Week 14-15 Journal Prompts (Apr 18-29)

Write a course reflection: what did you most enjoy about this class? What could have been improved? How and in what ways have you grown as a writer? What has been most useful in helping this development? Which course texts did you find most useful to our course theme and analysis? Which did you find least useful?

OR

Outline your Essay 3

Week 13 Journal Prompts (Apr 11-15)

Write a response to our in-class Roundtable. You may respond to the Roundtable itself (what you liked, what you didn’t like, what worked well, something you found especially interesting) or to the Roundtable texts (which stood out, which intrigued you, which raised interesting questions, etc.)

OR

Write a response to material culture day. After visiting each of the stations, what similarities did you notice? Differences? Which station did you find most interesting? Why? Which station did you find least interesting? Why? 

Extra Credit Opportunities

MEST Symposium (April 8-April 9):
http://www.indiana.edu/~medieval/symposium.shtml

Attend one of the panels (details above) or the keynote. Please stay for the whole panel. Choose one of the presentations a write a brief response. Include the following in your response:

1. What was the paper about?
2. What is one thing you learned?
3. What did you find particularly effective about the presenter's presentation or style?

*(optional) please note if something weird or totally nutty happens during any one of the presentations or panels.

Total credit: +5 Points on any assignment.

Material Culture Day (April 14):
We are having a material culture day on 4/14 and I’d love to look at stuff that you are interested in.

This includes wedding blogs, engagement or wedding shoots, pinterest pins, proposals, teen or women’s magazines (Cosmo, Marie Claire, Ladies’ Home Journal), BuzzFeed articles/quizzes, favorite songs or music videos, commercials, etc.

Please email digital submissions to emaffeto@indiana.edu by Wednesday (4/13) at 12 pm
OR
Let me know by Wednesday (4/13) at 12pm if you intend to bring a physical submissions to class; then remember to bring your physical submission to class on 4/14.

Each submission (max 2) will count as a Discussion Starter (2.5 points each)

Week 12 Journal Prompts (Apr. 4 - Apr. 9)

Think about your working thesis and consider the following questions: 

What is your confirming evidence? What do your sources say that seems to support your claim?

What is your complicating evidence? Is there any way your sources don’t quite fit? Is there a source that seems to go against what you’re saying? Or going against another author? Is there a way that your primary text is bringing up things not addressed in your sources?

What has engaging with this source given you? Why does it matter? Ask and answer the “so what”?

OR

Using the following sheet (Evolving Thesis Handout) work on evolving your thesis for Essay 3!

Week 11 Journal Prompts (Mar. 28 - Apr.1)

What are you considering as your primary text for Essay 3? What is this text about? What appeals to you in this text? Where are places you might focus? What are issues you think you might focus on? Which of the authors that we've read in class seem to speak to your text the most?

OR

Take the attached BuzzFeed-Style Theory Quiz. What theory did you get? Does the description of this theoretical style seem to mesh with what you value in a text? Why or why not? Who that we've read so far in class seems to mesh most with your theoretical style? In what ways?

To use your new-found theoretical framework in your searches, consider checking out the following flowcharts:

Theory & Theorist Flowcharts for Philosophy, Religion, Formalism, Reader Response, Narratology, Historicism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Gender & Queer Theory,

Theory & Theorist Flowcharts for Critical Race, Cognitive, Marxist, Postcolonial, Game Studies, Performance, Disability, Posthumanism

Week 10 Journal Prompts (Mar. 21-26)

Catron notes 36 questions you can ask to “fall in love” (really, build a closer connection) with another person.   Click the link above and go through the activity with a buddy (friend, relative, significant other, etc.) and reflect on that experience: what surprised you about this activity? How does your experience mesh with or differ from Catron’s?  Do you feel differently about that person? In what ways?

OR

Choose one of the music videos we did not get to talk about in class today. Answer one of the following question-strands:
1. How the video uses narrative? What narrative is being constructed, in what ways?
2. What role does gender play in our reception of this video? How are masculine or feminine expectations/behaviors communicated? What are these expectations? What assumptions does the video engage or destabilize with regards to gender?
3. What are some of the ways this video exposes some of the potential problems (either implicit or explicit) in romance narratives?

Nobody Needs to Know (Last 5 Years, on Netflix), Try, Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup, Stuck Like Glue, The One That Got Away, Gaston, Expectations vs. Reality (500 Days of Summer)

Week 9 Journal Prompts (Mar. 7-12)

Unit 3 is mainly focused around preparing for and writing your final paper, because of that I haven’t asked you to read much outside of class. This gives us a lot of flexibility in Unit 3: What are some things we haven’t covered yet you’d like to get to? What are some topics within the soulmate genre you’d like to consider more in depth? What are some objects of analysis you’d like to suggest?

OR

Outline your Essay 2.