Not to pat myself on the back, but I’ve become a somewhat better lecturer in the past couple of years. The improvement is mostly an outgrowth of comfort. I know the material well enough now that I can focus more on performance: projecting my voice with emotion, hitting the laugh lines, etc. At the same time, I’m able to build narrative arc in most of my lectures while maintaining analytical continuity.
This is all to the good, of course, but there is a problem: I fear that my course management may be slipping a bit. In short, as I’ve grown more confident about giving my lectures, I’ve become a bit less careful about making sure that my instructions for papers and other assignments are crystal clear; about clarifying for my readers and TAs, before they begin their grading, what I think constitutes an outstanding essay; and about making sure that classes begin precisely on time.
The thing is, I suspect that even though I’m more entertaining and maybe more edifying in some ways, my students would rather have me focus my attention on management and logistics. I don’t know this for sure, but I’d be willing to bet that I’m right. I’ll let you know after my course evaluations come in and are tabulated.
In some ways, this is just me musing as the end of the quarter draws near. But in others, I think it’s worth my remembering that teaching hinges on organization and attention to detail as well as deft presentation of information — or perhaps that these things are complementary. Probably everyone knows this already, and I’ve just embarrassed myself. (“Wait, I’ve had that piece of spinach in my teeth all day?”) But nobody ever taught me this stuff, so maybe it’s worth mentioning.
10 comments
November 28, 2011 at 11:19 pm
ari
And speaking of course management, check out David Foster Wallace’s syllabus.
November 29, 2011 at 1:52 am
SEK
You’re neither being obvious nor are you alone: I find the same dynamic at work in my classroom, especially with my teaching load being what it now is. It’s just less work to be entertaining enough in the classroom to keep evaluations high than it is to be a strict disciplinarian about course policy. Basically, you’re creating a more forgiving audience for your occasional mismanagement, so they don’t hold it against you. I struggle against this every class, which is why I’ve started making lists of tasks and topics I must address … and have turned that into a shtick too. Once the students know that there’s important information regarding their grade on that piece of paper, they’re quick to remind you when you’ve neglected to look at it for, say, all but the first two minutes of class.
November 29, 2011 at 5:03 am
Sybil Vane
Scott’s totally right; you turn the management into shtick by making it so managey, and then you marry the worlds. I don’t think these are at all obvious points. In my first years teaching, I spent too much time on policy management, either drunk with power or terrified of not being authoritative enough to really command the class. At 22, probably more of the latter. Some time after that, I swung towards my shtick, which is a combination of deeply felt earnestness and frank swearing. Now I realize that my students like me and my class, but they are very stressed (in a way that is way weightier than their liking of the class) by any laxness when it comes to policy clarity.
Re: the DFW syllabi – are these really so exciting, qua syllabi? Katie Rophie is falling all over them at Slate. I like a syllabus with a lot of explanatory verbiage by way of characterizing the prof, but don’t most of them do this? I don’t, in other words, so much get the specialness about these qua syllabi.
November 29, 2011 at 6:29 am
Matt L
I know it sounds like assessment b/s, but rubrics really do help clarify the assignments for the students and instructor. If you cannot write a clear rubric after drafting your assignment, then you know its time to go back and revise it for clarity’s sake. This has been something that has saved me a lot of time and the students have written better essays and papers as a result.
November 29, 2011 at 8:28 am
Vance Maverick
From what we know of DFW in the classroom, he was a charismatic, inspiring celebrity obsessed with the worst kind of language pedantry. I’m sure he communicated an intense love of, inter alia, many things worth loving, and that his classes were potent collective experiences. But does this mean we want his syllabi?
No reflection on Ari is intended, or indeed possible.
November 29, 2011 at 8:51 am
SEK
I know it sounds like assessment b/s, but rubrics really do help clarify the assignments for the students and instructor.
A grad student who’s no longer affiliated with my department once noted, during a staff meeting in which we were discussing the rubric for a rhetorical analysis, that “RUBRICS ARE FOR QUEERS!” Needless to say, his demonstration of a complete and utter lack of understanding of what rhetoric is (or, especially, that it entails something or other about audiences) led to his dismissal.
November 29, 2011 at 9:08 am
Vance Maverick
Well, they are, aren’t they? (As well as for other human beings.)
November 29, 2011 at 9:20 am
silbey
I should also note that many students stop reading syllabi on about the third page, so everything after page 2 is made irrelevant.
November 29, 2011 at 10:20 am
Laura Seay
I agree. I only give 3 or so A’s per course, but still get high evaluations. The reason isn’t that I’m entertaining; it’s that students always know exactly what is expected of them. They also always know where they stand in my courses, which I think is another big factor. Students know they need to work harder if they got a C; what drives them crazy is ungraded papers and a total lack of ongoing assessment by faculty and/or TA’s who don’t bother to let them know how they did in a fashion timely enough to give them space to do something about it.
December 4, 2011 at 12:53 am
Jeremy
Wow, I found this and the comments really edifying. Mostly, I’m glad to know that most other teachers think of it as a “schtick”, and it’s not just me.
“(“Wait, I’ve had that piece of spinach in my teeth all day?”)”
It’s worse when it’s your fly that has been unzipped for 2 hours in front of 25 women.