Dear All:
I would be very interested in hearing about more experiences with TBL in
literature or history classes. I also read the TBL book this summer, and
am implementing TBL in my Introduction to Hispanic Literature class this
fall. It is a course taught in Spanish, whose objectives include
teaching the students rudimentary formal analysis and exposing them to a
range of Spanish and Latin American literature. We use a well-known text
called Aproximaciones that has four sections: narrative, drama, poetry,
essay, each introduced by a discussion of literary devices, followed by
a selection of literary texts.
I have focused the RATs on making sure the students master the
definitions of literary devices: metaphor, simile, plot structure
(exposition, complication, suspense, climax, denouement), etc. I include
some textual examples of literary devices that students have to identify
on the RATs. My struggle (in these quick first three weeks) has been to
design good application exercises, particularly ones that have concisely
reportable answers. I have tried the following with ok results, but not
yet enough inter-team discussion (intra-team discussion is lively and
fruitful):
1. Students read two short stories, one medieval (didactic tale from El
conde Lucanor) and one 20th century (Borges, "The Ethnographer") and had
to decide whether the medieval narrator (Patronio) and plot structure
(closed ending, with explicit moral) could be used in the Borges' story
(quest narrative with ironic twist and ambiguous ending). I didn't
provide these parenthetical comments, but did provide 6 questions that
led the students to analyze message, narrative perspective and plot
structure in both stories before they answered. The weakness in the
exercise was that by the time they worked through the the questions, the
better answer was clear to all teams, so there wasn't much motivation to
challenge each other.
2. I tried a more open-ended answer scheme the next class: Students took
a 20th-century feminist short story with an open ending and had to
articulate the message and then explain the effect that the narrative
perspective and form (first person, interior monologue--in the form of a
letter) had on the message and reader. The inter-group discussion was
more fruitful, here, though the reporting was a little cumbersome.
3. On a third day, I gave students an anonymous essay on the same story
(#2) written by a former student (provided with her permission). They
were to identify the thesis, evaluate whether it was a good thesis
(using guidelines from a composition handout) and find among three
paragraphs the sentence that best addressed the effect of the narrative
perspective (also the focus of the thesis statement). This discussion
was a little livelier this time, as there were differences in
identifying the thesis statement and best sentence.
Again, in all three, I have found that the team discussions themselves
are rich and fruitful; it is in trying to get the groups to engage with
each other so that they can compare their work that I do not yet feel
satisfied. I have used a class website to post results of team
discussions and my reactions for one of these three sessions.
I would love to hear other very concrete examples of team application
exercises and exams. I am thinking that for the team exams, I will
provide students with a short text a couple days in advance, one that
they cannot find criticism of easily on the web, and have them work
through a couple of formal analytical problems.
Kathy McKnight
Greg Dyer wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> I stumbled across Team-Based Learning late this summer, and I've
> decided to integrate a condensed version into an American Lit. survey
> as something of a test run. While most class periods will remain the
> standard in-class discussion largely typical of English courses, one
> class period in each unit is dedicated to team-based learning. More
> specifically, the course is being taught as one of our designated
> critical thinking courses. Thus, the team-based sessions will tend to
> emphasize the CT content.
>
> Apart from using TBL more as a teaching technique than a full-blown
> teaching strategy, I'm staying as close as possible to the suggestions
> outlined in _Team-Based Learning_. As a newbie, however, I'm hoping
> some of you may be able to address the following questions:
>
> * Are there any accessible examples (RATs and/or Team Activities)
> related to humanities courses, or to literature courses more
> specifically? The most obviously humanities-related example in
> _Team-Based Learning_ (Nakaji) doesn't provide many specifics
> from which to work.
> * Have any of you utilized TBL in humanities courses--particularly
> literature classes? If so, how?
> * Have any of you utilized TBL in this more limited fashion (i.e.,
> as a technique rather than a strategy)? Any suggestions
> regarding potential pitfalls, etc.?
>
> Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm excited to see how all of this
> unfolds.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Greg
>
>
> Greg Dyer, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of English
> University of Sioux Falls
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
--
Kathryn J. McKnight
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
MSC03 2100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Office: Ortega 419
Phone: 505-277-3924
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