This semester I have thought a lot about lesson planning. Like many of my teacher and professor colleafues I spent all summer trying to plan my semester out, trying to plan for the situation, for accommodation, for the inevitable. I built full online courses in Blackboard, wanting them done before we started so students could see the whole class, have everything. As everyone can tell you, this is a lot of work. But even though we were stating face to face with the months we'd had over the summer, I really believed we'd soon be switching online, and I did not want a repeat of the spring.
Joke is on me for two reasons. One, we have one week of school left and we're still face to face. Second, our Blackboard went down the second week in September and I switched my classes to a Google Site and for consistency stayed there.
Many of our English majors want to be teachers so for their final "apply what you learned" paper they can choose to do a project based on lesson plans. They create a calendar for a module, a unit plan with standards and assignments, and then choose a couple, few lessons to do all out with all the resources. This plus the fact that the Intro to English Studies class has spent the last two weeks talking about teaching and learning has me even more reflective than I normally am at the end of the semester.
In twenty years of teaching this semester has been the hardest. It is the most work I've ever put into a semester. And most of it was for nothing. The months of work this summer building Blackboard courses ended up being for nothing. Because I built it figuring we'd be moving online, students were confused on what was supposed to be done in class or online, so I had to explain that we were doing things in class as long as we were face to face and the online stuff was back up in case we moved online. I divided classes over 10 into 3 assigned days to enable discussions and social distancing. Since my classes are all discussion based this had a huge impact. The vibe was so different AND I was teaching classes three times a week. On the rare day we DID all come together the difference was noticeable. It also meant that with everything going on this semester, classes/days that had 7-12 students assigned sometimes only had 1-2 show up, which was a very weird energy to try and have a discussion with.
I do not regret a single thing I did this semester even if in hindsight so much of seems to have been for naught. Here's why- I did it all to center students, lessen work, make things easier for them, and while I have a laundry list of things NOT to do next semester, I'm never going to regret putting my students at the center of my practice.
All this focus on lesson planning with the students, both for their projects and talking to my students, has me thinking about how I lesson plan. My syllabus is always created months in advance. I start them almost as soon as the semester begins, rough sketches of what I want to do. Then as ideas come to me, or I see readings online or on Twitter, I flesh out the readings, move things, change my mind about assignments, or skills I need to focus on based on things going on in THIS semester. By the time we do registration (for us, these last two weeks for spring) I can share a mostly finalized syllabus with students in case they're interested. And all my syllabuses are live Google Docs so the link I give them will always be up to date. They can look at see not just the books we're reading, but how the course is laid out, the assignments, and get an accurate idea of what class is.For face to face classes, I sit down on Saturday mornings and for each class look at the syllabus, and flesh out the plan into lessons. Do the readings, make notes, look up research, create handouts or presentations, or any supplemental things students need. I like doing this on the weekend because then I can post those things and make them available to the students, as well as a weekly announcement that gives reminders and an overview of the week ahead, including any university dates or news. Lesson planning on the weekends means that during the week my time is freed up for student interactions and grading. They email me work, and I aim to return it with feedback in the same day (barring weekends). While I lesson plan on Saturday morning, I DO NOT log into work email.
In general, my upper level English classes full of mostly majors, did well this semester, even with everything going on. The general education classes had more struggles. I'm not rigid in my expectations or policies- no due dates, no deadlines, students choose topics, how to demonstrate knowledge-and I think for GE classes, in THIS semester, with many of them being first time freshmen, having spent the spring in limbo high school senior year or who knows what online format, this was a failure.
So, for the spring I have a once a week, 3 hour, night, Shakespeare seminar. I'm really looking forward to this, both the seminar format and the fact that I designed it as a Shakespeare and Adaptation course focusing on race and queer readings. Since it's face to face, I'll put some additional materials on the Google Site with Slack as an additional communication channel, but really just expanded resources or videos from the syllabus. I'm also teaching our Capstone class face to face, so same thing. I'm also teaching our Advanced Composition class. This is for our majors AND is a required class for our Interdisciplinary Students and that's an online only program. For this class I am also sticking to the Google Site and Slack. One, because I like it better, and two, it's easier for students to navigate and I want students to focus on work and not have the LMS be a barrier. I also have an independent study for History of the English Language. For all of these classes I am going gradeless with feedback on check in assignments but no grades, and their only grade being their self-determined midterm grade reflections, and their final paper/projects with reflections.
I redesigned the major writing assignments because one thing I noticed this semester was that the assignments read too much like they were separate instead of building on each other. So, the major genres stay the same but the assignments are:
For narrative:
- Write your own narrative
- Choose one of the side characters in “Cinderella” and write a story from their point of view
- Be sure to include the narrative elements
For informative/argumentative:
- Choose a topic, tale in fairy tales, folklore that you want to research
- Create an annotated bibliography for your 2-3 chosen sources
Then for literary analysis, they pull these parts together:
Write your literary analysis essay that analyzes a fairy/folk tale and uses secondary sources to support your analysis
Each module will have graded practice assignments, like defining narrative elements, annotating a piece for them, etc. The grade will be complete/incomplete and I'm still going to encourage them to focus on the feedback, but I found this semester that the ungraded but pay attention to feedback aspect of practice did not click. So the practice assignments are 50% of their grade. Just do it and you'll see a big impact on your grade.
I'm also going back to school myself in thinking how to redesign the course. When I first started teaching online in 2010, how I was taught was very prescriptive and rigid.
Have a header that explains and gives an overview of the unit/module
Use action verbs for each item they need to complete, READ this, DEFINE that, SUBMIT X
Every learning material, every resource was tied to an assignment, a grade
I've spent a lot of the last 10 years UNDOING that kind of teaching. But, I think in these unprecedented times, with folks who come from a range of experiences, this form of teaching is not rigid, it is clear. So while students will still have choice in topics, and what they want to write on, I'm going to focus on being clear, and making sure the material is accessible to students who (if this semester is any indication) will not necessarily reach out, and need the course to do all the work. So paring down supplemental resources, tying materials to assignments, and being very clear about what they need to do, with no intervention by me during the week. Not because I'm not here or willing, but this semester, I'm sure for a variety of reasons, students did not take advantage of me as students in my online classes normally do.
Then the major writing assignments are 25% of their grade. Last year students did grade conferences with me, explaining based on elements we discussed as a class had to be included, what grade they thought their work earned and why. These conversations were really fruitful last year. Having them try to replicate these in email reflections did not work. There was a disconnect between what we said work needed to include and what it did include and the grade they argued for. SO, for the spring, I'm still going to have them email me grade reflections but in addition to this they also have to annotate the major writing assignment they turn in FOR all the elements the assignment required. I'm hoping doing that work helps them reflect more and focus more on the lessons the assignments are supposed to showcase.
The writing portfolio/end of semester reflection is the last 25% of their grade. This semester's students haven't turned theirs in yet, so I'm not sure what changes I have to do to that yet. From last year to this, I did cut down on the number of revisions, because I was more interested in quality than quantity, so I'm interested to see if that helps.
Even when I've had to make changes to things in class this semester, often on the fly, respnding to outside things, it's been okay for students because I always tell them what my pedagogical reason is for things- from readings to how I designed class to how and why I created assignments. So they trust that everything has a reason and they know they can always ask what it is. I am really proud of my students for all they've faced this semester. Not all of my students got through the semester. I'm sure most of us had students withdraw, stop coming, deal with mental and physical health issues, days missed due to sickness or quarantine. I wish I had magical answers to ensure ALL my students made it through the semester but I just don't. Having students out of class for 2 weeks for quarantine in a discussion based class sucks. But while that's certainly where the content is, in my classes, they were able to do the reading on their own, and complete the assignments, even if my stunning talking time was missed.
In the spring we're running pretty much the same schedule- roughly 50% classes online, the rest face to face in socially distanced rooms with specific caps. I taught face to face this semester and never once had an issue with students not wearing their masks, and I am grateful for the care we all showed each other. I think, while no one is relaxing with the pandemic, that next semester will be easier because so much was unknown this semester and next semester we are all coming in knowing how to do this face to face class thing under pandemic conditions.
I know a lot of folks did hybrid learning this semester, and are rethinking ways to teach in the spring, because as many have said, working through summer and the extra labor this semester is just not sustainable. I know for hybrid many are planning on dividing online work versus face to face workshop or office hour time more clearly. I've had discussions with the Intro students as we talked about teaching, and online teaching, this week, that while students coming off of last semester and this, which in many cases was guerilla teaching not "online" teaching, that I could understand why students thought a professor should just be able to "add" a student Zooming into a face to face class. But we've talked, and they've shared their experiences, on how face to face teaching IS NOT online teaching, that online teaching has different set ups, standards, requirements. Many shared that they would have had better semesters if professors had stuck to the face to face methods they were familiar with- 2-3 lectures a week, held on Zoom, recorded, regular type assignments, than failing spectacularly and piling on the work trying to teach online.
I think at least part of this issue is IF you don't have a clear pedagogy, and ARE just replicating what/how you were taught then the move to online became an adopting of a checklist of things folks may or may not have been comfortable with. Without a clear sense of WHY folks were doing things, a lot of things became arbitrary and the work piled on, and there was no reflection or course correction and it just got worse and worse.
I know a lot of people, for child care reasons and health reasons, were moved to online teaching that have no interest in online teaching and no experience, or only crash courses. I hope there is some reflection for the spring, a reassessment. Honestly, from what I hear from our own students, and reports and experiences from other schools I think the best thing those folks could do is NOT teach online. Survey students on the time that works best for most. Hold Zoom lectures during that time, on a regular TR, MWF schedule. Record and put in Blackboard for those who that time doesn't work. Assign your "normal" semester assignments. Do not worry about building anything online. I think teaching how you're comfortable will be a better delivery of content ultimately for the students.
I'm a huge fan of what online teaching can be. But I think in the last few months, for a variety of reasons, we collectively as teachers, students, and professors, have been calling everything online teaching instead of distinguishing "triage" teaching, which is still what many students got even this semester from true online teaching.
I wish in general, nationwide, that there had been more emphasis on centering students this semester and more preparation and resources, specific actions for professors on HOW to do this, from policies to cut, to things they could have done in their classrooms. It seems from reading that a handful of smaller schools had amazing Centers for Teaching and Learning that did this, but it also seems like the majority of places just did not have the buy in from faculty and/or lacked the impetus from above to make it happen. I am very, very sad for what that means for students. I hate that anything a professor did anywhere would have made this semester harder for anyone. And on a practical note, I know that while many folks are feeling more hopeful about the future, higher ed is still facing the culmination of twenty years of being defunded in the middle of the pandemic crisis. The news has been full of faculty cuts, department and school closures. I know a lot of places are worried about the dip in enrollment they're going to see ESPECIALLY with almost two months for most folks between fall and spring semesters. I can't help but think that while we should expect that as folks recover and reckon with the toil from this semester, that we could have prevented a lot of this is we had all collectively centered our students in every decision we made.
As we enter our last week of classes I know my students are exhausted. I'm exhausted. But I also feel good about what I WAS able to do for my students this semester and I feel really good about changes I can make for spring to better serve them.
I know this has all been hard, impossible even.
I hope everyone over the longish break can recharge their own mental and emotional batteries, do some reflecting on their practice, and redesign or course correct for the spring.
