room you'd do on the blackboard, & entered them in under the appropriate question, so that the gathered information could then be printed & copied as a handout for everyone or uploaded to Blackboard for everyone to access &/or print at will. written out, that looks simple, obvious, & like something i know i've heard suggested in some form or another by someone, but when he was doing it, it was quick & clever--& allowed him to combine agendas, recording their ideas & observations, making them collaborators in the handout's creation, & also making sure the things he wanted them not to miss made the list.

before they leave, he reminds them again what their homework assignment is, reminds them also to answer question #5 for hw since they didn't get to it in class, & collects papers.

then, as they leave, he tells me he was nervous having me watching. nervous? the great and mighty dave? being watched by li'l ole me?
i told him i forgot people got nervous, because i'd been doing this for so long, but that i thought (true story) he was terrific, & (also true story) i've already stolen & implemented more borrowed ideas than the burke passage i read aloud off his handout to my class today.