Reading all of this is so interesting for me on a personal level, as I think right out of the starting gate as a teacher I did a lot of this after having just majored in English Literature. For example, when reading Lord of the Flies, we spent considerable amount of time with Hobbes and Freud in my very first year—and then launched into the text with those lenses.
Now I'm wondering to myself: where did that go? I still dip my toe in this approach, but I'm reading this series and reimagining the entire curriculum, in a way, and it makes me very excited (and grateful) going forward. Sincere appreciation for what you're doing with this series! 🙏
It's serendipitous you say that, Marcus! I feel like I've spoken with a lot of teachers recently who have said the same thing. I think a lot of folks (myself included!) move away from some of those core disciplinary practices/theories as we begin to absorb the norms and conventions of schooling. On the plus side, that often leads to more/better methods and classroom practice. As you said, however, being reminded of those disciplinary tools often stirs a different type of excitement and passion in us that has gone dormant. I firmly believe awakening and infusing it with all the teaching tools/methods we've acquired since leaving undergrad can produce amazing results.
Considering I already consider you a master teacher, I am positively juiced to see what you produce when you add this work to your repertoire of teaching tools.
Really appreciate that, Brandon! I appreciate your saying that and fully agree that meme is an endorsement of the approaches I've been working with. A few years ago I created a "meme economy" on Padlet where students could submit memes about texts we were reading or funny things from class for arbitrary amounts of candy. As you can see, the results were both amusing and informative.
I've been teaching literature for almost 20 years, but I'm on the verge of two fully online courses that have me a bit stumped. I've been trying to frame my course design around literary theory (I teach the "lenses" exactly like you do!) and assignments that the "robots" can't easily do for them. Your post really helped get me excited and ready for the semester, so thank you for this!
I’m glad you found them useful, Ashleigh! I’d love to hear about how you take up these ideas in your course design. I think there’s a ton of potential for these practices to be applied to college courses and it’d be great to get some on-the-ground perspective into how that might look.
Reading all of this is so interesting for me on a personal level, as I think right out of the starting gate as a teacher I did a lot of this after having just majored in English Literature. For example, when reading Lord of the Flies, we spent considerable amount of time with Hobbes and Freud in my very first year—and then launched into the text with those lenses.
Now I'm wondering to myself: where did that go? I still dip my toe in this approach, but I'm reading this series and reimagining the entire curriculum, in a way, and it makes me very excited (and grateful) going forward. Sincere appreciation for what you're doing with this series! 🙏
It's serendipitous you say that, Marcus! I feel like I've spoken with a lot of teachers recently who have said the same thing. I think a lot of folks (myself included!) move away from some of those core disciplinary practices/theories as we begin to absorb the norms and conventions of schooling. On the plus side, that often leads to more/better methods and classroom practice. As you said, however, being reminded of those disciplinary tools often stirs a different type of excitement and passion in us that has gone dormant. I firmly believe awakening and infusing it with all the teaching tools/methods we've acquired since leaving undergrad can produce amazing results.
Considering I already consider you a master teacher, I am positively juiced to see what you produce when you add this work to your repertoire of teaching tools.
Receiving that meme is a triumph.
Thank you for sharing your approach. I look forward to every post.
Really appreciate that, Brandon! I appreciate your saying that and fully agree that meme is an endorsement of the approaches I've been working with. A few years ago I created a "meme economy" on Padlet where students could submit memes about texts we were reading or funny things from class for arbitrary amounts of candy. As you can see, the results were both amusing and informative.
Content, Context, and Skills - all essential and interdependent components of and for learning.
I've been teaching literature for almost 20 years, but I'm on the verge of two fully online courses that have me a bit stumped. I've been trying to frame my course design around literary theory (I teach the "lenses" exactly like you do!) and assignments that the "robots" can't easily do for them. Your post really helped get me excited and ready for the semester, so thank you for this!
I’m glad you found them useful, Ashleigh! I’d love to hear about how you take up these ideas in your course design. I think there’s a ton of potential for these practices to be applied to college courses and it’d be great to get some on-the-ground perspective into how that might look.