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We Want John!

There were several questions, and some layers of activities, leading up to the specific inquiry in which students were engaging publicly in conversation with an interested person from outside of our class/group.

Note: This is the second instance of interaction beyond the classroom boundary. Some info from the second day of class provides entre to the first extra-class encounter.

Here follow excerpts concerning the possibility of a visit from author John Robison to our actual classroom. "If John was to come to our class, can you imagine a way that we could have a conversation that would work to benefit both his goals and ours? Please explain. :-)"

• "I personally would love to have John stop by in class and speak to us. I know we are limited on time in this class but we have 3 hours per class. Most classes per week are 2.5 hours. So why not take 30 minutes and allow John to come and talk to us. I think it would be awesome to have the author of the book we are reading come talk to us about his motives behind writing the book, what he wanted to get out of writing this book, and especially what he thinks of our use of it in this class." (Princess3)

• "If John were to come to class I think it would be very beneficial to us. I think that we could come up with questions we had about the book and about Aspergers and see if we are on the same page. For me it would be interesting to see the difference between the way he writes and the way he acts in person. I know after reading his book I have my own ideas of what John is like in person and I think it would be interesting to have an inclass dialogue where we could talk about the book and about group dynamics." (Apoulos)

• "Also, along the lines of John making a visit to our classroom- I think this a great idea! I feel as though he has overcome a lot, and has had to make many goals for himself. Perhaps he can give us some insight on how to push ourselves to get to our ultimate goal... and then get this wiki site started... hint hint!" (funinsun)

• "When thinking about what we could do if John were to come a class of ours, the first thing that came to mind were "fishbowls." Perhaps John could be a "fish?" If his goal was to learn about how we have used his book in our class, we could have a discussion about how we have changed or thought more closely about how we communicate when negotiating our project. Also, wouldn't it be great if John were to join us in a discussion about what direction our Wiki will take? Talk about a fresh perspective! This might be asking a lot =)." (thumpasorus)

First Assumptions: direct links to student responses

The assignment aimed to identify and explore students' first assumptions.

Please read the selections from last week's test. Pick three (not including your own), quote them, and write a post making sense of what you learn from considering eye contact from so many different angles. Can you imagine a connection with any of the meanings we made of "writing sideways"? Please be sure to include links to any/each source when you post this in your own weblog, and don't forget to categorize it!

Making Meaning

Students were asked to generate meaningfulness by combining the range of impressions of the assigned text's title, "look me in the eye," and the notion of writing sideways (an instance of which occurred in the spontaneous realtime "life" of the class as a group).

Setting a Frame

• "The array of responses Steph got back when she asked us to respond to the title of John Elder Robinson’s book Look Me in the Eye provides a demonstration of how a frame can guide understanding." Thumpasorus

• "The act of looking someone in the eye is not as simple as it appears to be" Apoulos

• ..."an objective for communication is to connect with the person you are trying to communicate with." Fresh

• "I think of “Look me In the Eye” as a way of framing. By saying look me in the eye, it is like saying truth me-or my eyes don’t like. Just like the author’s personal experiences have frames and therefore Look me in the Eye might say look at things through my frames." Sunshine775

Making Connections

• "I do not see any strong connections between these three quotes and the Writing Sideways post but I am sure that Steph had some idea of how to connect the two when she asked our opinion in this reply. I will be interested to see what she or other students have to say about that issue." buckets34

• "In class when we commented on Steph writing sideways, she responded with, “Maybe I’m a sideways type of person.” In our culture it is expected (and we have all learned from a similar frame) that when you write, you try to write straight, horizontal, left to right. The fact that she didn’t do this, stood out and allowed us even to poke fun at her about it. Writing straight, left to right, is a cultural norm, just like looking someone in the eyes is when having a conversation. Often times, because someone does something out of ordinary, we like to comment on it and point it out. The author of “Look Me in the Eyes” talks about this often because people either make fun, or just don’t acknowledge his “sideways” behavior, so he never learns to act “normal.” Fresh

• "Each person’s thought process brought him or her to a different conclusion about the meaning behind the title. After reading the title I thought “[Robinson] meant it figuratively. That is, he meant to say, examine me closely . . . as I read I found there was a double meaning.” I can now see that other people have thought processes different than mine, which can bring them to conclusions equally as valid. Robinson’s thought process certainly functions differently than many of us. This was expressed especially well in his explanation of his smile at the news of a death of a stranger. As we have been slowly been learning since the beginning of the semester, Steph too has a thought process somewhat foreign to many of ours. This was quite clear when she started “writing sideways” in an attempt to express herself graphically, leaving us with confused, amused expressions" Thumpasorus

Quotes that Show Difference

Eleven quotes were selected from test answers generated by asking students to agree or disagree with a statement concerning the title, that John was asking the reader to look him in the eye. Here is a list of the selections from most to least frequent:

8 times:

"I imagined someone telling an autistic person to look them in the eye...I was already aware that its difficult"

7 times:

"The image I had was a book about truth and integrity, with looking someone in the eye traditionally being a visual clue of honesty."

5 times:

"...unable to look others in the eye. He cannot connect with people the same way I can when I look someone in the eyes."

4 times:

"I thought I was being told to look the author in the eye..."

3 times:

"I didn't think twice! If I were to think I would assume he is angry for the fact that people don't look him in the eye when they talk to him."

2 times:

"I read wikipedia...I figured it was someone telling the author to look them in the eye."

1 time each:

• "I didn't think the author was literally referring to his eyes. Instead, I thought he meant it figuratively. That is, he meant to say, examine me closely . . . as I read I found there was a double meaning."
• "I didn't believe it was to look the author in the eye, but people/others."
• "I already knew a little bit...this was something that people would say to the child..."
• "His eyes are shut on the cover to convey that he doesn't want to reveal or share anything when in fact he's letting us into his life through his retelling of experiences."
• "...people could not see what he was seeing..."

Question: Does the distribution of choices "say" anything? What meaningfulness can we make of these results? Might we make a meaning that matters, or would anything we try to say be bogus, invented, even false?

Applications beyond the classroom

A few of you answered the post-spring break test question about a situation when you thought of something you had learned about in this class with examples relating directly to "look me in the eye": Group Dynamics are EVERYWHERE!

history (how this conversation came to be)