Reading Response #1

**Beginning Note: With Makenzie as my witness, I tried for over a half hour to get this posted before class on Monday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get access to my correct gmail account (turns out I have three set-up for various reasons). That being said, I forgot to post it after class and just went to post my response to the second reading to see that I didn’t already have anything up for this class! Here ya go.**

This was a nice little chunk of reading to do throughout my weekend. I had a very full schedule and am happy to know that I was able to get the assignment done. While reading through some of these sections there were a few things that really stuck out to me.

First off, there was one certain phrase that really caught my attention. The author sites Michael Oakeshott, an English philosopher, in saying that group talking is “an unrehearsed intellectual adventure.” This wording really stuck out to me. The author continues to call conversation an art. I hadn’t ever really thought about conversation as being an “adventure” before and hearing it called such really got the wheels turning about how I can better approach conversation in my future classroom. By learning to sculpt the conversation in the class in a way to help students enjoy it will *hopefully* supply more student input and excitement for learning.

 

Another phrase that stuck out to me was just a paragraph down where the author uses the term "meetingplace of various modes of imagining." This stuck out to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the term “meetingplace” doesn’t usually come to mind when I think about conversation and discussion. Hearing about it in this way, however, creates an image of two or more people coming together. I know that’s what happens when a conversation takes place, but I had never actually visualized it before. Secondly, the imagination threw me off a bit. Come discussions I’ve been a part of have been dry and repetitious. But the concept of imagination gives a whole other element to discussions. By being passionate and creative with your word choice and content, you can engage others in very interesting conversation and learn a lot about the people you interact with.