Month: September 2019

This summer session has flown by. And all of you have really kept up with the tough pace of the summer. Now, we have a final week to finish your project and reflect upon what we’ve learned.

SEP 9: Read this short article by Oserio and Iwertz Composing Captions. We are going to use this to talk about accessibility. No need for a reading response for this one.

Assignment: Just focus on revise rough draft of Project 2.

In class: Final round of peer review and design.

SEP 11: SHOWCASE
Prepare to present on your final project. This should be just 5 minutes. Share an overview of your argument, one audio clip, and your analysis and conclusions from that audio clip.

SEP 11:
1. SUBMIT PROJECT 2 RESEARCH ARTICLE (before class on blog) &
2. REFLECTION ESSAY that explains your process, choices, and evaluates what you learned. This reflection essay should 1) explain your process composing the article (What steps were important? What was challenging? Fun? Interesting? New?) 2) discuss the choices you made (to appeal to the audience, support your argument, meet your goals) 3) evaluate your article (what makes it interesting, important, original, engaging?). Submit any time Wednesday on your blog.

Sep 13: Final blog post. Reflecting on what you’ve learned this quarter. In this class you have learned different ways to attune yourself as a listener. You’ve learned to listen as a mode of inquiry and how to compose with sound. We’ve also practiced listening to people, communities, environments, etc. For your final assignment, write a listening plan for yourself. How can you apply what you’ve learned to future situations, communities, and spaces? What do you hope to learn by listening carefully and critically?

For this listening plan, first identify 2-3 listening situations that you’ll enter in the future: communities, classrooms, workplaces. How can you apply active listening and critical attention to sound in these spaces?

I can’t believe we are already at week 5! You’ve done good work so far. Our goal for this week is 1) prepare for the second project. For this assignment, it is crucial that you analyze sound on multiple levels: the words, the source, the media, as well as the sounds themselves. So think about how you can practice reduced listening.

2) think about writing and voice. We sometimes say a writer has “found her voice”. What does that mean? How can you find your voice in writing?

For Wednesday, read the essay by Gloria Anzaldua “speaking in tongues”. This is a beautiful essay that I hope you will enjoy. As you read, think about her voice. I think there are several voices in this essay. How does her style augment her argument? Write a reading responds that addresses these questions.

In addition, you need to come to class with a partial draft of your second project. At this point, you need to have a draft thesis statement. Most importantly, you need to have collected all of the audio clips you want to analyze in the essay.

Friday Blog Post: This week, tune into the local UCSB student led radio station KCSB. I would like you to listen for at least 3 hours throughout the week. Write down notes on what you heard from listening to the local radio station. Use Trish’s Guide to Listening to help you think critically about what you heard.

Write a blog post that explores what you learned about the UCSB community by listening to the public radio. What shows did you listen to? What did you learn? Whose voices and what topics were included? And what do you think this radio program may reveal about the community that you’re entering here at UCSB?