So, I’m at this cool Summer Sparks meeting in Fort Worth–I think Jeff, Lori, and I are going to try to have one for Houston-area schools at SJS next year–and it is, not surprisingly, stimulating me to think about teaching.
I’m thinking that the best courses would require production of a product that is central to the course’s aim. Unlike some teachers, however, I would see research on the production of that product being a key component of the course. So, for a course on film, if your final project is to write a scene, for instance, you’d do a ton of scene *analysis* throughout the term, and while it should involve some teacher direction, it should also involve “criticism” from other sources too. Hence, for a writing course, lots of good reading should be required. For a philosophy course, you should have to produce your own philosophical essay on some question, but one that showed knowledge of your predecessors in the field, critiquing their work (or some of it) on the subject before moving on to your own essay.
How does that sound for a conceptual framework?