SUNY Fredonia
Division of Arts and Humanities
AMST/ENGL 296: American Identities
Spring 2009
Section 1: TTh 8-9:20 am, Fenton 159
Office: Fenton 265; M 10-4, TTh 4-5, W 1-3, and by appointment; 673-3856
E-mail: simon@fredonia.edu (during working hours); brucesimon18@yahoo.com (evenings and weekends)
Web Site: www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/
Course ANGEL Site: https://fredonia.sln.suny.edu/frames.aspx

Discussion Leading Project, Spring 2009

What It Is

Each student will be responsible for choosing a date and a reading for a 10-to-25 minute presentation of scholarly research you have done that helps the class gain new perspectives on that text and guided discussion of the implications of those perspectives on the class's interpretations of the readings for that day.

By the second Monday after the conclusion of your discussion-leading day, you must email me a summary of the research you did, a list of works consulted, and a reflection on what you learned in the research and discussion-leading process.

What For

It's a truism that you don't really learn something until you try to teach it to someone else, but there is nevertheless a good deal of truth to this cliche. Being responsible for teaching anything makes you pay a lot more attention when you're learning it, since you'll be in the position of setting goals for the 10-25 minutes of class time that you'll be presenting your research and leading the ensuing discussion. Given that you all are relative newcomers to this field, I thought students would better understand where the sources of confusion or frustration or curiosity in a particular reading might be than I might be able to, as well as how to communicate the key ideas and issues, perhaps even better than I would. Hence, you all have the opportunity to "peer teach" in a way that could well be more effective than my own teaching at times. At the very least, you all will be exposed to a variety of discussion-leading styles and, when teaching, have the opportunity to draw on what you feel are the most effective and appropriate teaching strategies for the material you all will be wrestling with.

As well, the process of narrowing down the range of sources you've consulted to the one you most want to present will develop valuable research and critical thinking skills.

How To

Your main goals are 1) to present research that you feel opens up new perspectives on the readings for that day, and 2) to help your classmates explore those perspectives through guided discussion. You should have an opening, main, and closing question planned, along with any other comments or questions you might need to help get and keep discussion moving.

Each discussion leader should meet with me at least once before their discussion-leading day comes around. We could either have a brainstorming session in which I give you an overview of how I see the readings fitting together and we brainstorm research and discussion topics together (in which case we should meet early enough for you to do the research and follow-up planning), or a feedback/consultation meeting in which I respond to what you've already come up vis a vis research, presentations, and discussion questions.

Beyond that, I don't want to limit the creativity of your approach to running a portion of a class period by laying out a step-by-step approach on this page. So much is dependent on your individual interests and interpretations, your beliefs about the most effective modes of researching and discussion-leading, and the process by which you narrow down the many possible options down to your top one to three, that it's probably impossible to create such a list, anyway. But what I can do is offer some examples of kinds of things you might consider doing when running--or getting ready to run--a portion of the class period.

• Some individual self-reflection might be a good way to start--particularly about the ways you learn. Think about the times you've been the most interested in a class topic or learned a lot from a class lecture, discussion or activity. Think about the times you've been absolutely uninterested in a class topic or learned nothing from a class. Do you notice any patterns? Another good way to go is to think about what you've learned in other courses (psychology, education, etc.) about how people learn; if there are people in your group who have taken courses that address this topic, draw on their relative expertise. You might also consider how learning takes place in other sites than the classroom (sports, music, student government, work, relationships, and so on) or in media that we don't normally think of as primarily pedagogical (for instance, what "lessons" about masculinity and femininity are taught in the WWE, in soap operas, in commercials, in movies, in anime, and so on)--and consider how your team might draw on (or refuse to draw on) some of the explicit and implicit pedagogies in play and at work outside of schools and colleges.
• Also useful might be some reflection about what interested you most about your research and the readings, about what you'd like to find out more about, about what possible focuses for your portion of the class period emerge from those interests, about your beliefs about effective teaching and learning styles, and so on.
• Let me close this list of advice by stressing the importance of being a good "audience" for other groups. Try setting an example--in being prepared to participate, in working within the parameters the group has established, in respecting their objectives and methods, and so on--so that they will want to also be a good "audience" for you!

Grading Criteria

Your grade for this segment of the course will be based on a combination of factors: my overall assessment of your lesson-planning process and oral speaking skills; the quality of your research and discussion-leading; the honesty and thoughtfulness of your reflective email to me.

AMST/ENGL 296: American Identities, Spring 2009
Created: 2/17/09 7:59 am
Last modified: 2/17/09 7:59 am
Webmaster: Bruce Simon, Associate Professor of English, SUNY Fredonia
Check out the Spring 2006 version of this course!