English 1550 (Tuesday, Aug. 30)

Tuesday was my first day as a graduate assistant in Karen Kotrba's English 1550 class. Karen focused primarily on reviewing the syllabus and explaining both the major and minor assignments. Although her syllabus was incredibly detailed and dense, she presented the information in an accessible manner. She provided the perfect amount of information: enough to get her students going but not enough to completely overwhelm them. Additionally, she noted that all class information would be available on Blackboard, which seemed to reassure some of her students. I particularly liked how her class focused around the theme of work (and how she immediately engaged her students by having them make a list of jobs worked). I also found her emphasis on Youngstown and the steel industry interesting. After discussing the syllabus, Karen talked about the first major writing assignment, which included analysis of work-related poetry. She actually read a few of these poems to her class, and it was immediately evident that she was passionate about poetry (and particularly liked the poems she had chosen). I think that her students observed this love of poetry as well, and they became more involved in classroom discussion. On this first day of class (which was the first college course for many of her students), Karen seemed welcoming and friendly, even taking 10 minutes after class to talk with a few who had questions and concerns. On the second day of class, Karen continued to exude accessibility. I also liked the assignment she gave to her students: making them choose a quote and apply it to their writing experiences. Through this and by going around the room to meet her students, it seemed like she really put in effort to interest her students.

COMMENTS:

* Guy Shebat: I like the way you are paying attention to things like instructor accessibility and instructor engagement in the content of the course. When an instructor can demonstrate enthusiasm for a course's material and structure, students typically will respond with a degree of engagement that they might not show when the instructor seems to be "going through the motions."