and who would honestly have sworn
that cap and bells he's never worn?
--S. Brant
I embrace the cap and bells, especially as a teaching methodology. The trick is to to be open to displaying them and use them to lower students' affective filters (an occupational hazard, FL instructors all want to lower affective filters) , not to flaunt them. That said, the comedy course had a positive first class meeting. I used Ruth's suggestion of setting the hook (are we fishermen of students?) by starting with American comedy references:introductions (what is your favorite book/poem/film/tv comedy, group work to try to come up with a definition (remarkably good, follow up with Kant's definitive one) and a series of YouTube videos from the US (SNL's Cowbell, Chaplin's dance with the world balloon), followed quickly by German ones (Schnauze!!, We're sinking, and the Yodeldiplom class).
The Cowbell video was a last minute addition given my statement to try to include at least one reference to it in every class I teach. It was a big hit. Chaplin was wonderful, and the students (half of them seniors who want to graduate either at the end of summer or in Deember--that's a comedic situation for you!) quickly picked up on his graceful, balletic and sexualized interplay with the balloon.
The remainder of the class included me giving the first report (author/historical context and introduction to text) as a model for their own, then moved to trying to "read" a series of 3 woodcuts for the first secular German tale (Neidhart and the Violet). The small groups produced stories that showed they were working with the images well, although we did need to define scatology once the giggling stopped. With relatively little prodding, they analyzed the (actual) story, drawing comparisons to the theme and methodology used in 1210 to the same ones in 2010. I can't wait until the Church v. Empire debate in a couple weeks.
The most humorous moment for me was one student telling the class that she kind of liked comedy/humor, but didn't watch TV, only viewed serious films and read serious European literature (none of that Twilight trash for her). A few students actually tittered when I asked why she had chosen this class. Her answer: The other courses were all reading (bad) modern novels by authors the professors researched. Her chosen topic for her report: Sigmund Freud, The Joke and its Relationship to the Unconscious. Hmmm. Actually the most common responses for students choosing the course: 5 weeks course, no book to buy, comedy has to be better than boring literature (wait till they get to Minna, a classic literary comedy), needed an elective, wanted a night class.
There was one other humorous moment: a student asked whether we would always meet for the entire class period (as opposed to leaving at break, I assumed). My response: Hmm, we may go a little long on the days we are viewing films, but I think we should get out on time or possibly 5 minutes early most of the classes:)
