The evaluations were good, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there had been something missing. Two incidents in particular are bothering me. The first was in Intro to Lit. This is a difficult course for students, because it's their first content course in the foreign language. I keep trying to come up with different approaches.
Students bring in an object that they connect to the text in some way.
It could be music, art, other literature, high culture, popular culture. I took down a photograph of a sunset which I remembered had spawned a very good discussion of one of the Symbolist poets. You have to understand that this was a good student, a conscientious student. They take up a lot of class time, and the benefits to the students from hearing each other are mixed. But I was convinced that what the experience did for the student presenting was worth the sacrifice.