Initial reactions to the text?
What are the consequences of striving for the American Dream?
Through what lenses can we see American Dream thus far?
What are some of the versions of the American Dream set up in the opening chapters of GoS?
How is Bonds characterized at the start of the story? What does this foreshadow? Is this an open and far characterization?
Tenth Inning (chpt 2-5). Chpt 10 about Sosa
Friday, March 20, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Weekly Post #9: When Jim Crow Got Cut From Spring Training
A great read on baseball's segregation issues from back in 1947. So much for baseball being accessible to all people. Even America's National Pastime struggled with how to manage racial relations in the late 40s. How then could it be America's National Pastime if it wasn't representative of the country? What new bit of information did you learn from this piece? What's your take-away?
Monday, March 9, 2015
Weekly Post #8: The college try
A fun piece on the tradition of MLB teams playing college teams during spring training. I feel like this piece captures some of the magic, the dream the field can hold. What are your thoughts? Opinions? Responses? How does this piece play into any themes we're discussed thus far?
Giving it the Old College Try
This post is due on Monday night as we don't have classes on Monday.
Giving it the Old College Try
This post is due on Monday night as we don't have classes on Monday.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
One Shot @ Forever
(From last class)
1. Larger questions on gender
Looking at the text thus far, how does the text deal with the themes of ...
1. Father/Son dynamics
2. Masculinity
3. Adolescent males
How do these themes manifest themselves in the text and what conclusions are we to draw from the text about each theme? Use text evidence to support your ideas.
2. Free writing
The focus of last night's reading was the game against Lane Tech. Notice how much longer the description was and how much more detail there was about the game. Why was that game more important? Why did Ballard move quickly over the final game? What does this tell us about the point of this story?
3. Question generation for essays
Questions on meaning (plot?)
Questions on purpose & audience (why?)
Questions on method and structure (how?)
Questions on language (tone, literary devices, style, characterization)
Questions I asked you
1. What's one important symbol in the text so far and what does it represent?
2. How does Ballard create both realistic and mythical characters?
3. What role does masculinity and heroism play in achieving the American Dream?
4. How does Ballard's style and structure create tension not only in the games but also within characters?
1. Larger questions on gender
Looking at the text thus far, how does the text deal with the themes of ...
2. Masculinity
3. Adolescent males
How do these themes manifest themselves in the text and what conclusions are we to draw from the text about each theme? Use text evidence to support your ideas.
2. Free writing
The focus of last night's reading was the game against Lane Tech. Notice how much longer the description was and how much more detail there was about the game. Why was that game more important? Why did Ballard move quickly over the final game? What does this tell us about the point of this story?
3. Question generation for essays
Questions on meaning (plot?)
Questions on purpose & audience (why?)
Questions on method and structure (how?)
Questions on language (tone, literary devices, style, characterization)
Questions I asked you
1. What's one important symbol in the text so far and what does it represent?
2. How does Ballard create both realistic and mythical characters?
3. What role does masculinity and heroism play in achieving the American Dream?
4. How does Ballard's style and structure create tension not only in the games but also within characters?
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
One Shot @ Forever: Up to p. 170
Writing
Lynn Sweet finally comes to see an Ironmen game. Ballard writes, "And yet, now the son was on the verge of doing something impressive. Not in teaching, or writing, or some other pursuit of the mind, but in athletics, a language his father was fluent in, even if he'd never been much of a baseball fan.
What other language are you fluent in? You can think about this language in terms of friends or family, but I want you to think about what this language affords you? With whom does it connect you? With whom does it disconnect you?
Chpt. 14 Question
1. Why does Ballard craft Shartzer and Sweet's stories in parallel? What impact does this have on the narrative? on the characterization of the men?
Larger questions on gender
Looking at the text thus far, how does the text deal with the themes of ...
1. Father/Son dynamics
2. Masculinity
3. Adolescent males
How do these themes manifest themselves in the text and what conclusions are we to draw from the text about each theme? Use text evidence to support your ideas.
Question generation for essays
Questions on meaning (plot?)
Questions on purpose & audience (why?)
Questions on method and structure (how?)
Questions on language (tone, literary devices, style, characterization)
Lynn Sweet finally comes to see an Ironmen game. Ballard writes, "And yet, now the son was on the verge of doing something impressive. Not in teaching, or writing, or some other pursuit of the mind, but in athletics, a language his father was fluent in, even if he'd never been much of a baseball fan.
What other language are you fluent in? You can think about this language in terms of friends or family, but I want you to think about what this language affords you? With whom does it connect you? With whom does it disconnect you?
Chpt. 14 Question
1. Why does Ballard craft Shartzer and Sweet's stories in parallel? What impact does this have on the narrative? on the characterization of the men?
Larger questions on gender
Looking at the text thus far, how does the text deal with the themes of ...
1. Father/Son dynamics
2. Masculinity
3. Adolescent males
How do these themes manifest themselves in the text and what conclusions are we to draw from the text about each theme? Use text evidence to support your ideas.
Question generation for essays
Questions on meaning (plot?)
Questions on purpose & audience (why?)
Questions on method and structure (how?)
Questions on language (tone, literary devices, style, characterization)
Weekly Post #7: Some questions for Ballard
Seeing as Chris Ballard is coming to class on Monday March 9 -- so cool! -- I want to use this week's post as a forum for posting questions for him. Do make sure you read what others have asked and try not to repeat. It'll pay to post early. You can ask Chris anything about the book, the process, his life as a sports writer.
Please post 3 questions about the text and 1-2 questions about anything else.
Here's his bio, if you're interested.
Please post 3 questions about the text and 1-2 questions about anything else.
Here's his bio, if you're interested.
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