Required Texts and Supplies
*If you have a reading comprehension problem or read slowly, you must build extra time into your study schedule to adequately read the material. Even very adept readers need to read literature several times.
This class is not often a lecture class. Rather, it is a writing-intensive, response-based exploration and sharing of ideas revolving around the study of literature. It is your responsibility to come to class having studied your assignment and formed some preliminary opinions about it. Together we will explore, expand upon, and revise those opinions. You do not have to agree with me, the editor, or your classmates, but you must provide support for your own opinions. Fair enough? You will learn to do this and may be amazed that before long you read differently, with greater insight than you did in the past.
Because this class has a heavy emphasis on reader response, it is designed with an electronic component. Using your e-mail address, you will make entries in your electronic journal which will be conducted entirely on-line. You will need to go to one of our computer labs to do this, or you could do it from home if you have a computer and modem there. Computer Services will give you the necessary help to enable your home machine to receive your e-mail if you have a computer with a modem. You will be part of a small group with whom you will dialogue all semester. In addition you will be part of the larger group and also have a direct line to me. You will receive hands-on instruction in using e-mail in a class session devoted to that. You will find your electronic discussion to be enlightening, liberating, and fun. This course is writing intensive and interactive. If you are looking for a lecture course where you do nothing more than sit back and take notes, you should look for a different section of English 200.
Evaluation
You will have two papers/projects and two tests, each worth 20%, or
a total of 80% of your grade. The papers and tests enable you and me to
assess the depth of your understanding and the maturity of your insights.
You will be expected to observe the conventions of acceptable academic
discourse. This includes correct spelling and MLA documentation! As a college
student, you have been admitted to an academic community and must express
yourself in the language of that community. The prerequisite for this
class is completion of Composition I & II with grades of C or better,
or you must be currently enrolled in English 112. Because English 200 is
a writing-intensive course, there are no exceptions to this rule.
The remaining 20% of your grade will be determined by the quality of your written classwork, your contributions to class discussion, and your electronic dialogue journal (as opposed to a hard copy journal). Specific guidelines for entries will be placed in your e-mail inbox. Look upon lab time as you would library time. Only occasionally will I make specific journal assignments; your self discipline is required in this regard in order that you build lab time into your schedule and post two separate entries each week before Sunday, midnight. It is at that time that I record all responses for the week. Do not post both entries simultaneously just before the deadline. This practice shuts down dialogue. Separate entries allow everyone time to reflect before submitting another response or initiating a new idea. So you need to be disciplined in this regard. If you cannot develop this kind of work ethic, you would be better off choosing another section of this course.
In the journal you should record your thoughts about the assigned readings, and also record new information you might have been inquisitive enough to seek out on your own. You should make an effort to dialogue withnot at your group members, and call them by name. You may respond in the journal to controversies that arise in class discussion; you may take issue with me, with an author, playwright, poet, or with a classmate. Occasionally, you may even try creating your own literature: an essay, editorial, poem, play, whatever, providing the attempt is honest and not just filler. Make observations, ask questions, wax philosophical. Hopefully, the literature we study is going to make you THINK, and the journal will become a record of the level of your thinking. Your journal can raise or lower your grade by as much as a whole grade, depending on its quality and evidence of effort.
The journal is required; it is not an option. A person who chooses not to contribute timely required entries to his our her dialogue group will receive no more than a D in the course. You must build time for it into your schedule. This may require you to make extra trips to campus that you had not planned on, but this is an aspect of the university experience that you cannot avoid. Planning a schedule which allows you time only to attend class is extremely unrealistic and ill-advised.
There are no late papers. For practical purposes, due dates must be strictly adhered to. Papers/projects are announced well in advance and may not be handed in late for a lowered grade. Those not turned in on time are not read and receive a grade of 0. If you are having difficulty of any kind and anticipate that you cannot make a deadline, see me in advance of the due date to determine if an extension can be granted. This cannot occur except in an emergency situation. This is in reference to death, earthquake, plague, etc., not oversleeping, all night fights with girlfriend/boyfriend, sudden onset of pneumonia, writer's block, etc.
If a paper is due and you cannot be in class to turn it in, you must somehow get it to third floor Brown and give it to either of the two Faculty Secretaries. Your paper will then be stamped and put in my office. Your other option is to mail the paper to me, making sure it is postmarked in a post office (not a postal meter you may have access to) on or before the due date. Do not slide any major papers under my door. This does not refer to homework.
Obviously, if you are not in class, you are not participating and will be graded accordingly. More than two absences in the semester will hurt your grade, and if you miss five or six times, you should expect to fail the course. You alone are responsible for obtaining missed assignments and class notes. In-class writings, however, are exercises in spontaneous writing or inquiries about assigned readings and cannot be made up.
Please be on time. Late entries are disruptive and distracting to your classmates and put you at a disadvantage since class begins with the direction for the day's work, and collaborative activity works best if you are there from the beginning..
If all this seems a bit heavy handed and authoritarian, please understand
that we all need guidelines in order to function effectively. As a reforming
procrastinator myself, I tend to build a course with that type of student
in mind. You should regard the classroom as a non-threatening, informal
and fun place to be. The class is a democratic community in which all opinions
are respected and valued. It is my hope that you will become an integral,
contributing member of the group and have quite a good time in the process.
I hope, too, that you emerge a more critical thinker for having taken the
course. The class requires considerable time and effort, but your new analytical
skills and appreciation of literature will remain with you after the class
ends :-)
N.B. : Any student with a disability that may restrict her or his
full participation in course activities is encouraged to meet with me during
the first week of the semester or contact the SVSU Office of Disability
Services, Wickes 145, for assistance.
LITERARY INTERPRETATION READING SCHEDULE
Revised 24 August 2000
THERE IS A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF FLEX BUILT INTO THIS SCHEDULE WHICH MAY NOT BE APPARENT TO YOU BUT IS TO ME. FROM TIME TO TIME WE MAY BE OFF SCHEDULE. KEEP YOUR READING UP-TO-DATE IF THIS HAPPENS SO YOU ARE NOT BEHIND WHEN I MIRACULOUSLY CATCH US UP !
Week One .
Tuesday
Policies & procedures, texts, syllabus, journal, writing sample
29 August Read: Chapter
1, "What Is Literature" pp. 3-16
Write: Respond to all S & C boxes using loose leaf paper
Assignment: Get e-mail address immediately if you don't have one
Thursday Discussion
& reading response
31 August Read: Chapter
2, "The Reader's Role," pp. 17 - 37
Write: S & C, pp. 22, 24, 32
Read: Chapter 3 "Reading Lit. Actively," pp. 38-54
Write: Prereading Expectations for "Hills Like White Elephants,"
p. 41
Week Two
Tuesday
Labor
Day Break - No School
5 September
Thursday Discussion
of Ch. 2 & 3: "Dover Beach," "Cover Me, "
7 September & "Hills Like White Elephants."
Read: Ch. 4, "Writing About Lit.," pp. 55-82; Ch. 5, "What Is Fiction?"
pp.
85-110.
Write: Qs - pp. 93-94, 100
Week Three
TuesdayE-mail Instruction in computer lab, P212
12 September Formation of distribution lists. Form
and name dialogue groups.
Assignment to be done in e-mail and sent to lrgraft.
Tom Petty, "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and other works.
Read: Finish Ch. 5, pp. 111-130, Write: Make notes
Thursday
Discussion of Ch. 5 - Literary Conventions
14 September Read: Ch. 6, 131-176, Charlotte
Perkins Gillman, "The Yellow Wall-Paper,"
294-306.
Write: make notes on readings
Week Four
Tuesday
Discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper,"294-306;
19 September Read: Louise Erdrich:
"Fleur," 373; Alice Walker: "To Hell With Dying,"
384-88
Write: Card Report
Assign: Fiction Paper, due 12 Oct. (peer response 7 Oct.; bring 3 copies)
Thursday
Continued Discussion - Plot, Point of View, Setting
21 September Read: continue with
assigned reading, William Faulkner: "A Rose For Emily,"
399-405.
Week Five
Tuesday
Finish discussion of assigned stories. In-class activities.
26 September Read: William
Faulkner: "A Rose for Emily," pp. 399-405
Write: actual chronology of events
Thursday
Discussion of "Rose" In-class Activities
28 September Read: Faulkner:
"Barn Burning," pp. 388-399
Write: Card Report
Week Six
Tuesday
Continue w/discussion of Faulkner
3 October
Thursday
Fiction Paper draft due/peer response - copies needed!
5 October
Read:
Review text and notes
Week Seven
Tuesday
Fiction Paper due
10 October
Finish fiction unit
Thursday
Fiction Test
12 October Read:
Ch.
15, "What Is Drama."
811-833; Larry Charles: Seinfeld ,"The Subway." 813; Susan Glaspel
Trifles, and Ch. 16, "Reading Drama Actively," 840-852
Write: gray boxrs, pp.: 812, 821, 822, 828, 835, 837, and S&C
852
Week Eight
Tuesday
Begin Drama unit - Video: A Jury of Her Peers
17 October
Discuss
Seinfeld and Trifles
Write: Card Report of Trifles - handout
Read: Hamlet, Acts I & II, pp. 950-1015
Thursday
Preliminary discussion of Hamlet
19 October Assign:
Hamlet
project, due 16 November
Week Nine
Tuesday
In-class Hamlet activities
24 October
Thursday
Continue with Hamlet, collaborative activities
26 October
Week Ten Web
search on Hamlet, Pioneer 212
Tuesday
31 October
Thursday
Flex
2 November
Week Eleven
Tuesday
Video, Hamlet
7 November Assign:
tba
Thursday
Video, Hamlet
9 November
Read:
Chapter 10: "What is Poetry?" begins on 505, also, "Reading and
Responding to Poetry," 503
Week Twelve
Tuesday
Hamlet paper Due Discuss
assigned poems, collaborative activities
14 November Begin Poetry:
Discussion of Ch. 10 - In-class activities
Read: assigned poems
Write: tba
Thursday
Video
16 November Read:
Ch. 11, "Reading Poems Actively," 533-559
Week Thirteen
Tuesday
21 November Read:
Ch.
12, "Types of Poetry," 563-587
Poetic Conventions: various forms and terminology
Write: wheelbarrow poem due 2 Dec.
Thursday THANKSGIVING - NO SCHOOL
23 November
Week Fourteen
Tuesday
Video Finish Poetic Forms
28 November
Read:
Ch. 13: "Special Focus in Poetry: Additional
Reading Strategies," 589-622
Thursday
Wheelbarrow Poem due Discussion of various strategies
30 November
for finding/making meaning. Examination of poems in Ch. 13
Read: assigned poems
Week Fifteen
Tuesday Video, collaborative activity
5 December
Thursday
Test preparation
7 December
Week 16
Final Exams
Tuesday
Poetry Test 8:30 Class meets 8:30 - 10:20
12 December
10:00 Class meets 10:30 - 12:20