The Big-Ass Paper

Gotta say, I'm loving FlyLady's fifteen on / fifteen off approach to thesis work. (Yes. This is my fifteen off.)

So far today I've written a tentative outline, developed some questions to guide my continued reading, and taken notes on the single most important text in my research. More than I've done all summer, really. Ugh.

Since I can't go back in time, I am determined to move forward with renewed, er, new enthusiasm from here on. Perhaps I was just bored with my topic for a while there, but now that I'm in the thick of it again, it's sort of fascinating.

I'm interested in helping students view themselves as more active agents in their own meaning making when they read. I want them to be able to articulate the origin of their responses, situated as they are in social, cultural, and historical influences. This articulation is especially crucial, I think, when students respond with resistance to texts, which they do most often to texts that disrupt traditional and dominant patterns, such as those that represent the world or life of an "other." And I think that using literary theory, the virtual donning of multiple lenses with which to view the world and text, will help them recognize and voice their ideological stances. And that's interesting and important, when you think about it.

Wow. This feels a bit like on time to me -- but no short cuts today. So with three off-time minutes left, it's to the bathroom, Robin.