Peculiar Russian 3/4 class

[Harold D. Baker]

Dear SEELangers,
        I have a rather peculiar class that I'm teaching this quarter
(maybe it won't seem peculiar to all of you . . .). That is, I've been
teaching the class for years now, but this quarter it's acquired a
different character. The class is 3rd and 4th year Russian. We were forced
to combine these two levels a few years ago by staffing cuts; the syllabi
remain wholly independent, with different textbooks, different tests and so
forth, but they meet at the same time and place and have the same teacher
(me). The past year it's been very small, 3-5 students, but this quarter
it's swollen to 7 due to an influx of native speakers (3). These are true
native speakers, with some or all of their secondary education (in one case
higher ed. as well) from Russia, who are taking this course largely to
lighten their workload. Some maintain the polite fiction that they are
brushing up their grammar or spelling, others don't bother. That is not the
issue: we've long recognized this phenomenon as a fact of our life. The
thing is that I suddenly have a class that is almost 1/2 natives, and it
seems to me I can teach the whole class in a different and better way,
using them as a resource. More importantly, if I don't, there is a real
danger that their cynicism and boredom will overpower the other students
and destroy morale. So I'm asking for suggestions for a class project
lasting one quarter which would answer the following desiderata:
=80Involves reading, writing, speaking, listening
=80Requires active participation of all group members regardless of ability;
may assign special role to native speakers
=80Involves authentic (Russian) cultural materials of interest both to
natives and non-natives
=80Requires individual research/exploration as well as active classroom
discussion/collaboration
=80Probably produces some final written product, preferably collaborative
        Our program has good resources to support a variety of
possibilities: we subscribe to daily television broadcasts from Russia,
both news and entertainment broadcasts (the International Channel); there
is an excellent computer lab (actually labs); I can program in HyperCard;
the Library has extensive Russian resources, including popular periodicals;
we have a huge inventory of Internet resources for Russian.
        The "other aspects" of the curriculum are not a problem: I can
compress our necessary textbook occupations to a small part of class time.
        I hope you find this an interesting problem, and look forward to
your (as always) fascinating suggestions and ideas. I will also be working
hard on it . . . .
Biff Baker

Harold D. Baker
Program in Russian
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92717 USA
1-714-824-6183/Fax 1-714-824-2379