Protagonists are not Always Good

In my Introduction to Literature course, one of the first things we learn are the elements of plot, specifically protagonist, antagonist, internal and external conflict, and Freytag's Triangle. I argue that they need to understand what happened before they can delve into why it all happened.

When we start talking about protagonists and antagonists, they immediately tell me it's good guys and bad guys. I don't know who is teaching it this way in high school (grade school?), but I want to find this person and have a nice sit-down with him or her. This idea is so ingrained in their heads that I swear half of them still are running with it at the end of the semester despite my continual protests and awesome handouts.

Just so we are all on the same page:

Protagonist: main character

Antagonist: person or thing that works against the protagonist

So at its most traditional, Harry Potter is a protagonist and Lord Voldemort is an antagonist. Harry being all "I want a normal life" and Voldemort being all "I must kill you Harry" which, obviously, prevents Harry from that normal life fantasy. This is an example of a traditional external conflict.

But not all books follow such a traditional structure. For example, some stories have internal conflicts where the protagonist and antagonist are the same person. Think Hamlet and his non-stop pontificating over what he should do about his father's murder. It's Hamlet v. Hamlet ladies and gentleman.

Also, a pro does not have to be a good person. Actually a pro can be a very, very, very bad person like in American Psycho or Lolita. Here are 18 more books with nasty protagonists if you are interested.

Who do you think they left off the list? Who are your favorite bad guy protagonists?

Instructor Personality

When teaching online, the absolute 100% easiest thing a teacher can do is set-up a no-interaction course. For example, you could have each week be a folder which includes a reading assignment, a powerpoint, and a quiz/text. But this would, of course, suck. Big time. Instead, effective online instructors design courses that mimic the social aspects of the face-to-face classroom, and part of doing so involves infusing the course with your personality.

Getting your personality across in an online course is, in my opinion, a remarkably useful way to make the online learning environment feel like a community, and creating a sense of belonging for online students is essential to their success. Both students and instructors should have ample opportunity to reveal their personalities within the online class space. Actually, outside of quizzes and exams, I think every activity should provide students with the opportunity to inject some personality. (I’m not against personality in quizzes and exams; I just can’t quite figure out how to do it. If you know, let me know.)

One method I find quite useful is the use of images both in instructor-created content and in content that students create, such as discussion forums and assignments. Shelton and Saltsman, in their article "Tips and tricks for teaching online: How to teach like a pro", agree that using visuals along with text in communications with students is essential. While their rationale for this is to inject emotion into the communication, the use of images is also a way to inject personality.

In “Personality Matters When Teaching Online”, Sull suggests instructors include “articles, pictures, essays, cartoons, interviews, YouTube (and the like) snippets, and factoids that add richness and depth to your subject” so that the “students will immediately know you really are “into” the subject, and your excitement and enthusiasm for the subject will spill over to your students”. He strongly suggests including audio/audiovisual communication in the course as a method of revealing your personality which “allows students to see and hear an instructor who is excited, enthusiastic, caring, and dedicated to his or her students, the subject, and the course”.

Outside of using visuals (and audio or audio/visuals), faculty and students can also inject personality through their words. In “A Dozen Strategies for Improving Online Student Retention”, Al Infande cautions faculty to beware of humor and sarcasm in feedback as it’s “easy for attempts at humor to fall flat or words to be misinterpreted in the written word”. While I certainly agree with him that such attempts be handled very carefully in grading, I believe the use of humor and sarcasm, if that is your true personality, are very effective in online discussion forums and announcements as a way to inject personality into the online classroom.

A specific discussion post assignment that I have used in my courses is the ‘getting to know you’ discussion forum in the first week of class. Typically I ask students to state their name, major, favorite book/movie, and at least one interesting fact about themselves. Shelton and Saltsman suggest students post about topics such as their “silliest moments” or “animals they identify with” as a way “to alleviate the nervousness and provide insights to the personalities of fellow students”. If a faculty member participates in this forum, both through response and original posts, the faculty member’s personality will also shine through.

What I think it comes down to though is two-fold: 1) You have to put forth effort to assert your personality into the online course environment and 2) You can’t be afraid to do so. No one wants to be in an online class with a bunch of robots. Unlike a f2f class, an online course doesn’t give you the chance to go off on tangents or randomly talk about the latest movies you’ve seen and so on. You have to actually create a space for these discussions and you have to create an environment where you and your students feel comfortable sharing. This means extra work, but I think the payoff is worth it.

Two questions for you: First, do you think instructor personality in an online course has any bearing on your success in the course? Second, how do you inject personality into your blogs?

Online Success

One prompt from the Online Learning course I took asked: Can all students successfully complete online courses or are there qualities or abilities that some students may find extremely difficult to overcome online? List these challenges and explain why you believe they may cause these students to fail. How would you address these concerns?

In my opinion, this question is, first and foremost, remarkably loaded. The first question sets itself up as one of opposition but the two selections are not mutually exclusive - a student can find a course extremely difficult and still be successful. In short though, this question is asking if all students can successfully complete online courses, and my honest opinion is yes. I do believe that all students can succeed online; however, I think the path to success is quite different depending upon certain characteristics/personality traits.

Most of the research is unclear as to indicators for student performance in online classrooms, especially when looking at genetic indicators such as gender, age, race, etc. Xu and Jaggers’ research review found that women outperform men in online environments, but the findings aren’t remarkably significant as women outperform men in most educational environments for a variety of reasons. For the most part, a person’s genetic makeup does not seem to have a great influence on online success.

Women. Kicking educational ass for centuries.

One article, “Predictors of Performance in the Online Classroom” identifies characteristics of students who succeed in online courses, but most of them are based on intangibles such as “increased familiarity with technological demands” and “confidence in…ability” due to prior online course experience. They also claim that students with an “internal locus of control” are more likely to succeed.

The claims this article makes correspond well to my own experiences. Students who rely on outside factors for motivation and direction tend to struggle in an online environment which requires much more self-direction and accountability than most face-to-face courses.

Technological deficiencies are, of course, also a factor in ease of use for online students. If a student has to learn the tech while learning the course content, they are hit with a double whammy which can be remarkably frustrating. Students who have taken an online course before are comfortable with the technology and as such can focus on course content.

Dr. Maryellen Wiemer discusses 5 identifiers for online success in her article “Student Persistence in Online Courses” including satisfaction with online learning, a sense of belonging, peer/family support, time management skills, and instructor communication. This makes perfect sense whether in an online course or in a face-to-face; although it may be more difficult to create that sense of belonging in an online environment.

While the ease with which students succeed in online courses may differ greatly based on the above qualities, I still think that everyone is capable of learning in an online environment. Instructors should attempt to account for varying learning styles, types of motivations, and technological proficiency; however, ultimately it is the student’s responsibility to identify and adjust for their own struggles.

What do you think? Are some students just doomed to failure in online courses?

Myths of Online Learning

Every semester, I teach at least two online courses, typically composition courses, and two hybrid courses, lit and film. Online instructional pedagogy is a central part of my career, and so when my college offered to pay for faculty to receive a Master Online Teaching Certificate, I jumped at the chance. I guess it also helps that each course I take adds credit hours to my transcripts, and I receive raises for educational advancement.

To start this particular educational journey, I took Online Learning: An Overview, and one of our first assignments involved investigating the common myths of online learning as detailed in the "7 Myths About Online Education" article published through U.S. News and World Report.

The two myths I chose to explore border on being contradictory. The first myth states that online courses are easier than traditional face-to-face courses; however, the sixth myth argues that students have no opportunity to meet with their instructors which is a problem because it makes the course more difficult. In my experience, and as indicated by Williams’s use of the word “myth”, neither is true.

The writers and panel members for the article “The Continuing Controversy Over Online Education” certainly agree that online courses and programs are not easier than traditional ones. Many members of the panel discuss the necessity for students in online courses to be highly disciplined and self-motivated. Oddly enough their fears stem, in part from Myth 6 in that they continuously mention the dangers of courses with limited interaction.

The misconception that online students have no opportunity to meet with the instructor correlates to one panel member's concern that the “anonymity of a distance option could be harmful if they have no other contact with a school”. Some people clearly see online courses as a sort of solitary pursuit lacking in any sort of personal connection. While most of the panel members lump student-student and instructor-student interaction together and do not differentiate between synchronous-asynchronous or virtual-in person interaction, one panel member directly addresses the issue of instructor meetings. Appel admits that she believes her students didn’t get the chance to interact with her often enough for help on assignments, and she thinks that “most students would be better off in a program that allows them to see the instructor face-to-face on a weekly basis".

While I firmly believe that the online space offers a variety of communication tools, I also believe that these tools are not used across the board in online education. As the Straightline staff writes, students can now “contact the professor even more directly and in more detail than in a classroom”; however, whether or not professors are offering these opportunities and whether or not students are taking advantage is a different and more compelling question.

If an online course is designed and executed properly, a student should have regular, sustained, and engaging interaction with his/her instructor. Have any of you ever taken a course online where you had little or no interaction with the instructor?

I Fell in Love With Narratology or How I Got My Geek On

During this past winter, as you know, I took an Introduction to Literary Theory as the first class in my online Masters in Literature program. It was pretty awesome despite the fact I had to read Henry James' Turn of the Screw and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, two books with which I am not at all enamored.

For my final paper in the course, I could choose to analyze either of the books through any of the literary theories studied. I knew I wanted to use Narratology which, as the name implies, is the study of narrative structure; specifically, this theory focuses on the commonalities between all stories. Individual texts are read and analyzed in an effort to identify these commonalities (Barry 214-215). Vladimir Propp, for example, analyzed hundreds of Russian fairy tales and compiled a list of 31 functions by separating out the component parts of the fairy tales (72) (Barry 218-220). These functions are “the basic building blocks” of the narratives within the studied fairy tales (Barry 220). While Propp focused on how the narrative is structured, Gerard Genette tried to analyze how the story is told, posing questions such as from what point of view is the story told, who is telling the story, and how is the story packaged (Barry 227). This type of analysis fascinates me. How disparate parts work together to create meaning is something of a passion of mine whether we are talking about literature or film.

Choosing between James and Conrad was difficult, but I decided that the narrative structure of Heart of Darkness was the teensiest bit more interesting to me. Peter Brooks calls Heart of Darkness “a detective story gone modernist: a tale of inconclusive solutions to crimes of problematic status” (238). This “inconclusive” and “problematic” text has for over one hundred years, intrigued, angered, and confused readers. And damned if it didn't do the same to me.

These emotions can, in part, be attributed to the authorial choices Conrad makes regarding narrative elements, and that is how I chose my paper topic. Through a narratological analysis of Heart of Darkness, I specified the narratological elements, analyzed how they affect reader interpretation, and explored how they contribute to the highly ambiguous nature of the story. I tried to prove that Conrad uses narrative techniques to obfuscate any singular, identifiable meaning in the text. Damn that man. Damn him but good.

I felt pretty successful with the paper, and I received a high A on the paper, so things look good. My professor actually suggested I develop the paper a bit further with a few more sources and submit it for publication. He thinks I have a pretty good chance of getting it published. Very flattering. I'm still wavering on whether or not I'm going to actually do it.

What this assignment did was give me a love of narratology, a literary theory that is certainly not currently in vogue like feminist theory, gender studies, post-colonial, and the so on. I even had a hard time finding sources about narratology outside of the most awesome Mieke Bal, a Dutch cultural theorist, who is pretty seriously awesome. Just a few of the roles she's had: Professor of Semiotics and Women's Studies, Chair of Comparative Literature, Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies, Professor of Literary Theory, and Founding Director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. She has published over 30 books on a wide variety of subjects and she's also a video artist. Seriously, she's who I want to be when I grow up (you know, if I had, like, ambition).

I suppose I'm just sort of sharing with this post, and it does give you the briefest of introductions to narratology and Mieke Bal, so maybe you learned a little something. :) 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I have the ability to apply narratology to the works I'm reading for my new course, Graduate Studies in Medieval Literature.

Barry, Peter. “Narratology.” Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009. 214-238. Print.

Brooks, Peter. "An Unreadable Report: Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1984. 238-263. Print.

Chatman, Seymour. “The Structure of Narrative Transmission.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 97-124. Print.

Propp, Vladimir. “Morphology of the Fairy Tale.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 72-75. Print.

Book Review: The Kids from Nowhere

The Kids from Nowhere: The Story Behind the Arctic Educational Miracle by George Guthrie is a moving story about a group of students and their determined teacher on their journey to nationals in the Future Problem Solvers educational competition.

The Kids from Nowhere is one of those inspirational tales a la Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers, etc. As a professor, I love stories like this; they motivate me to be better and remind me that students do actually want to learn, something not so obvious on a daily basis.

What makes this addition to the educational-inspiration oeuvre unique is its cast of characters. The students are mainly Yupik Eskimos on a small island in Alaska who are thought of as ineducable. Then there is the teacher, who differs from the standard motivational teacher in his readily admitted flaws including continuous thoughts of giving up and honestly, his very understandable right to do so. His family, in particular his daughters, brings a whole new level to the tale in the discrimination they face for being white. Add on administrators and other teachers who are completely (and irrationally) opposed to the students' success and you have a believable, frustrating, amazing, very real group of people that I wanted to know more about.

Another giant plus for me is the applicability of the educational pedagogy to my own students' learning. I had never heard of the Future Problem Solvers before; now I am determined to learn more and to apply the strategy in my own classes. Guthridge personalized the experience for his students, using their particular culture not just as content but as method. For more information about the competition, visit the Future Problem Solving Program International website. I know I will be.

My only problem with this story is the random perspective changes. The story is predominantly from Guthridge's point of view; he is both the narrator and the focaliser. From time to time, however, the story shifts to the point of view of one of the students, not often and not all of the students or even all the primary students receive this honor though; this makes these perspective shifts unbelievable and relatively pointless. Am I supposed to believe Guthridge is privy to the private thoughts of these students or that the students themselves wrote these passages? This is a slight annoyance however, and I was mainly reading for the content not the form.

Whether you enjoy David and Goliath stories, educational-inspiration tales, stories set in unique locations, or diverse and interesting characters, I recommend picking this book up. While it will certainly appeal to educators of all grade levels, I firmly believe the book is both entertaining and edifying for those outside the educational system as well.

I must thank Bree from The Things We Read for introducing me to this book through her review of it and for sending it to me!

Teaching: All People in General

Teaching

Composition, Literature, and Film

Who - has the problem?

English II, composition students

When - do they have this problem?

Every freaking semester, at least five times a semester

What - is the concept?

While teaching rhetoric, we have a whole week focused on audience awareness. My goal is to teach them that every argument has a specific intended audience which may or may not be the actual audience. Not only do I want my students to identify audience in others writings (and advertisements, commercials, movie posters and trailers, etc.), I also want them to select a specific audience and style their own writings (and other texts) with that particular audience in mind.

How - do I teach the concept?

In order to help students grasp this concept, I provide example scenarios we analyze as a class. For example, we go over the following images to determine intended audience:

We break apart each image individually and discuss who - SPECIFICALLY - would be most affected by each element. At this point, we've already discussed ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, so we use those rhetorical appeals along with the identified rhetorical tools to determine the intended audience of each piece. We discuss what groups of people would not be affected by those appeals and tools. We even analyze whether or not the creators of these images have used the right appeals and tools for their intended audience.

We move beyond images to also analyze commercials and texts (specifically speeches). We even go more basic and write up different arguments for the following situations:

• convincing your boss you need a raise / convincing your spouse you need a raise
• selling Justin Bieber tickets to a 12 year old goth kid / to a 30 year old mother of three
• arguing abortion rights to a Christian Coalition based in Texas / to an inner city high school in Detroit

And they get it. That day, in class, they get it. But once they leave the room...

What - is the problem?
Students, at least 50% of them, do not seem to understand the term "specific". They insist, vehemently, adamantly, and consistently insist that the intended audience for X is "all people in general". Who the f* is "all people in general"? No writer, marketing agent, director, etc. ever creates a piece of rhetoric designed for "all people in general". It's not possible to do. 

Why - is this a problem?

Because it ticks me off. Okay, that's not a great reason. The real reason a lack of audience awareness is a problem is simple: You can't form an effective argument without knowing something about the audience other than they are, you know, people. Arguing the death penalty should be illegal is a quite different activity if your audience is an octogenarian, conservative, Republican, life-in-the military group of people or like, death row inmates.

Teaching: Introductory Post

Teaching

Composition, Literature, and Film

Who?

Well, we are talking about me this time around as this is my introduction to a new type of post I plan to regularly feature on the blog. I am a tenured professor at a community college teaching the following classes:

• Introduction to Film Studies
• Introduction to Literature
• English II : Writing about and in the Disciplines
• English I : Composition and Rhetoric
• Fundamentals of Writing : Pre-English I course

I have been teaching for ten years now, and I love my job; although the grading does get to me now and again....

Where? and When?

I plan on posting twice a month here on the blog.

What?

The posts will focus on issues in teaching. I am looking at this from a very broad perspective. I may discuss issues regarding instruction, student learning, retention, pedagogy, assessment, student behavior, struggles, etc. Pretty much anything I think of and want to write about is fair game.

How?

My goal is to use this format as often as possible with minimal variation. I could write essay type posts on this subject, but this feels more fun and more doable on a regular basis. Of course, I reserve the right to completely change my mind any time I feel like it.

Why?

I have quite a few reasons for wanting to do this. First, I know a lot of you are also teachers/educators and I hope you chime in to discuss the issues presented, offer advice, and in general be awesome. Second, using the blog as both a place to vent and invent is a goal of mine. Writing posts like this allows me to rage a bit from time to time, but it also forces me to consider an individual problem or issue carefully. Third, why not?

What - can you do?

I would absolutely love to answer any questions you have or explore topics you find interesting, so please please please, if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments and I will add them to my list of posts to write for this feature.

I'm Not Dead, Just...

Meet Baby #2

For those still around, it is obvious that my blogging has been sporadic since the arrival of my first baby, Madison, which was 2+ years ago. I was starting back up when the hubby and I decided we could handle a second. Then, BAM. Pregnant again.

This time around we are having a boy, so we end up with one of each....three years apart. Nutter the Second should arrive around January 25, 2015 - one day after Nutter the First's third birthday. Did I mention THREE YEARS APART? What are we thinking? Just when we get the one out of diapers and becoming self-sufficient we throw ourselves back into total dependency, puke and poop. Silly us.

In the meantime, I'm still here and even reading the occasional blog post. I even get to read from time to time. Currently I'm reading Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr and feeling rather meh about it. I will keep reading it, but I'm hoping it gets a bit more in-depth. Suggestions as to whether I should keep reading or put it down?

Recently I put down Halo by Alexandra Adornetto. I could not get into it. I tried and tried and tried, but I had to continuously fight the urge to yell at the main character. Liking her was not possible for me.

I did, however, enjoy Nora Roberts' The Collector, the first straight-up romance novel I've read in a long, long time; although I have to say, there is a lot more mystery to this one than I remember in her books. This is, on the one hand, a benefit to story line; on the other hand, bring on the sexy sexy.

Way back in July, I re-read the entire Harry Potter series which was an absolutely wonderful experience. I used to re-read series like Potter and Lord of the Rings and Underland Chronicles and His Dark Materials and....well, lots of them. There is something both comforting and exciting about re-visiting a world you love.

I am quite sure there have been a few other books between July and now; however baby brain has lost them. I have Of Monsters and Madness sitting next to me right now, and that is probably what I will pick up after Carnival of Souls. I have heard mixed reviews about this one, but I love the cover so much that I'm going to give it a go.

So how have you guys been? Anything new I should know about? Or you know, just say hi if you're hanging in there with me as I take a massive extended break from blogging. :)

Getting My World Rocked by CCCC

Last week, I had the privilege and the pleasure of attending the Conference on College Composition and Communication (if you are not going OOOOHHHH, AAAHHHH, you should be).

It was AWESOME. I was so geeked throughout the entire conference that I was waiting for black-rimmed glasses, pocket protectors, and suspenders to spontaneously appear on my person at any moment. Or wait, I guess, based observation, composition geeks are more likely to sprout pixie girl haircuts, pink flamingo earrings, and print leggings. But whatev, you get the point. I was in writing geek heaven.

To give you an idea of the fun I had, here are the names of the sessions I attended:

• WAC and WID Reformulated: Alternative Programming, Reading, Writing, and Assessment for Authentic Composition
• Hybrid Pedagogies: HYC Formats, Asynchronous Peer Review, and Open Collaboration
• Opening the Writing Classroom to Intellectual Risk
• Breaking the Cycle of Ineffective Research Instruction
• Collaborating with the Sources Next Door to Open a Future of Authentic Assessment
• Bridging Cultures and Modes through Visual Rhetorics
• Researching to Write, Writing to Research: Teaching Information Literacy to First-Year Writing Students
• From Pain to Possibilities: Effective and Efficient Student Feedback in First-Year Composition
• Improving At-Risk Student Learning and Retention: A Basic Writing Curriculum Redesign

As you have probably guessed, this conference focuses on composition studies in higher ed. Geeked yet?  I heard that approximately 3000 people were at the conference, and based on how long the Starbucks line was, I'm thinking that's about right (seriously, I waited 28 minutes in line once..hey, I was really freaking tired.)

Sessions ranged from theoretical to practical to professional, attendees ranged from jeans and sweaters to suit and tie types, and food ranged from - actually there was no time to eat. I am so not kidding; sessions began around 8 and went back to back until 6, and then there were special sessions that went until 8. The conference handbook you get is just shy of 400 pages. Forget food, forget sleep, forget sanity. I survived on coffee and Fiber One bars. And I loved it.

I could start talking about everything I learned and how I'm modifying this or that class or lesson based on what I learned, but it would take hours and hours. If you have never attended and have any interest in comp and comm, you should definitely look into going next year. Oh and it's going to be in Tampa, so how fun is that?

How to Behave 101

A hot topic around the college this term is "Expectations for Student Behavior" (or is it of Student Behavior?). Not all of our students are quite up to date on teacher-student or classroom etiquette. Trying to put off doing actual work, I ended up developing a handout for them, which, much to my amusement, quite a few of my fellow instructors used in their first or second class sessions. Then I went and used it, and I was quite shocked by how many of my students argued certain expectations. So, without further ado, for your enjoyment, and any suggestions or feedback, the list of Expectations of/for Student Behavior:

Absences and Tardies

When you miss a class or will be missing a class, do not use any of the following questions or derivatives thereof: Did we do anything in class? Did I miss anything? Are we going to do anything in class?

After missing a class session, do not email your teacher and ask him/her to tell you what you missed. Contact another student in class for notes, assignments, handouts, etc.

Teachers expect homework to be turned in whether you are in class or not; and due dates will not be pushed back because you didn’t know about the assignment.

If you are late coming to class, come in quietly and take a seat closest to the door. Do not walk in front of the classroom or weave through the desks.

Emergencies

Some teachers may allow you to keep your cell phone on during class time provided it is in silent mode. If you receive a call (or a text) you simply must respond to, leave the room before answering the phone. Leave quietly and come back in quietly when you are done.

If you need to use the restroom, you do not need to ask permission. Simply leave the room quietly and return quietly, out and in through the back of the room if possible. Do not walk in front of the room or the professor. It is best to take care of this before or after class.

In-Class Behavior

Regardless of class times, the professor is in charge of when the class ends. You should not start putting your books into your bag or getting ready to leave in any way before the professor excuses you. The action is disruptive to the rest of the class both visibly and audibly, can inhibit students from asking necessary questions, and may cause you to miss out on final instructions.

When you come to class, professors expect you to participate. Sleeping, doing homework for other classes, having side conversations, playing on the computer/phone, etc. are not acceptable behaviors. If you do not wish to participate, don’t come to class.

While participating in discussions is highly encouraged, it is necessary for you to evaluate your participation and make sure you are not dominating the conversation. Make sure other students get the opportunity to speak as well, whether in a small group or in a whole class discussion.

Professors hold office hours in order to answer any questions you may have that are not appropriate for the class session. Make sure you utilize those hours and do not ask questions which only relate to you during class time. It is unfair to the other students to expect one-on-one time during the class session.

Come to class prepared. Have your textbook, paper, writing utensils, and anything else you will need for class on hand. Be ready to discuss any assigned readings and turn in any homework. Assignments should be printed, stapled, and ready to turn in before the class begins. The first five minutes of class are not dedicated to you preparing for the class session.

Physically exhibiting your boredom, dislike, or other negative attitudes is not appropriate. Leave the eye-rolling, the snorting, the smirking, and the deep, heaving sighs for outside the classroom.

While it may be necessary for you to bring a bite to eat and a drink to class, use common sense when making your meal choice. Three course meals, smelly food, messy food, etc. are not appropriate for class time.

Grades and Assignments

While you are encouraged to speak with your professor about any issues you have with your grade, always do so respectfully. If you are confused, ask questions. Unprofessional confrontation and persistent arguing do not advance your cause or credibility. 

Generally speaking, late work is not accepted in college courses. Just like in the workforce, time management is a necessary skill and people rarely get do-overs or extensions (at least not without penalty). Stay focused and submit your work on-time.

Effort does not determine your grade. Telling your instructor you “tried very hard” or “put in a lot of time” on an assignment will not affect the final grade.  Effort is only one part of receiving a high grade; make sure you understand the details of the assignment, take time at every stage of the process to think about the content of the course, carefully execute the assignment, and be sure to look over the assignment critically before submission.

Assignments should be clean and unwrinkled when you submit them. Papers that were smashed in your bag or have coffee spilled on them, etc. are not acceptable.

Communicating with Your Professor

Hopefully you will have the opportunity to speak with your professor one-on-one during the semester. When you do, be respectful and courteous. Remember, you are not his/her only student; more than likely he/she has over 100 students simultaneously.

When emailing your professor, use proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Text speak, slang, etc. are not appropriate. As with face-to-face communication, being respectful and courteous is also expected.

Novel Options for Intro to Lit

I'm on the search for a novel for my Introduction to Literature course, and since I use a particular publisher, the entire world of literature is not open to me. Plus, I like to choose books I haven't read before. Browsing through the selection I do have, I found the following titles as possibilities for next year:

1. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2. The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel
3. One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
4. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
5. Bedlam by Greg Hollingshead
6. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
7. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
8. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 
9. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I would love to hear your thoughts on these novels, so I can make a decision on which to include!

Recommendations Please

I have decided to teach my Introduction to Literature class using actual novels and plays rather than an anthology. This, of course, opens up the entire history of writing, and I can not help but want to teach everything. Unfortunately, I'm thinking five books is the limit. Here's my list of possibilities so far, but I would love it if you guys could help me out by suggesting some books (non-fiction, fiction, drama) and commenting on those I've already included. I've only included author's names when I thought there might be confusion.

NOVELS
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Divine Comedy
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Gulliver's Travels
Dracula
Lolita
Brave New World
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Slaughterhouse-Five
HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Good Omens
Sandman by Neil Gaiman

SHORT STORIES
Nocturnes by John Connolly
In a Glass Darkly

NON-FICTION
Night by Elie Wiesel
Blues for Cannibals
Naked by David Sedaris
Stiff by Mary Roach

DRAMA
Pygmalion
The Glass Menagerie
No Exit by Sartre
Six Characters in Search of an Author

YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Watchmen
Dark Knight
Maus

Changing Students

When I was awarded tenure this year, the VP of the College gave me two books, one of which is titled Teaching Today's College Students. I just finished the book and I have two first-blush impressions: 1) the book had interesting information but it could have been said in one chapter rather than one book; and 2) this generation of students is being awarded more consideration than past generations. This book definitely made me think.

Most of what I read was redundant, not only within the text which had a tendency to repeat the same information, but also within my own experience both as a teacher and as an "almost member" of the generation. Apparently my generation runs from those born from 1965-1981 and Millenials were born after 1981; I was born in 80 and have had access to computer technology from a young age so I'm close to being a Millenial. The main differences between me and Millenials seem to be the following: Millenials achieved young adulthood in a time of financial success and as such were more easily provided what they wanted. They also were raised in a different fashion, specifically in a more buddy type approach where negotiation was more common than authoritative parenting. Finally, they are more socialized than their predecessors due to technology increasing the ease of communication. These differences mean my "traditional" students have a larger sense of entitlement than I did, they believe that almost everything, including class rules and grades, can be negotiated, and they are more comfortable with collaborative rather than individual learning.

The other characteristics of millenials, such as the ability to multi-task, comfort with technology, and non-linear thinking, feel rather familiar to me. The conundrum I see is that previous generations were expected to adapt to new situations and assimilate; whereas today, we are placing the pressure to adapt on the 'authorities'. New methods of instruction and new ways of interacting with students are almost requirements for today's teacher. Our students prefer to communicate through email, so instructors better adapt. Our students want to be praised and receive immediate feedback, so instructors better find a way to do so. Our students want choices about what they learn and how they learn it, so instructors need to modify their courses. Our students are visual learners uncomfortable or unpracticed with texts, so we need to incorporate more images.

I'm not saying that all of this is necessarily wrong, but where does student accountability come in? I can understand that today's student is more visual; afterall, we live in a culture inundated by images in almost every waking moment. And yes, the internet, television, instant messenging, these advances in technology have shortened the attention span of the average person by providing quick access to short snippets of information.

But the contemporary tendency for communicating tiny amounts of information visually does not preclude or diminish the importance of learning how to read a text that includes a large quantity of complex material. Isn't this abililty something we, as instructors, should be teaching our students how to do (especially since they don't seem to be able to do it)? Teaching our students something new is our job afterall, not just helping them become more proficient at what they already know.

I think we need to meet students where they are, but push them - and push them hard - to be able to do more. Learning can be fun, but it's not a requirement. Don't we all have to learn how to cope with and benefit from situations we don't consider fun?

Or has education really fallen into the fast-and-easy mode of consumer culture?

Socrates Cafe by Christopher Phillips

Long have I desired to have mind-altering conversations in my classes; however, I have been rather wishy-washy about fostering such conversations lately, relying heavily on the students and getting (illogically) upset when the students don't come through. I have not been a good facilitator.

But I am changing, looking for new ways to facilitate discussions. During that search I read Donald Finkel's Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, which may seem counterintuitive to my goals but in actuality was just what I needed: a way to foster critical discussions without an authority (i.e. me, the professor) directing the discussions. The difference between Finkel's vision and my ill-fated earlier choices is simple - Finkel requires the professor to be a participant in the discussion, not the lead, but still a participant. I quickly became excited and started developing a schedule for my summer English course which incorporated both Finkel's conceptual workshops and his open-ended seminars where students lead and engage in the class discussion. And I can't wait to get started.

Now I have even more tricks (not the right word but working for now) to use in these open-ended seminars through Phillips' memoir(?) Socrates' Cafe. Phillips changed his life and began living as he desired, 'bringing philosophy back to the people' by organizing Socratic discussion groups who informally meet and converse on a particular question by questioning the question, the assumptions, concepts, points of view, logic, etc. He works with schools of all levels, prisons, retirement communities, random groups in coffee houses and libraries, and so on. The questions discussed in any individual meeting is the result of member suggestions and democratic voting. Obviously, Phillips can not be in all places at all times and he is very open to anyone and everyone starting a Socrates Cafe in their own community. If you are interested in learning more, read the book or visit http://www.philosophers.org.

As Phillips writes, we must "make both our schools and our universities ever-evolving laboratories of creative and critical cross-disciplinary learning that seek to promote imaginative vision and rational thinking." While his focus is on the community at large and not necessarily within the educational system, he does point out in the book that our educational system is losing those characteristics which associate it most with a Socratic viewpoint. Students are not discovering knowledge; they are memorizing facts. Questioning does not lead to more questioning; it leads to answers (and when it doesn't lead to answers, it leads to frustration rather than a sardonic grin and mental shrug).

My hope is that by employing methods from Finkel and Phillips, I will be helping my students learn how to think, or rather develop their thinking skills - I'm not positive there is such a thing as "learning to think" as I may or may not believe that thinking is innate. Jury's still out on this issue. But the point is still valid. I want my students to learn how to utilize MLA to avoid plagiarism, how to write grammatical sentences, in essence how to communicate effectively and the such not; but more importantly, I want them to have some thing to communicate and the ability to think about that thing on a deep level. Helping them discover their own ability to explore an issue through discussion and questioning is my way of doing this.

I'll see how it goes starting in 6 days.

Buy  |  Borrow  |  Accept  |  Avoid

Final Exam Week

I put on my air of authority as a vegetarian putting on fur coat: not quite right and not quite wrong, uncomfortable, disturbing, but not entirely antithetical to my inner Machiavelli. Rejecting the hopeful pleas leaves me bleeding and yet oddly pleased at the karmic retribution doled out to the slacker, the narcissist, the arrogant, and the ignorant.

I lay down the law with an iron fist tempered by a guilty conscience and a feeling of my own failure, turning the gavel into a joke, cartoon sized, red and yellow with pretty pink sparkly butterfly stickers. The sad eyes and (il)logical reasons make me sad.

I see the failure of others as my own failure whether the blame can rest on my shoulders or not. Their long absences or inability (non-desire) to do the work required take a back seat to my own feelings of inadequacy…as if I should have/could have gripped their hand harder and pulled them through the murky, rolling-high waters of knowledge.

I hold the keys to the kingdom and while my right hand tries to give a set to everyone, my left tries to withhold them. I am contradiction; smiling, crying, suffering, rejoicing, over others’ losses.

Playing with a Wiki

I'm not really using the wiki quite yet, but I'm playing around with it both for use with my classes and perhaps even for collaborative projects at the college. It's certainly an interesting concept: an open, shared site for collaborative construction. We'll see what happens.

Rate Your Students

Just an awesome blogspot for teachers to enjoy - and perhaps some students too.

http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/

Technocation

I just returned from the University of Illinois's Faculty Summer Institute, a conference regarding the use of technology in education. First impressions: Good, but I may be a bit too advanced. While many of my conference mates were confused by the terms blog and wiki, I'm already using them both (er...obviously the blog), so I didn't necessarily get the sort of update I was hoping. I did, however, gain a new idea on how to use wikis and some information on items to add to my ePortfolio. Most of the sessions were about Blackboard/Web CT and since my college uses ANGEL, well you get it.

Now, I'm sure you don't really care about my conference, but I was really using it as an introduction into the following thought multitasking. At the conference, people kept harping on the idea of multitasking in our students - how students today want to listen to the lecture while IM'ing and listening to their iPod. One colleague even said he doesn't allow laptops in his classrooms anymore because the students are always trying to do two things at once, which in his opinion means the students are doing neither well.

Welcome to the digital age. We grow up bombarded by information from various media simultaneously. I grew up watching tv while reading a book; listening to music while writing a paper; IM'ing while listening to music while chatting with someone in the room and writing a paper. And you know what - I did rather well.

Someone else at the conference mentioned that digital natives do not process information in the same manner as digital immigrants (terms used to really denote age: those who grew up with computers are natives, those who didn't, immigrants). Digital natives do not need to focus in on one specific task at a time, but rather we are capable of doing two or three things simultaneously. Now, I am not saying that everyone under the age of 30 is capable of doing this, but quite a few are or at least can be further trained to be. Just like with anything else, there are various skill levels.

But banning laptops in your classroom is not the way to go. Let them use the lappy, just make sure that your lecture is interesting, relevant, and necessary, and the students will still pay attention. Don't make them turn their iPods off; have them remove one earbud. For all you know, they will concentrate better.

For instance, I have to have the television or music playing while I'm writing or studying. If I sit and try to write in silence, I get antsy, frustrated. I have always been like this much to the dismay of my mother and grandparents who were convinced I wasn't giving the writing 100%. I was; I just function in a way unfamiliar to them. They still laugh at me when I'm reading a book while watching a movie; they've come to accept that I'm capable of this after numerous times where I had to explain the plot of each after the movie was over.

Perhaps students can explain the lecture and the IM conversation when class is over.

Choices Choices Choices

I am trying to decide on a book to teach in my English II course, and it has been difficult. With the world of books open to me, choosing just one is like deciding between organs: Would I prefer the nice doctor take my heart or my lungs? After much thought - difficulty of text, ability of text to teach cultural diversity, length of text, etc. - I have narrowed the world down to two books I feel are both good choices.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Set in post-Civil War America, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford, an African-American woman who left her first husband to follow husband number 2 to Eaton, Florida, the first all-black town. She eventually marries husband number 3. While the story is focused on Janie, it also is the story of a black community, of black tradition and life. Hurston wrote at the height of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s, and at the time, the book was highly criticized for her use of dialect and for not writing an enraged look at black experience in a white world.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
In Memoirs of a Geisha, an orphaned girl, Sayuri, who through long, hard training in the arts of music, dance, make-up, clothing, conversation, and seduction eventually sells her virginity for a record price and then becomes the mistress of a wealthy man. The story reveals the choices a woman must make in patriarchal societies about her body and her livelihood when the choices are direct prostitution or subtle seduction and manipulation. Golden wrote the novel after extensive study into and training within the geisha culture and he received much of his information from a real life geisha named Mineko Iwasaki.

So, which book do you think is most beneficial for students to read? Post Civil War America or Japan? African-American culture or Japanese culture?