The Office Hour: Recent Episodes
Eric Lewis
Teachers get together to discuss teaching. Specifically, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows discuss practice and theory drawn from their experience teaching humanities and communication courses at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
This episode addresses how a lot of conversations on multilingualism in the composition classroom focus on students who speak non-traditional varieties of English, whereas little attention has been given to multilingual instructors of college writing. We discuss how multilingualism can shape pedagogical practices while foregrounding both the challenges faced by multilingual teachers of FYW and the unique contributions that those instructors make to both the theory and practice of teaching First-Year Writing.
In this episode, we are continuing our discussion of the application of narrative-based learning to quantum science, an interdisciplinary effort between the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, and the School of Materials Science and Engineering here at Georgia Tech.
This week in The Office Hour, we are discussing the application of narrative-based learning to quantum science. This is an ongoing interdisciplinary effort between the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, or LMC, and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, or MSE, here at Georgia Tech. LMC and MSE are working together to produce assignments featuring narrative and reflective elements that are designed to build students’ skills in technical communication. We will interview Dr. Faisal Alamgir from MSE about this ongoing interdisciplinary effort, and how LMC contributes specifically with skills, education, and composition in technical communication.
Shane Snyder joins Lee and David to discuss his experiences of integrating Twine Narratives into course syllabi. Shane describes some student projects and answers questions about Twine. What are Twine narratives and how are they applicable to teaching game design? What affordances do Twine narratives offer to students in terms of learning course content, game design, and self-exploration and expression?
Brittain Fellows Jeff Howard and Shinjini Chattopadhyay oversaw an antiracist reading group funded by a Georgia Tech Writing and Communication Program Leadership Opportunity Grant. The group read Emma Dabiri's What White People Can Do Next.
This episode includes an interview with Jeff and Shinjini and a recording of the reading group's final meeting. Participants discuss the book and plans for applying lessons learned next semester.
Andrew Salyer joins Eric Lewis and Molly Slavin to discuss ways of creating classroom community.
Transcript
In this episode, Corey Goergen, Molly Slavin, and Eric Lewis discuss contract grading with Rachel Dean-Ruzicka, lecturer of Writing and Communication. How do you teach first-year college students what a syllabus is and how to use it? What are ways of making syllabi more accessible? What are some alternatives to the traditional syllabus day?
Example Syllabus Memes
In this episode, Eric Lewis and Corey Goergen discuss contract grading with Kent Linthicum, American Council of Learned Societies Fellow 2021-2022. What exactly is contract grading? What are its advantages for both students and instructors? How does one implement it successfully?
Example Grading Contracts:
Linthicum Grading Contract ENGL 1102 Summer 2021
Linthicum Reflection (Ungrading) Contract ENGL 1101 Fall 2020
In this episode, Eric Lewis, Corey Goergen, and Molly Slavin are joined by Jill Fennell, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, and Wendy Truran, visiting lecturer, to discuss public humanities work in the classroom. What are the impacts of having students complete public-facing research projects? What is there to be learned by both students and instructors from such coursework?
Specifically, we discuss Wendy's Hidden Figures of Modernism research project and Jill's The Fantasy Forum, a collaborative student-centered podcast about fantasy appreciation.
Example student work:
- "Uncovering the Work of a Lost Poet: Grace Hazard Conkling"
- "Olivia Ward Bush-Banks"
- "Hidden Figures of Modernism: Masaoka Shiki"
- The Fantasy Forum
Transcript