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  • Showing only topics with the tag "curriculum". Back to normal view
    1. If you had to teach a class on literature, what books would you put on your syllabus?

      I asked a similar question over in ~games and am interested to hear how ~books would respond to the same setup. Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following: Choose a...

      I asked a similar question over in ~games and am interested to hear how ~books would respond to the same setup.

      Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following:

      • Choose a focus for your class on literature (with a snazzy title if you like)
      • Choose the books that you, as a professor, will have your class dive into in order to convey key concepts
      • Explain why each book you chose ties into your overarching exploration

      Your class can have any focus, broad or specific: victorian literature, contemporary poetry, Shakespearean themes in non-Shakespearean works -- whatever you want! It can focus on any forms of literature and does not have to be explicitly limited to "books" if you want to look at some outside-of-the-box stuff (I once took a literature class where we read afternoon, a story, for example.)

      After choosing your specific focus, choose what will be included on your syllabus as "required reading" and why you've chosen each item.

      16 votes
    2. If you had to teach a class on an element of gaming, which games would you put on your syllabus?

      Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following: Choose a focus for your class on gaming (with a snazzy title if you like) Choose the games that you, as a professor, will...

      Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following:

      • Choose a focus for your class on gaming (with a snazzy title if you like)
      • Choose the games that you, as a professor, will have your class dive into in order to convey key concepts
      • Explain why each game you chose ties into your overarching exploration

      Your class can have any focus, broad or specific: level design in first-person shooters; the history of pixel art; the psychology of non-linear narratives; the use of sound effects in mid-2000 platformers; the limitations of turn-based systems in tabletop strategy games, etc. Anything goes, and any forms of gaming are valid!

      After choosing your specific focus, choose games that you would put on your syllabus as a sort of "required playing" for students, and talk about why you've chosen each item and what it brings to the table. If you decide to choose, say, NetHack and The Binding of Isaac for your class on "Roguelikes, Roguelites, and the Fallacy of the Berlin Interpretation", discuss how those particular games illustrate some of the key concepts you want to convey to your learners.

      While I'm intending this to be serious and straightforward, I also like the idea of people having fun with it, so feel free to come up with some less serious or more entertaining classes. I'd love to see the outline for course that explored, say, the history of exploding barrels or an investigation of taste levels in the fashion of JRPG outfits.

      19 votes
    3. I've received a school project where I need to read a book but I've never really wanted to read a book and don't know many books at all. What book should I read?

      People like me are why I believe the slippery slope is a fact, not a fallacy... I'm asking this in the context of a school project mainly because of 2 things: 1: 2 of the questions of the project...

      People like me are why I believe the slippery slope is a fact, not a fallacy...

      I'm asking this in the context of a school project mainly because of 2 things:

      1: 2 of the questions of the project are about main and secondary characters and their physical and psychological characteristics, so the book is gonna require those unless I'm misinterpreting those questions.

      2: The project is for March 12th so something like 1984 with 300+ pages is probably too long. (Although there are probably many technicalities to blur this, like how much text there is in a page and the actual amount of pages I can read in a given time and how much time can I dedicate to reading the damn book.)

      19 votes