|
Week 1 |
Jan. 2 |
No class (New Year's Day
observed)
|
| Jan. 5 |
Kinds of Texts
and Ways of Reading 1: Literature and Its Meanings Reading
Discussion: what is
literature?, changing and differing views of literature
and art; meaning, nonsense and interpretation
|
|
| Week 2 | Jan. 9 | 2: Literature
and Its Casings
Reading
First Grade Education: What do you remember most from your first year at grade school? In as few words and lines as possible and without saying what the lesson is (as in explicitly announcing “from this experience I learned that…”), convey the scene, people, feelings, and learning that happened. Post your first grade education story as a reply to the blog post on Roundtable Conversation. Use your anagram pseudonym. |
| Jan. 12 | 3: Literature
and Live Processing
Reading
|
|
| Week 3 |
Jan. 16 |
No class (University break: January 16–20, 2017) |
| Jan. 19 |
No class (University break: January 16–20, 2017) |
|
| Week 4 | Jan. 23 |
Limitations and Possibilities 4:
A Battle Scene: Focus on a “fight” in
the story and show how characters acquit themselves on the
“field of battle” (166) at this "new front" (161). What is
the struggle about? What weapons are used? What is the
outcome? Post your battle scene focus as a reply to the
blog post on Roundtable
Conversation. Use your anagram pseudonym. |
| Jan. 26 |
5:
Meanings
of WWII: Each student brings a number, a
picture or a quote about World War II to share in
class. Prepare so that you can introduce your item
in two minutes.
Possibilities of Stillness: While there are several confrontations at Nathan Marx’s “new front” in Philip Roth’s “Defender of the Faith,” are there also moments of what Charles Baxter calls stillness, which he says “is simply one of the hardest psychic conditions to get on paper” (183)? Has Roth managed to make possible a feature that is usually a limitation in fiction? Focus on a nonactive moment in Roth’s story and explain its power. Post your stillness examination as a reply to the blog post on Roundtable Conversation. Use your anagram pseudonym. |
|
| Week 5 | Jan. 30 |
6: Necessity and Creation Reading
Villanelle Challenge: What
possibilities can come out of the strict
limitations of a villanelle? Write a
villanelle using the two rhymes: /ɪŋ/ and
/iː/. Post your creation using your anagram
pseudonym as a reply to the blog post on Roundtable
Conversation.
|
| Feb. 2 |
7: Reading
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|
| Week 6 |
Feb. 6 |
8: Reading
Getting In and Out of a
Philadelphia: What happens when you can never get
anything you want? How does one learn the possibilities in
such a frustratingly limiting situation? Where is the
humor in that? Four pairs of students will play Al and
Mark in a different part of the play, with the waitress
guest starring by one actor from the next pair. Each part
of the play reflects a different phase in each character's
perception of the limitation(s). Plan with your partner
how this could be conveyed in your performance. How does
Ives turn this unhappy situation into a comedy? Why? Look
for these various opportunities for humor and make use of
them. Here are the parts:
|
| Feb. 9 |
9: Reading
The
Limits and Possibilities of Beauty: What limitations
does the play have? Is a minimalist set (1245) a
limitation? No special effects? Two characters? Being
beautiful? Being not beautiful? Three pairs of students
each perform a scene where you see a point of breakthrough
in a limitation. How is that limitation overcome?
Conceptual Play: Jane Martin's Beauty takes the concept of beauty and examines its advantages and drawbacks, what it enables and disables. Pick a concept that you think needs investigation. Write a two-minute play that exposes its myths and its realities. What idea would be fun to play with? Show the limits and possibilities of that idea in your play. Make use of the play's form and elements (set, characters, dialogue, etc.) in reflecting the results of your probe. Post your creation using your anagram pseudonym as a reply to the blog post on Roundtable Conversation. |
|
| Week 7 |
Feb.
13 |
No class (Magha Puja Day observed)
|
| Feb. 16 |
10: Reading
Ignite
issue 1 published
 |
|
| Week 8 |
Feb. 20 |
|
| Feb. 23 |
12:
Practice test (40 minutes)
|
|
| Week 9 |
Feb. 27 |
Test 1 (Midterm week: February 27–March 3, 2017) You will have one hour for writing and fifteen minutes for thinking and planning in responding to an essay prompt.
|
| Mar. 2 |
Test 2 (Midterm week: February 27–March 3, 2017) You will have one hour for writing and twenty
minutes for thinking and planning in responding to an
essay prompt that requires you to choose texts in a set
from a choice of several sets. |
|
| Week 10 |
Mar. 6 |
Writers
and Readers 13:
Picture
Challenge: Shelley wrote “Ozymandias”
in playful competition with his friend Horace Smith.
Their sonnets seemed to be “responding independently to a
conversation about the scene,” probably a description and an
illustration in Richard Pococke’s A Description of the
East and Some Other Countries (London, 1743). I would
like to challenge you to a 2202235 contest for week 12
(after the Chula Expo). Look at the picture here
and write a response to it. You can invent your own form or
use one that we’ve studied like the sonnet, ballad, free
verse, short play, short story, or even experiment with a
form you learned about elsewhere. Post your creation using
your anagram pseudonym as a reply to the blog post on Roundtable
Conversation on or before March 20. Happy composing!
Journal: Each student starts a journal. Record your experiences, thoughts, etc. this last half of the semester in your entry for the appropriate dates and collect your pages in the hanging folder identified by your student ID on the rack in front of my office (BRK 1106). An idea for your first entry is to respond to the question: What is homework? |
| Mar. 9 |
Reading
*Class meets at Central
Library; our meeting point at 8 a.m. is on
the 2nd floor at the reference
section. After that you will be in various
places as you complete your activity
sheet for the period. Prepare your
notes for a two-minute sharing of your
findings about a slang word and
information in a volume that you like. You
can write about this class experience in
your journal.
|
|
| Week 11 | Mar. 13 |
No class (Chula Academic Expo: March 13–17, 2017) |
| Mar. 16 |
No class (Chula Academic Expo: March 13–17, 2017) |
|
| Week 12 | Mar. 20 |
15: Creative Competition Reading
Picture
Challenge due
Lexical Discoveries: Each student speaks for two minutes, sharing their slang and information finds from the library exploration on Thursday, March 9. |
| Mar. 23 |
16: Creation and Costs Reading
Journal:
Students write their journal entry for the day and look at
prompts for the next three days to respond to first thing
in the morning each day.
Study Sources Experiment: Two groups of students read Frankenstein plus a different set of source material (green and yellow group read SparkNotes and Wikipedia only, red and orange group read/watch items under the Reference section [includes bibliography, reviews, and further reading] of the study guide page only) for one week. Note down any impressions you have of the sources and how well they fulfill your needs as you study. There will be a quiz on Thursday of week 13 to assess how each type of source material is useful in reading, thinking and studying, and we can discuss afterwards your observations about the experiment. |
|
| Week 13 | Mar. 27 |
17: Reading
|
| Mar. 30 |
18: Reading
Experiment Quiz for green and yellow group
vs. red and orange group who perused different source
material throughout the week |
|
| Week 14 | Apr. 3 |
19: Reading
|
| Apr. 6 |
No class (Chakri Day) |
|
| Week 15 | Apr. 10 |
20:
|
| Apr. 13 |
No
class (Songkran) |
|
| Week 16 |
Apr. 17 |
No class (Songkran observed) |
| Apr. 20 |
21: Reading: Ted Chiang, "Story of Your Life," Starlight 2 (1998; study guide)
Ignite
issue 3 published |
|
| Week 17 | Apr. 24 |
22: Reading
Final Review and Practice (45
minutes)
|
| Apr. 27 |
23: Reading
Graphic Narrative
Exchange: Each student brings an excerpt from a
graphic narrative of their choice to teach a
mini-lesson (3–5 minutes) to the class about
storytelling in this medium. |
|
| Week 18 | May 1 |
|
| May 4 |
8:00–9:25 a.m.
Tentative
Schedule
|
|
| Week 19 | May 8 |
Final Exam: (8:30–11:30
a.m.)
|