The Taskmaster13 November, 2008 - 19:41 Ñ superdiva |
Observations and concerns about teaching college English....
One of the adjunct teachers need a substitute because he was going in for brain surgery. Taught right up to two days before surgery. I agreed to cover for him; it was only for three weeks until the end of the term. The only assignment the students seemed to be working on was the research paper.
The first day I walk into class, I notice that the class is practically full 12 weeks into the semester. 25 students are the maximum, but this guy still had 22 students. In my research course I'm barely hanging on to 12 students. When I reviewed the lesson plans the adjunct teacher had on the online server, I started to figure things out.
The adjunct had one novel on the syllabus: Pride and Prejudice and one play: The Tempest[/i}; other than that, there were two sonnets and a poem. I looked at the assigned quizzes: ten questions multiple choice. My quizzes are 25 questions, multiple choice, and timed for 20 minutes. No wonder this prof still has so many students; they can keep up with the workload. Or, at least that's what I think it is.
In my course I have three novels: [i]Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World and Neuromancer{/i}. When I first started teaching four years ago, I actually had five novels on the syllabus, but the students complained and the pace was much slower than I anticipated; we barely made it through four books. So I'm looking at this guy's one novel course (there's no time to read {i]The Tempest0 and thinking there's easy "A" all over it.
Or maybe that's just a harsh assumption. I'm thinking I should adjust my reading load for English classes to two novels and a few supplemental short stories...I don't know. Is it bad to expect students who enroll for 3 or 4 credits to actually do work?
I sent a draft of a syllabus for a special English course that will be paired with a Biology course in a "reading across the curriculum" pilot classroom. One of the books I put on the list was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, and the Biology professor I'm collaborating with said that it was difficult read; she already tried the book out in a previous biology section.
"Wow" I thought. Through my eyes, of course, the book wasn't that difficult, but I realized that students who just wanted to completed their credits to get into the Nursing program or Physical Therapy were already overwhelmed studying Biology. I don't know.
A part of me thinks that if I keep at least three assigned novels I can spoon feed the students and help them learn how to deconstruct the texts. The common sense part of me says, adjust the class for high retention. It's better they learn to read one novel well instead of half-reading three.
Thinking about what to do here.
hi
I agree with this
>It's better they learn to read one novel well instead of half-reading three.
and with the dude's class, maybe he made it easy, but that doesn't mean the students have to show up -- i suspect they are because they want to.
The one I was doing this semester, and last sem. for that matter, had one or two books too many for me to get through. There's a copy of freakin mansfield park - austen - sitting on the bookshelf unread - and will remain that way FOREVAAR.
I think choose one or two books that you're really passionate about teaching and then a bunch o' short stories .... but then, I don't know - standards are different everywhere.
They were trying to teach me to a certain standard, but then the lecturers were so over worked that I felt like they were just giving me 80%s without really looking at what I writ, or giving feedback. The whole thing's a sham when it's like that.
Then there's the standard I teac h = glorified babysitting.
Then last year I met a couple of english ponces who did lit. at oxford or some shit and they had to read five novels a week or something crazy like that.
Then somewhere in there is the level you're doing.
I dunno. Teaching is HARD. I look at some of my colleagues and they have a lot of passion for it. I don't. For me it's just a job.
Good Advice
What I'm really passionate about in teaching is that students WANT to learn how to write, essay or research paper. I suspect that students have good intentions at the beginning of my course, but in two weeks time when they still haven't started the next novel much less the essay, and they're still not sure how to analyze a novel, they give up.
I will definitely have to adjust the work load, but the writing is more important than the reading, and find ways to introduce them to literary criticism that doesn't seem like an impossible task.
Just a girl in the world.