Thinking through Reading and Composition

Hi everyone! Welcome to our Intro to Teaching R&C for First-time and Future GSIs. This workshop is intended to provide you with concrete resources and strategies to help you prepare to teach in the fall. What follows is a narrative agenda for our meeting.

We’ll begin with popcorn intros and the following question: What’s one text or material (including film, song, image, meme, article, etc.) that you are looking forward to sharing with your future students?

Our objectives for today’s meeting are to:

• Alleviate anxieties by demystifying teaching R&C courses in Comparative Literature, including:
  • What is R&C?
  • Working with co-teachers and designing your course/syllabus
  • Being a GSI and a grad student at the same time
• Model pedagogy that we practice (although this meeting will involve more content than most R&C classes)
• Give you additional resources to help guide you as you prepare to teach

We’ve worked on making sure we cover and incorporate all of the great questions you sent, but we’ve also built in time to get into more detail and discussion. We’ll delve right into answering a few basic questions about R&C courses:

• What is R&C?
• Who are the students?
• What is required in an R1A vs. an R1B course? What are the differences between the two?
• What skills are taught in comparison to content?

For more information, check out the GSI Teaching & Resource Center. You can also download the GSI Teaching & Resource Center’s Teaching Guide for GSIs. For more disciplinary specific downloadable resources, visit the bCourses site “Comp Lit Teaching Resources.”

We’ll break here to answer any questions you might have about what we’ve discussed so far.

Next we will discuss strategies for developing a syllabus, the first task you’ll want to tackle with your co-teacher. We’ll explain how to do so using a few examples, and we’ll also talk about working with your co-teacher.

Here is a link to a (more bureaucratic, from 2018) resource about team teaching guidelines from the department.

• Marlena’s past R1A class: link here
• Kyle’s past R1B class: here
• Kyle’s sample Lesson plan Google Doc: link here

We’ll break again for more questions you might have about what we’ve discussed so far, and then we’ll take a 5 minute break.

We’ll then spend the remaining time talking about balancing teaching and other aspects of grad school life (and non-grad school life!), and time management. We’ll leave time for questions and discussion too.

To close, we’d also like to share some helpful resources from previous workshops that can be really helpful for planning. Check out this post, which discusses the planning that you and your co-teacher can review and collaborate on as you prepare for your upcoming course. And here is a link to a number of resources

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions as you prepare for your course or if there are any topics you’d like us to cover in next year’s workshops!

Good morning, everyone,

Today, we want to think about the intersections between co-teaching and lesson planning and how to balance learning from your co-teacher and learning to express yourself in the classroom.

We envision this as a discussion-based workshop, where you’ll be able to voice areas where you may need support and also offer ideas to others.

We’ll start with a freewrite:

Now that we are over half of the way through the semester, take a few minutes to step back and reflect on your co-teaching and lesson planning. What have you learned from your co-teacher? What have you learned about yourself and your preferences while co-teaching? What do you want from a co-teaching relationship? What kinds of frictions or frustrations, on the one hand, and successes or affinities, on the other, have you experienced in a co-teaching arrangement?

What have been the most effective ways for you and your co-teacher to work together (or separately) to lesson plan, particularly for remote teaching? What kinds of tools and strategies have been the most helpful? The least helpful? You might think, for example, about dividing up labor within and outside of the classroom, or modes of communication and planning. What would you like to take into your next semester of teaching?

These are a series of questions meant to help get you thinking– please don’t feel obligated to answer every one. Instead, focus on what’s most compelling to you and what you’d like to discuss with your peers. Please take about 10 minutes to jot down or type up your thoughts.

From there, we’ll move into breakout rooms, where we invite you to discuss what you wrote about with your peers for about 15 minutes. What trends, patterns, concerns, and ideas do you notice and hear in their responses? Be sure to jot down or note these down, as we’ll move into a full group discussion after a 10-minute break.

We’ll have a full group discussion, and then conclude by thinking about what you’d like to take into your next semester of teaching.

Hi everyone,

Today we’ll start out with a short Google form to get us thinking about grading. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions here, and then we’ll ask a few people to share responses.

Then, we’ll talk briefly about a recent history of grading in R&C in our department, as well as different modes and frameworks with which to approach grading. Of these, we’ll focus on contract grading. After this, we’ll pause for questions.

After a short break, we’ll share a handout via the chat that shares resources for contract grading. It also provides other concrete examples and modes of grading that can help you align your course goals with how you grade. We’ll ask you to discuss these possibilities in small groups in breakout rooms. Then, we’ll reconvene to share final thoughts.

A note on timing: We’ll wrap-up the workshop by 12:30pm.

PS: If you have suggestions for future workshops that you’d like to see, please let us know!

Hi everyone! Thank you for joining us for today’s workshop.

We’ve grouped your questions into topics, listed below. (Note that this type of thing is also something you can do with students using bcourses Discussion posts in advance of class. You can then have them break into small groups to discuss, do a think-pair-share, or plan a group discussion around the topics/areas of inquiry.)

Since we have a small group, we’ll do an open discussion about the following topics:

• Syllabus design
• Grading
• Online teaching with Zoom

We’d also like to share some helpful resources from previous workshops that can be really helpful for planning. Check out this post, which discusses the planning that you and your co-teacher can review and collaborate on as you prepare for your upcoming course.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions as you prepare for your course or if there are any topics you’d like us to cover in next year’s workshops!

Hi everyone! Welcome to our Intro to Teaching R&C for First-time and Future GSIs. This workshop is intended to provide you with concrete resources and strategies to help you prepare to teach in the fall. What follows is a narrative agenda for our meeting.

To get started, we’d like to begin with a quick free writing activity. Starting a class with a free write can help students shift gears, gather their thoughts, reflect, brainstorm, and prepare for the lesson ahead.

Please list any anxieties you have about GSIing and/or teaching for the first time.  What concerns do you have about teaching in the fall?

Read Alouds: Please take some notes as you listen. What similarities do you notice? What differences?

Our objectives for today’s meeting are to:

• Alleviate anxieties by demystifying teaching R&C courses in Comparative Literature
• Give you concrete tasks you can do and resources you can peruse between now and our next workshop
• Introduce you to the kinds of student writing you will encounter in R&C
• Model pedagogy that we practice (although this meeting will involve more content than most R&C classes)

We’ll delve right into answering a few basic questions about R&C courses:

• What is R&C?
• Who are the students?
• What is required in an R1A vs. an R1B course? What are the differences between the two?
• What skills are taught in comparison to content? (listed loosely in cumulative order)
  • Analyzing vs. summarizing
  • Close reading
  • Moving beyond the five paragraph essay
  • Developing a dynamic thesis
  • Conversation with secondary sources (R1B)

We’ll break here to answer any questions you might have about what we’ve discussed so far.

Next we will discuss strategies for developing a syllabus, the first task you’ll want to tackle with your co-teacher. We’ll explain how to do so using a syllabus chart and share a few examples:

• Marlena’s current class: link here
• Kyle’s current class: https://bcourses.berkeley.edu/courses/1491257

We’ll break again here to answer any questions you might have about what we’ve discussed so far.

After that, we’ll read through an actually existing R&C paper and discuss its strengths and struggles:

• What surprises you about this piece of writing? Is it what you expected?
• What are this student’s strengths? What will their challenges be this semester?
• What might be important issues to discuss in a response to this paper?

Afterwards, we’ll talk about the importance of developing grading standards or strategies with your co-teacher. 

We encourage you to explore this website for additional resources, and please don’t hesitate to email either of us if any questions arise between now and our next workshops.

Today’s meeting agenda:

1. Howie will make announcements about the Art of Writing tutoring program. From Howie:
   • The tutoring program is still an underused resource that can benefit R&C students and GSIs
   • Tutoring is not only for students who are struggling in R&C; peer dialogue is an integral part of writing. Tutoring supports students at all stages of development and at all points in the writing process.
   • Tutoring can support GSIs’ work with students in the classroom. GSIs can orient office hours toward producing writing agendas that students can then execute with tutors. GSIs can promote the use of tutoring by making it required or giving extra credit for using tutoring.
   • Tutoring is most effective when students use it repeatedly. Our program makes it easy for students to conference with the same tutors over the course of a semester and build a working relationship with them.
   • Finally, there are likely to be openings in the program over the next year, and those interested in getting involved should contact me.The positions are stipended.
2. Alex will publicize the Koshland Grant opportunities for GSIs.
3. Miryam will discuss the departmental grading policy. 
4. We’ll give you the opportunity to provide written feedback and/or questions on index cards about the grading policy that we could discuss at a later meeting.
5. Kyle and Marlena will lead a 1-hour pedagogy workshop on Content and Context.

Workshop: Content and Context

Part 1: What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Context?

We’ll discuss approaches for presenting two types of context, primarily as they relate to R&C courses: information we provide to students about authors and texts; and guidance we provide to students about the expectations and practices of critical reading and composition. In other words, how can giving context contribute to the teaching of close reading practices?

Part 2: Discussion

We’ll work through the following questions. First, #1 and #2 in small groups and then all together, and then we’ll move into a full group discussion for #3.

1) How do you contextualize your context? (ie, present it in a way that is useful and appropriate for what R&C is supposed to be doing) You might consider:

1. How do you introduce/frame this information for students? (Do you tell them “what it’s for/what it isn’t for?)
2. What do YOU think it’s for? (aid to comprehension for older/odder texts? Heading off distracting historical questions?

2) What are the challenges, benefits, and drawbacks of presenting this sort of information in your class, and what strategies or sorts of questions do you use to address these drawbacks/potential pitfalls with students? You might consider:

1. How do you manage time constraints?
2. How do you keep students engaged during your presentation?
3. How do you encourage students to use context in a helpful way, ie opening up rather than restricting analysis?

3) How do YOU do it?

1. What sorts of context do you provide to your students? (biographical information about author, reception of text, historical information about setting or time of writing/publication?)
2. When and why do you do so? (to aid comprehension of a difficult passage, at the beginning of a new text)
3. What kinds of media, materials, or tools do you use to do this? (e.g. images, handouts, mini-lecture, slideshow, recordings, student presentations) 

If you have materials or links you’d like to share, please feel free to do so using this shared Google drive folder.

Hi everyone! Welcome to our Intro to Teaching R&C for First-time GSIs. This workshop is intended to provide you with concrete resources and strategies to help you prepare to teach in the fall. What follows is a narrative agenda for our February 6th meeting.

To get started, we’d like to begin with a quick free writing activity. Starting a class with a free write can help students shift gears, gather their thoughts, reflect, brainstorm, and prepare for the lesson ahead.

Please list any anxieties you have about GSIing and/or teaching for the first time. What concerns do you have about teaching in the fall?

Read Alouds: Please take some notes as you listen. What similarities do you notice? What differences?

Our objectives for today’s meeting are to

• Alleviate anxieties by demystifying teaching R&C courses in Comparative Literature
• Give you concrete tasks you can do and resources you can peruse between now and  our next workshop on co-teaching
• Introduce you to the kinds of student writing you will encounter in R&C
• Help you consider and reach out to potential co-teachers
• Model pedagogy that we practice (although this meeting will involve more content than most R&C classes)

We’ll delve right into answering a few basic questions about R&C courses:

• What is R&C?
• Who are the students?
• What is required in an R1A vs. an R1B course? What are the differences between the two?
• What skills are taught in comparison to content? (listed loosely in cumulative order)
  • Analyzing vs. summarizing
  • Close reading
  • Moving beyond the five paragraph essay
  • Developing an evolving thesis
    • with tension
    • with subordinating structures
  • Conversation with secondary sources

We’ll break here to answer any questions you might have about what we’ve discussed so far.

Our next activity is often called a think-pair-share. We’ll do some individual brainstorming, then share in pairs, and finally discuss as a full group. To begin, please jot down all the ways you can think of to develop and manage a working relationship with your co-teacher. You might include:

• Division of labor
• Strategies of team teaching
• Methodologies of effective team teaching

Time willing, you’ll have the opportunity to begin looking for a co-teacher, with the following questions in mind:

• Who do you have shared research interests with?
• Who have you already interacted with in the department?
• With whom would you be interested in collaborating?

Depending on your relationship them, consider asking them to grab a coffee and chat in person.

The first task you’ll want to tackle with your co-teacher is developing a syllabus. We’ll discuss strategies for doing so with reference to a syllabus chart, a course narrative, and composing writing projects. We’ll share a few samples and ask that you share a book you love and a writing assignment you’d imagine designing in conjunction with that text.

At this point, Dora will talk a bit about the department’s grading policy.

Finally, we’ll talk about what to do before the first day of class:

1. Read through all of the materials included on your syllabus
2. Design a website and/or course reader
3. Plan for the first week of classes with your co-teacher
   1. Plan an activity to develop a community agreement or class constitution

Explore this website for all of these topics, and please don’t hesitate to email either of us if any questions arise between now and then!

Welcome to our first Comparative Literature pedagogy workshop of the 2018-2019 academic year! What follows is a narrative agenda for our August 21st meeting.

Our objectives for this workshop are:

1. Anticipate and prepare for the first week of classes.
2. Collectively brainstorm factors that influence the growth of a classroom learning environment; describe how, in what ways, and to what effect.
3. Propose modes of engaging student participation and cultivating motivation.
4. Model modes of evaluating participation through student reflections.

We’ll begin with a little free writing. Please take a few minutes to write about what factors influence dynamics in the classroom. You may consider your own experience as a graduate student or an instructor or both, but be sure to note how, in what ways, and to what effect each factor influences the learning environment and student engagement.

After sharing in pairs, we’ll open it up to a full workshop discussion about how to anticipate and prepare for developing an effective classroom learning environment in the first week of classes.

With this in mind, we’ll propose community guidelines as one potential method of engaging student participation and motivation. In the first or second class meeting, devoting class time to developing  community guidelines (also referred to as a class constitution) engages students in creating the cultural practices of your course. We will briefly discuss how and why to do this.

Next we’ll turn to participation reflections as one way of fostering and evaluating student participation that moves beyond quantitative assessment (e.g. “everyone must participate once per class”). Having students fill out a weekly or biweekly reflection at the end of the class period can help you extend their thinking about that week’s materials, recognize non-verbal forms of participation, encourage verbal participation, and build student comments and questions into future class discussions. We’ll look at some sample student reflections and discuss how we might evaluate them and how they might guide instruction.

We’ll finish by briefly discussing grant opportunities for course development through the Koshland Fund.

Welcome to our fourth workshop about teaching Reading and Composition in Comparative Literature! What follows is a narrative agenda for our May 1st meeting.

This workshop will build on the skills discussed in the previous ones: the nature of R&C, syllabus and website design, and co-teaching.

We’ll begin by going around the room and sharing a bit about what courses we’ll each be teaching in the fall and with whom.

Course Preparation. Next, we’ll go over what you and your co-teacher need to accomplish between now and the fall semester:

In the most general terms, this includes:

1. Meeting and planning with your co-GSI
2. Designing a website or syllabus and reading all the materials you plan to teach
3. Planning for the first week of classes with your co-GSI

The resources available to you on the Comparative Literature Teaching bcourses page can help you in preparing the course and developing teaching materials throughout the semester. We will briefly discuss how to access those resources and how they are organized.

Writing Projects. Next we will take a closer look at how to design a writing project.  We’ll share a few samples and ask that you share a book you love and a writing assignment you’d imagine designing in conjunction with that text.

Class Constitutions. One thing you may want to do in the first class meetings is develop a class constitution, through which students participate in creating the culture and practices of your course. We will briefly discuss how and why to do this.

Grading. Victoria Kahn will introduce us to the department’s grading procedures, and we will have some time to look at a sample paper and rubric. Here is:

• A sample close reading assignment and rubric
• A sample student paper in response to this particular assignment
• An archive of additional sample student work