Literaturely

This is the first episode of our latest miniseries: Teaching Texts. In each of these episodes, we select one novel or literary work to deep-dive into its potential pedagogical uses! In this episode, Paige and Margaret talk about Nella Larsen's masterpiece Passing. With Netflix's recent adaptation, there is more potential than ever for Passing's place in the classroom. We discuss passages, assignments, critical questions, and more. What other individual works should we explore? We'd love to hear about your experiences teaching Passing and your suggestions for future episodes! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

When we tell our students to close read, do they understand what we are asking? In this episode of Literaturely, Paige and Margaret discuss techniques and strategies for teaching close reading skills. But we don't stop there: we're also bringing in a conversation about characterization. By specifically close reading for characterization, we talk about how we can help our students move from passively observing the characters of a novel to actively analyzing them. We share our favorite assignments for teaching close reading as we consider what we might try next! We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions in teaching close reading! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

In this episode, Paige and Margaret are joined by Dr. Dennis Moore to discuss teaching depictions of racist violence in literature. Using Toni Morrison's Beloved to anchor the conversation, we might call this conversation "Clever, but Schoolteacher Beat Him Anyway." We talk about how these scenes can challenge our students' misconceptions, depict layers of knowledge and culture, and address that some traumas can never be truly spoken. Examining racist violence in a literature classroom can be uncomfortable and we want to lean into that discomfort while maintaining a safe environment for our students to learn. Join us as we talk about how Morrison's masterpiece allows us the opportunity to do so.Please note: because this episode focuses on racist violence, there are descriptions of graphic violence and references to racist language.

Let's be honest: YA novels are rarely taken seriously by academics. Can there be a place for the YA novel within the ivory tower? We think so! Paige and Margaret chat about the purposes YA novels can serve for college literature, from engaging students more deeply to fulfilling course objectives to considering cultural evolutions and more! YA novels have so much pedagogical potential and serve important cultural functions. Join us as we unpack how we can better utilize them in the college classroom! We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

The pandemic has forced almost everyone to brush on their online teaching skills, but it's not quarantine alone that has caused this need. Increasingly, professors and instructors are expected to provide their course materials online. Discussion boards, textbook quizzes, dropboxes, and more have become an expected part of the 21st-century college course. In this episode, Paige and Margaret chat about the ways they create online course spaces. We cover our learning management systems, our own websites, and our supplementary materials. Join us as we talk about the techniques that work for us and the tips we hope to try in the future! We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

The pandemic has forced almost everyone to brush on their online teaching skills, but it's not quarantine alone that has caused this need. Increasingly, professors and instructors are expected to provide their course materials online. Discussion boards, textbook quizzes, dropboxes, and more have become an expected part of the 21st-century college course. In this episode, Paige and Margaret chat about the ways they create online course spaces. We cover our learning management systems, our own websites, and our supplementary materials. Join us as we talk about the techniques that work for us and the tips we hope to try in the future! We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

Literaturely is back for a third season! In the premiere episode, Paige and Margaret rant about--erm, discuss--their least favorite novels in the world . . . and how to teach them. Most professors, instructors, and teachers will have to cover works they don't like. How can they effectively teach those works that they hate? Paige and Margaret dive into strategies, objectives, and more for handling your own least favorite text. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

We wrap our second semester of Literaturely with our book club! We dive into the prolific and exciting world of Margaret Atwood. That's right: Paige and Margaret read and review MLA's 1996 Approaches to Teaching Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Other Texts. We chat about the goals of a literature pedagogy anthology, the overall collection, and the individual essays themselves! We discuss how students' expectations for Atwood have changed in the past two decades and how the literature classroom itself has evolved. We have a lot of fun discussing the potential of including Atwood in our own classrooms, the activities we loved, and how these works can help our own pedagogy continue to improve! What are your approaches for teaching Atwood? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

In this episode, Paige and Margaret respond to a listener submission: how can someone start to teach themselves more about literature? We share our methods for self-teaching...and realize every professor needs to learn how to teach themselves. These are our strategies for tackling a new topic, expanding our knowledge, and finding our passion all over again. What are your tips for teaching yourself? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

It's the most chaotic time of the year: BACK TO SCHOOL SEASON. Literaturely tackles some of academia's frequently-asked questions for developing a course, finishing a syllabus, and starting the semester! Preparing for a new semester can feel overwhelming, but in this episode, we'd like to remind you that you are not alone! Professors, instructors, and adjuncts everywhere are grappling with concerns and anxieties as they brace themselves for fall. To help alleviate some of the stress, Paige and Margaret answer questions about logistics, preferences, and ethics! Join us for a casual conversation and then share your thoughts with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

THE END IS NEAR! Wait, no, it's just the thirteenth episode of Literaturely! We are joined in this episode by Emilie Mears, an expert in eco-lit, to discuss the apocalypse. Or rather, to discuss literary works and natural disasters! This is a fun conversation jam-packed with considerations of what constitutes a disaster, examinations of apocalypse, creative assignments, and more. We chat about why we'd want to teach narratives about natural disasters, what we hope our students learn, and the ethics in environmental studies. What's the line between the natural, the unnatural, and the supernatural when investigating eco-lit? We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions! Share your experiences, questions, and comments with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

In our final installment of the Building Skills series, Paige and Margaret talk about the ways we teach our students how to research. Afraid that teaching research skills will bore your students (and you) to death? Fear not! We dive into the approaches and methods that have made us passionate about developing our students' research skills within a literature course. Let's chat about how to make citations engaging, how to enjoy finding sources, and how to skillfully respond to scholarly works, and more! From workshops to mini assignments to resources, we share what has worked for us in the past and what we hope to try in the future. We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions! Share your experiences, questions, and comments with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

Welcome to Part 2 of our series Building Skills for the Literature Class! In this episode, Paige and Margaret discuss our approaches, strategies, and assignments for developing our students analytical skills. There is no one right answer, but there are certainly a lot of wrong ones! We chat about how we help our students identify textual evidence and argue for its significance. In other words, this episode is all about moving our students from simply summarizing a text to crafting an argument about what the text means and why it matters. What are the different ways literary critics analyze literature? How do the skills for literary analysis translate outside of academia? What are the typical pitfalls for students starting to analyze a work of literature? We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions! Share your experiences, questions, and comments with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

Literaturely kicks off its newest series--Building Skills--with an in-depth discussion on developing students' close reading skills. Paige and Margaret discuss how they help their students learn to read for a literature course and prepare a strong foundation for subsequent skill sets. What language do we use to introduce close reading and critical reading? What do we read for when we read for class? What mini assignments can we use to better prepare our students? We'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions! Share your experiences, questions, and comments with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

Is Shakespeare still relevant? Is there any point to teaching Shakespeare outside of a Shakespeare course? In this episode, Paige and Margaret discuss the potential of including Shakespeare in your introductory, survey, and special topics course to find the threads that connect Shakespeare to today's world. We discuss ways we could use Shakespeare to teach research skills, examine political rhetoric, consider evolving identities, talk about literary collaboration, and more! As always, we try to share interesting resources we've discovered along the way. We'd love to hear how you've taught a Shakespeare course or incorporated Shakespeare into your film courses, Women in Lit courses, survey courses, etc. Share your experiences, questions, and comments with us on Twitter with @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or via email at LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

Today Margaret and Paige are investigating truth! What does it mean to write an autobiography, memoir, or auto-fiction? What does it mean to write truthfully? To put your memory on the page? We've realized that much of the discussion about this focuses on teaching students to write their own memoirs--but not how to critically read and evaluate one. We discuss constructions of identity performances on the page, the ethics of sharing your life, and the different genres for writing memories. Do you include any memoirs or works of autofiction in your own courses? How do you teach them? We'd love to hear from you on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

Paige and Margaret tackle the flipped class! Due to the pandemic, we have all been forced to adapt our teaching styles for a changing world. In this episode, we consider how a flipped classroom can help engage our students when learning online and when learning in a traditional classroom! We explain what a flipped classroom is and how it can work for a literature course, our goals for flipping a class, and potential assignments for this style of learning. A flipped classroom can help our students better process, challenge, and reflect upon material. We decide that the ultimate benefit of a flipped classroom is encouraging our students to take agency over their education. Have you ever taught a flipped class or considered teaching a flipped class? We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

The single-novel course might be the paragon of the English course. People imagine students lounging on college lawns, browsing Joyce's Ulysses or Tolstoy's War and Peace. But is this the reality of the single-novel course? Paige and Margaret investigate the purposes and possibilities of dedicating an entire course to reading a single novel. We chat about developing close reading skills and fully immersing one's self in an idea, but we also delve into the ways a single-novel course can allow us to be more creative with our pedagogy and our education. Join us as we chat about objectives, skills, and assignments and the other potential values in teaching a single novel! Have you ever taught a single-novel course? Or have you ever dreamt about teaching one? We'd love to hear about your experiences and questions! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

How do we handle the depictions of mothers in literature? What is the function of motherhood within larger institutions? What are some goals for exploring the maternal identity within the classroom? Why do so many professors, students, and readers dismiss motherhood as irrelevant to modern life? The literary mother reflects our cultural intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability politics, religion, education, geography, and so much more. In today's episode, Paige and Margaret consider the position of mothers in academia and in literature. From handling odd off-hand comments from colleagues to helping students examine the pressures of identity restrictions and intersections. Join us as we blame Freud for all of our problems and chat about new approaches for understanding literary mothers!

Do you feel like your students dread group projects? Are you unsure how to refresh your approach? In this episode, Paige and Margaret break down their approaches to incorporating group projects into their literature courses! From scaffolding assignments throughout the semester to fulfilling course objectives to more creative strategies, Paige and Margaret dive deep into the untapped potential of the group project. We've got to be honest with you: recording this episode got us very excited for our next group assignment. We'd love to hear about your experiences with group projects! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

In this episode, we have a guest co-host, Ramsey, Mathews, joining us to discuss teaching dramatic works in a literature class. Ramsey has a PhD in poetry, a masters in American drama, and a couple of acting credits to his name! He shares his approaches to teaching dramatic literature from William Shakespeare to Suzan-Lori Parks and beyond. We consider Ramsey's insights into structuring a drama course, the skills necessary for reading a play, the types of assignments he likes to use, and more. This conversation is a must for anyone interested in teaching dramatic works in their own course! We'd love to hear about your approaches and questions for teaching dramatic works! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

It's Valentine's Day! Love is in the air, birds are singing, chocolates are melting, and . . . it's still a pandemic. We need some romantic escapism. In this episode, Paige and Margaret chat about the theory and application of romantic literature. Why include romantic novels on your syllabus? Could you teach a whole course about love? And which romantic pairings stand the test of time (okay, we'll let you answer that last one). As Wordsworth says, "What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how." We'd love to hear about what you love! Join the conversation on Twitter (@Literaturely101), Instagram (LiteraturelyPodcast), or email (literaturelypodcast@gmail.com).

Paige and Margaret are back in season 2 with a consideration of Civil Rights literature. What are the goals of teaching Civil Rights Movements in a literature classroom? What sort of texts do we include? What topics do we focus on? What assignments do we give? We chat about how we can broaden our understanding of Civil Rights literature to help students better understand the fight for progress and the conversations that surround it. How do you teach the literature of Civil Rights Movements? We'd love to hear your experience, comments, and questions on Twitter @Literaturely101, Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast, or at Gmail at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com

Paige and Margaret review Season One, and discuss what they've learned so far. We share our "end-of-semester" reflections, go meta with our pedagogy dream course, and chat about what's to come in Season Two!

Last week, we discussed how to process course evaluations--especially the inevitable negative course eval! Our panel of College English Instructors joins us once more to discuss developing more productive responses to course evaluations. We chat about the ways we've improved our courses as a result of evaluations, developed techniques for soliciting more useful feedback, and figured out what best helps our students learn. Join us as wrap up our first season of Literaturely and then join in the conversation on Twitter @Literaturely101, on Instagram at LiteraturelyPodcast or through email with LiteraturelyPodcast@gmail.com!

It's the time of year again: the course evaluation period. It doesn't matter if we receive 99 glowing course evaluations from our students--the 1 negative evaluation will haunt our dreams! How can we learn to not take course evaluations so personally? To dive into this tricky subject, Paige and Margaret invite on three College English instructors to share their tips and experiences. This round table discussion is the first half of Literaturely's two-part season finale. Do you have any experiences with course evaluations that you'd like to share? Send us an email at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101.

Like everyone else in the world, we have a lot to say about pandemics. In this episode, Paige and Margaret deep-dive into the potential high points and pitfalls of teaching a literature course about pandemics. We get into the many different genres that can fall under the umbrella of pandemic literature: sci-fi, modernism, zombie-fic, dystopias, contemporary fiction, digital texts, and more. There are just so many ways students could enter and benefit from this conversation! As we consider how a range of majors could benefit from a course on pandemics, we also ruminate over the techniques of pandemic literature, the relationship between literature and society, and some potential assignments. Join us as we talk about how pandemic literature helps us pinpoint societal critiques and can actually help us prepare for a more hopeful future! Are you planning to teach a course about pandemics in the future? Let us know on Twitter @Literaturely101 or email us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com.

In this episode, Paige and Margaret ask themselves, "Is peer review not sexy?" We consider our goals for peer review in the literature classroom and discover that peer review is useful for building critical thinking, engaged reading, and higher-level writing skills. Yes, peer reviews serve some technical purposes in the class and we cover that ground, but peer reviews can do so much more! We discuss how peer reviews help our students build an academic community by sharing their own work and experience with their fellow students. Paige and Margaret also dive into how developing these editorial skills equip our students to better respond to scholars and theorists as they become literary critics themselves. Peer reviews might not be the most glamorous topic, but we share why we think they are essential for any literature class.

We are wrapping up our series on Traditionally-Taught Texts with this discussion on Faulkner and Morrison. In this episode, Paige and Margaret talk about the digital humanities, eco-criticism, and more. We brainstorm ways that we can defamiliarize familiar texts for our students to allow them new ways of reading, interpreting, and analyzing. Now that we've shared our stories, we want to hear from you! If you'd like to share your experiences, questions, and concerns teaching Traditionally-Taught Texts, send us an email at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101.

In this episode, we continue our series exploring ways to Teach Traditionally-Taught Texts. These texts often tire instructors at a certain point--so how do we keep it exciting for ourselves and for our students?Paige and Margaret discuss cultural capital, pushing boundaries, and critiquing the field we love. We dive into the nitty-gritty of our past lesson plans and brainstorm options for future classes (a lesson plan pairing Hemingway and Shonda Rhimes? Maybe one day soon!). We also ask, "How do we teach problematic texts and artists?" Balancing established perspectives and new voices to navigate representations of modern life requires a fully-awake instructor!How do you teach traditionally-taught texts? Share your experiences, questions and resources with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101

In our latest episode, we launch our new series: Teaching Traditionally-Taught Texts! Many instructors are encouraged or required to teach texts from the traditional canon. Sometimes instructors feel an internalized obligation to revisit these texts. Sometimes these texts are important cultural capital, but our own teachings have become stale. So how do we keep traditionally-taught texts fresh, relevant, and representative?Our first episode of the series focuses on two seminal feminist texts: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We discuss using these texts to challenge feminism and academia, building resources to better contextualize these works, and bouncing around potential lesson plans. We also spend a good deal of time talking about the Hulu show The Great and the historical Catherine the Great. Don't worry--it all ties in.How do you teach traditionally-taught texts? Share your experiences, questions and resources with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101.

In our ninth episode, Paige and Margaret discuss approaches for teaching literature about, courses focused on, and responses to 9/11. From thinking about collective trauma, national memorialization, and political narratives, we consider how to tackle sensitive issues in a literature class. We spend some time talking about the use of context, theory, trigger warnings, and perspective to help students critically engage an emotional moment. Have you taught 9/11 narratives in your literature course? Share your experiences, questions and resources with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101.

With classrooms becoming increasingly tech-friendly, it has become easier than ever to incorporate movies and television into the literature class. In this episode, Paige and Margaret discuss their techniques for incorporating film into traditional literature courses, teaching film classes as a literature professor, and more! From sharing our dream assignments to breaking down logistics, we try to cover the ins and outs of film adaptations, dramatic works, and multi-media narratives! Have you taught film in your literature course or department? Share your experiences, questions and resources with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101.

This week marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment which provided (white) American women the right to vote. As we reflected on the subsequent expansions and remaining limitations on women's ability to vote, we were struck by the gap in many English departments' own coverage of the topic. To start to fill this blind spot for ourselves, Paige and Margaret brainstorm potential courses that focus on the literature of women's suffrage. As we share our ideas for a variety of courses and approaches, we grapple with the historical and contemporary depictions of suffrage and how we can expand students' understanding of the suffragette. The literature of the suffragette demands that students consider our tough histories and the rhetorics used to (mis)represent them. This episode is a starting point for considering these important issues, but we are excited to hear from you! Share your experiences, questions and resources with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us @Literaturely101. 

Intro to English Studies can be a beast of a course. From teaching the skills necessary for the major to juggling a range of skill levels to tackling a variety of genres, there is a lot for one course to cover. Margaret and Paige share their experiences as both instructors and students within an Intro to English Studies classroom. We discuss about the purpose of this course--including emphasizing the practicality of an English major.We talk about leveling the learning field, setting goals, and creating assignments. We deep-dive into a specific course Margaret recently taught to talk about particular approaches to teach close reading, analysis, translation and adaptation, secondary sources, ethics of the field, cultural evolution, and more. Paige then reveals her own time in an Intro to English Studies as a student and how she'd incorporate the experience of learning theory, writing, and conferencing to teach in the future. And together, we brainstorm about ideas we'd like to explore in future versions of this course.We'd like to hear how you teach Intro to English Studies! Share your experiences and questions with us at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com or tweet us at @Literaturely101.

Worried about teaching online this fall? Paige and Margaret have got you covered! In this episode, we pull from our backgrounds as online comp instructors to brainstorm online literature courses. We deep-dive into what strategies have worked for us in the past, what we've struggled with, and what we hope to try soon! While we talk about Twitter and its many uses for a good chunk of time, we also discuss getting your students excited for (or at least invested in) an online learning environment, adapting your materials and techniques, and finding the silver lining of the digital sphere. We know that it's a stressful time for teaching right now, and we're here to try to make it a little easier. Still have questions, concerns, or tips you'd like to share? Let us know at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com!

In light of the protests responding to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Paige and Margaret discuss potential ways to create an activist classroom while teaching a literature course. In the first half of the episode, we talk about creating different courses and assignments focusing on protest. We then tackle utilizing archives, the ethics of research, and building a community in the classroom. This is just the beginning of a much larger conversation, and we would love to hear from you. How do you create an activist classroom? How do you respond to on-going social justice movements in your pedagogy? Let us know at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com!

In this week's episode, we tackle creating assignments to fulfill your course objectives. From establishing the basics to fulfilling departmental requirements, we share how we try to keep things exciting in the classroom! We start by breaking down how we use assignments to engage students before discussing how we scaffold assignments to build skills throughout the semester.  Now that we've shared our stories, we want to hear from you! If you'd like to share your assignment tales, send us an email at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com

Please note: this episode was recorded a few weeks ago, before the murders of George Floyd and 11 protesters. We are horrified by yet another incident of racist and systemic violence against Black Americans. We know that this is not an isolated incident and we grieve with and for our colleagues, friends, and communities who are constantly burdened by the weight and terror of perpetual injustice. We also know that classrooms are not exempt from racial and racist biases and our own students often face microaggressions and overt racism on campus which impacts their well-being. We plan to discuss this in future episodes of the podcast, but in the meantime, we are donating our time, energy, and resources to our communities to try to help today.In this episode, we talk about the top questions you may face when building your syllabus for a literature course. We cover tips for beginnings, new approaches for old hats, and resources for all! In our conversation today, we specifically tackle narrowing your focus, grounding your materials in course objectives, and selecting texts to create an effective literature course! And after you finish listening, feel free to join in the conversation by sending us an email at literaturelypodcast@gmail.com.

Join us as we talk about common myths about literature courses, our goals when teaching lit, and how we get comfortable with ambiguity. We share our perspectives on the role literature plays as a cultural artifact to help students better examine the connection between individual and community, trace the gradual changes in a community's values, and improve their critical thinking skills. This is our overview of the purpose of teaching literature in the 21st century!

In this shorter episode, we introduce ourselves to you all. More importantly, we discuss our goals for the podcast and why exactly we are so interested in literature pedagogy! Find out who we are as friends, teachers, and podcasters in fifteen minutes or less.