Observation at Cal

Logistics:

English 243N / UC Berkeley
Thomas Farber
Thursdays 3:30-6:30
02.25.2010


Make up: Nine students: two males, seven females

The class is a graduate seminar made up of undergrads and graduate students from various departments. Because there is no grad-level creative writing major at Berkeley, the classes are usually a hodgepodge of disciplines.

Arrangement: Squaretable format, similar to Mills. Two people at the head of the table (the instructor and I), two students at the end, three on one side, four on the other. Classroom was a standard classroom. Wheeler Hall reminds me of a high school from the 70s with vintage tile, lockers in some hallways, and wooden doors with frosted glass and gold and black number decals.

Atmosphere: Positive. As a whole, the students were comfortable with one another, making light jokes.

Substance:

The instructor began with a lecture / discussion. He had a typed agenda arranged by number, of what he wanted to talk about. I peered over and saw my name at the top. He introduced me and then went to number two, which was a discussion about the process of writing, more specifically, censorship. He said, “If you’re going to censor yourself, you won’t have a true story to tell.” He went on to say writers should write first and worry about censoring when the story is finished. He then talked about writing being a way to reconcile things, to make them better.

The professor is a structured and frank, but approachable. He encourages students who are being workshopped to bring food for the class. His reasoning is that people can't "bite" if they're chewing. He said it’s normal for his classes to have food, but some of his colleagues laugh when he mentions it. I don’t remember if I told him the workshops at Mills are catered as well.

The workshopped pieces were from two students. They were in response to a writing prompt. The students commented on the pieces in a standard way by opening with something positive before saying something critical. The person being workshopped would have a usual “sit there and take it” look on his / her face and then interject a time or two before returning back to the "I don't need to explain myself to you guys" glossed-over expression.

When comments for the piece died down, the professor would interrogate the author for more information, sort of a way to draw out the story. He didn’t always ask questions about the work directly, but the conversation was a way to influence the author think about how to make piece richer. At the end of each individual workshop the professor would hand back the student his / her manuscript with professorial comments.

I forgot to mention, the professor required the students to hand in a page of typed critiques for the current piece before the workshop began. The students were also required to keep journals (creative writing journals, so the content could include sections of longer pieces).

Outcome:

The students were comfortable speaking in the class, some more talkative than others, mostly the older students. All spoke at least once.

The class seemed effective because it was well-structured and run by a writer / instructor who cares about writing. He dispensed what he knew to be true, asked the class about what he didn’t know. The students all seemed to enjoy and engage. I didn’t notice any slackers. Actually, I don’t think professor Farber would allow any slackers.

I talked indirectly to him about what I learned. It wasn’t a single conversation. Just random statements over time about writing and teaching. I know I said more than once that I want to be a novelist. I think if I say it enough it'll come true. That and actually sitting down to write.