I enjoyed the class excercise last tuesday of telling someone else's stories. I found that as a listener I often forgot that someone was telling someone else's story. I also thought it funny how sometimes we wanted to hear the story behind the story. Which one is the real story? We think the first one was real, but real is only what happened. I know the story I first told was not quite real. I was also surprised at how much of my story I lost.
Assigning the moral to the story was a nice touch. I assigned the moral of police are incompetent, or unable to do what police are promised to do. They cannot serve and protect. I was surprised at the ways I was able to introduce that theme into a story that was given to me without that theme. But I guess I do it all the time. i hear a story and interpret it outside of its intended purpose from the speaker and then retell the story to make my own point.
I find it ironic that in communication classes that I have taken, we don't really spend much time communicating.
Our class seems like an exception to that and I think that the activities that we do that give each student the floor are at least as important as understanding what comm classes usually focus on, which are the theories thought to be at the root of communication.
On the other hand, we communicate everyday in our lives and how much more can we really learn from mock situations in class. why not use all of the class time to do what we rarely do out of class, discuss theory?
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We have the advantage of having like, ten people in class. Means you the students get more time to communicate.
ReplyDeleteConcerning your last point. I happen to believe that people pay more attention to what they are saying when they say it in a class. Sure you tell stories on the outside, but do you even realize the process you are using? It's my job to slow that process down so you can reflect on it more fully.
That's my justification, anyhow.
Lee, great observation. I think that the size of class matters. Most of the time when you take classes you don't even know who have of the students are. Having a smaller class setting gives you the opportunity to meet and know fellow students on personal level. Don't you think? WHen this class is over, I will remember each one of the characters in this class, I mean, I will remember have of the students in this class.
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