On 3+ Hour Class Periods

I am finding this semester's COM 112 class to be one of the most enjoyable group of students to have in class. Not all of them want to be part of the group dynamic and participate in discussions, but those who do consistently amaze me with the quality of their ideas and level of critical thinking.

Despite my enjoyment of our time together every Tuesday afternoon, I am finding the 3 hour class period exhausting. If that's true for me, it has to be true for them. So today I did something I rarely do. I cut an activity from my lesson plan and let class out early.

This semester, I am only teaching two days a week. Tuesdays, I teach COM (3-hour block), and Wednesdays I teach LIT (4-hour block). My work on Thursdays and Fridays in the Writing Center is very low-stress and I don't have to spend time prepping for it or grading afterwards. So I like that, despite my other duties on campus, my work week feels over in two days.

I still prefer classes that meet two days per week. This allows me to break up the work of the course in more meaningful ways. We can work on something the first day and revisit it the second when students have had time to think about that week's lesson(s), digest it somewhat and perhaps work with that concept through a homework assignent. For example, I can ask them to write me a shitty draft of an assignment from Tuesday to Thursday, then we can talk about a particular writing strategy on Thursday, and they have five days to revise and refine their draft, implementing that writing strategy as they do so, before the next class period. Meeting only once a week, just doesn't allow for that kind of a process.

For example, today we talked about tone--creating moods and adjusting the level of formality in writing. Students enjoyed the discussion and activities we did in class, but now we have to wait an entire week to revisit how they incorporate this into the two essays they are working on. By then, I can't afford to spend another week on this issue. We need to move on, so they can get started on their research for Essay 3.

I guess the 4-hour block works out nicely for Film as LIT. If this class period were split in two, we'd spend one day most weeks just watching a film. The 4-hour block allows us to watch a film and analyze it while it is still fresh in our minds. Since we spend half of every class period engaged in a relatively enjoyable (more or less so depending on the individual and the film choice that week) activity, the class is doesn't feel as tedious.

I try to break up the monotony in COM by interspersing fun videos with discussions and small group and independent activities. For example, today I used a PowerPoint to guide discussion. In the past, I've given students an electronic handout that was just hypertext. The PowerPoint allowed me more flexibility to create a dynamic discussion aided by illustrative graphics and videos, varying fonts and colors, etc. to generate a little more interest and hopefully excitement than my old, rather traditional text-based handout with a few hyperlinks. After discussion, we had a couple of hands-on activities, more discussion on a new topic, more visual illustrations and discussion. All of these strategies certainly help create a more engaging atmosphere that can withstand three straight hours of intense learning, but it doesn't completely alleviate the tedium, at least not for me.