Category Archives: teaching and pedagogy
19th c. American Novels Not as Big a Deal in 19th c. America as We Thought?
I just read John Austin’s surprisingly brief contribution (“United States, 1780-1850”) to the “Market for Novels–Some Statistical Profiles” section of Franco Moretti’s The Novel, vol. 1. Austin begins with Lyle Wright’s significant bibliographic study, but adds to it data from later … Continue reading
Salman Khan has me thinking
I’m finding that summer is blogging season for me. Maybe it’s just that during the academic year I’m so busy with teaching and service (and what research I can squeeze in) that I don’t have much time or energy to … Continue reading
DOK: Another Piece of Educational Theory/Practice I Know Nothing About
Re: Bloom’s Taxonomy & DOK (Depth of Knowledge) When I worked in a writing across the curriculum (WAC) program, just after finishing grad school in American Literature, I began learning about Bloom’s taxonomy (see this site for a rundown). I … Continue reading
Should have done draft workshops: rethinking the rethought plan for this semester
In my upper-division class, Late 19th Century American Literature, I thought I would change up the writing instruction a bit. Typically, I have either individual meetings to discuss drafts or I have small group draft workshops of 3-4 students, and … Continue reading
“Questions are Crucial”: Some Thoughts on Organizing My Upcoming Classes
Takes on Student Evaluations
Since I posted a list of CofC’s student evaluation questions/prompts back before the 4th of July, I have seen several other discussions of student evaluations, on their shortcomings, and most recently, in ProfHacker George Williams’s call for thinking about making … Continue reading
CofC’s Student Evaluation Questions
I just got my student evaluations from last semester (which were a mixed bag). I have been thinking about evaluations and teaching a lot lately, even doing some reading on it. I’m alternating right now between Ken Bain’s What the … Continue reading
Rethinking English 344
We’ve redesigned the English major. And I am, accordingly, redesigning English 344, Late 19th Century American Literature, a course I am teaching in the fall. Below is a quick and dirty rundown of some of the changes and some ideas … Continue reading
“Beyond Critical Thinking”: A Brief Response
I just read “Beyond Critical Thinking,” a short article in the Chronicle Review by Michael S. Roth, which has been languishing in my “to read” folder since January, when it came out. It’s well worth the read if you are … Continue reading
Summer Graduate Course Update
I still don’t know, officially, whether or not my summer evening graduate course, which would/will start in 6 days is officially on. I have five CofC students signed up, and the graduate director at the Citadel told me last week … Continue reading