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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 27

#8 INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD), COLLEGE OF EDUCATION,

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN « WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

An Approach Toward Teaching Nontraditional Literature

For the 1991 fall semester, I offered a nontraditional
literature course: Major Black Writers. I decided, since
this was a nontraditional course, that I should teach it ina
nontraditional fashion. I felt that my students might get
more out of the class and that I might enjoy teaching it
more. First, I should explain how I taught a traditional
literature course, i.e., Survey of British Literature, Part I.

For a traditional course, I felt obligated to teach in a
traditional manner, which meant I gave my students a
mid-term examination, comprehensive final, a research
paper assignment, and regular (almost daily) quizzes.
This approach, it seemed to me, was best for two reasons.
One, I was most comfortable teaching Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Milton, etc., ina way that is organized either
by genre or by chronology. Most anthologies are orga-
nized this way, as well. Two, I taught traditional literature
courses this way simply because that is how they are
taught at almost all other colleges and universities; my
transfer students would not have any trouble convincing
an English professor that my Survey of British Literature,
Part I, is virtually identical to the one his own institution
offers.

For Major Black Writers, however, I finally decided this
traditional approach would hurt the class. Since the
course was designed by the University of Kentucky to
cover more material than a traditional survey, I was
obliged to cover major black writers from Africa, the
Caribbean, as well as the United States. Further, the
course was to touch upon oral literature in addition to
written texts. Obviously, any type of genre or chronologi-
cal organization would be very difficult to find. I also
decided, since the course would typically transfer only as
an elective, that I was not under any obligation to research
the most common ways of teaching it. Therefore, I was
liberated from tradition and consequently would have
only one overriding goal for the course: 1 wanted my
students to enjoy so thoroughly the reading that they
would read other black authors on their own. I succeeded
in that goal!

I selected four books, one film, and a variety of oral
works that could represent the range of material I wanted
to cover. Then I outlined the course of study and how I
would evaluate students’ progress: I would require a
reading journal (35% of the semester grade), a portfolio of

creative work (50%), and steady attendance and class
participation (15%).

The reading journals, collected weekly, allowed me to
monitor the students’ reactions. Each week's entry was to
be at least three pages; and, by the end of the semester,
there were to be no fewer than 50 completed pages.
Occasionally, I gave students specific questions to answer
in the journal, but usually I left it entirely to each student
to respond to the readings. To accomplish this, I asked
them not so much to analyze the poems, stories, etc., but
to respond to “How did this affect you emotionally?”
Almost every student put a great deal of effort into the
journal. I responded in kind by giving lengthy written
comments and reactions. Often I had a continuing
debate—some lasting for a month or more—with a
student about a particular work. I think I accomplished as
much through these written dialogues as through class
discussions.

The creative portfolio (25+ typed pages) also worked
much better than I could have anticipated. Students were
very apprehensive when they discovered they would be
required to write either poetry or short stories. Most had
done neither; all expressed doubts that their efforts would
be any good. I offered them constant encouragement, and
by mid-semester, most of the students had begun to write.
Typically, their first efforts were materials adapted from
their journal responses, but then they began to make
connections between what we had read or discussed and
their own lives. Suddenly, their writing became more
personal; invariably, it also became more interesting. At
the end of the semester, I was so impressed with the
quality of their work that I decided to put together a
magazine of the highlights. I retyped about 20 pages of
poetry, designed a cover, then photocopied the pages and
stapled them together. I distributed the magazine to my
former students the first day of classes the next semester.
They, in turn, proudly showed it to friends and class-
mates, which raised interest in the class for next year. The
magazine, originally only an afterthought, will now be a
featured attraction of the course in the future.

The third criteria in the evaluation process (attendance
and participation) was an obvious incentive for the
students. While they tended to find the reading interest-
ing and the class discussions invigorating, we had occa-

 

(fom *) THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
WS J Community College Leadership Program, Department of Educational Administration

  

College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712