My teaching philosophy:

Discussion

In the classroom, I like to spend a minimal amount of time lecturing, and maximize the amount of time spent on classroom discussion. I will present whatever historical or critical / theoretical information is necessary as regards a text, but then will segue to discussion by asking open-ended questions (or having students pose their own questions) about what we've read. My intention here is to prompt students to question what they're reading, question their first reactions to or interpretations of the text, and question what critics have said about our texts. Coming to answers in the course of this discussion is actually a secondary concern of mine, as we will rarely come to a unanimous class-wide interpretation of a text. Instead, I intend for students to sharpen their critical thinking skills and close-reading skills, and to learn that literary interpretation is more of a "conversation" between reader and author than a quest for final answers.

Interdisciplinarity and media

In reading texts from the medieval period, a student will often find barriers to understanding these texts in the form of unknown languages, fragmented manuscripts, and gaps in historical knowledge. To overcome these barriers, I believe that an interdisciplinary approach (combining linguistics, history, art history, and archeology to literary studies) provides a much more informative and engaging context for discussing and questioning texts. For example, studying Beowulf alongside the Sutton Hoo hoard, and reading scholarly essays on the benefits and dangers of pairing these two types of media reveal much about Anglo-Saxon culture AND contemporary approaches to medieval scholarship.

In order to present texts alongside art, archeological finds, and other historical remnants, I like to use various media in my classes. I often try to incorporate slide-shows, Powerpoint presentations, audio clips, and excerpts from films to facilitate discussion and to appeal to students who may benefit from varied teaching styles.

Revision

For classes which emphasize writing as well as reading (English 1100 and English 1050), I try to give students many opportunities to revise their written work. I feel that writing is a process of reading, rereading, revising-- basically a process of change. From my own experience, I know that it is easy to fall into a habit of writing papers the night before the deadline, and then assuming that "you work well under pressure." Whenever possible, I try to dissuade students from this approach... I will often require students to complete in-class peer reviews to ensure that they have some direction for revising between the rough draft and the final paper. Further, I often allow students to revise one "final paper" for a higher grade.

 

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