Inventing first seminar
From SAGESWiki
From: Molly Berger, Assistant Dean; Instructor, Department of History:
Hello, fellow adventurers. I have found that I have benefited from talking to other first-timers and so I thought I would post the things I have done so far to see if any of you have good suggestions or comments for me. Perhaps we can help each other sort out some of the challenges.
I'd like to start by saying that I'm very excited about planning and teaching this course. I am working with a stellar co-instructor, too, and that helps a great deal. But, we've strayed (Peter, forgive me). The template is very useful, and I will adhere to the number of requirements, but I struggle to find cohesiveness in the template that works for me. Hence, a new theme that, yes, is Life of the Mind, but is a bit like The Life of What Molly and Chalet's Minds Think Would Be More Suited to What We Want to Do. Perhaps I should rename this page, “The SAGES Confessional”?
The common reader, Mountains Beyond Mountains, set the direction I took for this course. As I read the book, my own failings as an ineffectual bleeding heart liberal bubbled up. I have never saved anyone’s life, much less set up a health clinic against seemingly insurmountable odds in my early twenties, and then continued to focus my life on improving the lives of the impoverished. I haven’t been to Haiti. What’s a first-seminar instructor to do?
Entering college students will be making decisions about the direction their lives will take and Kidder’s book prompts questions such as, “What am I going to do with my life? Can I make a difference in the world? Do I want to make a difference in the world? How do we define the value of a life’s work? How will my academic and social decisions help me to realize my goals?” I decided that my seminar would explore the way in which choosing the direction of one’s Life of the Mind helps determine one’s Life.
So, following the template’s course description, I have added the following paragraph:
This section of Life of the Mind will focus on biography and autobiography as narratives. In analyzing these narratives we will pay close attention to the ways in which the narrator's worldview or frame of reference shapes their view of the subject and their construction of the story. We see value in this approach because you are beginning a stage of your life where you will be constructing your own life narrative and will be making decisions that will shape your future. Through readings based on people’s lives and experiences meant to enrich your understanding of those lives, you will learn to ask the kinds of questions that result in thoughtful analysis, constructive dialogue, and mindful action. This seminar will integrate writing instruction, analysis, discussion, and experience with the goal of learning the skills necessary for a successful academic life.
I’ve chosen to use the following books: Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars David Mas Masumoto, Epitaph for a Peach (New York: HarperCollins, 1996). Loung Ung, First They Killed My Father (New York: Harper Perennial, 2001). Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993). Also: Lunsford, The Everyday Writer and Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace.
Masumoto’s book is one I’d heard about from a few different sources over the past couple of years. It is a memoir written by a Japanese-American peach and grape farmer in California. He is a Berkeley sociology graduate who returned to his family farm and his book tells the story of his efforts to grow Sun Crest peaches, a variety that is difficult to grow and has no real market because of its perishability. Masumoto also turned to organic farming methods. His book is a lyrical meditation about balancing different fields of knowledge and authority, finding holistic cohesion between work, family, and competing value systems.
I have invited Doug Raubenolt, the Shaker Market’s “chicken farmer,” to speak to the class. Over the past two years, Doug and I have chatted about the same kind of ideas that Masumoto raises. We will also visit the Saturday market for a guided tour and possibly prepare a meal with our market purchases.
I met Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father, over the summer when I moved to my new house. She is a neighbor. It is nearly impossible to reconcile the woman I met with the story she tells of her childhood, surviving the “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge in her native Cambodia. This is the first book I have read in years that I read straight through in a day. I am hoping that Loung will be able to visit our class, but she travels a great deal in her work as National Spokesman for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
Finally, my students will read Langston Hughes' autobiography, The Big Sea, from the SAGES list.
So, the big question is: what connects these books? The course description helps to explain (I think, I hope), but these are all stories that we would not know except for these people’s ability to write, tell a compelling story, make us think about our world, how we perceive it, and make our place in it. They are about ethical, mindful decision-making, the power of narrative, the will not just to live, but to live a good life. I find these books extremely moving, each in its own way. I hope our students will feel the same and that the books will help inspire our students to learn to be good writers.
The problems I am struggling with: Fitting the things I want to do into a structure that someone else has created. I feel a loss of independence and control.
I am struggling with the final interview assignment. I am considering having the students interview anyone they want – perhaps it won’t be a group project. Asking their subjects how they came to be who they are? What is the context for their lives? What do they find remarkable? What kinds of decisions did they face and how did they make them?
Chalet and I are still working through the syllabus. I’ve blocked out the first half, but I think other than listing reading and writing assignment due dates, we will leave the second half open for the students to decide how they want to work with the readings.
I welcome any comments, suggestions, sources, etc. Thanks for reading!!
Molly,
It's exciting to hear about the work you are doing to design your First Seminar! Watching SAGES is like watching a caterpillar. After a lot of innovation, transformation, and hard work by the faculty, SAGES will start to take on mature form. We know the essential features of SAGES - an emphasis on communication, a seminar approach, some commonality for First Seminar, diversity of interests and voices in the seminar, connection to the rest of the university and our affiliated institutions. The Case faculty will lead the way in inventing First Seminar by offering new and supple mechanisms for reaching those goals. Over time, we will build a treasury of approaches, assignments, and techniques, to share, discuss, and revise. Postings like yours make me wish I were teaching a First Seminar! Maybe next year . . . --Mark Turner 19:19, 17 Aug 2005 (EDT)
