Course: 19th Century German Culture and Civilization - German 304 and Honors 273 and 20th Century German Culture and Civilization - German 305 and Honors 274
Faculty: Gabriele Dillmann, Department of Modern Languages
Librarian: Kevin Furniss, Cataloging and Systems Librarian
I started developing two culture courses for our program when I first came to Denison two years ago. These two courses, which are taught in English, are designed as a pair, but students have the option to just take one of the courses, since each course includes a chronological overview of the main historic events and philosophical concepts since the early beginnings of "German" culture and civilization. These courses fulfill a double function logistically as well: students may apply the courses towards their German major or minor (with a German language component) or take them as general education courses (German304/Honors 273 fulfills the Western Studies (L) requirement and German 305/Honors 273 the Textual Inquiry (F) requirement). The courses are offered each spring alternating between 19th and 20th century culture.
The course material may change to a certain extent from course to course since students are actively involved in the choices of further exploring a particular topic or theme. The teaching methodology rests on the tradition of hermeneutic inquiry, which focuses on the questions we ask in the learning process. From an extensive list of topics in the areas of the visual arts, architecture, music, literature, philosophy, film, theater, religion, throughout the periods of the 19th, respectively the 20th century each student designs his or her own specific class project based on either previous class discussions or a particular interest in the respective topic. For practical reasons, the literary texts we read in class do not change and are firmly imbedded in the class syllabus. Students may choose to add works of literature after consultation with me. For example, a majority of students in the 20th century culture course I just completed teaching, became profoundly interested in the Third Reich, how we can attempt to understand what had happened then, and what it means applied to the fields of scholarly inquiry they are pursuing. Students explored such themes as medical experimentation and ethics, fascism and the education of children, resistance and religion, and many more. In another course, students may be more interested in Germany as a multicultural society and then distribute the weight of the course more in that direction.
Most importantly, however, in order to add depth and meaning to these courses, students need to be skilled researchers and able presenters of their researched work.
I have taught each course once thus far and I have been generally pleased with the learning outcome. However, there is clearly room for improvement, for which reason I much welcome the opportunity the Information Literacy Curriculum Development Grant offers. The improvements central to the full success of these courses predominately deal with information literacy. Students have been very enthusiastic with their course projects, but for the most part they lack some advanced, and often even very basic, research skills. I have invested a great amount of time and effort closing some of the gaps by closely working with students, leading them through their projects step by step, and closely analyzing each accomplished task. While this approach helped significantly in producing quality student work, it was never really enough and took away class time that could have been used for more meaningful class discussions.
Information Literacy - Cooperative Plan
In close cooperation with Denison librarian Kevin Furniss, who is not only familiar with the German language but also has an excellent understanding of many issues in German cultural history, the goal is for teaching and learning to be significantly enhanced by students developing and/or improving skills in the following areas:
Timeline
During the summer, Kevin and I will prepare for the spring culture course(s) by:
In the meantime, I will work the electronic student submissions of the past spring class into a class website, which will then serve as the basis for the electronic sourcebook.
During the fall semester, Kevin and I will continue to strategize and with the help of "test" students from previous classes, we will evaluate the pre-test tools we will have developed in the summer. We will further develop tools for assessment of the outcome of the literacy information grant and determine ways and formats in which to present and share our work.
Finally, in the spring semester, the class will be taught with the tools we have developed for it. Kevin will join several class sessions specifically to discuss information literacy issues, and he will meet with students individually as they work on their projects. Kevin and I will continue to work closely together and then evaluate our work and its outcome at the end of the spring semester. Kevin will also work with library intern Vickie Melicher regarding electronic issues, while I will draw from the resources my own department provides in regard to technological support for providing students with the necessary computer skills for the multi-media presentation of their work as well as its electronic submission (standardization) for the sourcebook. Furthermore, the electronic sourcebook will serve as a product to be shared with other colleagues interested in information literacy. We will then apply all of our findings to next year's 19th century culture course.
I expect this project to be quite work- as well as time-intensive for all team members involved. Susan Scott has been instrumental in helping me think this project through in a productive way, and I look forward to benefiting from both, Kevin's and Susan's, extensive knowledge in library science. The work and time invested will certainly be worthwhile, especially since the tools we will have developed will be applicable to courses beyond those of this proposal.
In regard to the grant, ideally I would request a course release, but since our program is run by only two faculty members with the other one being the chair of the department and on sabbatical in the spring, this is not a possible course of action.