Peer Feedback

As a Creative Writing 202 TA, I taught four full-length lectures on poetry writing basics.  My supervising professor had this to say:

You gave a great lecture, and thanks for all the work you put into it. What I most appreciated about your talk was the effort to teach the absolute fundamentals of craft using clear, intelligent examples in order to prove to your students the intrinsic value of concrete language.  You gave an honest appraisal of what will fail on the page and what, if done thoughtfully, will succeed. The examples of abstract language and concrete language were poignant and helpful. Metaphor, the slippery squid, was emphasized: thank you. The class took notes from your clear, well-organized slides.  A lot of your material will be good for the quiz. Also, I was glad you were able to give the students another chance to read aloud their work—it’s always incredible to hear from them. And you helped create continuity between lessons by providing the class with an opportunity to rethink their pieces from the previous class and improve them— an intuitive lesson in revision. Well done.

It’s no easy thing to talk to a class of 180 students; to bring confidence, keep them interested, impart some practical knowledge, remind them of their own literary freedom, keep it all moving at a pace. But you did all these things by the end and I’m sure you will continue to grow into this role. I think they were all glad to hear from you.

Feedback from Lee Henderson
Adjunct professor, UBC Creative Writing Program
Freelance journalist and author of The Man

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The resources at UBC’s Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology are very helpful—especially their teacher training programs.  For the Peer Review of Teaching program, my peer reviewer was Roselynn Verwoord.

I have had the pleasure of working with Natalie since January 2011, in my capacity as the Community of Practice Developer at the Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology (CTLT) at the University of British Columbia. Natalie is passionate about improving teaching and learning both for adults in the higher education system and for youth in elementary and high schools. Through the Formative Peer Review program at CTLT, I had the opportunity to observe Natalie teach one class on poetry in a course entitled Creative Writing 201. Natalie was highly organized and prepared for her lesson, which she demonstrated through her detailed lesson plan, PowerPoint, and student handouts. Throughout the Peer Review process she was keen and open to receiving my feedback on her teaching. Natalie is a diligent and reflective educator whose goal is to improve learning for her students. Based on my interactions with and observations of her, I know that she will continue to learn and grow in her ability to effectively support teaching and learning.

Roselynn Verwoord
Community of Practice Developer
Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology (CTLT)

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