Do I contradict myself?
Very well, I contradict myself
(I am large - I contain multitudes)

-Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself " Part 51

Monday, August 30, 2010

Presentations on Gray, Chpt. 5

I thought our class presentations on Gray, Chpt. 5 went very well. The summaries and especially the responses were well thought out. I was particularly pleased with the discussion generated by the presentations. I think we have touched on many crucial points in the material and beyond it. It is my hope that the presentations helped to "get the wheels turning" in your minds as you contemplate the chapter and your understanding and response to it. BTW I have posted all six presentation slides on the IVLE workbin, under "student submissions". You should be able to view them since they were posted by me.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

my response to "Can't We Talk?"

I found the article engaging because of the way Tannen structured it on the familiar examples and then built a catagorization of gender differences explaining those examples. This made the article very accessible and even entertaining, in a way that first building the categories and discussing them in the abstract would not have been. Having said that, I do have some problems with accepting the dualities she proposes as universal (despite her disclaimer at the start of the article). But as an introduction to her ideas written for a general audience, I think it "works."