Contact: Gail Short205-934-8931/[email protected]
A new interactive Web site is helping 12th grade teachers and professors prepare teenagers for the rigors of college English courses.
UAB English professor Flowers Braswell, Ph.D., originated the Web site, called "Eureka!" after becoming increasingly frustrated by her sophomore British literature students' lack of readiness for her class. Almost all of the students were unfamiliar, or "fuzzy," with writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Donne; they rarely knew the classics and couldn't understand the allusions to Greek and Roman mythology with which British literature abounds. Most knew nothing about the so-called "Dark Ages" and could not manage a close reading of a literary text.
"They didn't seem to know any British history," said Braswell. "I spent as much time setting the historical scene as I did teaching about the literature itself."
Braswell realized that what students were learning in the twelfth grade was a mystery to college teachers and that, in addition, high school teachers didn't know what college English professors really expected of sophomore literature students. So with the help of technical expert Linda Burrow in the UAB Mervyn Sterne Library, Braswell set out to create "Eureka!" a Web site and listserv where high school teachers and English professors could interact.
Since January, a pilot group of 18 high school English teachers, mostly from Jefferson and Shelby counties, and Jefferson County Secondary English Supervisor, Patricia Dudley, have been logging on and chatting with Braswell and other UAB English professors, about everything from the complexities of medieval phrenology and the problems in teaching the contemporary novel, to changes in the Alabama K-12 curriculum and the inequities in the AP programs.
Marilyn Kurata, Ph.D., interim chairman of the UAB English Department for example, was able to assist one high school teacher's student who needed advice on writing a paper about Jane Austen. She also provided a list of Victorian writers prominent in the women's movement to a teacher who was coordinating a women's studies course at her school. Assistant Professor Alison Chapman, Ph.D., contributed an analysis of a Spencerian sonnet form in response to a comment by teacher Mary Helen Derryberry from Montevallo High School about writing sonnet parodies. And Associate Professor Randa Graves, Ph.D., provided a discussion of the 18th century's interdisciplinary perception of the arts in response to a query on how one could approach that literature in a novel way.
In addition to its listserv capabilities, "Eureka!" is a web site that contains links to various educational Web topics such as Shakespeare's plays, the Arthurian legends, a Jane Austen page and a virtual seminar for teaching WWI poetry -- all reviewed and recommended by scholars. One site, "A Boke of Gode Cookery" lists medieval period recipes and gives instructions for carrying out a medieval feast with students. "Eureka!" also has links to online reference books and to the Alabama Virtual Library. It also features sections like "Ask a Professor" and "Ask a Librarian" where teachers can get answers concerning various topics in British literature and advice on conducting research.
Teachers can also get updates on UAB English Department programs and upcoming lectures by clicking on the appropriate link.
"We hope high school teachers and their students will join us in some of our activities," Braswell said. "There is a whole group of people out there that need to know one another."
Kristi Byrd, who teaches at Homewood High School, says that postings on the Web site by UAB faculty have provided her with new ideas for teaching 17th century poetry.
"It's also been helpful to get to talk with my professional peers from all the different types and sizes of schools in the area," says Byrd.
"I am really excited about the 'Eureka!' project," observed Vicky Abernathy of Alabama School of Fine Arts. "It will help tremendously in filling in educational gaps."
UAB English faculty members, in turn, are learning about what 12th-graders are learning -- and not learning -- in high school and what secondary school curriculum does and does not allow. For instance, Braswell discovered that the Alabama State Curriculum provides for the first half of world history in the seventh grade--the second half in the 10th--so that most students would have had at least a six-or-seven year hiatus by the time they reached their college sophomore year.
"This means that most students have had little or no exposure to British history per se by the time they reach their senior year of high school," said Braswell. "This is a major shock to most college teachers. We now have to teach those concepts that we previously took for granted."
Braswell has applied for a grant from the UAB School of Humanities to expand the project and to pay for three content-intensive teacher workshops she hopes to hold this summer for the "Eureka!" participants who have asked for additional work on various topics. Topics will include Milton, to be taught by Chapman; Swift, by Graves; and Joyce by Professor Bill Hutchings, Ph.D. Next year Braswell plans to apply for funding from the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
"We hope to have some of our faculty visit the participating high schools as guest lecturers. We want our professors to teach a subject as it would be taught in a college classroom just to let the students get a feel for what that next level is like. We also hope to have "College Day" where prospective students can come to the English Department for an abbreviated day of classes. This way, 'Eureka!' can become a recruiting tool for us at UAB."
The "Eureka!" web site is located at http://eureka.mhsl.uab.edu. Membership is restricted, although the general site can be viewed by anyone who has an interest.
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