April 2009

A list-serv I am on came up with an interesting question.

Does anyone out there have a good answer for this?

will be teaching a historical, aesthetic survey of the American novel in the fall. Would list members have any ideas for critical texts that might accompany the novels that I will use? I’m thinking of non-fiction works that survey the field, like Fiedler’s Love and Death in the American Novel or The American Novel and Its Tradition by Richard Chase; however, these two, as examples, are a bit dated and have their own problems. Something like From Puritanism to Postmodernism by Ruland and Bradbury would be ideal, but it covers all literature. I’m preferably looking for something that only considers the American novel. Thanks for any thoughts from colleagues.

If yall have any ideas, I’ll put them up on the list.

I might ask my colleagues at my colleges too. I think it is an interesting question.

As the ending for our freshman composition and rhetoric course first semester, I cover how to write literary analyses. These are difficult for my students particularly because few of them have ever written any. It is apparently hard for lots of people, however, because that is the number one hit on my blog, according to Google Analytics.

So, how do you teach them literary analysis without requiring them to read literature? Good question. If you’ve been reading here a while, you know the answer. Use fairy tales.

This semester, in an attempt to mix it up a bit for me since it had gotten stale, we didn’t do “The Three Little Pigs,” “Goldilocks,” or any of the multiple Cinderellas, like we usually do.

We did do Grimm’s “Little Red Cap” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” I tell them that is one of my favorite stories because I grew up on Norwegian fairy tales. (I didn’t know that till I started teaching this class though, which is why teaching is so exciting– I’m still learning!)

But we also did “Bremen Town Musicians” which I think I had read once in my life before. I own a pretty book of it, but don’t read it.

We also did “Brave Little Tailor.” I love that story and the students liked it too.

Tonight they are reading “The Fisherman and his Wife.”

And in class today, we read the 1812 and the 1857 versions of “Hansel and Gretel” and then we read “The Elves and the Shoemaker.”

One way to get students involved in a fairy tale is tell them, “This was most likely the source of Dobby in Harry Potter.”

Then afterwards I asked them what about the story made me say that… It was very fun and they enjoyed the idea that they were learning some “behind the scenes” information. Now, I didn’t hear from JK Rowling that she used “The Elves” as the pattern for Dobby, but I would be surprised if she didn’t, even if she didn’t do it consciously.

And, though they aren’t great literature, my students are being exposed to some folk stories that have been around for centuries. Many of them they had never heard of before.

This is pretty much my philosophy on writing.

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot -albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

From the book Art and Fear. This quote I found (this time) at Right Wing Nation.

This interview was a couple of weeks ago, but one of the commenters here asked for my answers.  (Thanks, Dale.)  It took me a while, but here they are.

1. Why do you want to work here?

I told them I wanted to work there because I love working with students who are motivated to go to college, who are working hard, and who might be labeled as unable by other people.

2. What learning theories have informed your teaching?

I mentioned Ruby Payne’s work and Jos’ research in formal and casual register. Those have been on my mind a lot recently.

Rhetorically, I’ve been a big fan of Elbow, Park for audience, Ong, Perelman, and Flower & Hayes… I’m also much into discourse communities, and Porter, Rafoth, and Olsen are good. I’m also into genre analysis and Swales is good for that, Miller and Berkenkotter & Huckin.

3. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of a collaborative environment both in the classroom and among the faculty?

Strengths: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That is, in a good collaborative environment the work is much better than the individual’s work individually would have been.

Weaknesses: When collaboration is going on, sometimes parts of the group get a free ride and don’t pull their weight.

Those are true for both classroom and faculty.

4. Students have difficulty being in class, reading the assigned material, and doing good work. What do you do to motivate them to show up, read, and do their best?

Get to know them.
Build a trust relationship.
Let them know that I understand their constraints.
Give them some credit for showing up, doing the reading, and participating. (Not enough to make up for not doing the major work, but enough that they know the effort is valued.)

5. How do you account for the diversity of styles for reading, writing, and abstract thinking in your classroom?

Work with different things. For the descriptive paper, we do riddles and paintings. For the definition paper, we listen to music. For the process paper, we go and do what the paper says.

6. How do you stay current on theories and research?

Reading in the field. Going to conferences.

The original post.

Exactly what have I been doing to get my publications up, since I need those for many jobs?

I wrote and had published an online review of a book of poetry from a small press. The review had two grammar errors in it. (Oops.)

I wrote three articles on themes in Benjamin Franklin’s work. I heard they got them, but haven’t heard if they are going to use them. They may not be or they may be and just not have told me yet. The book was supposed to come out three years ago, but they were still collecting articles until New Year’s of this year.

I wrote an article on Gulliver’s Travels. Though the proposal was accepted, they turned down the article, with no clear indication of why. I think I know, but I could be wrong.

I wrote an article on missionary women and their reproductive lives. That’s due at the end of the month, but I sent it off two weeks ago. (Hey, I was ahead on something!)

I wrote an article on the language of rape survivors. That’s due May 1. I sent it in in March. I haven’t heard from them on it, so I don’t know if the actual article was what they had in mind. Some of the sources were old; of course some of the sources were foundational, too.

I wrote a creative nonfiction piece on growing up in the south after desegregation. It turned out (though I didn’t know it) that I had been in a very significant area. We’ll see if the work is what they were looking for. (They wanted it asap but once they received it they said they’d read it in a few weeks and get back to me in a month or two. That was after offering editing help.)

I am writing a chapter for a book on American history.

And I have a book contract for a book due October 1. I’ll be busy with that this summer.

I turned in a proposal for an essay on Jane Austen this summer. It was accepted, but I don’t know that the essay would be and I’m going to be very busy with the book. We’ll see. Sometimes having two things to get done helps get both of them done and sometimes it doesn’t.

That’s a lot of work to be doing/have done since last Thanksgiving.

I wish I had more to show for it.

If I could get very efficient, there are about ten more places I might be able to get published. The problem is, of course, that you have to write the thing and then see if they want it.

I even found a place that will publish the book I want to write. I decided, though, that I would finish up my commitments before I make any new ones.

That will take me a while.

1. What is your greatest strength as a teacher? What is a weakness and how have you overcome it?

My story telling.

My organization skills. I stay very organized so that I don’t do anything like lose papers.

2. What is a teaching strategy that you use that always works?

Riddles for the descriptive paper.

I also told them something else, but I don’t remember what.

3. How do you integrate reading within the writing class?

We read some. I write and have them read. I try to make it an integral part of the class. (This was probably my least successful answer.)

4. How do you feel about a required grammar test in freshman composition?

I am for it, though I don’t think it will necessarily say whether the person can write. It can be used as a diagnostic at least.

5. What would you do if the day a paper was due half the class came in without their work?

I would have the students who did their work turn it in. They could spend the class period doing whatever. The rest of the class would work on the assignment and lose points for it being late. While those students were working, I would read through the student papers I got, mark them for errors and return them so that the students could fix their papers before the new due date. (Carrot and stick.)

After I made sure my instructions weren’t the issue.

6. What keeps you motivated as a teacher?

I said it used to be teaching. Just being with the kids was great. About a year and a half ago I started getting burnt out. So I went to conferences and got some new ideas and was able to integrate those.

7. What three characteristics about you would make you a good colleague?

I like people.
I like to help, share.
I am enthusiastic.

follow-ups:

What made you burn out? and how did you fix it?

I quit changing my class. I had found things that worked and worked well and I wasn’t mixing up the classes. I was just doing the tried and true. That was boring for me and so I was getting burnt out.

I went to conferences to get new ideas and started integrating those.

Can you tell us about the developmental writing program at your university?

I did. It was amazing how much I knew about it and the issues. I tried to be fair to all, but there are some problems. And I am not sure I did a great job of being positive. This was the other place I thought my answer might be weak.

There’s not a tutoring center. The main building that was used for that was destroyed by Ike and hasn’t been rebuilt. So there are about six hours a week that tutoring is offered.

There is only a single developmental writing class. That is fine for most of the students, but not all.

The writing committee is composed of teachers from other disciplines, not English.

The writing teachers are predominantly literature teachers. As far as I know, there is not a single rhetorician on staff. (There are many who care and do their best to teach composition well, but most of them do not have education in teaching writing.)

I have a second, in-person job interview on Monday. It is for a community college within the system in which I already teach as an adjunct. It is doing the job that was the reason I went to get my PhD in rhetoric and composition.

The interview officially will consist of two basic parts.

Part one
Part one will be a 30-minute lesson on something I think the students need to learn before they go on to college writing. What would I tell them in 30 minutes that will make what they are doing in their classes now more useful?

I didn’t actually have any problem with this. I’ve been reading a lot on retention and learning and relevancy and I do know exactly what I want to do. I have tried it out in the car twice and it takes a little less than 30 minutes. So…

I am going to tell them that the work they are doing now is relevant. They need to save that information in their heads and use it.

I’m going to give them an example from what I am teaching right now in freshman composition class, definition and illustration papers. I’m going to talk about what kinds of problems exist when people talk about something using the same words but meaning two different things. Dating is a clear example. “I love you.” What does that mean? “I want to be with you.” Okay, that is more specific, but not much. It can still be “I want to be with you till someone better comes along” or “I want to be with you forever.”

Then I will mention that giving examples helps make sure that you have a right understanding. And then I’m going to pull out my husband’s trusty iPod base station and we’re going to listen to an illustration paper sung by Tim McGraw called “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.”

Then I am going to ask them to write about a time that they befriended someone or someone else befriended them.

Part two
Part two consists of talking to them, being polite and interested, not sticking my foot in it.

I have prepared for part two before and I will go over my notes for that.

Part three
Yes, I said there were only two parts to the interview and there really are only two parts to it. But after those two parts are finished comes the harder part.

What is that? Waiting until I hear from them.

I have an in-person second interview on Monday. Yeah!

I am teaching Writing in the Behavioral (mostly Social) Sciences this semester. As part of that class, they are creating poster presentations. The book has very little useful information, so I compiled this list of much better sources which are readily available, if computers are available.

One of my alma mater’s has a great website on poster presentations.

Bio 801 has a good site. I like the graphics.

This is the powerpoint I was looking for. I like it and it covers the basics.

The Primatologists have good ideas but they don’t say it in a pretty way.

Purdue’s OWL (the best around, and not just because I got my PhD at Purdue) has a series of Powerpoints on poster presentations, including sentence level examination. “Five Principles” is good. There’s also a good discussion of the design.

Excellent doc design, some great examples, and some very good tips (particularly for when the students actually have to do a poster presentation that matters for their careers).