Competency-based introductory classes often include a great deal of repetition of three to four disciplinary competencies. While this reinforces those key disciplinary skills, attitudes, and values by providing plenty of practice in them, such repetitive practice can create an inaccurately uniform view of the discipline. Adding weekly brief encounters with disciplinary specializations can build student interest, share diverse content, and perhaps even help recruit students into specializations of which they may previously be unaware.

The presenter will share examples of narrative instruction in his own field of U.S. History, and his use of moderately challenging weekly assignments and timely light feedback to teach key disciplinary competencies. He will then share examples of brief weekly divertissements that he has successfully used in his own courses, and offer a heuristic for designing such fleeting encounters. Participants will receive handouts with examples of narrative instruction, examples of fleeting glance assignments, and the design heuristic. Participants will then brainstorm potential brief encounters in an introductory course in their own field, and then share their findings with others, first in small group discussions, and then by uploading those ideas into a shared Google Doc.