Sharing Bad Days in the Classroom

Over on PALS I wrote a short piece on teaching a pairing of Thomas Jefferson and Phillis Wheatley. Each time I write for PALS or I write for my own blog—I’m looking for a chance to write small. The aim: shorter posts, but more frequent posts.

I tried to write small today. For the sake of time, especially for something that wasn’t planned, I tried to write small and I tried hard since I needed to write other bigger things.

I’m always trying to write small when it comes to the blog. I know that is the best blog practice. I know small is good from the blogs I read. I’ve seen the change from longer and in-depth posts to shorter and more frequent posts.

I tried to write small today. It didn’t happen.

Then I thought: maybe it isn’t writing small—maybe it is editing small.

So I tried to edit small.

My post on Wheatley and Jefferson was personal because I shared failure. I didn’t think folks would want to read about my personal experience. Well, at least not in that way. Most things we post to PALS are personal and based on classroom experience. I aimed to cut my story of failure out. However, my bad memory of teaching Jefferson and Wheatley was central to what I had to say. I think. I still waiver on that.

Ultimately, the reason I included my failure was because it was about failure. It is rare that people share failures in the classroom. Social media is awash with awesome, especially when it comes to teaching. We often send out vibes about being awesome teachers and all but scream our students are from Lake Woebegone. People rarely share the bad. You’ve probably read articles about the link between social media and our self-perception changing by reading about every other person’s awesomeness.

I wanted to buck the trend.

I put off writing small or editing small—in order to share the bad. I think that is important. As teachers we need to share more of the bad. You can read about the good and the bad of teaching Jefferson and Wheatley here.

Check out more on #teachingfails with this roundtable post from Pedagogy and American Literary Studies.

Off with their Headings?

A New Book Purchase and a Website/Podcast Recommendation

During a recent visit to the campus bookstore, I picked up a copy of D. Peter MacLeod’s Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the Making of the American Revolution. I had seen MacLeod’s book recently profiled on John Fea’s website, The Way of Improvement Leads Home. (If you aren’t a regular visitor to John’s site, then I highly recommend checking it out along with the podcast.)

On Reading Northern Armageddon

I’m currently about a quarter of the way through Northern Armageddon and I’m enjoying a great deal. I was apprehensive about reading a battle history. Calling MacLeod’s book a battle history does a great disservice to it because it is certainly more than your typical battle history. Yes, I’m learning a great deal about Canada, Quebec, and the Seven Years’ War. However, one of the most enjoyable aspects of MacLeod’s work is how the author weaves into the narrative many different voices and perspectives, especially from the point of view of civilians caught up in the siege of Quebec.

Northern Armageddon currently occupies a position on my nightstand because it is my bedtime reading. Over the years, especially since slogging through readings for my PhD comprehensive exams, I’ve come to have a fraught relationship with bedtime reading. There have only been a few nonfiction or academic books that I’ve been able to read as bedtime reading. I have a lot of books to read. And I am notoriously bad at devoting time to reading. I always feel I should be doing something else. So far, Northern Armageddon is one of those books and that I read at night and fly through with relatively decent speed when I get a chance to read it.

Even with Fea’s author profile of MacLeod, I needed a kick in the pants to pick up a copy of Northern Armageddon. I didn’t need this kick out of a need for additional confirmation of the value of the work, but because I needed to be pushed over the edge to make an impulse buy at the campus bookstore. This extra kick was especially needed for making a purchase that would likely be something I read at night.

Headings: Good or Bad?

As I stood in the bookstore looking at online reviews of Northern Armageddon, I zeroed in on one review from Publishers Weekly. The review noted that “to include so many perspectives, [MacLeod] had to chop chapters into small subsections, hindering a smooth narrative.” Believe it or not, it is that one line that kicked me over the edge. I wanted to see how these “chop chapters” and “small subsections” worked as an aid to the reader.

I find that the subject headings utilized throughout the chapters are beneficial to me as a reader. The headings keep me on pace. It gives me confidence to pick the book up again after time passes between reading it. It makes reading less of a chore. The headings also help to understand the contend better because I know what is coming next. The Publishers Weekly review implies there is something wrong with structuring chapters via headings. The review almost insinuates that the use of headings is an easy way out for organizing a book with many different strands of historical perspectives and voices. MacLeod’s book is organized at both the macro and micro levels. At the sentence level, MacLeod’s writing isn’t absent of topic sentences or transitions. I find that the subheadings included in each chapter are a welcomed aid and not a hindrance.

(Lack of) Headings in My Own Writing

I think a lot about using headings in my writing. Mostly, I think about not using them. I’ve been with my partner for several years and she has read many drafts of my writing. A standard recommendation she makes is to use subject headings in my writing, even if only part of the drafting phase. I don’t think I’ve ever seriously taken up that advice. I’ve always felt that using subject headings equaled bad writing. I’ve felt headings are a cheap and easy way out of doing the hard work of figuring out organization, even if the headings are removed in the final version of a piece of writing.

A Change in Attitude Towards Headings

However, I have to admit my perspective is changing on headings and exploring that subtle shift is one reason I wanted to read Northern Armageddon. One reasons I’m open to exploring such shifts in my attitude towards reading is the discussion of the differences between academic and public writing. These discussions frequently occurring between historians on Twitter and elsewhere. (BTW: Get with it literature scholars. We need to have these discussions, too.) I’ve also been thinking more about using headings in my writings for Pedagogy and American Literature Studies (PALS). Over at PALS we’ve had discussions about how best to showcase our content. Our posts are longer than the typical blog post, frequently venturing towards the length of a short articles. The length of these pieces can make for difficult online reading. Given the length and medium of the writing on PALS, we’ve often discussed how and why we use headings and images in order to create a smoother reading experience for site visitors. The conundrum of balancing content and form was an a significant concern in writing and presenting my recent post on Hamilton, which was nearly 2,500 words. My Hamilton post ended up with a significant use of headings throughout the piece.

I’ve also been thinking about what books I’ve recently read cover-to-cover and enjoyed. Two books come to mind from my summer reading. As part of my work on the Moravians, I’ve recently read Craig D. Atwood’s Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem and Katherine Carté Engel’s Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America. Both of these books make use of subject headings within the chapters, certainly not to the degree of Northern Armageddon. The headings in the books by Atwood and Engel were used frequently enough to be a great aid to this reader.

What is Your Take?

Do you use headings in drafting your writing or producing the final product? Is there some time between the emergence of online writing and the use of subject headings? Do you think certain fields are friendlier to the idea of using headings? I’d love to hear your take on these questions!

Wigging Out in Class

The semester is drawing to a close. And as it closes, I think about the revising and revamping my courses and the day to day workings of the classroom.

One thing I am working on is trying to make the most of class time, especially when my big plans take less time (for whatever reasons). To this end, I am focusing on developing a stable of activities to use in class when there is still time after whatever major goal is accomplished.

Cue the appropriate mood music

On Thursday the morning class had some extra time. I asked them to use that time to create some wigs using the Design a Wig site from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Now, I didn’t do this just for the sake of fun. It fit in the class. We’ve read some 18C novels. The students have been working on their longer argumentative research papers and are gaining a more nuanced understanding of the time period. Right now- we are reading Royall Tyler’s The Contrast. The edition that I am using features primary materials that deal with fashion and include some cartoons featuring insanely preposterous wigs.

Behold: A wig I made

On Thursday morning I asked students to take a look at the wigs featured in the primary sources of our textbook. Then I asked students to visit the Design a Wig site and create their own wigs by collaborating in groups. They were already in groups- so that made sense. The Design a Wig site is fun. It is also educational. It does provide a few snippets of historical information as it walks users through the tutorial for using the site features. Well, if that doesn’t sound like the  kind of video game tutorial that makes a pedagogy of video games appealing to many people?

On the spur of the moment this worked well. If I planned this out I’d make a few changes. Perhaps have students explore a larger sample size of wigs, design a wig, then ask students to write a collaborative group reflection paper. However, there is something to be said against making something fun and creative become an extra piece of work for the students and the instructor.

Just one more thing. This wasn’t completely out of the blue. I knew I wanted to use this site at some point. It had received a lot of attention over the past few months. I also knew that I’d use it with The Contrast because of the primary source materials. I just hadn’t thought of the actual implementation of using the site in class.

I leave you with the wigs from Thursday.