| I regularly teach courses in two areas of specialty—secondary English education and dramatic literature and history; I also teach general education literature and writing courses such as writing-intensive first-year seminars and introduction to literature. Because of my teaching interest in English education, I approach each of my classes somewhat experimentally, trying strategies of teaching writing and reading that research and my own experience tell me have greatest likelihood of working for students but varying pedagogical approaches to suit the students and subject matter. I apply my background in theatre education to my classes, teaching plays and films and involving students in performance activities as part of their interpretive inquiry and conversation.
Courses
Writing-Intensive First-Year Seminar and Academic Writing
Intensive writing class for first-year students with a thematic focus—on "Work and How We Make Sense of It."
Literature & Society
General education course introducing students to a variety of literary texts and methods of investigating and discussing them. The thematic focus of my version of this course investigates the relationship between memory and literature.
Introduction to English Language Arts Education
Initial course in the English education pedagogy sequence; introduces students to some of the most important ideas in literacy education at the secondary level including adolescent psychology, literacy development, and pedagogical strategies for writing and reading instruction. The course places a special focus on an introduction to teaching adolescent writers. The course also involves field experiences in schools in the region.
Adolescent Literature
A course for secondary English education majors that focuses on both instructional strategies for teaching reading and engaging adolescents with literature.
Teaching English in Secondary Schools
The methods course for secondary English education majors; an upper-level course with intensive reading, application, and field experiences built in.
Theories and Approaches: Language, Literacy, and Learning
A course that introduces important theories about language learning, literacy, and literary criticism and identifies related teaching approaches for the secondary classroom.
Theories and Approaches: Performance in Language, Learning, Culture, and Literature
A course that introduces performance theories that can inform understanding of language use, cultural practice, and literary interpretation, and identifies related teaching approaches useful in working with adolescents.
Global Literature: Introduction to Modern World Drama
Survey course in European, Asian, African, and Latin American drama from the nineteenth through the twentieth century.
Studies in Drama: American Family Drama
Examination of representations of family life in social context in twentieth and twenty-first century American drama
Romanticism
Overview of the British Romantic era featuring poetry, drama, and narrative fiction.
Seminar in Drama: Gender in Contemporary Drama
Investigation of British and American drama from around 1980 to the present and its writers' varied ways of exploring the potential meanings and responses generated by enacting gender's performativity.
How and Why to Teach Women's Dramaturgy
A special topics literature class that examines the pedagogical and cultural implications of reconsidering British women's writing in dramatic forms. |
