The Rule(s) of Threes

The Rule(s) of 3s:
today's linchpin in English 1B, a required Introduction to Literature course.

Triples: In Macbeth, we have three witches, three murderers, three apparitions.

I want to talk about a different set of triples, of threes.

Air: you can go three minutes without air.
Water: you can go three days without water.
Food: you can go three weeks without food.

But how does any of that relate to our English class?

Habits?
What do you think?
Three weeks--to break or to lose a habit?
Three months--to make, to create, a habit.

Students, I say as I heft Homer's Iliad and Shakespeare's Macbeth in my hands,
You've been reading steadily for three months now.  Don't stop.

Yes, some of you were already readers before you came to this class; good for you.  I've been cheering you on all term.

But some of you haven't been readers . . . but now you are.

Keep going.  Make being a reader a full-on habit.

After finals, take a week or two weeks off--I mean, why would you?  But okay, take a little time off--but before that three weeks' mark rolls around, pick up Homer's Odyssey or another Shakespeare play or a novel, crime or fantasy or science fiction or whatever.  Just don't stop reading.


(I think my students appreciated the effort I was making, and I pulled them in with the rules of threes.)

Profiles In Courage

Beaks of clay . . . .

Encouraging Apt Engagement?

When I encounter art of any sort, 
I find myself with these questions: 

What am I feeling now?
What is the piece saying?
What's the story (and backstory)?

[Oh, and how is it made?
--among many, many others.]

Now, my students usually want to start with "What does it mean?"

(A fine, though often
misleading or reductive
question to get to know
something, someone,
anything at all.
Where to begin,
then?)

Artists (and fellow audience-members), 
what responses 
and what responsive questions 
would you encourage 
me to encourage 
in my students?