Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Carrie Shanafelt (carrideen@c18.masto.host)'s status on Monday, 09-Jun-2025 00:17:57 JST Carrie Shanafelt

   Course evaluation time! It's always fascinating to see how students unaccustomed to a discussion format respond to it. Even the people who felt like it wasn't calibrated perfectly to their liking (too much or not enough direction/feedback/lecture) said things like that they wish the English department could do a tutorial for other professors about how to make discussions intellectually productive and engaging. (I especially appreciate that my colleagues are receiving this praise with me!)

   • Embed this notice
     Carrie Shanafelt (carrideen@c18.masto.host)'s status on Monday, 09-Jun-2025 00:18:21 JST Carrie Shanafelt

     in reply to

     And then, for the rest of the semester, about once a week, we'd be talking about something much more rational and normal and someone would say, "I'm gonna put on the Tin Foil Hat" and share a bizarre thought or strange connection. It was a way to call attention to something that wasn't fitting in, something that couldn't be reconciled to the model of analysis we were using. Having that escape valve for conversations gave everyone license to shut up the superego of "don't overanalyze, you nerd."

   • Embed this notice
     Carrie Shanafelt (carrideen@c18.masto.host)'s status on Monday, 09-Jun-2025 00:18:22 JST Carrie Shanafelt

     in reply to

     But I really can't imagine teaching literature or philosophy by standing at the front of the room and talking for 75 minutes while everyone silently writes down what I say or sleeps. Sometimes I have a pretty clear goal, but the class is a lot more interesting and productive for students when we have days set aside for creative thinking. For Wieland, we did conspiracy theory day: What's your wildest take on why everyone in the novel is like this? The conversation was utterly bizarre.

     Mr. Bill repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Carrie Shanafelt (carrideen@c18.masto.host)'s status on Monday, 09-Jun-2025 00:18:23 JST Carrie Shanafelt

     in reply to

     There are reasons why many college professors don't do open discussion formats. The material doesn't lend itself to that kind of model, often. But the other big problem is that students are genuinely a lot more sensitive and politicized. They're nervous about looking dumb or saying something that a classmate will take the wrong way. The stakes can feel very high, and neither instructor nor student wants to accidentally say something offensive that ends up circulating in the group chat forever.