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Feb. 11th, 2009 05:42 pmToday my writing class and I got talking. We were thinking about how we can control the effect of our writing on other people by choosing words that have contrasting meanings and how we can play with those meanings in peoples' minds. Naturally the two words we used for this were 'bloody' and 'flaming.' From there we moved fairly naturally onto how words are formed in English and other Germanic langauges and how we can use the prefix/suffix structure to challenge reader expectations even more.
That makes it sound incredibly boring. Not good. It wasn't boring. The bloody pieces used the word early on and had us all thinking the poem or paragraph was about something and then twisted the tale and made it about something else entirely. It was fun to see my students playing havoc with each other's expectations.
The prefix/suffix discussion took over forty minutes because the class kept saying "We need to know more." Somehow 'more' (in their eyes) included how languages are grouped linguistically and how those groupings reflect syntax and word formation and stuff. Lots of stuff. I still can't believe I drew a diagram showing the difference between the structure of an English sentence and the structure of a Japanese one when all I meant to do was explain that English is a Germanic language with a vocabulary that borrows from everywhere.
I got revenge on my class. They were so keen on my language diagrams that we only had five minutes to do the myth/legend of the day. This means they're all writing variants on Prometheus for homework. They're going to have to research, too, because five minutes is not enough to do Prometheus justice. This is my Wednesday class, though - I bet they do all that and more. I would win this bet: the student who gave us the word of the day also gave us the Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year and runner's up and led a lively discussion in word faddishness and (you guessed it) how it's possible to use the popularity of a word at a certain point in time or space to say a bunch of things in a text.
I had a lesson plan today. I need to give that lesson plan a ritual burial.
I also need to reflect about what I taught. I love using words to set expectations and to help readers naturally form conclusions I want them to in my fiction and make tehm thnk it's all simple. I thought I was doing it terribly instinctively, but it looks as if it's one of those places where education pays odd dividends. My 'instinct' is formed by my technical understanding of language and languages. I not only need to reflect - I need to update my knowledge. Anyone got any suggestions on where I should go next?
That makes it sound incredibly boring. Not good. It wasn't boring. The bloody pieces used the word early on and had us all thinking the poem or paragraph was about something and then twisted the tale and made it about something else entirely. It was fun to see my students playing havoc with each other's expectations.
The prefix/suffix discussion took over forty minutes because the class kept saying "We need to know more." Somehow 'more' (in their eyes) included how languages are grouped linguistically and how those groupings reflect syntax and word formation and stuff. Lots of stuff. I still can't believe I drew a diagram showing the difference between the structure of an English sentence and the structure of a Japanese one when all I meant to do was explain that English is a Germanic language with a vocabulary that borrows from everywhere.
I got revenge on my class. They were so keen on my language diagrams that we only had five minutes to do the myth/legend of the day. This means they're all writing variants on Prometheus for homework. They're going to have to research, too, because five minutes is not enough to do Prometheus justice. This is my Wednesday class, though - I bet they do all that and more. I would win this bet: the student who gave us the word of the day also gave us the Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year and runner's up and led a lively discussion in word faddishness and (you guessed it) how it's possible to use the popularity of a word at a certain point in time or space to say a bunch of things in a text.
I had a lesson plan today. I need to give that lesson plan a ritual burial.
I also need to reflect about what I taught. I love using words to set expectations and to help readers naturally form conclusions I want them to in my fiction and make tehm thnk it's all simple. I thought I was doing it terribly instinctively, but it looks as if it's one of those places where education pays odd dividends. My 'instinct' is formed by my technical understanding of language and languages. I not only need to reflect - I need to update my knowledge. Anyone got any suggestions on where I should go next?