How to Write a Lecture (1)

Beautiful September day in Duluth -- photo by my Dad, who visited this weekend

According to my roommate S, the question "How do you develop a course?" is common in job interviews. Here's a few ideas I feel like jotting down tonight. I've already developed ENGL 1802's syllabus, and I thought through the first week of class, but I did not develop the second week yet. What do I do? (Besides panic and procrastinate -- check and check.)

Since it's a 15-person seminar, I structure the class session around a set of a 4 - 6 activities which bring together participation with listening and learning. I try to "lecture," in the traditional sense, minimally. The types of activities include:

• In-class Reading. This is great on Thursday, when I presume students have made a start on the readings for the week, but won't really get to them until the weekend, when the homework assignment will be due. 
• In-class Writing. Usually students work individually, but I'm trying to formulate ways to have them work in groups to produce writing. To me, it is through these exercises that the students learn to do close reading, and so mostly supplant any writing free "discussion" periods. (Question: does free-form discussion even have a place in the contemporary literature classroom?) 
• Culture Lessons. I'm not sure this is the right term for it, but I'm thinking of how, last Thursday, when I pointed out that a highly literary part of "The Jade Kuanyin" is the poetry, as in a line about "lily feet," we digressed into an explanation of foot binding. The students really loved this. KT, my mentor, has suggested that I ask the students to name as many Asians as they can think of as an assessment tool, and my classmate JN concurred with this idea, but I don't see the point of that. My roommate S had a better idea, I think when he suggested having the students write down three "fact-based" questions about Asia. S's idea reminds me of an idea for a segment to be called "Ask me anything." Writing down questions, reminds S, will empower the students to ask their questions verbally.