The Teaching of Literature

ENGL 610, Section 002

Spring 2006

Thursdays, 7:20 - 10:00 PM
Fine Arts Bldg. 112

Professor Chris Thaiss
Office: A423 Robinson
Office Hours: M 9-10 AM, W 10-11 AM, and by appt.
Phone: (703) 993-1273
Email: cthaiss@gmu.edu

Description
Pre-Semester Workshop (1-17-1/20) Semester Schedule
Assignments
Books and Materials
Grades

Description

Welcome to your first semester of teaching ENGL 201, Reading and Writing about Texts. This course, ENGL 610, supports your teaching of that course, but it also, and more importantly, gives you the opportunity to think deeply and creatively about this enterprise we call the teaching of literature. ENGL 610 should help prepare you for the many challenges you will face as a teacher of literature and of literacy.

As the title of  ENGL 201 states, an introductory college course in "literature" is about reading and writing, or should be. All of you are readers and writers--your writing deepens and varies your reading, while your reading enriches your writing. Too often this symbiosis doesn't happen in literature courses, where students are expected to "cover" many pages of assigned reading, but without learning how to read critically and creatively--or why they would wish to. Writing in such courses often occurs after the act of reading has supposedly taken place, and the assigned writing is often merely  "about" the reading, rather than "because of," "in dialogue with," or "building upon" the reading. In ENGL 610, we'll think about literary study as a symbiosis of reading, writing, talk, listening, and other language modes. My intent in this course is not to proselytize for one way to teach literature, but  to have us encounter and discover a range of ways to help our students become better (and happier?) workers in the word.





Books, Materials, and Online Resources

Blau, Sheridan. The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.

Murfin, Ross and Supriya Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. 2nd. Ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2003.

The E-200 Website: Resources for Teaching 200-Level Literature at George Mason University
 ( http://www.gmu.edu/departments/english/e-200 )

Incidental expenses for xeroxed copying of handouts and drafts.

The University Library System:  databases in all disciplines.

Those of you who will be including the Text and Community selection, Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, will want to use the resources on the program website: http://nmge.gmu.edu/textandcommunity/2006/

.

Further, if you are not already a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I strongly urge you to visit the NCTE website and learn about the advantages of and procedures for joining. Students may do so at a greatly reduced rate.





Pre-Semester Workshop, January 17-20

The major intent of these four days is to ready you for the beginning of classes and help you map out the semester.  If you have met my request to  send a draft of your syllabus for my comments, then these four days will help you flesh out your course outline and refine your objectives, schedule, and assignments.

DAY ONE: Tuesday, January 17: 10 AM - 12 Noon and 1:30 - 3:30 PM (We will meet in the English Conference Room, A447 Robinson)

Morning: Review of Syllabus Requirements and Workshop on Syllabus Revision

Please have reviewed the relevant sections of the e-200 website (I have sent you an email with the username and password). Bring with you four copies of your draft syllabus for peer review in class.

Afternoon: Teaching Fiction

Have reviewed the fiction assignments on the e-200 website and the relevant section of the literature anthology you will be using in 201 (including any instructor's materials the anthology appends). Be ready to discuss elements and techniques of fiction you plan to emphasize in your sections.

DAY TWO: Wednesday, January 18: 10 AM - 12 Noon and 1:30 - 3:30 PM (We will meet in Fine Arts 112 or TBA)

Morning: Teaching Poetry (Guest Presenter: Zofia Burr)

See previous section on Fiction and have read appropriate materials for teaching poetry on e-200 website and in your literature anthology. Be ready to discuss elements of poetry you plan to emphasize in your sections.

Afternoon: Using Student Writing in Teaching Fiction and Poetry

We'll continue the discussion of the morning, then move into discussion of the various roles of writing in improving critical reading. Have read the Introduction and Chs. 1, 7, and 8 of Blau, The Literature Workshop (see below).


DAY THREE: Thursday, January 19: 9 AM - 12 Noon and 1:30 - 3:30 PM (In the morning we will take part in the all-faculty 201 workshop directed by Zofia Burr, location TBA; in the afternoon we will meet in Fine Arts 112)

Morning: All-Faculty 201 Workshop

The workshop will give you the chance to meet other faculty and hear from experienced teachers of 201. Part of this workshop will be devoted to ways to incorporate the Text and Community selection, Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, into your sections, if you are planning to do so.

Afternoon: Teaching Drama

See previous paragraphs on Fiction (Day One) and Poetry (Day Two). Have read pertinent sections of e-200 website and your literature anthology, plus handout from Thaiss and Davis, Writing about Theatre. Be ready to discuss  elements of drama you plan to emphasize in your sections.

DAY FOUR: Friday, January 20: 10 AM - 12 Noon and 1:00 - 3:00 PM (We will meet in the English Conference Room, A447 Robinson, in the morning and in Innovation Hall 318 (computer classroom) in the afternoon.)

Morning: Teaching Nonfiction

See previous sections on other genres and be similarly prepared. Have read handout on teaching nonfiction. We may discuss, among other specific topics, how you plan to include  Into the Wild into your 201s.

Afternoon: Other Topics and Final Prep

As I have secured a computer classroom for this PM session, we will register on the Townhall online forum and discuss use of electronic tools in the literature classroom. We will definitely use part of this time for your questions and concerns in regard to any issue we have covered in the workshop.





Semester Schedule


(Thursdays from 7:20 to 10:00 PM in Fine Arts 112)

Jan. 26    Reports on First Classes: Issues and Questions

Discussion of Assignment Design:  Bring to class for workshop 13 copies of an assignment you will give within the next three weeks. Attach to each copy a one-page explanation of your specific goals for this assignment and how you expect this assignment to provoke original student writing to meet those goals.

Begin choosing of topics for class demonstration lessons.

The Townhall forum will begin this week.

Feb. 2  No Class

Feb. 9  Fostering the Dynamic Classroom: Encouraging Meaningful Talk, Responding to Writing: Be prepared to talk about your discussions of works in class--what's working? what isn't?--and your first responses to student writing about their reading.

Have read Blau, Chs. 3-4.

Submit a one-page description of your plans for the demonstration lesson in this class. Include a working bibliography of 3-4 specific sources on teaching the works, genres, techniques in question. We will create the schedule of demonstrations this week.

Feb. 16   Responding to and Grading Student Writiing about Literature: Circulate ahead of time (one copy in each of our boxes) 13 copies of a "troubling" student paper on which you'd like commentary from the class. This copy need not include your comments to the student, but be sure to bring to class one copy that does contain your written feedback.

NOTE--MY VISITS TO YOUR CLASSES: I will be setting up visits to your classes this week. The visits will occur between Feb. 20 and March 30. Please ask me to visit early if you feel that you are having particular problems on which you'd like my feedback.

Feb. 23  "Meaning" and "Interpretation": Your Students and the Texts You've Assigned

Have read Blau, Chs. 5-6.

Seminar demonstration lessons begin.

NOTE--YOUR OBSERVATION OF ANOTHER 201 TEACHER: No later than this date you should let me know whose class you will be observing and when. See Assignments.

March 2  No class

March 9  Mid-Term Achievements: We will write and talk in class about how far you and your students have come since the beginning of the semester.

Have read Blau, Chs. 9-10.

Seminar demonstration lessons.

March 16  Spring Break

March 23  No Class

March 30   Assignment Design Revisited: Bring to class for workshop 4 copies of a formal paper assignment you will give to students within the next three weeks. Attach to each copy a one-page explanation of how this assignment represents an advance in design over the earlier assignments you've made this semester.

Seminar demonstrations lessons.

April 6  No Class

April 13  Results of Teacher Observations: Bring to class your 750-1000-word report on your visit to another teacher of 201. We will discuss issues and questions raised by the visits.

Seminar demonstration lessons.

April 20   No  Class

April 27  Seminar demonstration lessons.

Hand in (1) your one-page (500-word) demonstration lesson description for the class anthology, (2) your 500-750-word review of two articles on the teaching of a specific work, author, genre, or technique, and (3) your 750-word position paper on your philosophy of teaching literature.

May 4  Seminar Final Review

Seminar demonstration lessons.

There will be no final exam in this course.





Assignments


Communal 'Blog
(20 % of course grade) on Townhall Electronic Forum
 

From Jan. 26 onward you’ll take part in a weekly (sometimes twice-weekly) Internet forum (asynchronous) based on the topics and readings for that week’s class. I ask you to write at least one full screen from one assignment to the next as part of a conversation among the members of the seminar.You’ll be responding both to the assigned material and to one another’s comments. Hence, I’d like you to log in twice during each forum, so you can contribute in the early and more advanced stages of the conversation.
    These commentaries should be thoughtful, incisive reflections on the topics in relation to your own teaching, reading, and writing. I’d like the tone of these remarks always to remain thoughtful and congenial. It’s fine to disagree with a colleague or with me, but I ask you to do so in the spirit of collegiality. I'm calling this forum a "'blog," as a variable medium for informal writing. This blog will be atypical, since it's not a collection of individual websites that each student creates, but a single website to which we all contribute. Feel free to use your space not only for your written entries, but also to insert images, links, etc., pertinent to our discussions.

   Townhall is a web-based discussion program that is used by many GMU teachers to conduct both real-time (synchronous) and non-concurrent (asynchronous) forums for students. We will devote part of one class in the pre-semester workshop (Jan. 20) to a real-time discussion on Townhall and to instruction in how to use the program for our weekly online conversations.

Seminar Presentation/Demonstration Lesson

By our second meeting of the semester (Feb. 9), I'd like you to have chosen a subject for a thirty-minute presentation/demonstration pertinent to the teaching of literature. The demonstration can focus on an author, a literary term or trope, a specific work, or a genre; it can focus on a common teaching concern; e.g, building good discussion, working with multicultural classes or ESL students, running peer response groups. 

The presentation/demonstration should include two parts: a very brief overview (no more than 10 minutes) of the issue and summary of several sources (books, articles) you have consulted, and a "hands-on" activity (about 15 minutes) that shows how you'd apply your idea to the classroom. You should leave about 5 minutes for questions. Let me emphasize that these demonstrations are experimental--first drafts as it were. They are an opportunity for you to share with us techniques that you are thinking of using in current or prospective classes. Choose a topic that will teach you something new about teaching: if you've been teaching, don't give us the lesson you know will work (though we'd love to hear about that elsewhere in the course), but try out the lesson you're thinking of using with your students.

Plan to ask us to read a short work (no more than six pages) or give us some other type of homework (e.g., a writing or research exercise) in preparation for the presentation. You'll have to make enough copies of readings for the class, including me.

In preparing the presentation, I'd like you to consult at least three print or online sources closely pertinent to the subject. Your working bibliography of sources must be handed in for my comments at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date of your presentation.  To facilitate your search, I urge you to become familiar with the search tools on the Mason Libraries databases. The e-200 website and the NCTE website can also lead you to good sources on teaching literature. The CompPile database developed by Rich Haswell and Glenn Blalock of Texas A&M Corpus Christi is focused primarly on the teaching of writing, but also has some resources for the teaching of literature in relation to writing.

You may work with one other person on this project, if you so choose. If so, the pair of you will have an hour for your presentation, and I'd expect you to consult and include in your bibliography at least seven sources. The additional time will allow you to give a more detailed intro and allow us more time for the "hands-on" exercise. If you do a joint presentation, it must be clear that there has been equal participation by both persons.

At the time of the presentation, please distribute to the class and to me a one-page document (as one of your handouts) that briefly summarizes your lesson and that lists the works you consulted.

At our next -to-last class (April 27), hand in a one-page, single-spaced description of your presentation/demonstration organized in three sections: Background, Description, and Rationale. I'll explain each section in class, where I will also explain specific formatting. This document will become part of a class teaching anthology.

Position Paper on the Teaching of Writing

On April 27, you will hand in a 750-word statement of your "position" as teacher of  literature: your goals, your sense of the issues, your sense of the students' needs, your ongoing questions, your doubts, your joys--anything that helps to define you as a teacher at the "present" moment--the end of your first semester as a teacher of ENGL 201. You will have been thinking through writing all semester about your 201 classes as they take shape and evolve, and this assignment gives you an opportunity to take stock of how far you--and your students--have come in that time

Review of Two Professional Articles

At the next to last class (April 27), hand in as part of your folders a three-page analysis (about 750 words) of two substantial articles about teaching literature that you have read during the course. You choose the articles for their relevance to your immediate or future needs as a teacher.  Please approve your choice with me as early in the semester as you can. Write the analysis as if you were reviewing the articles for a professional journal (e.g., The English Journal, College English). Focus on specific benefits the articles would have for other teachers (or students, parents, policy makers, etc.). What do the articles lack that you feel they should have? What questions do they raise in your mind? How might you use the articles? If you wish, feel free to submit a discovery draft of your analysis up to two weeks before it is due, for my comments.

Visit to a Teacher of ENGL 201 Whom You Admire

Before or on April 13, please hand in a detailed report (about 1000 words) on a visit you have made to a class taught by an experienced teacher of 201 whose work with students you admire. Before the class you visit, be sure to study the syllabus and, if possible, talk with the teacher about his/her goals and methods. Describe in detail and reflect on the class session. How was learning taking place in the class? What did the teacher do? The students? What ideas or techniques would you adapt to your own teaching? How might you modify what this teacher was doing? Why? Include your reflections on the syllabus and your talk with the teacher as part of the report. Feel free to ask me or other members of the seminar for suggestions of such teachers, if you don't readily know whom you'd like to visit. 


Seminar Participation
   

Your full, active, well-prepared, and thoughtful participation in our discussions is essential toward both the success of the course and your own success in it. I look forward to many evenings of productive, intense, enjoyable discussion and to excellent online conversations as well.



Grades

I'll base your grade on holistic assessment of all the work you hand in; on your active, thoughtful participation in the pre-semester workshop and semester-long seminar, both in class and online; and on your presentation. Since so much of the work is experimental and exploratory, I'll be looking most closely for experimentation and exploration: speculative thought, trying out different ideas (including those you might feel initially uncomfortable with), asking questions, probing your assumptions and those of others, writing with imagination and a sense of possibilities. I encourage you to express your reactions and opinions in regard to readings, issues, etc., but don't be satisfied (I won't) with just expressing your impressions. Look at pros and cons and try to entertain alternative points of view. All the issues we deal with in this course are controversial, and I'd like you in your writing to try to see through the eyes of persons who hold different views from those you bring to the discussion of each issue. Please don't hesitate to ask for my feedback or that of others. Final letter grades mean the following:

B = completion of all requirements on time and according to instructions given above; active involvement in class and online discussions of readings and issues; clear, competent writing

A = completion of all requirements on time and according to above instructions, plus clear, consistent evidence of imaginative intellectual engagement in writing, discussion, and presentation;

C = completion of less than all requirements on time and according to instructions.

Plusses and minuses will be given according to GMU policy.
 
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