Private Lives, Public Intellectuals:
On the Philosophical Essay
Core assignment: weekly essays650 words
Blend personal/meditative with analytical/argumentative modes
Individual essays ungraded
Overall, worth 40% of the grade
Designed by Stephen Parkin; offered Winter 2013.
Survey course (English and Comp. Lit.)
11 students; mixture of majors and years
Course GoalsAnalyze the modes of self-formation and self-presentation; approaches to knowledge creation
Critique published literary criticism; produce own sophisticated criticism
Synthesize our disparate readings into a coherent, rigorous models of the phil. essay, its themes and concerns, and how it has adapted to novel contexts.
Successes
Weekly essays: risk taking, genuine challenge
Peer editing: in-class exercises, handouts, standard setting through sharing work
Extensive, but varied, small group work
Student-designed final unit
Weaknesses
Too broad a range of readings, even for a survey
Only one major peer-editing assignment (midterm); should have repeated for final
Should have included peer editing in weekly essay assignment (perhaps alternating with my comments)
Should have developed more comprehensive rubric for the weekly essays (for pragmatic reasons)
Self-Evaluation: Reflection and
CommunicationInformal evaluation:
Ask students during class, office hours, etc.
Happens at all levels—lesson, methods, curriculum, etc.
Formal evaluation:
Written feedback (solicited, end of course evals)
Observations, e.g. Individual Teaching Consultation
Assessment
Quality/improvement in student work (frequently!)