Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
I’ve been asked to teach a short story class for the UC Davis Department of English this coming summer, and now I am filled with gleeful anticipation and planning. Pulling out my syllabus from the last time I taught the class, in 2009, I realize how much teaching has changed in the last few years. Although older faculty must negotiate the evolving distractions and electronic interruptions that accompany most of our students, most of these changes to teaching and learning are nevertheless welcome developments and opportunities.
When I first started teaching short fiction to college students in the early 1990s, student expected much from the lecture. As the most knowledgeable person in the classroom, I would focus on presenting complex and scintillating lectures, revealing like a storyteller the social, political, theoretical and historical contexts of the texts we read. I knew things that students didn’t know, in part because I had years of experience with such texts, access to a library full of secondary sources, and access to knowledgeable mentors (such as Professor Jack Hicks, who still today teaches California literature classes to lucky UC Davis students). I also counted among my peer group future award-winning professors such as Kirsten Saxton and Rebecca Bocchicchio, and they had much to share, even when we were all in our 20s.
Today the lecture as revelation of information is less foundational to a student’s education, for that student can find much of what an instructor might “know” in 30 minutes of informed web-searching (especially if taking full advantage of library databases). The instructor in this modern era of teaching still has the responsibility of presenting the lecture a cogent and challenging argument, something to be deliberated and even practiced, but also of devising and framing activities that students can engage in during class meeting time. If they are to learn something, students usually need something to do. I’ve learned over the years that even real-time assessments can provide students a learning experience.
This second focus on active learning transforms the instructor from “impressive” story-teller and argument-unfolder into a motivational speaker who teaches students how to take the reins themselves, to practice the leadership skills that UC Davis students are known for. As a mentor teacher at UC Davis, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching active learning to faculty at the graduate Nara Institute on Science and Technology in Nara, Japan. One of the challenges that my colleagues and I encountered in Nara was that students there are so respectful of their professors, their sensei, that they would dare not ask questions: to do show would be to show disrespect for a senior mentor. And yet questions are a foundational element of active (and thus successful) learning. For instance, I myself require that my students challenge something that I say at least once a quarter. By the end of the quarter, I sometimes must make increasingly outrageous statements in order to inspire the quieter students to fulfill their challenging quota.
I love both forms of teaching – the lecture and the hour of project-based learning – but I must admit that I learn more from the latter, with the students as co-instructors, even though the former requires me to memorize more and speak with greater practiced facility. Both approaches fill me with anticipatory delight. I think of my several conversations with Larry Vanderhoef before his first stroke: he had grand plans to teach a large (huge, really) GE science course, and he came to me for teaching tips and strategies. He also wanted to know what to expect from the millennial students in his classroom after his 25-year gap in teaching duties. UC Davis students offer so much!
Like Larry, I know that I would teach favorite classes such as “The Short Story” and “Writing in Fine Arts” even if I were fabulously wealthy, for the best rewards are not financial. Our students provide us energy, necessary in-class protestations, and reason to have faith in our future leaders, of those who will take care of us. As Henry Adams once said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Teaching a class is like spending some time conversing with representatives of a future that some of us will not see in person. It is my favorite mode of time travel.
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature some questions for those veterinary students who sometimes gather in good-natured and studious hordes, laughing at the simplicity of my questions about chemistry and biology. Expect also questions about endangered companies, Hamlet’s spies, former San Francisco heroes, Wilde, living legends, the well-paid peanut gallery, inaugural awards, money-makers, the packs that sorrows travel in, baseball leadership, odd-looking family members, science fiction, prions, the alphabet that is used the most, Chopin, Portland residents, three marriages and two and a half divorces, that which is neutered, occasions to release the vino, song that have been covered by superstars, Instagram hashtags, pilots, sarcastic and underachieving subordinates, favorite spices, forbearance, sleep habits, guards with excellent aim, sorry musicians, the land of the north, cherries, ten million people, World War I, newspaper headlines, fashion choices, and Shakespeare.
Nearby teams will recognize Pub Quiz participant Catriona McPherson by her infectious laugh and by the booksmart demeanors of her teammates. She has won a big bunch of awards for her mystery fiction, something she is hesitant to talk about when she comes on my radio show. This coming Saturday night her work will be featured at Stories on Stage Davis. You should add this event to your weekend plans.
See you tonight!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans and Catch Phrases. What TV actor, playwright and activist released his own fragrance line titled “Eau My” (which also happens to be his catch phrase)?
- Internet Culture: Video Games. What is the most famous video game that allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes?
- American Cities. The city colleges in what American city include Harold Washington College and Malcolm X College?
P.S. The next Poetry Night on November 19th will feature Brad Henderson, who met his beloved at the Pub Quiz, and, well, me. Details to come.