Essaying Teaching: A Pedagogical Conversation

Even for experienced instructors, teaching is always —or should always be—an experiment, and one can only become a better teacher by reflecting on one’s own (and others’) teaching experiments.  Therefore, this class is designed to encourage participants to reflect critically on their own and others’ attempts to each literature and writing. We will pursue this objective by reading and discussing essays on teaching by professional teachers; discussing our own experiences as teachers; reflecting on and writing about our goals as teachers; teaching each other; responding to each others’ teaching; preparing and reviewing teaching materials; and analyzing and responding to sample student work.

Since most courses taught by GSIs in the department are Reading and Composition (“R&C”) courses, we will focus on preparing to teach in the 1A/1B sequence. The basic elements of teaching a successful 1A/1B course can be taught, and in this course you will learn many of those elements from experienced teachers in the Comp Lit department. We will begin by discussing what constitutes an argument and then cover a series of topics such as grading, leading discussion, and teaching revision, that are central to teaching 1A and 1B. But we will also reflect on our philosophies and goals in teaching literature and writing, and aim to integrate as much as possible the theoretical concerns of our own approaches to literature with practical approaches to teaching beginning students. Regular attendance and the completion of all assignments are required in order to satisfy the departmental pedagogy requirement.