The Traveling Scholar | AC Sieffert, PhD

Binghamton University                                                                                         Binghamton, NY 2020-present

Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Lecturer

>>Evaluations at the School-level for Binghamton University<<

Alfred University                                                                                         Alfred, NY 2019-2020

Department of Modern Languages

Visiting Assistant Professor

>Fall 2019 Evaluations French 201<<

>>Fall 2019 Evaluations French 101 section 1 and section 2<<

Ohio Wesleyan University                                                                            Delaware, OH 2019

Department of Modern Foreign Languages

Visiting Assistant Professor

>>Teaching Portfolio Evaluations+Sample Syllabi<<

Cornell University                                                                                        Ithaca, NY 2016-2018

Department of Romance Languages

Visiting Lecturer. 

• Freshman Writing Seminar: Victors, Virgins and Villains: Heroes in Pop Culture. In this class, I study with students the archetypal figure of the hero, including gender and racial implications of a stereotypical heroic figure. The class covered a range of literatures from Norse mythology, medieval folklore, Native American Iroquois legends to modern work such as Marvel and DC Comics (in particular Black Panther and Wonder Woman), and francophone pulp fiction hero, Bob Morane.

>>Evaluations FWS Spring 18<<

• Beginners class (French 1210=French I/101; French 1220= French II/102)

>Evaluations French 1210 Fall 17<<

>>Evaluations French 1220 Spring<<

• Low Intermediate (French 1230): taught with Vista Higher Learning system.

>>Evaluations French 1230 Fall’16<<

• Freshman Writing Seminar: The Cannibal and the Explorer-Ethics of Travel Writing. In this class, I study with students the figure of the cannibal through the eyes of European travel writers. Authors studied: Jean de Lery, Olympe Audouard, Jules Verne. Critical reading: Frank Lestringant’s Cannibals. I also assigned students maps from the 16th to the 20th century, to analyze and present to their classmates–we spent a session at the library examining maps from the 16th and 17th century to learn more about mapping and early modern cartography.

>Evaluations The Cannibal and the Explorer Spring’17<<

>>Evaluations FWS Fall 17<<

The College of Staten Island                                                                     New York, NY Spring 2016

Department of World Languages

Adjunct Lecturer. 

• Beginner 1 and 2: the class was taught with a Vista Higher Learning book. I made pedagogical videos to help prepare the students to the oral, in-lab exams.

>>Evaluations Beginner French Spring 2016<<

Montclair State University                                                       Montclair, New Jersey Spring 2016

Department of Modern Languages

Visting Lecturer. 

• French Composition: this level corresponds to an advanced intermediate French class. In this class, I was free to re-write the syllabus, as long as I kept the same amount of assignments. The class went over several types of writings, from cover letters, to fiction, to short essays. I used authentic material, such as the novel Ru, by Kim Thuy, or Ernest and Celestine, both the movie adaptation and short novel written by Daniel Pennac. We also studied real advertisement from the French-American Chamber of Commerce, and students wrote cover letters to job they had chosen, in French. We studied how to design a comic book, and they produced a one-page assignments of a comic book.

>>Evaluations Composition Spring 2016<<

Brown University                                                                  Providence, RI 2010-Present

Department of French Studies

Graduate Teaching Assistant (solo taught, except for the Cinema class). 

• Beginner 1 and 2 (French 100 and 200): these courses are part of the same sequence. Students learn the basic of French, speaking, writing and reading. This sequence involves the Contes de la rue Broca as authentic reading material.

>>French 100 Evaluations<<                                >>French 200 Evaluations<<

• Intermediate 1 (French 300): this course develops beginner’s writing and reading abilities, and is heavy with advanced grammar. It reviews Beginner 1 and 2 and use group work to build on it. This class involves reading Le Petit Nicolas with the students.

>>French 300 Evaluations<<

• Writing and Reading 1 and 2 (French 500 and French 600): these two courses have heavy reading and writing, with less emphasis on formal grammar (with only 3 grammar quizzes) and more on developing content of students writing, with feedback and rewriting processes. These two courses requires heavy feedback from the teacher on composition. The works read in class include: Cyrano de Bergerac, Debout les morts, as well as graphic novel Retour au collège, and the two films

>French 500 Evaluations<<                              >>French 600 Evaluations<<

>> Evaluations Spring 2015 French 5<<

• French Cinema: The First Fifty Years. This class is a survey of the major film movements of the first fifty years of film in France. It studied the pioneers (the Lumière brothers, Méliès), and ran until World War II, covering Les Enfants du Paradis as well as Le Quai des Brumes. I directed a conversation section for this class, with the undergraduate advanced students, discussing film history and description of films. There is no available feedback from the students for this section.

Syracuse University                                                                       Syracuse, NY 2007-2009

Department of Languages, Literature and Linguistics

Graduate Teaching Assistant

• Intermediate French 1 and 2: Introduction to literature and culture; Conversation class (meant to develop aural/oral abilities). These classes involved a mix of lectures about Frances history, literary analysis, as well as grammar work. It was correction-heavy.

• French Conversation: This class was a weekly one-hour conversation class, centered around various activities: board games, discussion of texts and films, free-subject discussions.

University of Strasbourg                                                            Strasbourg, France 2008

Department of History, Art History and Archeology

Graduate Teaching Assistant

• Introduction to Writing in History Classes for Freshmen. This class was designed to teach students how to write papers and analyze texts over the course of their first year in every major era they studied. Each section had a different graduate assistant, divided by era. I taught nineteenth and twentieth century. The class involved feedback to students on their papers as well as French grammar, and was centered around varied texts such as travel journals, legal texts, novels, etc.