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| "A New Secret Weapon - Planet Oven" by DocChewbacca |
Everyone uses a timer to cook, right? I use a timer all the time, especially when I'm cooking... When I'm baking... definitely when I'm exercising.... When I'm bathing my son... When I'm winding him down for bedtime..... So, WHY WOULDN'T I USE A TIMER FOR SCHOOLWORK?! I have no idea. I've occasionally used a timer to force myself to read for chunks of an hour at a time, whenever I am struggling to get through some material, but I have never really used a timer when I've been writing things. However, soon we will be reading closely and giving feedback to our peers, so a timer seems like the perfect solution! My introduction to the Google "Set A Timer" is a game-changer for computer-related work!
Feedback Focus Techniques
1.) Reading Out Loud
I read The Wax Crocodile out loud as a reading technique. I found that I was able to focus on some details better, but lost other details altogether. For instance, I assumed that the Pharaoh had created the Wax Crocodile, when in fact the scribe had done so. I found that my mind wandered as I was reading so slowly, and therefore I had to go back and check this fact to clarify.
Overall Take-Away: Somewhat helpful, somewhat distracting.
*Note: "The Wax Crocodile" and an Egyptian tale taken as an excerpt from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie.
2.) Copy-And-Delete
For this method, I read and re-wrote notes after each paragraph, deleting the paragraph I had just read after I had written a note about it. I chose "Chonguita" from Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler.
I've added the notes that I took on the story. I found it to be incredibly effective in doing a close reading of the material, and a good exercise in general, however, I struggled with parsing the story down to just the essential details, as you can see below.
Overall Take-Away: This method was more time consuming, but more effective.
Chonguita
Narrated by Pilar Ejercito, a Tagalog from Pagsanjan, Laguna. She heard the story from her aunt, who had heard it when she was still a little girl.
-Brothers Pedro, Diego & Juan must set out to find their fortunes in different directions, they agree to meet back up at a certain place in the forest
-Don Juan met an old man who gave him bread and told him to go to the palace, but he must divide the bread among the guard monkeys.
-The Big Monkey offered to marry his daughter, Chonguita, to Don Juan, because he knows Don Juan's purpose in coming to the palace. Married immediately.
-Don Juan needed to go meet his brothers, but was ashamed to take his monkey wife. His mother-in-law insisted that he take her.
-The brothers meet, and Don Pedro and Don Diego both have beautiful wives. Don Juan is ashamed to show his wife, and his brothers exclaim at the sight of her "Have you lost your head?!" "Let's go home to our father, he must be waiting!" says Don Juan. The brothers and their wives begin the journey. Chonguita walked by Don Juan.
-When the 3 brothers returned to their father's palace, the king fainted when he heard about a monkey wife for his youngest son. He determined to bear it, and gave each couple a house. However, he was disgraced, and asked each wife to embroider a coat within 3 days and the one who fails to do this will DIE.
-Chonguita's coat was the prettiest of all the coats, thwarting the father's death to kill her.
-All 3 wives must embroider a cap in 2 days, or they DIE.
-All 3 wives must draw a picture on the chamber walls of their father-in-law,and the prettiest picture, her husband will be crowned successor king.
-Chonguita's picture was prettiest = Don Juan crowned king.
-A Celebratory feast was held, and Chonguita wanted to dance with Don Juan. He was angry that she insisted to dance, and he hurled her against a wall. The hall became dark, but when it became light, Chonguita had been turned into a beautiful woman.
3.) Use A Timer
I opened up a Google Timer (First Time using it!) and set it for 10 minutes. I then proceeded to read "Midterm Madness", a Portfolio Blog post by Savannah Jung.
I found this quite difficult to stay focused for the entire length of time allotted, as I was already familiar with the original story that was being retold. I did enjoy the story-telling technique of modernizing the tale and setting it on OU's campus -- I might have to try that one out for myself sometime soon. With the additional time left over, I zoomed back in on the final paragraph where Sita abandons Rama, switches classes and finds a new study group, leaving Rama all alone to finish out the semester... alone with his distrust of everyone. On the first read-through, I found this paragraph to be a quick, easy way to finish out the story, but on the second-read through I actually found it to be quite in line with the original story of Sita leaving Rama alone in his kingdom, and so had a better appreciation for how true to the story the author stayed.
Overall Take-Away: I will use this technique again!
