Although my analysis of the class is coming at the end of the semester, I believe that I have some input that will help with your understanding of why the class slowed down. Since the time this blog was posted, the class involvement seemed to go back up, which is great.
But at the beginning of the semester, the material might have been more difficult, but it was highly theoretical which gave the students a lot to think and talk about and they were able to share their individual perspectives. In the middle of the semester, the material was still fascinating, but I don’t think the students were able to give as much personal input because the material were more factual (as opposed to theoretical) and pretty straight forward. For example, I enjoyed learning about French speaking in Louisiana, but I couldn’t personally contribute a lot to the subject. Another example is that I think it’s pretty obvious that many people feel uncomfortable by Spanish, and making English the official language is racist. Because I felt like these ideas were inherently true, there wasn’t much up for debate. I definitely enjoyed the readings and loved learning more about these topics, but I couldn’t give as much unique perspective as I could when discussing subjects like ethnography or CDA. I think students started becoming more involved near the end of the semester because subjects like gender and sexuality effect us every day in deep and meaningful ways, and we are able to give more personal insight.
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