FROM COURSEWORK TO COURSE DESIGN
PEDAGOGICAL ASSIGNMENTS 1-4
ASSIGNMENT 1:
What is 392 really about?
WHAT CAN I TEACH BASED ON THIS WORK?
Refer to the 392 course description.
Task A:
Break down the intellectual skills and areas involved in it. "Skills" are tools and analysis strategies; "areas" are the materials and problems in it.
EXAMPLES OF AREAS:
History = events + implications for national, individual identities
Cultural History (the context of the events and their implications as depicted in documents of period and subsequently, where and to whom performed, reception)
Intellectual History = (the dominant thought structures identifiable from analyses of cultural documents read as episteme or patterns of information)
Discourse Analysis = word choice as semiotic system, rhetorical structure, venue, audience, all speaking to assessment of author intent
Literary Interpretation = applications of reception and communication theory (semiotics, reader response a la Iser)
Pedagogical Applications = course descriptions, goals, assessment practices, syllabi etc.
EXAMPLES OF SKILLS:
Cultural and intellectual history involves close readings, of texts, ability to set texts (through themes, etc.) into historical contexts
Literary interpretation involves assessing such factors as characterizations, narrative structure, narrative voice, discourses within the story, reception factors, author intentionality revealed in foregoing patterns
Task B:
Identify who else (i.e. what other fields, what other professionals)
uses your areas
uses your skills
works on the same kinds of problems, even if from another point of view
EG: Film Studies:
shares many actual texts (both story and plot)
shares reception issues
shares interest in discourse, particularly multiple voices (heteroglossia)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT:
100-250 words ON BLACKBOARD
Take an ASPECT of postwar Germany that YOU would like to teach as a course.
What area do you think your profession needs to teach its students about?
In other words, post your answers to Task A & B, being sure that you specify what about your area constitutes a pedagogical contribution, and for whom.
In so doing, identify a topic or topics for a freshman seminar (in English), a fourth semester or upper division undergraduate course in either German or English, a course that relates directly or indirectly to your current graduate program and dissertation ideas -- one that you think would be useful for students and attractive, or one that satisfies your heart of hearts.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
WHERE CAN MY COURSE FIT?:
Identifying Publics and Spaces
PRELIMINARY:
Read The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (use http://carnegiefoundation.org), esp. the "Background and Description" website for definitions of institution types in US higher education (posted on class website) and check out Texas (or another state) at http://chronicle.com/stats/carnegie to identify at least one institution of each type. Then look at the most recent MLA ads for available jobs (see Lisa for last year's if the new ones are not out).
Identify at least three different types from the following options:
student type / missions served in their communities
whom they hire
curriculum offered
infrastructure: equipment, library, space
degrees / certificates / courses of study offered
WRITING TASK A:
50-100 words on BLACKBOARD
Pick a position you think might be a "fit" for starting your career on graduation. Prepare a short summary of why your skills meet their needs and particularly the type of courses you can offer--emphasizing the course ideas you proposed two weeks ago.
WRITING TASK B:
Refining Your Course Topic Proposal:
A.K.A. What context(s) can you really insert your material into?
(50-100 words on BlackBoard)
From among those probabilities and hopes, pick an institution type (a likely job prospect) for which you will write your course proposal. Describe what is necessary in the context. Can your course project work in that context? That is, make a list of resources required to make your material teachable in that institutional locus.
Consider issues like:
which slots in the curriculum
as a freshman seminar
as a fourth semester German course
as a course for special audiences
as part of the upper-division German program
as a senior/honors seminar
as a graduate seminar
prerequisites (what do your students need to know before they get to you)
typical minor and major sequences in the field(s), vis-à-vis this course
other typical curricular and degree requirements to appeal to
infrastructure requirements for delivering this course
which students--your audience and its institutional context(s)
their prerequisites, or prior knowledge
which spaces
which equipment
which majors
which contexts
what the course should feed into (subsequent goals)
requirements you can tie into (licensing, distribution, in-service, mission statement, graduation . . . )
if a non-traditional or public service module attached to one of these institutions might not be a better choice (e.g. adult education; non-traditional education; public service; distance education)
ASSIGNMENT 3:
WRITING A NEED ARGUMENT
Targeting Your Space
Your goal in this two-part assignment is not only to write a partial first draft of a course description, but, more importantly, to justify your use of "real estate" (that is, the space in the curriculum that your course will "own," possibly at the expense of others) for the institution, not just for the students. Since, in the typical curriculum, one course goes out when another comes in, why does your course make a better use of real estate in the curriculum?
WRITTEN TASK A:
up to 150 words on BlackBoard
Specify your course title and a rough course description of the content. This is approximately half of a course description, including overt statements about:
for whom
what level
what prerequisites
what focus (spin/ angle) and why
what typical requirements it can fit
what goals for participants (what will students learn)
Note that this is not a complete course description -- later phases of assignments will return to grading/outcomes and the like). And label the proposal as a course for a particular institutional type, too (follow-up from earlier assignment on choice).
WRITING TASK B:
up to 150 words on BlackBoard
In Task A, you decided on a course/course unit content and audience.
Now make the pitch for your chosen institution¹s need. What problems does this course solve, according to your teaching experience, learning experience, and research? Specify problems and solutions, and/or benefits
in the curriculum
for students learning issues
for institution
for the professions [plural?]
As part of the class discussion of this two-part assignment, you will be asked to meditate on what variations you'd have to make in your plan if you changed institution type (e.g. liberal arts college versus community college versus Elder Hostel) or audience (e.g. demographic shifts; specific learning types; gender-specified groups; majors or minors; regions).
BLACKBOARD RESPONSE:
Do your cohorts' descriptions sound plausible?
Mass-market (i.e. large classes, spin offs) or miniscule (narrow appeal, one shot)?
What haven't they thought about?
ASSIGNMENT 4:
DESIGNING A LEARNING SEQUENCE:
THE SYLLABUS
CLASS DISCUSSION:
Sequencing learning
move from comprehension to production
move from modeling to replicating
break down large assignments into small increments (learning-to-learn perspective)
recycle and spiral--less is more
TASK:
YOUR SYLLABUS ROUGH
Block out the semester
identify units
order of materials read/viewed/ researched
integration of assignments (timing, type roughed in)
Your goal is to create a developmental sequence that gets your students to the outcomes decided on. Since semester and quarter lengths vary, state how many weeks ideally you would have in a unit, etc.
Post your rough on Blackboard!
Comment constructively (not just "great" or "problematic" but what makes it great and why, how to address problems you see and what your solutions remediate)!
Based on comments, a fleshed-out syllabus is due week 11.