Hello Charles and all,
This is something I've struggled with as well. I started using TBL for a sophomore-level Western literature course required of all students. I've had a really tough time thinking my way into class activities. Sometimes I think it's because I don't have enough time, but I think the bigger issue that I haven't been able to think about how this methodology is best applied to literature, particularly literature in this course.
In my teaching generally I make regular use of small groups for discussion and for generating ideas. I understand that TBL should be used for more substantive work than that. I get the "four S's," but I've found it difficult to come up with activities that are significant and that I can evaluate for course credit. It's difficult to come up with "right answer" problems that are interesting enough to sustain attention, so I've found myself overplaying interpretations (without a "right answer" I can use to set standards for best response). I would really appreciate any help with ideas, and I've imagined that someone would say: "here's a great resource on helping you to think about and plan activities." Like you, Charles, I see the centrality of case studies in TBL and I do think that literature is in some senses all about case studies, but I haven't found anything in the TBL descriptions to help me to connect the dots between what I know how to do and what TBL can help me to do.
My situation might be illustrative: Most students at the college seem to think of this course as their least important course, and they'll do significant work to avoid reading, or reading at any depth. The larger truth is that many of them don't have basic reading skills, so reading Homeric epic, for example, seems to challenge them for a variety of reasons. I apparently set the difficulties of the first RAT's a little too high for them, and some of the students got discouraged. We talked that through, and I thought they were with me. The class activities, if they had the right challenge and payoff, would have helped them to build on what they knew and establish some accountability to one another. The activities I came up with apparently didn't do that, so, as an example, I have one team that is really discouraged and who reinforce one another in being discouraged. Part of the problem is that they aren't doing work to prepare themselves for class, and they justify it to one another by bashing the course. But I've dropped the ball by not having activities that are fun and challenging enough to make work worth it. It's still better than when I did interactive lecture to get through the course, but I feel like I'm missing some central skill or aptitude in my class planning that would enable me to really put this methodology to use.
Any help from the list would be most appreciated, and I'm also interested in further conversation to come up with ideas.
Thanks
Chris Boettcher
Christopher Boettcher, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
158 Leavenworth Hall
Castleton State College
86 Seminary Dr.
Castleton, VT 05735
(802) 468-1278
>>> Charles Dameron <[log in to unmask]> 03/07/11 2:47 PM >>>
I've been wanting to strengthen my active- learning activities in my sophomore literature classes, and the TBL approach provides a number of fine suggestions. I give frequent quizzes and have daily one- page assignments (called reaction papers) that I require students to complete, and I put them in groups during most class meetings to use their reaction papers to launch them into discussions of our reading in the literature courses I teach. However....... The purpose of these groups discussions isn't focused enough, I have found, and I don't have a really effective reporting out activity at the end.
I have read through the Michaelsen/Knight/Fink book on TBL, which is certainly stimulating, but I'm still wrestling with the issue of constructing group assignments that lead to productive reporting out discussions. Most of the courses that use TBL successfully appear to use case studies from a medical, legal, or business context. Have any of you developed case studies, or something along those lines, for literature courses? Are there literature faculty out there who are having good success with group discussions and then simultaneous reporting out?
Much thanks,
Charles Dameron
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