Pose, Wobble, Flow

I wobble every time I start a new semester, whether or not I’m teaching new classes. My wobbling occurs because I can’t stand to teach the same books, movies, or even assignments every semester and want to find better ways to connect with my students. 

Video Essay Example: Finding a Place for Monstrous Nature

For example, last year I taught English 3008, Digital Writing and Multimodal Texts for the first time, a required class for a couple of English concentrations and a way to fulfill electives in other concentrations and majors. For this class, I had English majors, of course, but I also had journalism and Communication Studies students seeking digital writing assistance and credit. The course is relatively new, so the only syllabi I had were the course proposal and a literature-heavy syllabus from a previous instructor. 

I wanted to do something different that also aligned better with the proposal, so I thought about ways to incorporate multiple new genres, while also integrating different multi-modal (and less tradition) documentary texts. I took a thematic approach, but the digital writing took center stage. If I teach this course again, I will reverse the podcast and video essay assignments and spend more time preparing them for each.