English

Joseph Shack

My capstone project is a short “guidebook” with lesson plans for each seminar that comprises the English Department’s teaching colloquium, a required course for third-year graduate student teachers. This represents an extension of the work done by last year’s Pedagogy Fellow, Carly Yingst, who collaborated with the department’s Director of Graduate Studies on creating and teaching a redesigned syllabus for the Teaching Colloquium. The purpose of this guidebook is to provide structure for future Pedagogy Fellows in English, who will be assuming a greater amount of responsibility in running the Teaching Colloquium, and to extend institutional memory regarding the role.

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Carly Yingst

The handout for my capstone project summarizes a major part of my year's work as pedagogy fellow: the redesign of the syllabus for the English department's teaching colloquium. In response to a new sequence of proseminars in our department--one of which now directly addresses professional development, formerly a topic covered in the teaching colloquium--the new course-head and I collaborated to develop a new pedagogy curriculum, one which now devotes more time teaching practice (in the form of weekly teaching demos) and developing more robust community conversations around pedagogy. I also had several discussions with this year's teaching colloquium cohort throughout the year, asking them for feedback on the course’s new approach with an eye toward identifying ways that future leaders of the colloquium can continue to build on the foundations this year's new syllabus laid for encouraging practice and community conversations. These potential new directions--including encouraging early teaching practice, building an informal peer TF mentorship program, and developing a teaching resource bank--are outlined on the second page of the handout.

View Carly's capstone project.

Michael Allen

My capstone project is the slide deck for a job talk I gave at the University of Leeds in the UK. The position I was interviewing for—part lecturer in English, part pedagogy consultant—required me to synthesize and apply the insights of the Bok Center to a very different educational context. As I prepared this talk in consultation with the English faculty, I strove to speak to two different audiences: first, faculty who were enthusiastic about the application of pedagogical research and methods; second, faculty who wanted a colleague grounded (only?) in traditional humanistic inquiry. In response, I adopted a hybrid approach. For example, in answering the question “how will you transform our teaching?”, I drew on the philosopher L.A. Paul’s influential definition of transformative experiences and linked that to the pedagogical research supporting the value of fostering a growth mindset in students.

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Alex Creighton

In my dual roles as Bok Pedagogy Fellow and FAS Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Fellow, I served as a consultant for various English Department initiatives meant to foster a culture of diversity and inclusivity. I collated resources and presented on best practices for creating diverse and inclusive syllabi; I came up with a preliminary reading list to supplement the department's G3 Pedagogy Seminar (English 350); and I served as a consultant on the Development Committee, whose goal is to improve departmental culture. Through these efforts, I have helped in creating a foundation for future departmental D.I.B. efforts.

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Christopher Spaide

The purpose of my capstone project, an ongoing Canvas website titled Pedagogy in English, is twofold. For G3s in English becoming first-time Teaching Fellows, Pedagogy in English serves as the full course website for the required pedagogy seminar English 350: Teaching and Professional Development Colloquium, complete with overviews of weekly topics, assignments, relevant links, sample teaching materials, and pedagogy resources. And for English graduate students at any stage of their careers, Pedagogy in English offers an evolving repository of readings, sample teaching and job materials, FAQs, and links to resources inside English, across the university generally, and outside of Harvard.

View Christopher's capstone project.

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English

2023–2024 expand_more

Joseph Shack

2022–2023 expand_more

Carly Yingst

2021–2022 expand_more

Michael Allen

2020–2021 expand_more

Alex Creighton

2019–2020 expand_more

Christopher Spaide