1. "An Epilogue in Three Parts"
1.1. "I had begun to wonder if teaching American Indian rhetorics was such a good idea" (Rose 210).
1.1.1. When I read thise quote from Rose I automatically thought, "Well, of course it is a good idea!" but I want to back up and respect those feelings of hesitation. It makes me think about my own feelings during this class. Deep down I know using anti-racist and queer pedagogy is a good thing, but like Rose, sometimes it feels a bit daunting to tackle.
1.2. "It was a painfully difficult semester at an already difficult time" (Rose 210).
1.2.1. This made me feel a bit sad. I think a lot of teachers feel weary after teaching through the pandemic. On top of that, add teaching complex subjects like American Indian Rhetorics where Rose explictly says students dropped the course after finding out the curriculum or they "ramained and displayed their prejudices", I cannot imagine the emotional fatigue you would feel. It makes me think of the Tiffany Loftin quote from the "Self-Care" section of our Experiential Learning assignment: "There should never be a Black person in this country who feels guilty for taking care of themselves or for enjoying their life," Loftin writes, adding, "Strength is both resisting injustice and indulging in the magic of the world."
2. Sherman Alexie
2.1. Sherman Alexie was brought in, I think, all three readings I've brought together. Whenever someone mentions him or his work I think about a conversation we had in my Teaching YA Literature class as an undergrad. Kimber, one of my peers, and I had done a project based on Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." After...or maybe before...our presentation we talked about how a few women had spoken out against Alexie with sexual harassment accusations. The accusations were fairly recent at the time so we didn't have much information regarding them. Our professor led the discussion centered around the question, should you teach literature where an author is connected with something like sexual harassment. It was difficult for us young pre-service teachers to grapple with. We saw Alexie's work as important since students already have so little exposure to work my Native Americans. We also asked the question, if we stopped teaching every author who was associated with issues such as sexual harrasement, would there be any authors left from the "canon" to teach? It's still something I think about a lot.
3. "She realized from the course material and our discussions that I didn't want to be thought of as a stereotype, but she also realzied I didn't want people to merely over-looke my Cherokee identity" (Rose 211-212).
3.1. "Teaching American Indian Rhetorics"
3.1.1. "Classroom Implications: Sovereignty, Rhetorical Sovereignty, and Representation" - subheading, (King26)
3.1.1.1. "The crux for students in the writing classroom is this: for Native students, to understand that writing is an opportunity to explore and assert sovereignty and challenge misrepresentations; for non-Native students, to understand that the discourse surrounding "Indian" images and rhetorics are not transparent and to begin interogating how these images came to be" (King 26-27).
3.1.1.2. Thinking back to my Reading Engagement #1 response, I talked about Redd's use of themes in the composition classroom. I wonder if this could be re-phrased to function as a theme the way Redd talks about them. My gut reaction is that I would feel uncomfortable teaching something like this, as a young white woman with little experience with American Indian Rhetorics or teaching Native American literature. That's one thing I've been thinking about a lot in class, how can I teach these concepts or principles? Is it my place? I don't want to use my skin color as justification for not engaging in these difficult pedagogies, but how do I respectfully work them into my own classroom?
4. "3. Encourage critical inquiry into the potential rhetorical impact of representatioins, misrepresentations, and cross-cultural communication" (King 27)
4.1. "I Look for Him in Vain" as the young men go by/I was looking for him/it surprises me a new/that he had gone [died]/it is something/to which I cannot be reconciled
4.2. Teton Sioux War Song. From Frances Densmore, "Teton Sioux Music, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 61", Washington DC: U.S. Goverment Printing Office, 1918.
4.2.1. This poem is taken from a book I have called "Reading Native American Literature: A Teacher's guide" written by Bruce A. Goebel. It was published in 2004 by NCTE. Even though the book is a bit old now, a lot of the principles and chapters contain similar thoughts and ideas as "Survivance, Sovereignty, and Story". I pulled this poem to be in conversation with point number 3, "Encourage critical inquiry..." because one way I am interested in having students engage with the impact of representations and misrepresentations in a high school setting is through a poetry unit. Most of the poetry students interact with at the secondary level is Shakespeare sonnets and a lot of classical prose, mostly written by white men and women. I think it would be wonderful to bring in poetry written by Black and Indigenous people of color. It's not as explicit as King's suggestions, but I think it could be a way to have students engage in critical inquiry regarding the impact of representation and misrepresetnation within a literature genre.