One Professor’s Baby Steps

Integrative Learning

Another #&! Committee

• Why I was already doing it (sort of) without having heard of it: the intuitive approach.

From “active learning” to “integrative learning.”

There’s no teacher like experience.

Learning from high school teachers.

Theory, Practice, and Jargon

1. Teach the students you have, not the ones you think you should have.2. The university can make you the instructor of record for a given

course, but it cannot make you any student’s teacher. Only the student can make you her teacher, by accepting you in that role.

3. Never say you teach the subject matter, not the students. The subject matter has nothing to learn from you.

4. The work you do for a course is less important than the work your students do. They learn less from it.

5. It is essential to challenge your students, but it isn’t enough. You must also believe in them, encourage them, and guide their efforts.

6. We all want to believe we have some share in our students’ successes. Their failures we tend to regard as their own. Rethink this.

7. Do not defend yourself against students’ responses to your teaching. Seek out their perceptions and work to comprehend them. Boredom, anger, silence, helplessness, apathy, rudeness, and resentment are all messages waiting to be decoded.

8. Make learning fun.

Eight Simple Rules

The “action news report”

Staging a scene from Shakespeare

The People v. Othello

The Commonplace Book

Some assignments

“Brush up your Shakespeare”

This project needs a team of at least six student players, who will mount a performance of the fi nal scene from The Winter’s Tale.

This assignment will require the team to plan carefully: Props and wardrobe, director’s notes to the actors—responsibility for all aspects of theatrical production will be divided among team members.

Two kinds of written documents will be submitted at the time of performance: programs, written and prepared by the Dramaturge; and a rehearsal log, kept and submitted by the Stage Manager.

Performing a Scene

On 31 October 2007, the Moor of Venice will stand trial on our campus for the murder of his wife, Desdemona.

Each of you will play a role in this trial. Afterward you will each submit a critical essay assessing the nature and degree of Othello’s guilt.

The text of the play must be your chief source of evidence. Research materials will be placed on reserve at the main library for you to consult. You may also bring in fi lm clips from movie versions of the play.

People v. Othello

Othello Trial PacketContents:

 

Games Need Structure

1. Assignment sheet

*Roles and duties*Essay #2

2.Instructions for Legal Teams

*Othello and the Law *Legal Teamwork*Evaluating the Teams

3. Instructions for Characters 4. Instructions for Jurors 5. Instructions for Media Hounds

What is a “Commonplace Book”?

The value of a personal investment

The personal connection

Two examples . . .

The Opposite of Teamwork