Get Glogging

Here is a sample assignment for how glogging might be used to learn about literature, specifically about Nella Larson's Quicksand:

Some big questions to consider about Helga's experience of the educational system at "Naxos" include:

What is meant by educational "uplift"? What about Helga and about the other students and teachers gets cut out by the school in Naxos? Why is James able to get "naturalized" (7) to Naxos but Helga cannot? Who are they uplifting at the school? What are they uplifting them to? Why does Helga feel she must leave? How would Helga prefer the school to be? How would she like to relate to her students and colleagues? Why can't she?

To develop your answers to these questions, I'd like you to return to the opening chapters of Quicksand. Find a metaphor that Helga uses to describe the school. How does this metaphor make her frustrations with the school clear?

I would like you to create your own glog about this metaphor, that helps explain your answers to the big questions above.

For an example of how you might work on this, please take a look at my glog about W.E.B. Du Bois and education. As you will see, I've taken a quote from one of his essays and added an image and some of my thoughts about his metaphor of a "lever" to describe education. Also on the glog is a photo of Booker T. Washington, whose approach to education Du Bois criticized. With the photo, I've included some text about one thing I think the photo shows. I've also included a link to a blog post by a modern student and my brief explanation for how it relates to Quicksand. Finally, I've linked this glog to another glog with several quotes from Du Bois about education. Please click through to that glog and select a quote you think compares or contrasts with Helga's experience at Naxos.

For your own glog, you may use any of the kinds of approaches I have mentioned (finding an illustration, analyzing a photo, comparing it to another article) to talk about the metaphor you find in Quicksand. I will expect you to include:

1)At least one quote from Quicksand that includes a metaphor about how Helga understands the school
2)Your analysis about how the metaphor you find helps answer the big questions above
3)A quote from Du Bois that you want to relate to Helga's experience
4)Your analysis or questions about how this quote compares, contrasts, or relates to Helga's experience
5) An image you want to relate to Naxos or Quicksand
6) Your thoughts about that image's importance