Language, Gender and Healthy Eating

[Amy Sheldon]

Valentina,

I don't specify their response for that assignment. They pick a variety of
things to repair. I ask them to repair something they care about. Some
repairs are a conversation with a family member.
Some ARE letters to corporations or their workplace; one was to a
dictionary, etc.

It's their last assignment of the semester, something they can use to wrap
a few issues up for themselves by doing something concrete.

I do give them some examples of what previous students' write-ups of what
they did. But I make it clear that it is up to them to decide what to
repair. The ones who take it seriously seem to find it cathartic.  Some
people are perfunctory. It's about 5% of their final grade. So the payoff
is largely in their own satisfaction, but since I can't monitor what they
really do unless they give me something like a letter, it's a small risk
to take, gradewise, that some may not really do the assignment but make it
up.  I do ask them each to tell the class what they did, however.

I could see using the juicer example as an exercise requiring some
write-up, perhaps in the form of a letter, however, during the course.

An interesting twist on this assignment: last year, one of the repairs
turned in sounded fishy; the student reported what they did to the whole
class and in the written report. I usually take people at their word but
this one didn't add up and it bugged me. I looked into it further and
discovered that the student had invented both the situation and the repair
and lied about other people in the organization as well as their own
actions.  Pretty brazen. That resulted in their taking a trip to the
office of Student Academic Integrity and talking to the Director, etc.

I still believe in and give the assignment though.
Amy

On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Valentina Pagliai wrote:

> Do you ask the students to write response letters?  Like, letters to
> the juicer's company?
>
> Valentina
>
> On Apr 6, 2005, at 5:44 PM, Amy Sheldon wrote:
>
> > Another angle on this:
> > I have an assignment in my Language & Gender class called "Repairing
> > the
> > World".  Responding to an item such as the juicer info would be a way
> > to
> > do this assignment. It also requires the student to do some analysis
> > about
> > what's "wrong' with the world wrt the matter that they are repairing.
> >
> > Amy Sheldon
> >
> > On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Jane wrote:
> >
> >> And it raises the question of whether IGALA could usefully play a role
> >> as a pressure group in response to this sort of thing.
> >>
> >> Jane Sunderland
> >>
> >>
> >> Jane Sunderland
> >> Director of Studies, PhD in Applied Linguistics by Thesis and
> >> Coursework
> >> and New Route PhD
> >> Dept. of Linguistics and English Language
> >> Lancaster University
> >> Lancs. LA1 4YT
> >>
> >> j.sunderland at lancs.ac.uk
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: International Gender and Language Association
> >> [mailto:GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Valentina
> >> Pagliai
> >> Sent: 06 April 2005 21:48
> >> To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> >> Subject: Re: Language, Gender and Healthy Eating
> >>
> >>
> >> Wonderful example to use in my class when on language and gender,
> >> thanks! As to what to do, I am not sure. What about a website
> >> dedicated
> >> to these kinds of stereotypes?
> >>
> >> Valentina Pagliai
> >> Oberlin College
> >>
> >> On Apr 6, 2005, at 4:39 PM, Lucy Horder wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear List members,
> >>
> >> Recently, I decided to buy a juicer. According to the literature,
> >> juicers are a great way to fit in your RDA of 5 portions of fruit and
> >> veg if you're like me and don't really enjoy eating fruit.
> >>
> >> The juicer I ended up buying included a leaflet that gave some tips on
> >> healthy eating, as well as a few recipes and ideas. I was stunned by
> >> the
> >> inclusion of the following paragraphs in this guidance:
> >>
> >> "The average woman - say someone who weighs 10 and a half stone - uses
> >> in an average day around 2000-2200 calories. Of those calories,
> >> 1400-1500 will be burned by her body performing its everyday bodily
> >> activities - heart pumping, tissue renewing, general maintenance and
> >> functions.
> >>
> >> A mere 600-700 calories will be burned by her preparing and taking the
> >> children to school, going to work all day, cooking tea for her
> >> children
> >> and dinner for her husband, followed by perhaps an hours ironing!"
> >>
> >> No mention is made, incidentally, of men who might wish to eat more
> >> healthily, and the kinds of activities that they might engage in to
> >> help
> >> them burn off calories (although perhaps that's for the best...)
> >>
> >> I have written to the manufacturers and protest heavily at the
> >> inclusion
> >> of this statement in their leaflet, but, unsurprisingly, have not yet
> >> had a reply. I'd be interested to hear some comments from you all if
> >> you
> >> are as alarmed by this whole episode as I am.
> >>
> >> Yours (fuming),
> >>
> >> Lucy
> >>
> >>
> >>   _____
> >>
> >>
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>