1 El Paso Community College Syllabus Part I Instructor’s Course Requirements Spring 2011 Literature 2341, Section 05, CRN#20834 Welcome to Introduction to Literature 2341.05! My name is Adam Webb and I will be your instructor for this semester! Please make sure that you are in the correct classroom! Double-check your schedules! Personal Contact Information Instructor: Adam Webb Meeting time: 8:00-10:40 Sunday Classroom: B100 (this will probably change) Office: B242 Phone: Best way to reach me is through email Email: [email protected] My office hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:00 am – 12:50 pm, Sunday 11:00 am-12:00 pm, by email, or by appointment Texts & Materials: Flash/Travel drive (optional, to save your work on) Access to the Internet either at home or in school (for PBWorks) (if you have a laptop, you might want to bring it to class) NO TEXTBOOK (this syllabus is your textbook) Research and Writing website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Course description and introduction: This is a survey course, meaning that we will read, discuss, and write about many various authors throughout important eras and ages, starting in the 14th century and working our way up to the postmodern age. This course is designed to help students grasp the important literature and the age or era in which it was written. In lieu of the era/ages, and literature will be reading and discussing in class, we will also cover some of the major literary theories that can be applied to analyzing them. Purpose: The purpose of this course is to engage students in various writings throughout multiple periods, as well as the various literary theories that can be applied to them. Goals: Students will develop and try to answer questions about the readings we cover in class 2 Students will engage in reading various authors from various periods Students will engage in classroom discussions over those readings Students will engage in writing and researching the readings we cover in class Students will engage in applying literary theory to their writing and researching assignments Objectives: Students will read, write about, and discuss the readings we cover in class Students will actively participate in literature circles Students will write and research about the readings we cover in class Writing Formats and Standards: All essays should be typed! Please follow these standard requirements: Follow MLA guidelines. Use 1 inch margins all around (when appropriate) Double spaced (when appropriate) Use 12 point font in Times New Roman (when appropriate) General policies Attendance—Drops: A critical element of learning in this course is the interaction between the students and the instructor. Being absent means that neither I nor your classmates can help you with understanding an assignment or any other questions you have about writing. If you feel that you cannot attend because of outside reasons such as schedule conflicts, it is up to you to withdraw from the course. The instructor assumes no responsibility for student withdrawal from the course. Electronic Devices: Please do not use your cell phones during class time. If you need to take a call or make a call, please step outside of the classroom to do so. No texting in class. No phone or iPod music in class. If you have a laptop, please bring it to class! Late Work: No late work will be accepted. A zero will be assigned all missing assignments, including writing assignments and quizzes. Definitely NO chewing gum in class! Students with Disabilities: The Center for Students with Disabilities on Valle Verde‘s campus is located in room C-112. Please visit their website located on the home page of EPCC‘s website: http://dnn.epcc.edu/default.aspx?alias=dnn.epcc.edu/csd. Plagiarism & Cheating: Students will be reported to the Academic Dean and Vice President for Student Services. A grade of zero will be given for the assignment. Consequences may also include suspension and a written report on your academic record. Cheating consists of submitting someone else‘s work under your name (plagiarism), obtaining information from someone other than the instructor during an exam, making copies of disks, etc. Please adhere to the student code of conduct for the college in matters of academic honesty. 3 Course Grade: The course grade will be determined by the instructor‘s evaluation and judgment of several elements: 1) writing projects, including papers, will be weighted and accounted for 60% of the course grade; 2) PBWorks wiki pages, readings, and in-class discussions will be weighted and accounted for 40% of the course grade. The grading scale on the official course description will be used for this class. Purpose of Writing Assignments: The writing projects will be connected. Students are encouraged to research and write about things we read and discuss in class. Students are encouraged to use their time wisely doing these research projects. Instead of hard copies, students will be turning their work in online, using PBWorks. PBWorks is a free online program where you can your own personal space for putting pictures, uploading MS Word documents, and adding hyperlinks. We will discuss more about PBWorks in class. PBWorks = https://plans.pbworks.com/signup/basic20 (PBWorks is free). As part of the writing assignments listed below, there will be readings covering them. Structure of the course Literature circles - students will all read the selections and then get into groups of 3-4 and discuss the readings amongst themselves as well as answer any questions about the readings. Groups will then share their findings with the class. This sharing will take the form of informal presentations and discussions. Readings - readings will consist of various selections from various authors from five major eras: the renaissance, the enlightenment, the romantic, the modern, and the postmodern eras, as well as major literary theories. Theories - the five major theories we will be covering in this class are New Historicism, Deconstruction, Marxism, New Criticism, and Psychoanalysis. Technology - we will be a paper free class, which means that all major writing and research assignments will be submitted electronically through a web-based wiki space called PBWorks. All students will be required to create their own PBWorks wiki page this semester. It is free. Writing and research assignments - there will be two major research and writing assignments. The first research and writing assignment will consist of doing a close reading and analysis of one of the poems or short stories we cover in class. The second research and writing assignment will consist of choosing one of the major theories we cover during the course of the semester and applying it to one of the readings we cover in class. Grade Breakdown Class participation 20 points out of a 100 PBWorks wiki page 20 points out of a 100 First writing and research assignment 30 points out of a 100 Due on Feb. 27 Second writing and research assignment 30 points out of a 100 Due on April 24 Total Points 100 NOTE: All era/ages covered are roughly based off a Western perspective, which essentially means that it is the perspective(s) of Anglo/Europeans. We will be reading European and North American authors. We will read these authors chronologically. 4 How To Set Up And Use A PBWorks Account For Free 1. You will need Internet access, once you are on the Internet, type in this URL Address: http://pbworks.com/ 2. Click Sign up at the right-hand corner on the website 3. You should come to this webpage that displays this URL Address: https://plans.pbworks.com/ 4. Scroll down and select the ―Free Basic‖ service 5. You should come to a webpage that displays this URL Address: https://plans.pbworks.com/signup/basic20 6. You will need to name your future PBWorks‘ page something unique (i.e. compositionawebb, janethamiltonwriting09) because a more simple name (i.e. joselongoria, beckypena) might already be taken on the server 7. You may select ―For Education‖ for your workspace 8. Company Type is ―Higher-ed classroom‖ 9. Workspace purpose is ―Collaborative classroom‖ 10. Type your first name 11. Type in your email address (you may your university email address or your personal email address if you want to) 12. Create a unique password, them retype it (PLEASE write down your username and your password so that you do not forget it) 13. Click ―Next‖ at the right hand bottom corner 14. Open a new TAB and check your email account for a verification email 15. When you check your email, you should receive a message that has this paragraph in it: ―We won't finish actually making your workspace until you log in, so please do that now. To finish creating your workspace, click below:‖ Please click on the blue link below this paragraph 16. Once you click on the link, you will be taken to a new screen that reads: ―Choose your workspace's security settings‖ 17. For Who can view this workspace? PLEASE select ―Anyone‖ 18. For Who can edit this workspace? PLEASE select ―Only people I invite or approve‖ 19. For ―Accept PBWorks Terms of Service‖ PLEASE check the box that reads: ―I agree to PBWorks terms of service‖ 20. Then click on ―Take Me To My Workspace‖ 21. You should come to a webpage that reads your workspace name and says ―FrontPage‖ 22. Click ―Edit‖ at the top, left-hand corner and select and delete all of the writing in the edit box that reads: Welcome to PBworks 2.0 This is a real workspace! Please edit this page, create new pages, and invite others to use the workspace with you.