He teaches several pieces of literature to illustrate his perspectives, and demonstrates a range of teaching methods that might be useful in generating class discussion. He confers with each student before they lead a discussion, and is happy to help the student teacher if discussion becomes difficult. The students gave me an opportunity to appreciate authors that I'd dismissed before. In addition to selecting the texts they'll teach, Schocket lets students determine the structure of the student-run portion of the class. This semester, the students chose to place their desks in a circle rather than in rows and to allow each student to select the text without getting approval from the professor or the class.
Democracy is a great thing to experience in a class about American literature.