tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post2002931280433746194..comments2023-05-15T08:51:12.031-04:00Comments on Love and Disdain: How to distinguish courses?Dr. Kosharyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07777054788430587906noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-58309522625572354162010-09-16T16:05:52.706-04:002010-09-16T16:05:52.706-04:00Many thanks to you all for your excellent comments...Many thanks to you all for your excellent comments! Let me try to address a few ideas in specific:<br /><br />@Bardiac: Thanks for dropping by! I never realized that those class names were sometimes used as a coding device. I'll keep my eyes open for that. Thus far, all the course catalogs I've seen don't clarify much, but then it never crossed my mind to look for a unifying coding practice. Your point about assessment strategies is also well taken, and rather intimidating! I've never given such pedagogical issues a moment's thought, and I guess I'll have to wise up in that area. Does this come up frequently in your experience? (No one has even suggested to me before that I need to unpack my pedagogy like this; such matters were beneath the concern of my professors, I fear.)<br /><br />@Dr. Crazy: I know exactly what you mean about running the show. I've found that much out the hard way in the courses I've already taught. Saving my voice by letting my students discuss a little more seemed like a great idea until I tried it. I'll definitely bear in mind your suggestions of workload, although at this point such details are still moot: except for the intro syllabus I've already taught and refined by practice, my syllabi have no workloads laid out yet. The advice I got on that score was that committees don't care about the tinkery details of what is due when, but about my choices of readings and the thematic structure I lay out in the course blurb.<br /><br />@Horace: Welcome! I find your comment particularly useful, coming as it does on the heels of Bardiac's observation on assessment. I like the idea of formulating my own personal sequence of courses that forces both the students and me to start out broad and work toward depth. I agree in theory that it's sort of overkill to worry about syllabi I haven't taught, but my experience thus far is that schools often want to know in great detail just what I would bring to the table in terms of courses, and how I would either fit in or conflict with courses (or colleagues) already in the department. Every upper-level syllabus I've designed was originally in response to a request from a committee, either in the job posting or in follow-up. Of course, some of them were percolating in the back of my mind for a long time, and I was eager to put them on paper, but about 75% of my syllabi were cooked up at need.Dr. Kosharyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07777054788430587906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-85243583694448945562010-09-15T20:10:47.003-04:002010-09-15T20:10:47.003-04:00My apologies! I came here from Sisyphus, not Styl...My apologies! I came here from Sisyphus, not Styley.<br /><br />I'm going to bed now. :(Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-621246202823793612010-09-15T19:56:23.712-04:002010-09-15T19:56:23.712-04:00I hope you don't mind me re-posting and sendin...I hope you don't mind me re-posting and sending a bunch of people over here! ;)Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-55405824407112541482010-09-15T19:28:54.653-04:002010-09-15T19:28:54.653-04:00I'll say what I said over at Sisyphus's pl...I'll say what I said over at Sisyphus's place, and build on the comments here by suggesting that the basic shift in course design is from breadth to depth. The lowest division courses are primarily broad and not very deep. As they narrow in focus (often historical or generic at first), they deepen in detail and intensity. <br /><br />So I have a few seqiences like this:<br />Intro to Drama (general education)<br />Modern Drama (Majors)<br />Political Drama in the 20th C. (Capstone or MA level)<br />Documentary Theatre and Political activism<br /><br />Running a few sequences like that can help a lot, both for you to clarify these distinctions, and for committees to see how you're building your own teaching identity. <br /><br />That said, sample syllabi for grad courses at this level may be overkill. From both sides of the hiring table, I found that a few actual syllabi from courses I taught, a single proposed syllabus for an upper division course, and then paragraph-long course descriptions for a bunch of other courses filled things out well enough. I think you'll find that the extra labor on a bunch of sample syllabi could backfire because hypothetical syllabi can never really conform to the needs of any specific student body...Horacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15662740021328265642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-9127307036852619422010-09-15T18:50:51.968-04:002010-09-15T18:50:51.968-04:00My feeling (also coming from English) about the di...My feeling (also coming from English) about the distinction between undergrad and grad courses is this: In undergrad courses, I expect that I am running the show and that students will respond to demonstrate that they've understood the show. In grad level courses, I expect the students to take the raw material that I give them and to turn it into their own show. Sure, I will bring threads together for them or nudge them in the right direction, but I expect them to be doing all of the work of the course plus some on their own and coming to the table ready to learn. That just ain't the case in the undergrad classroom a whole lot of the time, for a whole lot of reasons, no matter what type of institution.<br /><br />As for amount of work to assign, the rule of thumb for undergrad classes as I've heard it is somewhere around 2-3 hours spent out of class for every single hour spent in class. So, for a lit class, I'd assume that I can assign them around 100 pages of reading per week (with some variation depending on the density of the material - so in theory courses I assign more like 50-70 pages per week and with some less difficult novels I might assign up to 200 pages in a week).<br /><br />For grad students, I've heard students should be spending 4-5 hours per class hour. Also, I'd assume a more advanced level. So, in a typical grad class at a PhD-granting institution I'd say the equivalent of a novel a week plus a couple of articles is about standard per week. At an MA-granting institution, I'd say still a novel a week(ish) but probably the articles would be optional or divvied up somehow so students wouldn't have to do them every week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7404056807161357402.post-19762436043171780252010-09-15T18:13:11.529-04:002010-09-15T18:13:11.529-04:00Styley Geek linked and I followed, so here goes! ...Styley Geek linked and I followed, so here goes! This is a great sort of question. I hope I can help a little.<br /><br />I'm guessing your imagining an interview question from specific school X, right?<br /><br />My approach would be to look at specific school X, and see if you can figure out how the department (or your subfield) differentiates different levels of courses as a starting point. For example, in my group, we tend to use "intro to" for very basic classes, "survey" for sophomore classes, including GEs, "studies in" for junior level classes, and "workshops" or "seminars" for senior level classes. If you see that sort of coding, use that to help. (You might also find some syllabi on line, but you probably thought of that already.)<br /><br />Also, the assessment oriented folks will want to hear you think about what you want students to learn at different levels, and then work from there to how you help them learn those things (through assignments, readings, etc). At the sophomore/junior level, you may want to do a lot of "scaffolding" sorts of exercises, building skills, teaching MLA research, etc. At the senior level, you may think of MLA research as a review, and think about doing real analysis/research in a different way.<br /><br />Also look at what's required at different levels. If an English department has four required Brit/Am lit surveys required for all upper level classes, then you know your students will have heard of Spenser. If an English department requires theory, but not surveys, then you know they're more "build skills" than "canon rules" oriented. The students will know a bit about Marx, say, but not Spenser necessarily.<br /><br />For a grad course, I'd think about whether it's an MA only or a PhD program. In my experience, students in MA only programs are a bit less experienced, while someone in a PhD program may take a class six years in because it sounds cool. In either case, I'd aim to introduce students to texts, and to help them make connections in theoretically explicit ways with other texts. (I teach MA courses occasionally, but not PhD courses. So I could be totally off about PhD students being different.)Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.com