This group project has taught me that I need to be aware of things of this nature when I assign people into groups. I need to find projects that EVERY voice is heard, not just the over-zealous student who wants it her way. I need to find ways for students to feel comfortable in their groups that they can speak out and say, "no, please don't change that line. That is how I would like to portray my character."
Sunday, October 18, 2009
A writing activity gone wrong in my Shakespeare class
So, I am in the 3000 level Shakespeare class. I love my professor; he teaches everything so well. HOWEVER, this semester he decided to add in a new part to the class, a "modern translation section." This section allows a group (that we do not pick) to translate a scene into modern every day English and perform it. That's fine and dandy but I have established that my group does not have the same style or voice as one another. My idea of funny is not the same as another group members. It has become the most frustrating writing experience of my life. Everytime I send a piece in to one of my group members, she changes it! I read through it and realize, that's not my voice coming through but hers! And then when she turns in "her"version of my writing, our professor says we are not getting the point of the assignment and we aren't being funny. I don't understand how he can make us do this group translation when I don't read things the same or write the same as the person next to me.
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I am sorry about your negative experience. A lot of people show up in Shakespeare classes that probably should not be there. However I really like the idea of the modern translation assignment. I think that it could work for a lot of texts, although it does seem like maybe students should be allowed to pick their own groups :).
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