Monthly Archives: February 2009

Assessing English

Posted on February 28, 2009 by guitarsophist

I just spent two days at a WASC-sponsored conference on “Teaching and Assessing the English Major.”  WASC is our institution’s accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, so we have to listen to what they say.  A WASC … Continue reading →

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What are we teaching when we teach literature?

Posted on February 20, 2009 by guitarsophist

This week my seminar has been reading Louise Rosenblatt’s The Reader, The Text, The Poem.  After several weeks of analyzing everyday texts, the literature students in the course were happy to finally get to what they saw at the beginning … Continue reading →

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Stomp Boxes: Magical Tone or Magical Thinking?

Posted on February 8, 2009 by guitarsophist

A stomp box is a guitar signal processor of some kind, usually built into a small metal box with a footswitch on top.  Stomp, and it’s on.  Stomp, and it’s off.  In the quest for a unique tone, most guitarists … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and Guitar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Reading RIAP

Posted on February 7, 2009 by guitarsophist

“RIAP” stands for “Reading Institute for Academic Preparation.”  It is a California State University initiative to improve the teaching of reading in high school.  My campus was funded to run an institute this year, so I spent the past two … Continue reading →

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Letters to Shareholders

Posted on February 4, 2009 by guitarsophist

Last night the seminar looked at Chapter 2 of Glenn Stillar’s Analyzing Everyday Texts in which he lays out a system of discourse analysis based on M.A. K. Halliday’s social semiotics. We actually had a good time. Last time I … Continue reading →

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