I'm a 19th-century Americanist and my syllabi for courses taught in early American lit have covered a wide span of women's literature. I've always gone for non-canonical authors and approaches that critique a male-dominated, colonialist canon. But aside from teaching the usual suspects, slave narratives such as Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave … Continue reading Teaching LEMONADE in 19th-Century American Lit
digital media
Spring Sound Recording at Walden
In the first week of May, a Walden park ranger confirmed over the phone that the birds had arrived and there were leaves on the trees. Ready to collect my next sound recordings for The Walden Soundscape project as soon as spring arrived in New York City where I live, I had been asking the … Continue reading Spring Sound Recording at Walden
My Week Curating for We the Humanities
We the Humanities is a rotation-curation project that I first heard about on Twitter from Krissie West, one of the project's founders. Basically, each week a different person rotates tweeting for We the Humanities, which has a following base of academics, teachers, parents, students, and others interested from around the world. My week came up … Continue reading My Week Curating for We the Humanities
Collaborate, Rotate, Note-Take
Just last week I put together an assignment to have students collaboratively take notes in class. This assignment stems from advice I received from three colleagues, so its very beginnings were collaborative. I am humbled by the work my fellow teachers are doing at CUNY. Where do I begin? What Do We Mean by "Participation"? … Continue reading Collaborate, Rotate, Note-Take
Introducing Students to Twitter Literacy
I use twitter in my classroom to give more introverted students opportunities to participate without having to raise their hands and speak out. It isn't something they encounter in many of their classes, so it takes some time to introduce them to Twitter, help them set up professional or discard accounts, and get them to … Continue reading Introducing Students to Twitter Literacy
Building Community in the Classroom with Twitter
When I greeted my students on the first day of the semester with the announcement that technology would play a large role in my "American Literature: Origins to the Civil War" class, I'm pretty sure their faces looked something like this: Admittedly, it made many of them anxious when I began explaining class blog post assignments … Continue reading Building Community in the Classroom with Twitter
American Lit: Collaborative Writing & Group Work
This semester as I prepared my syllabus for the American Literature: Origins to the Civil War course, I wanted to get my students more engaged in collaborative multi-modal projects. One of these was to write a blog post comparing the American Puritans to one religious group from the HBO series The Game of Thrones. While students cringed … Continue reading American Lit: Collaborative Writing & Group Work
