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algy
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Re: Watch this space
Thank you very much, Fitz. I realise that I might be taking a risk giving up my (not 'good' but about as-safe-as-it-can-be-in-this-and-age) job to make a go of teaching with a degree of different (  ) status to a more regular one. I almost certainly shouldn't say this but I'm hopeful of getting gainful employment at the college precisely because of the reasons laidf out in the first half of your post. This makes me cynical but I'm going with the feet under the table thing I mentioned earlier in this thread.
I'll definitely be tapping you up if I struggle, I was always very impressed with your good self in the teaching chair and if I can sound half as knowledgable and assured as you did then I'll be doing okay. And for the record can I add that the Prose module is toss. It was toss when Phil did it and it was toss when Eamonn did it. The latter mentioned to me that it was gonna go in for an overhaul - it needs it!
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8/15/2008, 6:15 pm
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Edge44
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Re: Watch this space
quote:
algy wrote:
And for the record can I add that the Prose module is toss. It was toss when Phil did it and it was toss when Eamonn did it. The latter mentioned to me that it was gonna go in for an overhaul - it needs it!
The problem I've found (as a neophyte to teaching) is that there are many different approaches to teaching a certain subject. Prose can be seen as an umbrella term and therefore there are many facets to be taught under it - viewpoint, focalisation, character, plot, structure, the list goes on.
With time against you as a lecturer - lecture length and semester length - you just cannot teach everything. So it comes down to the question of what are the important aspects that should be taught? And the answer to a certain degree depends on the level of ability of the students. Then it comes down to what the lecturer deems important.
Now it comes down to the experience of the lecturer, and, with prose in mind, there are different levels of experience: writing prose as an untrained amateur, as an educated amateur, and as a published professional. The quality of what you are taught is born from that point. I don't know where the expertise of either Phil or Eamon to teach this subject comes from, but that has a consequence on how good or how toss a module is.
From that standpoint, maybe it's not the module that needs an overhaul 
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8/16/2008, 7:32 pm
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algy
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Re: Watch this space
Well, I wasn't gonna say that... 
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8/16/2008, 8:36 pm
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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Re: Watch this space
quote:
algy wrote:
Thank you very much, Fitz. I realise that I might be taking a risk giving up my (not 'good' but about as-safe-as-it-can-be-in-this-and-age) job to make a go of teaching with a degree of different ( ) status to a more regular one. I almost certainly shouldn't say this but I'm hopeful of getting gainful employment at the college precisely because of the reasons laidf out in the first half of your post. This makes me cynical but I'm going with the feet under the table thing I mentioned earlier in this thread.
I'll definitely be tapping you up if I struggle, I was always very impressed with your good self in the teaching chair and if I can sound half as knowledgable and assured as you did then I'll be doing okay. And for the record can I add that the Prose module is toss. It was toss when Phil did it and it was toss when Eamonn did it. The latter mentioned to me that it was gonna go in for an overhaul - it needs it!
You flatter me, my good sir 
I always felt a bit sorry for Phil, as he was an inexperienced lecturer who was thrown in at the deep end, so to speak. The summer before Phil was hired, knowing that in the distant past I had a handful of short stories published and won some prizes in regional short story competitions Chris asked me if I would like to teach the prose module; over the summer, management hired Phil and told Chris that Phil would be delivering the prose module. (I was slightly peeved, as I'd already started planning the module content, but these last-minute switchovers often happen in the college.) Following that, there was the suggestion of team-teaching and I think that would have been much better for Phil--if Phil and I, or Phil and Allen, had delivered the module together--giving him the support (in planning content and assessing work) that a new lecturer needs. It's hard when you're delivering a module that someone else has written, and I think when you're new to the job (as Phil was) you sometimes don't have the confidence to say, 'Wait a minute! If you let me have some leeway, I could improve on this scheme of work'.
I'm not sure what changes Eamonn has made this year, but I know he had some strong issues with the lack of clarity within the scheme of work.
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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8/19/2008, 9:38 pm
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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Re: Watch this space
quote:
Edge44 wrote:
The problem I've found (as a neophyte to teaching) is that there are many different approaches to teaching a certain subject. Prose can be seen as an umbrella term and therefore there are many facets to be taught under it
That's very true, and I've always fought against the generalised module titles that management seem to prefer. For example, to my mind the prose module could be subdivided or replaced by a more directly-focused module: e.g. the skills in writing short stories are very different to the techniques and methods involved in sustaining a long-form narrative.
As another example, on the old Moving Image HND we used to have a module called 'Film Studies'. Well, Film Studies is a discipline with many different approaches and conflicting methods, and within Film Studies there are the differing approaches of film historians, film critics and film theorists: to try to teach the whole of this within a term-long module is complete lunacy. But then, the college is fond of these umbrella terms: historical and critical approaches are often subsumed within the umbrella label 'theory', which is simply not correct and is an issue I've raised with management many times--especially when they try to label me as a lecturer in 'media theory', I constantly have to remind them that I was hired to teach literature and film history and criticism. I think this is a hangover from the days when the place was a polytechnic college.
Last edited by Fitzgerald Fortune, 8/19/2008, 9:49 pm
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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8/19/2008, 9:48 pm
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algy
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Re: Watch this space
Yes, Umbrella Corp are to blame. 
It's true that the module tried to tell us a little bit of everything so that in he end we learned just about nothing. In the second year Eamonn was off for many weeks and the college failed to provide a replacement (I've no dea if an attempt was even made). So if a module attempts to cover too much and then stops the attempt what can a student learn? I took Prose for my FMP but I never fell back on anything from the module; Narrative Theory, Script Writing and Graphic Novel provided more valuable insight into the construction of a narrative. Unfortunately they didn't tell me much about writing prose. As Edge says I need to reach another level. Although simply going through the process of writing a novel has taught me a lot.
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When those Spurs are done
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8/20/2008, 8:53 am
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Edge44
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Re: Watch this space
quote:
Fitzgerald Fortune wrote:
I always felt a bit sorry for Phil, as he was an inexperienced lecturer who was thrown in at the deep end, so to speak.
Seeing things now from the lecturer point of view and not the student's, I'm inclined to agree with you. He was a very knowledgable chap in the prose department. However, I found him a little too dominant in the classroom; he always liked things done his way.
quote:
Fitzgerald Fortune wrote:
For example, to my mind the prose module could be subdivided or replaced by a more directly-focused module: e.g. the skills in writing short stories are very different to the techniques and methods involved in sustaining a long-form narrative.
I agree, Fitz. At undergraduate level, subdivision of the prose module is exactly what needs to be done. I don't believe that every facet of prose can be taught in one module over two or even four semesters! It needs to be broken down and separated into individual modules that could run alongside one another. Certainly for a writing course such as the Institute's Professional Writing Degree, there should be much more emphasis on prose writing.
quote:
algy wrote:
I took Prose for my FMP but I never fell back on anything from the module; Narrative Theory, Script Writing and Graphic Novel provided more valuable insight into the construction of a narrative.
That's exactly what happened to me, algy. I approached my FMP novel using the skills I'd learnt in scriptwriting rather than anything I had learnt in the Prose Module. I came out with a First for my FMP, so I must have done something right.
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8/20/2008, 5:02 pm
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algy
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Re: Watch this space
I slipped to a 2:1 for my FMP but still got a first overall. I was a bit miffed really as that's the meat of the third year and the point of the course. I almost wishe it were the other way round. Plus of course if it were I'd have a better bit of prose
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When those Spurs are done
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8/20/2008, 6:24 pm
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algy
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Re: Watch this space
As for actually watching this space, I had a letter today from an agent asking to see the entire manuscript. He's already requested and digested the first fifty pages so this is the third thing I've sent him. I feel I'm getting over hurdles but there're still plenty more to fall over.
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This is why we come
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When those Spurs are done
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8/22/2008, 4:14 pm
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