Serving as Resource Person: Once this semester, you and a fellow student or two will be responsible for helping to guide class discussion and to serve as resource people. This is not a formal presentation but rather a way to get everyone comfortable contributing to our debates and in the habit of engaging with our texts. It involves advanced preparation, however. As a resource person and discussion leader, your responsibilities include:
A) After a careful reading of the assigned text, familiarize yourself with all specific references and unfamiliar vocabulary in the text. For example, if the text mentions a specific place, like “the Tombs” or Verona, you will need to find out what the Tombs and Verona are and be prepared to explain them to your classmates. You should also know the meaning of all difficult or obscure words. Each leader should know this information. Note: the people responsible for The Tempest are excused from this task.
When you present your vocabulary to the class, the class has requested that you also quote the sentence from the text in which the vocabulary word appears.
Example: “He pointed out – writing in a foolish, facetious tone…” (127)
a. Treating serious issues with deliberate inappropriate humor
"Since they had no extensive muscular mechanism to recuperate…” (126)
a. To recover or regain something that was lost or stolen
B) In a substantial paragraph or two, explain what you thought was most interesting or significant about the reading for the day especially in the context of our other readings. That is, does this reading develop or contrast with ideas we've encountered thus far in the class. STRATEGY: Your aim here is to demonstrate the improvement of your literary insights. It's smart to include relevant quotations to support your ideas.
C) Pick out at least two passages that relate to the theme of the class, and explain in writing why you picked them, what you thought was interesting, annoying, important, etc. STRATEGY: Select these paragraphs carefully, because they will demonstrate your ability to engage with literary texts. Avoid picking paragraphs that relate only to plot details or characterization. Look for moments that introduce or develop important themes as well.
D) Come up with two questions that you’d like the class to write about or discuss. You can address anything, though you might want at least one question to relate to the theme of the course. Be sure, too, to ask questions that can be answered given the scope of this class. You might, therefore, want to focus broadly on representational choices. Other possible topics: themes, specific passages, narrative strategies, characters’ actions/motives, connections between works, etc. STRATEGY:
- Avoid asking questions with definite right or wrong answers. Ask questions that will promote discussion from two or more perspectives AND that can be substantiated with citations from the text.
- It's useful to provide some context for your questions, almost like a mini-intro paragraph, so that your readers can see what ideas shape the question. For example,
- Your grade will be enhanced if your questions generate good discussion. Try to ask follow-up questions. Work to connect answers together. Get the class talking to each other and not just to you.
- I recommend that you do some research on the text you're working on. You can also bring what you've found into the class (be sure to tell them what your source was) and build questions based on that research.
- Project your questions before the class and consider giving the students time to prepare and write down answers to your questions (all four questions if there are two Resource People).
- From here on, you don't need to present your vocabulary and written work to the class. Just send that to me.
- Do make your fellow students provide textual evidence for their answers to your questions.
Often, authors draw from personal experiences to shape their work. If you look at Mary Shelley’s chronology of her personal life, her timeline clearly shows a life punctuated by loss, specifically the death of family members. Does death and loss figure as prominently in her novel Frankenstein, or are they merely backdrops for stronger passions?
Send your written work (including your definitions of unfamiliar vocabulary) via email to me by no later than 10 AM on the day of class. I will be happy to meet with you as you prepare your presentation. Be prepared: we may not get to discuss all your questions, but I still value your contributions.
Note: if you're working with another resource person, you should coordinate with them for your work leading the class. In particular, merge your vocabulary lists. However the work you turn into the professor should be your own. Thus, every RP will turn in separate work on sections B, C, D below. Each set of resource people should have two distinct questions per resource person. Note that your work on this assignment and leading class discussion contributes to 15% of your final grade.
Note, too, that there's a model of what to turn in to me in the packet of readings I handed out; it's titled "Sample Resource Person Work."
Your work will be graded on: your thoughtfulness in picking passages and commenting on them; the quality of the questions you ask; your effectiveness in generating discussion; your work in front of the class, especially your ability to respond to other students with useful comments and further questions; the compilation of a solid vocabulary list.
Workshopping a Paper
Once a semester, you will workshop one of your papers in class. That is, you will read a draft of your paper to the class and they will make suggestions directed toward making it a stronger paper. You can then take their comments and turn in a final draft of the paper due a week after the day of the workshop. When it’s your turn to workshop, email your paper to me by 10 a. m. the morning they’re due, and I will make copies of the paper for the class to read.
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