May 10, 2023: Spring 2023 Surprises: Barbie and Joe in First-Year Writing II

[Asanother challenging but rewarding semester comes to a close, I wanted toreflect on a handful of moments that particularly surprised me (in good ways).I’d love to hear some of your Spring reflections in comments!]

Ever sinceI revampedmy First-Year Writing II syllabus for the Spring 2014 semester, I’vestarted that course (which as I wrote in that hyperlinked post focuses overallon layers to our 21st century world and identities) with a unit andpaper on analyzing ads. Over time I’ve found a variety of sample ads, presentand past, to share for our collective practice with that skill, including acouple of YouTube compilations of 1980s TV commercials for Barbie and G.I. Joe respectively. Otherthan the inevitable horror this child of the 80s feels at the passage of time,sharing these commercials has always been a fun way to help us get into thisfirst unit’s texts and topics. But this semester, my great group of First-YearWriting II students (a handful of whom I’d taught in the Fall, but most of whomwere still new to me in these opening weeks of the semester) went above andbeyond, not only analyzing these ads closely to practice those Paper 1 skills,but raising all sorts of thoughtful contexts about gender and identity,childhood, marketing and commercialism, and more. FYW discussions can be tough toget going, but this conversation sure got ours going on a great note!

Nextsurprise tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Spring semester reflections you’d share?