Category Archives: Uncategorized

Thinking about course design

Reflection and commentary: what was I thinking, why did it seem like a good idea at the time, what worked, what didn’t, what would I do differently next time, et mea culpa cetera. Behind the scenes, reading between the lines, what lies before and under and over and after a course.

2026-27

Beginners’ French I and II (FREN 101 & 102)

  • work in progress

2024-25

A World of Marvels: cross-listed “European Literature from the 5th to the 14th Century” (MDVL 301) & “French Literature from the Middle Ages to the Revolution” (RMST 321)

 

Thinking about pedagogy

Behind a course, underneath its design, are fundamental questions. Essential, quintessential matters; pedagogical and existential. What’s the point of an assignment? Of assessment? Of a course? Of a university education in the literate humanities? Of learning? What are we doing? Who, where, when, how, why?

Here is some writing from my main blog about teaching and learning and the point of it all.

Thinking about assignments & assessment

Behind a course, underneath its design, are fundamental questions. Essential, quintessential matters; pedagogical and existential. What’s the point of an assignment? Of assessment? Of a course? Of a university education in the literate humanities? Of learning? What are we doing? Who, where, when, how, why?

Here is some older writing from my main blog, ten years’ attempts to think through assignments and assessment, or—”staying with the trouble”—at least to think at and around them.