Teaching modern poetry

Teaching an elective is SO different from teaching required courses!

Sure, there are students in the class only because it fulfills a requirement. And some of those students have put it off long enough that this is the only class that they can take to fulfill that requirement before they graduate, so they're not excited about this particular course.

But most of them CHOSE this class.

Deliberately.

That's so refreshing! First day when I walked in, I was met by people who smiled and I could tell they were excited about the material. Yes, I did have a lot of "is this going to be on the exam?" kind of questions... and one eye roller when I said the final was cumulative, but c'mon people! the term's only seven weeks long! If you can't remember what you did seven weeks earlier, you should be getting a CAT scan... or staying awake in class at least.

Comparing notes with the other TA teaching a lit course this term, we were really surprised to find that her general Brit Lit course had half the students enrolled in it as mine. We couldn't figure it out, since her course is required, covers a broader range of material, and isn't poetry (which isn't always popular with undergrads... I know I wouldn't have elected to take it if it wasn't required a U of C).

I finally figured it out after I looked at the course catalog and quizzed my students about why they were in the course. My course fulfills a general "social sciences and humanities" core requirement that ALL students in Arts and Sciences have to fulfill, and the number of seniors in my class tells me that many of them have put it off till now - I have polisci majors, chem majors, graphic design, philosophy, business, you name it, and I've probably got it!

I've always found such mixes successful for discussions because students have so many different perspectives that they bring to the table that you don't end up with parroting and groupthink that sometimes happens when you're only teaching one major. But it's also made me realize that I will have to spend more time than I expected on some basics like how to scan poetry, rhyme schemes, poetic devices and effects, and sound effects.

The trick will be to teach the students who don't know this stuff, without boring the hell out of the English majors that are in the class - they make up roughly a third of the students. I'm figuring on trying to get them working in groups where there's at least one English major per group. That way the major gets to 'teach' and not get bored, while the non-majors learn what they need to know.

Regardless of the challenges that I'll still run into teaching this course, so far it's been a fabulous experience, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the term!