Creativity abounds within the minds of Penn State Berks’ English professors. Two unique, innovative courses offered this semester are designed to engage and challenge students while ultimately improving the quality of our curriculum.
“Passages” is the theme of Dr. Sandy Feinstein’s honors English course. This experimental seminar explores three main ideas pertaining to literature: how and why it is studied in a collegiate setting, how it can be applied to major and career objectives, and what is says about the human experience.
There are an array of majors enrolled and she designed the course to engage each discipline, ranging from psychology and IST to communications and linguistics. She said this offers students a variety of angles.
“You are not really learning anything if you don’t understand how other people see it,” Feinstein said.
The most creative aspect of the course is Feinstein’s incorporation of student input on literature selection and academic approaches to selected works. The course also includes a travel component that will help students more fully understand the literature studied.
“Our experiences make this literature and determine its value,” Feinstein said.
Although this class is experimental in nature, even her traditional literature classes offer a unique perspective because she tailors every course to the academic interests of the students enrolled.
She invites, “Everyone and anyone who is brave enough to try something different. To not be afraid when it’s not something you expected,” to register for her classes.
Dr. Christian Weisser, coordinator of the Professional Writing Program, also invites any interested student to enroll in his cutting edge English 202 class focused on sustainability.
“Sustainability combines a variety of disciplines including science, economics, politics, humanities, and others. In fact, it is hard to think of an academic discipline that could not contribute to the sustainability conversation.” Weisser said. “Your academic program or major–whatever it may be–can be a useful perspective on sustainability, and you can learn a great deal about the subject by exploring it through a range of disciplines and perspectives.”
The course facilitates the study and practice of sustainability: it is paperless and all students recieve an iPad to access course materials.
[pagebreak]
English 202, a sophomore general education requirement, traditionally focuses on generic professional writing rather than a specific subject of study. Dr. Weisser challenges this concept because he believes students learn best when they are engaged in a subject. His class is also the first to cross-combine two versions of the course: A (social science) and C (technical).
Sustainability is an emerging subject of study becoming more and more relevant in today’s world of media and politics, he said, which makes it a fitting subject of a writing course because it’s definition is still forming.
“It will allow you to form your own opinions, use research, reasoning, and evidence to support your claims; and contribute to the conversation in your own way. As you engage with the issues surrounding sustainability, you will develop critical thinking skills in a way that an easy or simple subject (with clear answers) might not allow,” Weisser said. “Addressing the complex subject of sustainability will help to prepare you to address other complex issues and subjects in your professional, personal, and social life.”
Although this is the first semester Dr. Weisser is offering this course, he has always used creative techniques in his more traditional writing courses. His pragmatic approach includes the incorporation of a variety of multimedia such as video creation, blog writing and interviewing. You will not find yourself simply writing essay after essay in his classes.
“My goal is to expose students to the types of multimedia they will use as writing professionals,” Weisser said.
As Dr. Feinstein said of her students, “Unless you can have original ideas you are not going to be a leader in your field.”