I feel like I'm always out of time. Out of time to read (for pleasure--catching up on the Gossip Girl novels I have neglected, as well as Twilight, to see what all the fuss is about, but also reading for my exams and research), out of time to watch TV (which may seem frivolous, but considering my diss topic, not really--but also watching TV simply for relaxing purposes should not be underrated), out of time to talk to people I love (I have barely had a chance to talk to B this week, let alone any of my friends which really sucks), and, last, but definitely not least, out of time to blog.

I kept wanting to journal about teaching last week, but I just couldn't find the time. So, now I'll be condensing the two weeks together.

Week 02: The Meat: Tuesday, they've read Frankenstein, now what?


After addressing more administrative issues, like asking for volunteers to champion the Class Jargon Wiki and seeing if there were any questions about the Literary Critique Presentations, I told the students that I'm approaching the class like an experiment. And, since it's no secret that the topics and texts we're covering in this class relate directly to my dissertation, I was also afraid of potentially stealing students ideas or words. And then I related an experience that I had in grad school where I literally had a professor tell me that she was going to use my findings (that I had presented in class) in the new introduction to the new edition of the book she was working on. I told students I didn't know how to respond to that because it made me uncomfortable that she was telling me she was going to steal my ideas, as though telling me she was going to steal made it socially acceptable. Where before I had been making an effort to participate in class discussion, after I was told that, I pretty much shut down in class and I felt anxious every time I had to go to class.

I told my students that it was my goal to not be like that, and that it was definitely not my goal to steal, and, because we are sharing ideas--without the sharing of ideas, there'd be no class--I was going to try to be dutiful in recording names to things that I find particularly interesting, and, should I use ideas from class in my own writing, I could either list the students' names in the Introduction/Acknowledgements section or maybe even cite them directly (since there are ways to cite lecture and discussion). No one seemed to care, but it was an issue that had been weighing heavily on my mind.

Discussion Activity: Fishbowl, Version 1.0

This particular class period, they were to have read Frankenstein. So, I gave them a 10 minute introduction to Mary Shelley and her background. Afterward, I gave them a freewriting activity (that I also participated in). I gave them option of responding to the following question, or, writing on anything they were interested in pursuing instead: Trace the similarities between Victor and the monster. Consider their respective relationships with nature, desires for family, and any other important parallels you find. Do Victor and the monster become more similar as the novel goes on? How does their relationship with each other develop?

At the end of five minutes, I asked for 5 volunteers for a fishbowl activity. The freewrite was to prepare students who participated in the fishbowl, so that they'd definitely have something to contribute.

The Way A Fishbowl Works:
I asked five volunteers to sit in the middle of the room and then I had the other students remain in a circle around the group in the middle. I told the students in the middle that they were to talk among themselves about the ideas and opinions about Frankenstein--either in response to the freewrite question or anything else that came to mind about the text. I told the middle group there were only two rules: 1) that everyone had to have spoken at least once before there was cross-talk and 2) that their role was to be responsible for their own opinion. I told the outside group of students to be quiet and listen carefully to their classmates while the middle group engaged in a small group discussion. I explained that the role of students in the outer ring is supposed to be observers only and take notes on interesting topics that came up or jot down questions to share afterward.

The fishbowl went on for about 20 minutes, and then the students rejoined the group. I asked everyone how that felt/worked. The middle students said it felt weird, and that they were highly aware that they were being watched, while several students in the outer ring said it was hard to keep quiet and they wanted to jump in, which was good to hear because a good fishbowl discussion should animate/inspire students into their own thinking/participating. I said on Thursday we would try another version of the Fishbowl that would allow that very thing to happen.

So, once the students rejoined the group, and we continued the conversation as a whole, there was silence from time to time, but the silence was never too long, and I didn't try to fill it. It kinda seemed like they were sleepy, to be completely honest. Engaged, but sleepy. I just let students take control of the conversation and chimed in where I felt it was appropriate (like asking students to expand on certain ideas they presented). The discussion was rich, though, and I came away from it with new ideas about how to interpret Frankenstein (for example, the idea of the excess of masculinity became apparent and I shared that with the class, which is cool, because I can now link that directly to Chobits later in the semester, as well as in my dissertation, and the excess of/hyper-femininity of the main character, Chii).

Thursday: Preparing My Ass Off

I spent pretty much all of Wednesday preparing for Thursday's class because it was the first time I was really going to lecture. Students need to be familiar with certain concepts and definitions in order to continue critically engaging Frankenstein. So I had lecture notes prepared for Romanticism, Pastoral Myth, Gothic, Lacan and psychoanalysis, and The Male Gaze. I also carefully went through the two secondary sources I had asked them to read for Thursday about Frankenstein and highlighted key ideas and expected to take the class through these key points for discussion.

Thursday sucked.

Not because I was lecturing, but because I left my apartment without my notes (or my folder with any of my materials, like the roster to take roll (I was close to knowing all the names--and it turns out I actually did), 3x5 cards to steer the fishbowl activity, my outline for the class that day, Fisher Center brochures, etc.).

I also left without my cell phone.

I rode my bike to class and got there at about 8;20 a.m. (I teach at 8:45), but the pain in the ass of getting there early is being available ot students who also arrive early and want to commandeer my time, so I didn't notice I didn't have any of my stuff until 8:37--too late to ride back to my apartment real quick and come back to campus before 8:45.

So I told students I left everything at home and I realized too late, but luckily I had prepared all day on Wednesday, so I was going to wing it.

I was only able to cover Romanticism and Gothic, because I needed to save time for the second fishbowl activity. I was also able to bring students into the definition-making process by asking them what their thoughts or preconceived notions were about words like "romantic," and showing them how to trace that root back to Romanticism. So using the students to generate the definitions was actually a lot easier than I thought.

The Way The Second Fishbowl Works:

I have a "rolodex" with my students' names and e-mail addresses in them. It's a tiny, plastic binder with 3x5 cards conveniently hole-punched that Staples sells for like $2.99. The first week of class, I had students write their name, e-mail and one good thing they're good at, and if they were going to say nothing, then at least one good thing they're interested in. (I plan on using that info for helping them construct their creative projects, since those are completely free form.) Anyway, I had about 20 left, plenty for next semester, but sinc I left my regular 3x5 cards at home, I just took the extras and used them for this activity.

This second version of the fishbowl is almost exactly the same as above, except I asked students to write a question or an interesting quote form the secondary articles I had them read for Thursday (of course they could use their books). I gave them 3-5 minutes for that. Afterwards, I called on 4 students to be in the middle, and I left one empty seat open, and people from the outer ring were free to join the middle group discussion at any time (after everyone in the middle has contributed at least once), the only rule is that once someone joins the conversation, someone else has to leave.

It worked well--they really enjoyed it, and it was interesting to see the different turns the conversation took with the different particpants. It was very lively, and a large number of students actually voluntarily jumped in. But the one thing they kept forgetting to do was once someone entered the conversation, someone had to leave--no one would leave, so I had to keep kinda whispering, "Someone needs to leave," because I saw a lot of students on the outside with itchy trigger legs waiting to spring up.

Labels: discussion strategies, fishbowl, teaching, the meat, week 02

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