Keep Teaching Faculty Spotlight – Javier Lorenzo

Faculty Name: Javier Lorenzo

Department: Foreign Languages and Literatures

College: Harriot College of Arts and Sciences

Course: FORL 2665 (Don Quixote) Description: 40+ students, GE/Humanities, lecture/discussion type, open to majors and non-majors needing humanities credits

In my face-to-face class: I used to spend 15/20 minutes lecturing about specific events, themes, and characters  in Don Quixote before opening the class to discussion and allowing students to express their views on what they read.

I did this because:  I wanted students to be able to relate what they read to the social, political, and religious context against which Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, which the students typically know very little about.

Now I plan to: organize my lectures in short PowerPoint presentations or “mini-lectures” (6-10 minutes) that I record in Canvas using Studio (screen capture).

I chose this strategy because: It allows students to quickly access critical information for reading Don Quixote at their convenience and to manage their time and their learning more efficiently since they can stop, rewind or listen again to the “mini-lectures” according to what their schedule or life situation allows. The “mini-lectures” also increase my chances of accomplishing one of the main learning objectives of my course: to empower and stimulate students to explore the relation between text and context in Don Quixote.

Anything else you would like to share: Because Studio gives you the option of allowing student comments when you do screen captures, the “mini-lectures” also stimulate student participation in the class. It is important to keep them short to maximize student attention and to personalize them by adding a fun fact, joke or anecdote to the information you are conveying, especially if your class is online.

These spotlights are meant to spark ideas as we work together as a campus community to continue to facilitate student learning and engagement, possibly in new and creative ways. Some things we do during these unusual circumstances will be extraordinary, some will be good, and some will be just fine for now. As we share ideas and keep our eyes on our mission, thank you Pirate Faculty, for your commitment to just keep teaching!