Voice paper #1

Assignment #1:

 Pose and address a question/dilemma/claim about “voice” and the classroom, or, more broadly, about voice and learning.

Consider these questions if/as useful:

How are you understanding/defining “voice”?

What do you see as the promise and/or the challenges of students (and others) finding and using their/our voices in learning?  In schooling?

How do you understand the relationship between “voice” and listening?  voice and dialogue?  What part might performance play?

You might want to think about these (and other) questions in terms of gender and/or in terms of learning in particular contexts and spaces (e.g. classrooms, prison, theatre, life).

Draw on texts (our shared texts and, if you want, others that are relevant) as well as experiences, again if and as relevant. 

Some thoughts about finding your way in/delving into your paper:

• ·      Consider your own and/or others’ posts as a place to begin.
• ·      We began the semester by writing and then doing a readaround on “voice”; you might go back to that as a starting point as you “write into” what you mean by “voice” at this point in our work together.
• ·      Consider (re)locating a key line in a text as a jumping off point, and note that it may be especially the case with texts we read earlier in the course that they now have new resonance for you.

While I’d like you to pursue a claim in this paper, and in this sense to aim for “coherence,” I also invite you to use this as an exploratory space in terms of trying out and pushing new ideas and modes of expression.  In other words, feel free to be intellectually and expressively playful, and at the same time keep your reader in mind.

Please email your paper  (approx. 3-5 pp.) to me (jccohen@bmc) by Sun. at 11:59 pm; also, feel free to post your paper on serendip as you draft (e.g. for responses) and/or when you’re finished.