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On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching | 
 enlarge | Author: James M. Lang
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 38704
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0674028066
Dewey Decimal Number: 378.12
EAN: 9780674028067
ASIN: 0674028066
Publication Date: May 30, 2008
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Product Description
You go into teaching with high hopes: to inspire students, to motivate them to learn, to help them love your subject. Then you find yourself facing a crowd of expectant faces on the first day of the first semester, and you think “Now what do I do?” Practical and lively, On Course is full of experience-tested, research-based advice for graduate students and new teaching faculty. It provides a range of innovative and traditional strategies that work well without requiring extensive preparation or long grading sessions when you’re trying to meet your own demanding research and service requirements. What do you put on the syllabus? How do you balance lectures with group assignments or discussions?and how do you get a dialogue going when the students won’t participate? What grading system is fairest and most efficient for your class? Should you post lecture notes on a website? How do you prevent cheating, and what do you do if it occurs? How can you help the student with serious personal problems without becoming overly involved? And what do you do about the student who won’t turn off his cell phone? Packed with anecdotes and concrete suggestions, this book will keep both inexperienced and veteran teachers on course as they navigate the calms and storms of classroom life. (20080904)
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| Customer Reviews:
Conversational and Humorous September 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Lang's "On Course" was recommended to me by a friend who also teaches at the university level on a one-year contract. To prepare for my first "real" job after grad school, I bought and read a selection of teaching guides, and "On Course" complemented my little library nicely. The first thing that struck me is its humorous, conversational tone (never too casual, though), and I caught myself laughing out loud several times. The humor that springs from this book is born from insight and ample proof that the author still remembers his time in the classroom and is more than acquainted with the challenge of a group of tired undergrads who routinely rely on their instructor to get them through the day.
The title, Lang admits, is really "a conceit," as a true one-to-one application of each chapter to the responding week in the semester might not be practical. I pretty much read it all the way through, likely skimmed some chapters because they did not directly apply to my particular teaching situation, but I've already, as Lang recommends, reread certain passages and will continue to do so.
Everything in here, from teaching tips, what to wear, first-day-of class advice, university politics, the mid-semester doldrums to the recognition that new instructors probably do spend too much time prepping for class is just a bit off the beaten path--colored by very recent classroom experience, it seems. For example, teaching guides typically herald the use of some type of ice breaker. Lang, while recognizing the ice breaker's virtue, realizes that its mere use can clash with an instructor's personality and comments that new undergrads are typically subjected to an overkill of ice breakers anyway. Likewise, Lang's chapter on the use of technology in the classroom surprises: while most teaching guides tend to advise, almost push for, some kind of technology in the classroom, Lang discriminates between the many uses of technology and, once again, recognizes that its use has to match the teacher's personality. He then offers suggestions on how to gradually add technology--essentially, staying in our chalk-and-blackboard comfort zone while dipping our feet into the vast ocean of electronics. This chapter, like every other one in this book, offers a variety (I really wanted to say 'treasure chest') of material and suggestions, as well as a section on resources.
It's a strength (and, one could argue, a weakness) of this book that it targets TAs, one-year lecturers, MAs, and tenure-track PhDs at the same time. The reason I imagine it could be called a weakness is because it doesn't dive deeply into specific issues either one of these groups encounters. Then again, the common address serves as a reminder of how closely we work together in this microcosm--always good advice at the start of a career.
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