Dance of Wisdom

Seminar Preparation

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Berman: pages 44-62

  • BEFORE class on Tuesday, please read the next section of Berman. As in the first section, mark your margins with a pen in the following way:
  • Put a check mark indicating where there are ideas and information presented that are CONNECTED to what you already know.
  • Put an "E" beside new ideas that EXTENDED or pushed your thinking in new directions
  • Put a "?" next to what is still CHALLENGING or confusing for you to get your mind around. What wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

Bring this marked-up version of the text to class.

  • Try to read through the text a second time (or third or fourth time).
  • After you have spent some time reading, pause and examine your margin notes (and any other notes you have taken), and recall your thoughts and feelings as you read. Go back to the experience of the book. What was it like? When did you stop and think, or underline, or write something in response to it? Dwell in the passages that moved you. Let your ideas come. Write them down. Don't worry about bringing order to them yet. Let yourself interact with the book, loosely, on paper. You will figure out what you think by thinking on paper.
  • As you do this work, keep your eyes open for one especially compelling passage. (A passage is at least a paragraph, but less than a page.) Study the passage carefully.
  • On Tuesday, October 18, we will meet in seminar and you will read your chosen passage aloud in a small group. Between now and then, prepare by practicing, underlining or otherwise highlighting particular words and phrases for emphasis. Use the dictionary to learn definitions and correct pronunciation of words you don't know. Study it, learn it (although you don't need to memorize it), and come to know it well.
  • In addition to reading the passage aloud, please bring written comments about it in your notebook or journal. Your comments should focus on why the passage is important in the book. Prepare to talk about one or all of the following:
  • the context of the discussion in which the passage occurred
  • the context of the chapter in which the passage appears
  • the context of the book as a whole
  • Then, and only then, write about your own orientation to the passage. Think about these questions (although you do not need to write an answer to each and every one).
  • Do you primarily argue with the book (or with a particular discussion, topic, set of facts, etc.)?
  • Do you question it? Agree with it? Feel disturbed by it? Why?
  • Can you compare the book to something else you've read?
  • Do you use the passage to try to grasp the book as a whole?
  • Do you find yourself comparing the author's point of view with someone else's?
  • Do you primarily wish to analyze the quote?
  • Etc.
  • By the time you have done all of the above, you will have developed the beginnings of a relationship with the book.