Teaching

I no longer update this website.

Please go to my new website: esclark.hcommons.org

 

I enjoy talking about, reading about, and writing about teaching. I enjoy looking at other teachers’ syllabi, assignments, teaching resources, etc. So here I share some of my own work on teaching and then link to some favorites.

My Syllabi

Click here for a list of my current and previous syllabi.

My Assignments

I have not shared all my assignments here, but I plan on sharing some.

Here is my version of the unessay.
Here I discuss my initial attempt at assigning an unessay.
Here I describe an archive assignment.
Here I reflect on my faux primary source assignment, an assignment I’ve since tinkered with.

My Thoughts on Teaching

Here I explain why I take my students into the archives.
Here I talk about my favorite primary sources to teach. Here I talk about it again, focusing on non-text sources.
Here I reflect a bit on teaching the capstone in Religious Studies at my institution (something I’ll try for the first time in Fall 2017).
Here I think some on James Lang’s 2017 book Small Teaching.

More Resources!

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As I enjoy reading about teaching, I’ve compiled a list here of some of my favorite teaching resources online. This list will perpetually be a work in progress, and especially as of now (Fall 2017), it’s pretty meager.

Resources on/about Teaching

Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, edited by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, Dianne Goodman and Khyati Joshi, is a great resource. And its accompanying website is pretty rad.
The #Charlestonsyllabus project, developed after the white supremacy-motivated violence in June 2015, brings together wonderful resources on racism.
The open, peer-review site for Digital Pedagogies in the Humanities (Rebecca Davis, Matt Gold, Kathy Harris, and Jentry Sayers, eds.) is a great place to look for ideas on a wide range of topics.
“How Not to Teach Digital Humanities” was an essay by Ryan Cordell that helped me figure out how I wanted to try to teach Digital Humanities.

Resources on Syllabi

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Tona Hangen’s post on the syllabus extreme makeover is what inspired me to rethink the layout and format of my syllabi.
Kevin Gannon (@thetattooedprof)’s series on DIY Syllabus published by Chronicle Vitae is fabulous.
This article from Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning makes a strong case about why the syllabus matters.
Accessible Syllabus makes a good case for why syllabi matter for empowering students.
The vault of syllabi from the Young Scholars of American Religion program at the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture. A version of my American Christianities course will soon join the collection.

Resources for Teaching

Textbooks are not always cheap, so free, open-access sources are great in the classroom. Dr. Hilary Green at the University of Alabama has curated a great list of digital resources.

Resources on Assignments

A reflective essay from Dr. Kelly J. Baker on having students do ethnography in an undergraduate class.
Dr. Sarah Dees took an undergraduate class into a museum for an assignment and wrote about it.

Religious Studies-Specific Resources

Teaching New and Alternative Religious Movements (published by AAR’s Religious Studies News) is a great resource on just that.