Return to Natalie
Kononenko's Home Page
COURSES TAUGHT
Good teaching attracts students and makes a program grow
FOLKLORE PROGRAM:
I have taught a variety of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. My specialty is folklore and I have built the folklore program at the University of Virginia. The program was rated excellent by an outside review committee in a report submitted to Dean Melvyn Leffler on March 20, 2000.
When I came in 1974, there were no folklore courses at all. The program grew steadily because of its popularity with students so that I currently teach a set of four undergraduate and four graduate courses. The undergraduate courses are my department's most popular offerings. They are the largest courses, averaging 120-150 students per course and they fill very quickly. During Spring 2001 pre-registration, my courses were full one week after they opened. Other department courses averaged 30% full on the same date.
The courses I currently teach are:
(The undergraduate folklore courses were revised in 1991. They are now cross-listed with Women's Studies and meet the non-Western perspectives requirement. They are also second/advanced writing requirement courses.)
I have also taught:
SLFK 213 became a permanent departmental offering. It has been taken over by Rachel Saury, a former student who is now director of the Arts and Sciences Center for Instructional Technology.
LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Good teaching is effective outside one's specialty
In addition to folklore, I have taught outside my specialty, specifically Russian language and other language courses.
Russian language courses &endash; undergraduate level
I ran our first year program for twelve years, from 1974-86. Under my leadership the course grew from 30 students to 150. I also ran and trained the teaching assistant staff for Russian language, which grew progressively during my tenure.
Notable successes include a student in first year Russian who won a state-wide composition contest.
The summer language institute, which I founded 20 years ago, is still running and draws students from all levels, high school to graduate school, and from across the area.
Other language courses
Turkish: TURK 521-522 (1985-86)independent studies in Turkish and Ukrainian
The Turkish course, even though it was taught only one year, was so effective that three students went to Turkey immediately after taking the course. One enrolled in a language program and Bogazici University and was placed in a third year level course. One student entered a Muslim theological school and later returned for graduate work in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. One student went as a tourist.