Questions for Sheridan Blau
From UCSB English Department Knowledge Base
EDKB Wiki development team -- Please submit 2-5 questions about how to teach literature in the classroom. All submitted questions will be combined before being presented to Sheridan Blau as an "e-mail interview." We will submit 5-6 questions and ask him to answer each one in 600 words or less.
Ben - what if we focus the questions on TA sections since his book covers instructor-led classrooms? Would that be a way to narrow the focus area? (Sadly this would count my current question out, but I can live with that)--Kknight 09:14, 9 August 2007 (PDT)
Kim - I think the questions we have are great, and I think it's ok if they are not all focused directly on TAing a section.
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[edit] Ben's suggested questions
1. If you had to name one thing that is most important for an instructor to say or do in order to insure a productive discussion of a literary text in the classroom, what would it be? Why?
2. I have one TA discussion section of only 50 minutes in length. This is our only opportunity to discuss an entire 300 page novel. How should I make the best use of my time?
[edit] Kim's suggested questions
1. With the advent of electronic literature, which necessitates working in a lab or bringing computers into the classroom, how do you adjust your teaching strategies for the presence of the computer in the classroom?
[edit] Ryan's suggestions
1.) Given the brevity of most discussion sections, do you find it useful to assign in-class written work (group and/or individual)? Or should a TA concentrate on discussion alone?
2.) And speaking of discussion, what methods have you found useful for dealing with silent or v. quiet classrooms? What techniques can be used to kickstart discussions if students are hesitant?
3.) Are reading quizzes useful? Do these usually force students to keep up with their reading, or do they simply ignore the quizzes?
[edit] Marthine's questions
- As someone who works on poetry in my own studies, I have a hard time scaling back to an intro level discussion of reading a poem with a discussion group. Do you ask for interpretations of the meaning? I tend to get either emotional responses, people just asking me to explain what a symbol or metaphor or character is/means, and people really coming up with off-the-wall interpretations. How would you shape a discussion of, say, WB Yeats's poem "The Stare's Nest by My Window" without just telling them the symbolism and the meaning?
- Connected to that, how do you suggest encouraging students to use their imaginations and make contributions, yet make it clear when some interpretations are just way, way out there?
- How much work beyond what a professor asks of his/her students do you think it is fair for a TA to impose? And should the TAs for one lecture all try to assign the same amount of work?
