This Fall Quarter has been very unusual for me, in regards
to Antioch. My schedule has been very different accordingly. While taking these
last few classes—one being this independent study and another a seminar—I have
been forced to sit and type words on a screen for many hours. I’m not the type
of person who can sit and work for a solid 6-7 hours doing work on a computer.
I’m not so sure that there is. But when I DO work for an extended amount of
time I tend to get fidgety and lose focus. At that point I’m usually like,
“BREAK-TIME!”
As I read Activity Theory: An Introduction for the
Writing Classroom, I tried to think of
different activity systems where I am a participant. Nothing was coming to mind
and I was beginning to feel restless, as I do moments before ‘break-time.’ I
grabbed a pair of high-tops and my Spalding before dribbling across the street to
the ‘Westside’ Boys and Girls Club. On any given night you can either find
yourself alone under the lights or waiting to prove you can ‘run’ with the bodies
already occupying the court. Last night, I waited on the blacktop and quickly
filled a game of 3 on 3 which eventually grew to a full-court 5 on 5.
In between games, I realized what I was doing could be
considered an activity system. In fact, it was completely.
Subjects: teams, teammates and players
Tools: the court, basketball, verbal communication and hand
signals
Motives: score and win
Rules: pick-up
game rules (call your own fouls) and normal laws of the game (traveling,
out-of-bounds, etc.)
Community: the 10 subjects comprise the community
Division of
Labor: play different positions and the common understanding: Larger bodies
stay low and grab rebounds. Smaller bodies act as ball handlers and
guards.
Activity Theory—lesson
learned.
Kono,
ReplyDeleteI read this on my iPhone (like I read a lot of students' writing) shortly after you posted this, and I thought: boo bam! Yes!
Your bball-meets-activity theory insight is a tremendous connection. Activity theory coordinates activity -- both physical activity and mental activity. It's essentially a way to explain social activity; it's a lens through which we can analyze how "this thing" (whatever you're looking at) is put together by understanding its individual moving parts. Who's communicating with whom? And why? Who made the rules? And why? Do all the players have an equal stake in the process? Why (or, often, why not?)?
These questions -- and therefore, the idea of activity theory -- is useful for ethnographic research because it can help us understand how/why the participants within a culture communicate.
"Break time" is important. Our brains can only handle so much in a given sitting; sooner or later, the law of diminishing returns is bound to settle in, so it's important to get up and roll out to give your brain some respite.
Z