I made my fiction writing students read their work out loud to each other today. Some of them were so scared. I am a big meanie. But on the plus side, I let them do it in small groups in breakout rooms, so they didn’t have to read to ME yet. That day will come, […]
Played CodeNames with my ENG 240 class, and it did provide some great opportunities to talk about semiotics, symbolism, cultural references & competency, etc. Pleased — will do so again if I teach this class. Also was a good early-semester bonding activity, getting more of them to talk then previously and getting to know each
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Reading through my students’ journal responses for the week, and I’m reminded once again that it’s a real privilege to get to be the one to hand them Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” for the first time. Sometimes I really love this job.
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I just realized that playing Code Names will be totally relevant to teaching my students how to do symbolic analysis in English classes, demonstrating very clearly how different people can have different associations with words, so we’re going to have an optional gaming session next week, whee!
Sometimes I make myself a goofy example for my students. It generally makes them laugh, which is one of my main teaching goals, especially in this stressful pandemic time. This morning, I wanted my lit crit students to practice semiotic analysis, so I asked them to try to identify as many symbols (and their meanings)
I continue to have fun with the readings for the lit crit. class. This week, I’m teaching my undergrads about new criticism and formalism, and since the example in the textbook offers a description of a city (from Jon McGregor’s _If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things_), I decided to have them look at four other
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I might have broken suddenly into song in the middle of a teaching video this morning. But it’s totally fair to be reading them some of “Goblin Market” and then sing them a bit of “Who Will Buy” from Oliver, right? As we talk about the tradition of seduction poetry… My poor students. It’s only
Teaching is so odd this semester. I’m sitting in my office recording videos for class, and when I pause to upload, I can hear a muffled Kevin in the office next to me, recording his math videos for his class. Oddly companionable. In many ways, our work is VERY different, but it’s nice to have
I was sort of dreading teaching lit theory and felt totally intimidated by it, but I’ve sketched out my plan for this first week of theory (Aestheticism & Semiotics), and I think it’s actually going to be fun, esp. since I get to teach Christina Rossetti and Poe. Hopefully fun for the students too —
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UIC faculty, we now have a Slack. Woot! I know, most of you probably aren’t interested, but I spend a lot of time on Slack these days, and I find it works pretty well for staying in touch with community. Better than all the things that get lost in my e-mail… I’d personally love to
