Schedule for Approaching Literature Created and Tested by Prof. Dylan Winchock

Schedule for Approaching Literature created and tested by Prof. Dylan Winchock Updated Fall 2014

Required Texts:  Schakel, Peter and Jack Ridl. Approaching Literature: Writing + Reading + Thinking. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2012.  Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Writer's Reference. Montclair State University custom 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.

Course Outline [*Red writing designates notes to the instructor to aid in any personal revisions of this syllabus]

Unit 1: Race and Ethnicity

Class 1 Introduction to the class, syllabus review, warm up exercises

Class 2 ZZ Packer: “Brownies” (512) Ralph Ellison: “Battle Royal” (402) “Reading” (AL 7-9; 107-111) / “Guidelines for Active Reading” (WR 68) / “Writing in the Margins” (AL 21-22) / “Journal Writing” (AL 24-25) [*Many of the concepts in the ‘secondary’ readings are discussed in conjunction with the literary texts rather than separately. AL = Approaching Literature, WR = A Writer’s Reference.]

Class 3 Katherine Min: “Courting a Monk” (247) Eduardo Machado: “Crossing the Border” (909) “Handling Quotations” (AL 41; 53-54) / “Step 3: Prewriting” (AL 33-36) / “Plot and Character” (AL 116-125)

Class 4 Etheridge Knight: “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” (831) Sekou Sundiata: “Blink Your Eyes” (607) Pat Mora: “La Migra” (617) Cathy Song: “Heaven” (589) “Reading Poetry” (AL 565-569) / “Writing About Literature” (WR L3 – L22)

Class 5 Exploratory Draft Workshop / Peer Review

Class 6 Middle Draft Workshop / Peer Review [*Peer review days are also used throughout the semester to discuss and engage in exercises regarding MLA citation, paper formatting, and other structural issues.]

Class 7 Thematic Break: Haruki Murakami’s “Birthday Girl” (471) [*I always provide students with a full week between the middle and final drafts. On the day between the two drafts, I have students read a single story that departs from the themes of the course (for this semester, I have chosen stories that are a bit more fantastical). This day is also used to provide further advice on paper writing, such as drafting, reverse outlining, citation, and quotation integration. The reading could easily be removed in order to provide a full class on these topics.]

Unit 2: Class and Conflict

Class 8 Paper #1 Final Draft Due James Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues” (362) John Updike: “A&P” (552) “Summary/Analysis” (WR 72-74) / “Setting and Symbol” (AL 200-205; 207-208)

Class 9 Toni Cade Bambara: “The Lesson” (208) Ha Jin: “The Saboteur” (347)

“Point of View and Theme” (AL 161-168) / “Tone, Style, Irony” (AL 235-241) Class 10 Philip Levine: “What Work Is” (834) Luis J. Rodriguez: “Running to America” (858) Martín Espada: “Latin Night at the Pawnshop” (628) Robert Pinsky: “Shirt” (850) “Words and Images” (AL 570-579) / “Voice, Tone, Sound” (AL 595-613)

Class 12 Middle Draft Workshop / Peer Review

Class 13 Henrik Ibsen: A Doll House (1245-82)

Unit 3: Gender, Power, and Sexuality

Class 14 Paper #2 Final Draft Due Finish A Doll House (1282-97)

Class 15 Helena Viramontes: “The Moths” (557) Kelly Stuart: “The New New” (899)

“Figurative Language”(AL 627-641)/“Character, Conflict, Action”(AL 904-908) Class 16 Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” (317) Julia Alvarez: “How I Learned to Sweep” (647) Judith Ortiz Cofer: “The Changeling” (725) Mark Doty: “Tiara” (794) “Rhythm” (AL 652-654) / “Free Verse, Internal Form” (AL 684-689) Class 17 Exploratory Draft Workshop / Peer Review

Class 19 Thematic Break: Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (481)

Unit 4: The Documented Essay

Class 20 Paper #3 Final Draft Due Sherman Alexie: “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, AZ” (282) Alexie: “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” (291) “Approaching Critical Theory” (AL 1445-1468) “Using Secondary Sources” (WR L22-25)

Class 21 Sherman Alexie: “Superman and Me” (4) Alexie: “Good Hair” (poets.org) Alexie: “The Powwow at the End of the World” (poetryfoundation.org) Alexie: “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel” (poetryfoundation.org) [*These three Alexie poems are found online at poetryfoundation.org and poets.org. Both sites have legitimately and legally posted these poems!] “Reading Critical Essays” (AL 1432-1444) “Researching” (WR 329-357) “MLA” (WR 373-388)

Class 22 A Literacy Information Session with the Sprague Library reference librarians

Class 23 Tomson Highway: “Interview with Sherman Alexie” (295) Ase Nygren: “A World of Story-Smoke” (297) Joseph L. Coulombe: “Sherman Alexie's Comic Connections and Disconnections” (300) Jerome DeNuccio “Slow Dancing with Skeletons” (301) James Cox: “Muting White Noise” (305)

Class 26 Thematic Break: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (337)

Unit 5: The Portfolio Project

Class 27 Paper #4 Due Donald Murray: “The Maker’s Eye” (Blackboard) Portfolio Revision Strategies & workshop Class 28 Judith Ortiz Cofer: “And Are You a Latina Writer?” (738) Mark Strand: “Eating Poetry” (867) Reflective Essay Strategies & workshop

Portfolios will be due during our scheduled final examination date and time (TBA).

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Helpful Information for Planning your Syllabus:

In order to help you plan your calendar:

The following link will take you to the academic calendar for Fall 2014: Fall 2014 Academic Calendar

The final exam schedule for Fall 2014 can be accessed here: Fall 2014 Exam Schedule

The link to Registrar’s page for withdrawal dates, etc.: Registrar

Academic Calendar Fall 2014

September 1: Labor Day Holiday (No Classes)

September 2: Opening Day (No Classes) Note: Opening Day mandatory faculty meetings will take place. Times TBA.

September 3: First Day of Classes

November 27-November 30: Thanksgiving Holiday (No Classes)

December 10: Wednesday designated as a Friday (for Friday day classes only; Wednesday day and evening classes do not meet)

December 11: Last Day of Classes (Sunday, December 7, for Friday evening and weekend classes)

December 12-18: Examination Period

December 18: End of Semester

Note to Instructors:

I have included in this course a homework journal (set up on Blackboard, though it by no means needs to be online) where students are expected to post responses to prompts that I provide them. These prompts relate to the texts that are to be read for that day, thus helping to ensure that students read and comprehend the texts for that day’s discussion, as well as helping to get students to begin thinking about them in relation to the unit theme. This will also prepare students for the theme-based papers that they must write. I assign a total of ten assignments. Attending and writing about LiveLit counts as one. Simply being present for the Library Literacy Information Session counts as another homework. What follows is a list of sample prompts that I used last semester:

1. Discuss conflicting racial identities in either “Crossing the Border” or “Courting a Monk.” Each text is an argument between a young and old generation. Which generation do you personally identify with more in the text? Why is their argument more convincing to you? What exactly is it in the text that makes you feel this way?

2. Choose one of the following topics:  Discuss the role of the other inmates (including the speaker) in “Hard Rock.”  Discuss the title of the poem, “Blink Your Eyes.”  Discuss the use of reversals (switched roles) in “La Migra.”  Discuss the importance of generational differences in “Heaven.”

3. Choose either Bambara or Jin. Explain how the author’s story demonstrates ways in which class is used in society to produce and maintain inequality. Go on to discuss ways in which the stories demonstrate resistance to a conventional class structure.

4. What is work? What does it mean 'to work'? Choose the poem by Levine, Rodriguez, or Pinsky to answer this question.

5. Choose one of the readings and discuss how it uses either the fantastic (“The Moths”) or humor (“The New New”) to critique traditional gender roles in our society.

6. Choose one of the following topics:  Looking at “Girl” and/or “How I Learned to Sweep,” write about the ways in which femininity is reinforced in our society: what does it mean to be feminine, according to these poems; how is this definition restricting?  Looking at “The Changeling” and/or “Tiara” and write about the ways in which mas- culinity is reinforced in our society: what does it mean to be masculine, according to these poems; how is this definition restricting?

7. Write about Alexie's use of sarcasm in his poetry. Don't simply explain that there is sarcasm; rather, explain why he uses it and what it does for his poems. You may focus on one particular poem, or discuss all three.

8. Choose one of the critical essays about Alexie's work. Summarize the basic points of the article. Follow this up by describing anything that stood out to you as particularly inter- esting, as well as any questions that you may have about sections you found difficult.