SUNY Fredonia
College of Arts and Humanities
ENGL 427: Major Writers
Fall 2009
Section 1: M 10-10:50, Rockefeller Arts Center 236
Office: Fenton 265; M 11-12, TTh 9-12, 3-5, F 11-12, 3-5, and by appointment; 673-3856
E-mail: simon@fredonia.edu, brucesimon18@yahoo.com
Web Page: www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/
ANGEL Space: https://fredonia.sln.suny.edu/default.asp

Group Discussion Leading Project, Fall 2009

What It Is

Each of the teams we create early in the semester will be responsible for choosing a date and novel on which to lead an entire class period using scholarly and/or other research by each of the team members to develop and execute a lesson plan that helps the class make progress on the first two learning objectives of the course.

By the second Monday after the conclusion of your discussion-leading day, each team member must email me a summary of the research they did, a list of works consulted, and a reflection on their contribution to the team's success and what they 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 class that you'll be presenting your research and leading the ensuing discussion. And because this particular project is not just an individual endeavor but something you have to work on with others to make it work, there's an added dimension of cooperative learning and decision-making in the mix, as well. Given that you all are relative newcomers to the study of major fantasy writers, I thought each group would better understand where the class's sources of confusion or frustration 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 (given that all this was new to me over a decade ago and how easy it is to forget how difficult something is to learn once you've learned it!). Hence, you all have the opportunity to "peer teach" in a way that could well be more effective than my own teaching. At the very least, you all will be exposed to a variety of teaching styles over the course of the semester, 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.

How To

Each team's main goals are to use your individual research to help your classmates develop their abilities to (1) recognize and analyze relations among an author's characters, settings, and plots in a variety of works--gain a critical perspective on an author's fictional "world"; (2) recognize and analyze relations among an author's use of form, theme, and narrative strategy in a variety of works--gain a critical perspective on an author's strategies of storytelling and "re-vision." Ultimately it is up to your team to decide how best to proceed--what you want your peers to consider and learn, what topics/texts/contexts/concepts/methodologies/debates you want to emphasize, what mix of lecture and/or discussion-oriented activities you want to use (guided discussion, small-group work, debate, game, stations, etc.) to reach the goals you set and the overarching goals required by the assignment, how you divide the planning and teaching work among yourselves before and during the class meeting you'll be leading, and so on--after planning with each other and consulting with me.

Each team 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 activities.

Beyond that, I don't want to limit the creativity of your team's 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, the way the people in your team interact with each other, 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? Any lessons for your team in these 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.
• Alongside that discussion, setting a team research agenda and deciding among possible individual research interests early is key.
• Some group discussion (either face-to-face or over email) before meeting with me seems to be in order--about what interested you most about 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. Although I will explain my own goals for the class period and how I see your research relating to what had come before and what comes after it, coming up with your own goals for your own portion of that class period is what this project is all about.
• 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 team's research, planning, discussion questions/activities, teaching effectiveness, and commitment to working collaboratively; the honesty and thoughtfulness of your emails to me; and my overall assessment of your individual contributions to the team's efforts and success.

ENGL 427: Major Writers, Fall 2009
Created: 9/4/09 9:52 am
Last modified: 9/16/09 6:00 pm
Webmaster: Bruce Simon, Associate Professor of English, SUNY Fredonia