Seminars without tears?

[kaysixteen]

I am going to have to hold fast on my view that the prof has a responsibility to teach for the lion's share of the three hours, and not dismiss class early, or he is essentially defrauding them.  Whiny post-adolescents in grad school however need to be taught professional expectations for their behavior-- let them get and remain 'engaged' by the fear of having to get a real job in the private sector, after they flunk out.  Walmart associates, for instance, simply do not get a breakie every 40 minutes, do not get paid for hours they do not work, and face draconian attendance policies in any case.

[Hegemony]

I'm not ending the seminar early, so those who worry that I might be can stop worrying.

It's true that many grueling jobs are worse than sitting in a very boring classroom. I don't think that means that I should not strive to be a more engaging teacher, even if others may have given up the fight.

[jerseyjay]

As a matter of fact, I believe that I am the only person who mentioned ending a three-hour (undergraduate) course early. Whether or not Kay Sixteen accepts it, this is standard practice at my university for night classes. (Classes during the day go for the full three hours, as far as I can tell.)

I am not sure what Kay means by "the lion's share of the three hours." My school may be in the urban jungle, but we have not had too many lions recently. Since the course is scheduled officially for two hours and 45 minutes, one could argue that going for between one hour and 45 minutes and two hours falls into that category, any way.

Most of my students do, in fact, have "a real job in the private sector", some of them actually in Walmart that start at 7am, which is why holding classes past a certain hour at night is often counterproductive.

[arty_]

My three hour seminars are small - about 12 students -- and I have the option to meet in a room with a large table. One of my solution, as my seminars are night classes, is food. Students are told they can bring food to eat or share. Eventually they start bringing food to share. I start this off with some cookies and whatnot from Aldi, and this tends to loosen them up, keep them less bored.

[Caracal]

As a matter of fact, I believe that I am the only person who mentioned ending a three-hour (undergraduate) course early. Whether or not Kay Sixteen accepts it, this is standard practice at my university for night classes. (Classes during the day go for the full three hours, as far as I can tell.)

I am not sure what Kay means by "the lion's share of the three hours." My school may be in the urban jungle, but we have not had too many lions recently. Since the course is scheduled officially for two hours and 45 minutes, one could argue that going for between one hour and 45 minutes and two hours falls into that category, any way.

Most of my students do, in fact, have "a real job in the private sector", some of them actually in Walmart that start at 7am, which is why holding classes past a certain hour at night is often counterproductive.

I don't think there's really a problem with grad classes that end a bit early. Grad school isn't really about putting in hours in a classroom. Really, students are being professionalized. If everyone has come and talked about the assigned reading and the conversation has hit a natural ending point after an hour and a half, everyone should be able to go home.

I can't really make the same sort of arguments for undergrad, although I admit that when I taught 2.5 hour classes, I often ended 15 minutes early and would sometimes end more than half an hour early. I have a hard time with timing classes and the longer the class is, the more that the timing can get off. I also found it hard to predict what students would be engaged and interested with in night classes. Sometimes I would get a bunch of questions and a lively discussion as part of a lecture which and other times everyone was just too tired and we just rolled right through. If I was better at timing and planning, I would probably always have had some sort of activity ready to go to fill the extra time, but I usually didn't.

Besides when it's 845 at night, class had been going since 7 and I had gotten through the material I needed to, I couldn't really persuade myself to do something optional just to fill the time instead of just letting us all go home. Probably if I was more responsible in some way, I would have always done the whole time, but...

[Cheerful]

I've taught three-hour grad seminars.  What works best for me is small group work.  Almost all students engage more and often laugh together in their small groups.

With 15 students -- depending on attendance, motivation/academic ability of your students, and discussion questions for a given week -- do three groups of five or five groups of three students each.  Have each group discuss the same set of questions for a good chunk of time:  "what did you find most interesting about this week's readings and why?"  "what is missing from this week's readings?" and other more specific questions, many possibilities.  Provide the questions in handouts (if paper is still allowed on your campus) or write on the board. 

Take a break, have the groups report their key points/questions and compare what each group reports back. Among other benefits, this permits each person to talk within their small group when that is not always practical in a class of 15 for the whole group discussions.

Note key points on the white board or whatever you use for whole group discussions.

Vary the group members across weeks so students aren't always with the same people.

Assign different types of questions from week to week.  Try to have variety.