Outstanding classroom teaching performance, marked by good student and peer reviews, is one of the criteria of the Cassling Family Faculty Awards. This award, including $5,000, is for teachers in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

A professor of English and an associate professor of history were named recipients of the Cassling Family Faculty Awards.

Debra Marquart, professor of English and John Monroe, assistant professor of history, were awarded the teaching award on Oct. 8 at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Master Teacher Award dinner.

“It’s a very big deal. These are the highest teaching awards that the college gives,” said Douglas Epperson, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “I am just so very pleased that we can appropriately recognize two such high-quality teachers.”

Monroe received the Cassling Early Achievement in Teaching Award. He has been an instructor at Iowa State for six years.

“It’s nice to know I’m on the right track, but I’m looking forward to keeping at it,” Monroe said. “This is one of those things where you can always get better. In my life, the best people are the ones who have been doing it the longest.”

Monroe teaches by telling stories about historical figures and events to help students get multiple perspectives and analyze the situation in a way that a historian would.

“To understand [why people do what they do,] you’ve got to understand what’s going on in people’s heads at the time, and that is what I try to do with my lectures, is put students inside people’s heads,” Monroe said.

His storytelling teaching style also attempts to draw all of his students in.

“You’ve got to both present it and make it interesting,” Monroe said. “The best way to do that is use storytelling as a tool.”

His ability to tell stories and use them to teach earned him good student evaluations, one of the criteria for the award.

Monroe is considering using his award money for research travel to France, his area of interest. He also bought a piece of African art for his collection.

Marquart received the Cassling Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Award.

“[Teaching] has its own reward built into it,” Marquart said. “[But] it’s sort of like this bonus or this gravy to have someone turn around and say to you, ‘Well, here’s an extra.’ It’s sort of amazing, the generosity.”

Marquart teaches creative writing with a dash of improvisation she learned from music. She has students bring in their own material and uses that to bring up points.

She said there are “teachable moments to introduce an idea of style and craft and I try to do that through the lens of the students’ writing.”

Marquart uses this approach to let the students determine what is interesting and important to them and to lead the class and start discussions.

She said she also wants to cultivate some curiosity in the students.

“They say those are two things a writer needs most desperately: a sense of wonder and curiosity. I guess what that means in practice for a writer is that they have to be willing to ask the next question and the next question and the next question and sort of follow a trail.”

Marquart works with Professional Faculty Development and mentors creative writing graduate students.

Marquart said she plans on using the award money to fund the traveling she does to conferences as well as taking a trip to Greece to do some research for a novel that she is currently working on.

Randal and Lori Cassling, the donors for the award, both attended Iowa State and now live in Omaha, Neb., said Alsatia Mellecker, executive director of development for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“He approached us and said that he really credited the great faculty at Iowa State in his undergraduate years for what he achieved in his life,” Mellecker said.

The award includes $5,000 for whatever the recipient chooses to spend it on.

“They wanted to create an award that was not just a plaque . but a monetary reward,” Mellecker said.