Oxford: the academics

Begun July 15, 2011

Packed up to leave Worcester, but waiting for Al to finish, so sitting by the pond on this glorious Friday morning, with a predicted temp of 75 (highest yet) for this afternoon.  Time to reflect on my brief time as a student at Oxford. (Does seven days entitle me to consider myself, along with Jay Gatsby, “an Oggsford” woman?)

Full English breakfast in the high table in the Great Hall each morning:  eggs, sausage, mushrooms, bacon, beans, tomatoes (stuck to the first three), plus fruit, toast, coffee and tea.  The Great Hall, though not quite as extravagant as the Christ Church Great Hall recreated for Hogwarts, was cavernous, light blue, stained glass windows, long tables.  From 9-10:30 we had class in the Rose Garden Room, followed by coffee/tea break in the medieval buttery.  Class from 11-12:30 and again from 2-3:15.  A visit from the Siamese cat of some Worcester professor each day, usually characterized by a leap through or from one of the garden windows when we least expected it.  The sixteen of us sat at a huge conference table which was punctuated down the center with piles of wrapped toffee candies which diminished steadily through the week.  Open windows and the occasional scent of roses.  Would be perfect for my AP classes.

Our director for the class was James Cross, from Whittier, California, AP teacher, college lecturer, and AP test reader and mentor for AP teachers.  James is about a year older than I, former Catholic high school teacher. Graying hair, ruddy complexion, glasses.  He reminded me sharply, especially after two days of listening to the rise and fall of his voice, of my dear mentor, Dr. John Hertz, as he was during the days I spent studying with him at Marywood.  With James, we studied The Tempest, the poetry of Keats and its link to Scott Fitzgerald, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Heart of Darkness, Brave New World, Mrs. Dalloway, Going After Cacciato, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Alice in Wonderland, and short stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Many strong packets (I will be paying extra on the plane) filled with good ideas; I particularly appreciate ideas about the pacing of lessons since I tend to go slowly.  However, I have discovered that, of everyone there, I have the least instructional time.  Most everyone else has at least an hour and, in some cases, longer each day for AP.  Which may account in some respects for the fact that I seem to take a while to cover the texts.  But I became aware, very quickly/sadly, that James’ plan of 22 days on a particular novel would take 35 or so days for me, even if I taught at his pace.  Not possible.

We discussed the four levels of narrative:  What does it say?  What does it mean?  What have I learned [lesson, theme]?  What am I going to do about it [action]?  This last idea, which James referred to as part of the hidden agenda of English teachers, led to much vigorous discussion, especially spinning off from Frankenstein and Cacciato.  I enjoyed the conversations, particularly as I agreed with his politics in most cases, but some of my friends squirmed at what they viewed as digressions from the literature.  I do see literature as inevitably leading to such conversations if the books are to affect students’ lives in a way that matters beyond AP.

On Tuesday, we had a class from Tim Fossett, AP teacher/reader from North Carolina, who focused on the 2011 AP test rubrics and range-finders (the essays which the AP scorers determine are exemplars for the scores of 0 through 9).  He was an engaging ex-Marine, an alum of this AO Oxford conference, whose insights were wonderful.  More time with him would have been lovely.

We spent Wednesday morning “at the feet of” David Bradshaw, quintessential Oxford Don, “BA, MA, DPhil, FEA, is Hawthornden Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Worcester College and Reader in English Literature at Oxford University. Dr [they don’t do periods for title abbreviations here!] Bradshaw is a specialist in the literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His research interests include modernism, politics and literature, eugenics, dystopias, censorship, and contextual readings of authors such as Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, Aldous Huxley and T.S. Eliot” [Let’s just  say that’s the tip of a huge C.V. iceberg!].  A mane of rumpled grey hair, a purple-flower print shirt; wanted to go barefoot in our group picture, but James, in his prep-perfect long-sleeved shirt and tie, remonstrated.  David lectured on Heart of Darkness, Huxley and Brave New World, and Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway with the easy authority that comes from having read all their letters and edited most of their texts.  A fascinating, sacred time.  Of course we all spent part of our free Wednesday afternoon running down to Blackwell’s (incredible temple of bookstoredom) to buy his books, A. because they are superb resources, and B. because he had promised to sign them at our tea break and photo session on Thursday.

This is getting much too long for a blog post.  All in all, an amazing experience.  We students wished for a bit more time sharing our own classroom and curriculum ideas, but the week was truly invaluable.  More about the non-classroom side of the experience to come.