|
“MnWE News” Fall Issue
September-October 2020
Next
Conference:
Thurs. and Fri.
Afternoons
March 25-26,
2021 on Zoom
In this issue:
1.
NEW NOBEL LAUREATE LOUISE GLÜCK, PAST U.S.
WINNERS
2. WHAT DOES SCIENCE PROJECT FOR ACADEMIC
YEAR 2020-2021?
3.
WHAT DO YOUR ONLINE STUDENTS WANT YOU TO
KNOW?
4.
HOW IS YOUR OWN ACADEMIC LIFE?
5. FREE
E-NEWSLETTERS
(in each issue)
6. ABOUT MNWE
(in each issue)
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currently by
Zoom.
---
1.
NEW
NOBEL
LAUREATE
LOUISE GLÜCK,
PAST U.S.
WINNERS
This year’s
Nobel Prize in
Literature was
announced today
(Oct. 8). Our
new laureate is
Louise Glück
"for her
unmistakable
poetic voice
that with
austere beauty
makes individual
existence
universal" (Nobelprize.org/literature/2020).
Poet and
essayist Glück
(rhymes with
“click”) was the
2003-2004 U.S.
Poet Laureate.
She has won the
Pulitzer (Wild
Iris),
National Book
Critics Circle
Award (The
Triumph of
Achilles),
Yale’s Bollingen
Prize in Poetry
(Vita Nova),
and a National
Humanities
Medal. Most
recently, her
2014 collection,
Faithful and
Virtuous Night,
won the National
Book Award.
Glück’s
poems speak to
her own
experience with
personal trauma
and her
emotional life,
sometimes using
classical myth.
She is the
Rosenkranz
Writer in
Residence at
Yale. Glück grew
up on Long
Island where,
encouraged by
her parents, she
wrote verses as
a youth and
submitted her
poems to
magazines,
journals, and
book publishers
as a teenager.
Recent
winners include
Austria’s
Peter Handke
in 2019,
Poland’s
Olga Tokarczuk
in 2018, and
Japan and
England’s
Kazuo Ishiguro
in 2017. In
2016,
Minnesota-born
Bob Dylan won.
Are you
looking for
American Nobel
literature for
teaching? Glück
is praised for
her deeply
honest poetry
about women’s
experiences.
Dylan is a
songwriter who
often has sung
about social
justice.
And Toni
Morrison (1993)
offers a
wonderful array
of novels about
Black life in
America,
especially in
the Midwest.
Glück is
the twelfth
person from the
U.S. to win the
Nobel in
Literature. A
complete list of
the twelve is
below.
---
See
www.nobelprize.org
or the site’s
links about each
of our U.S.
winners (and for
more detail,
click on “Bio
Bibliography”
in most of the
links):
1930: Sinclair
Lewis
1936: Eugene
O'Neill
1938: Pearl
S. Buck
1949: William
Faulkner
1954: Ernest
Hemingway
1962: John
Steinbeck
1976: Saul
Bellow
1978: Isaac
Bashevis Singer
1987: Joseph
Brodsky
1993: Toni
Morrison
New York
Times
obituary
2016: Bob
Dylan
New
York Times
on his award
2020:
Louise Glück
New York
Times on her
award
---
2.
WHAT DOES
SCIENCE PROJECT
FOR ACADEMIC
YEAR 2020-2021?
As
we move into the
2020-21 academic
year, scientific
communities
report that
several
candidate
vaccines’ trials
may be completed
by December or
January.
However, they
suggest,
vaccines may not
be manufactured
for delivery
until, at
earliest, mid-
or late winter,
and then only to
an early group
of recipients.
This
group may be
first responders
(medical,
police, and/or
fire), together
about 5% of the
population. The
second group,
about 10%, may
be those with
two or more
medical
conditions and
people in
assisted-care
homes. Third may
be those 65 and
older. Another
factor is that
at least two of
these vaccine
candidates
require two
doses a month
apart.
Scientists also
project that
infections could
rise
significantly as
people move
indoors. This is
in part because,
surveys show, at
present many
people are
choosing not to
distance
socially, wear
masks, or avoid
close indoor
contact.
What
does this mean
for academic
life? A vaccine
for most people
in education,
teacher or
student, likely
won’t be
available until
late spring or
summer at best.
That timeline
and rapidly
rising infection
rates suggest we
may not see
business as
usual in
education until
at least fall
2021, perhaps
later. Until
then, needs
likely will
increase for
distance
learning, better
social
distancing, more
mask use, and
good indoor
ventilation.
In
addition, the
pandemic is
introducing
online learning
to a much larger
cohort. This may
cause faster
growth of such
methods as they
appear more
economically
attractive to
students,
administrators,
and legislators.
Such methods
will be needed
throughout the
2020-2021
academic year,
possibly longer.
---
Local/Regional
Distance-Teaching
Resources:
www.mnweconference.com/resources.html
---
3. WHAT DO YOUR
ONLINE STUDENTS
WANT YOU TO
KNOW?
Beth
McMurtrie of
The Chronicle of
Higher Education
recently asked
this question of
a panel of
students and
faculty at
several schools.
Here is a quick
summary of what
she heard:
“Connections are
crucial.”
Students want
you to help them
feel connected
to you and to
others in the
class.
“Consistency
matters.”
Students realize
that courses may
use different
platforms or
methods, but
they do want
consistencies on
which they can
rely in how you
deliver your own
material. They
also ask that
you check in
with them
regularly.
“Ditch group
projects”
lasting
awhile.
Students say
they are finding
online learning
mind-boggling
enough that
trying to do
projects over
several weeks or
more in online
groups simply is
too much.
McMurtrie does
add, “If a
project is well
designed and
carefully
thought out,
giving students
clear roles and
responsibilities,
it could work.”
Otherwise,
her panel says,
skip major group
projects.
“Encourage group
work.”
This may seem to
contradict the
previous point,
McMurtrie says,
but not really.
Students want
more engagement
with classmates
in live
discussions for
fifteen or
twenty minutes
during classtime.
“Don’t spend
synchronous time
lecturing.”
Students do not
want a talking
head in live
class. Rather,
they say, they
want ten-minute
lectures taped
and assigned as
homework ahead
of time. Save
class time, they
suggest, for a
variety of
activities and
discussions.
“Ask students
what’s working
and what’s not.”
One of
McMurtrie’s
panelists
“encourages
faculty members
to maintain
flexibility and
to see students
as ‘partners in
learning.’”
Email them, run
surveys, Zoom
with individuals
or pairs, or
even phone them.
Ask them,
sometimes
individually,
what works for
them.
---
McMurtrie’s
online webinar
on her findings:
Webinar
results
Inver Hills
College Honor
Students’
B.R.E.A.T.H.E.–Success
Tips for Online
Learning
---
4. HOW IS YOUR
OWN ACADEMIC
LIFE?
What
would you have
done at work
last year or the
year before in a
normal academic
day, week, and
month? How did
you meet with
students, talk
with colleagues,
and spend your
time on campus?
The University
of Michigan’s
Center for
Academic
Innovation
offers three
suggestions to
faculty:
1.
“Motivate and
support
students.”
2. “Keep
social
connections.”
3.
“Offer resources
for students
during
COVID-19.”
The
first
suggestion,
above, means
going the extra
mile to make
students feel
stronger and
better prepared
for their
academic tasks.
You may not be
able to meet
with them in
your office or
classroom. But
you can
“motivate and
support” in
other ways.
Doing so not
only helps
personalize your
teaching but
also shows your
students that
you care about
them as
individuals and
as a group in
their time of
greater anxiety,
confusion, and
frustration.
The
second
suggestion means
you should keep
talking with
your peers,
department
colleagues, and
others with whom
you’d share
professionally
in normal times.
Don’t let
distancing
isolate you.
Meet by Zoom or
phone, or use
email to offer
your thoughts
and feelings as
before in
hallways and
over coffee.
Remember your
support staff.
Participate in
live-video
department
meetings. Go for
a socially
distanced,
mask-wearing
walk outside
with academic
friends.
The third suggestion, above, is to create a resource
list for
students to use
during these
times–about the
pandemic,
diversity and
racial justice,
their own mental
and physical
health, etc. In
the past, you
could–in
person–suggest a
campus resource
to a student.
Now you can do
the same by
using your
school or
system’s links
for students to
those resources.
Not only might
students use
them but,
moreover,
they’ll know
that you care;
this is,
according to a
large body of
research, likely
to increase
their learning
from you.
---
Handout from
above:
University of
Michigan
Caring affecting grades:
e.g., see papers
and
bibliographies
at
King and Chan
and
Miller.
---
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TEACHING/LEARNING
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---
7. ABOUT
MNWE: Old
Issues, Joining,
Who We Are, Grad
Credit, Unsubscribing
(repeated
each issue)
For
Online-Teaching
Resources:
See
www.mnweconference.com/resources.html.
View Our
Newsletters:
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News.”
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If you
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would like to
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We always enjoy
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Who We Are:
“MnWE” is
“Minnesota
Writing and
English,” an
all-volunteer
organization
started in 2007.
MnWE has a
coordinating
committee, a
listserv, and an
annual, two-day
spring
conference
attended by
100-200 faculty.
Our coordinating
committee, which
meets about six
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is composed
entirely of
unpaid college,
university, high
school, and
other
professional
English/Writing
volunteers.
All
activities are
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university, and
college-in-the-high-schools
English and
writing faculty,
graduate and
undergraduate
students, and
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and literary
scholars,
writers, tutors,
and others in
the Upper
Midwest. Our
purpose is to
bring together
these
communities in
Minnesota and in
nearby states
and provinces.
Our
website is
MnWE.org;
our geographical
center is
Minneapolis-St.
Paul. About 3000
faculty,
graduate
students,
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Dakota, South
Dakota, Iowa,
Illinois, and
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and locations
beyond the Upper
Midwest.
At our
annual
conferences, our
keynoters speak
on pedagogical
concerns and are
scholars and
writers of
national
excellence from
both local and
national
locations. Some
of our
presenters come
from states or
countries far
beyond our own
geographical
area. The
majority of our
attendees and
presenters are
from
universities and
private
colleges; a
strong minority
are from
two-year
colleges, high
schools, and
other groups.
Graduate
Credit:
Anyone may earn
one graduate
credit from
Southwest
Minnesota State
University for
attending one
MnWE Conference
day and writing
a related
research paper
(up to three
times). For
questions about
this course–“Eng
656: MnWE
Practicum”–please
contact
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at smsu dot edu
or see
www.smsu.edu/academics/programs/english/?id=11637
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If you
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Committee listed
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Committee
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email richard
at jewell dot
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This
newsletter is
written
primarily by
“MnWE News”
editor Richard
Jewell without
copyright so
that anyone may
quote,
paraphrase, or
forward any or
all parts
freely, unless
otherwise noted.
We ask only that
you give credit
to the “MnWE
Newsletter”
and/or “www.MnWE.org“;
and when you use
material that
has been quoted
or paraphrased
in this
newsletter from
another source,
please be sure
to give proper
credit to that
original
source.
---
---
Richard Jewell,
General
Coordinator
Larry Sklaney,
Conference
Coordinator
Danielle
Hinrichs,
Program
Coordinator
Gordon Pueschner,
Site Floor
Coordinator
Jana Rieck,
Communications
Coordinator
Heidi Burns,
Registration
Coordinator
---
richard at
jewell dot net
- (612) 870-7024
larry dot
sklaney at
century dot edu
- (651) 747-4006
danielle dot
hinrichs at
metrostate dot
edu - (651)
999-5960
gordon dot
pueschner at
century dot edu
- (651) 686-4468
janaL dot rieck
at yahoo dot com
heidi dot burns
at mnsu dot edu
MnWE
.org
Minnesota Writing & English
A Consortium of
Colleges &
Universities
|
Mission:
Transforming
writing and
English
into teaching
and learning experiences using methodologies
that serve students best
Vision:
Bringing
scholarly ideas
and practical
pedagogy
together
to create our
futures
.JPG)
Donald Ross of
the University
of
Minnesota and
Taiyon Coleman
of St. Catherine
University run a
breakout session
about
literature. In a
later year, they
jointly provided
a MnWE keynote.
Geoffrey Sirc of
the University
of Minnesota
runs a small
breakout after
his keynote
presentation.
Many University
of Minnesota
faculty have
given
presentations at
MnWE, as well as
faculty and
graduate
students from
many other
universities,
colleges, and
high schools.
MnWE started in
2007.
The cofounders
were Richard
Jewell, here
giving a welcome
after lunch, and Donald
Ross, second
picture above.
MnWE has drawn
presenters from
Minnesota, the
states and
province around
it, and at least
five other
states and
countries.
During a 2016
breakout,
Beata Puschner
presents on improving
classroom
inclusion of ELL
students. MnWE
attracts a
variety of
people in other
departments and
positions, too,
from ESL and
Reading to
Library Science
and
college-in-the-high-schools
faculty.
|
