Fall 2013: Majors Course Descriptions
English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I
Dr Shari Horner | TR 11:00- 12:15
English 107: Introduction to Literary Studies I
Dr Raymond Janifer | TR 12:30-1:45
English 111: Introduction to Literary Studies II
Dr Michael Bibby
English 233: American Literature I
Dr. Nathan Mao | TR 9:30-10:45
English 234: American Literature II
Dr. M. Bibby | MW 3:30-4:45
This course surveys American literature produced between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War II. We will approach the diverse literary texts produced during these years less as unique artifacts than as instances of socio-cultural exchange and sites of historical struggle. The assigned readings and class discussions seek both to help you appreciate the rich heritage of American literary history and also expand your understanding of the role literature has played in imaginative constructions of nationhood, social identities, and culture. Some of the themes organizing the course include: how the tensions between uniformity/diversity or consensus/dissent define modern American cultural history; how imaginative constructions of social identities in the modernist era shape our understanding of American literature; how relations between social margin and center have produced literary expressions unique to the American experience. Lecture and class discussions will emphasize close literary analysis in relation to historical research.
Possible Texts
Nina Baym, gen. ed., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed., vols. C & D
English 234: American Literature II
English 234: American Literature II
English 236: British Literature I
Dr. S. Harrow | MW 3:30 - 4:45
Course Description: This class will familiarize you with British literature from the Middle Ages (to ca. 1485) to the Renaissance (1485-1660) and the Restoration/ 18 th Century (1660-1798). Given that we must cover centuries of material, this will be a broad chronological survey. We will focus on histories of ideas as a way to contextualize the texts we read. We will consider the various social, political, economic, and religious questions that influenced writers. There are many more exciting and compelling works than we have time to read together, and I strongly encourage you to read beyond the requirements of this syllabus. Endeavor to read additional authors in the Norton as a way of filling out what we cover in class and for pleasure. Throughout the course, I hope you will consider the ways in which the ideas we discuss inform our present day culture. This course will help you understand literary history and hone your literary critical skills.
Possible Assignments :
mid-semester exam: 25%
essays: 20%
final exam: 25%
quizzes/ blackboard writing or presentation: 20%
small group work, in-class participation: 10%
English 237: British Literature II
Dr. R. Zumkhawala-Cook | MWF 2:00 - 3:15
English 238: Technical/Professional Writing I Dr. Laurie Cella |
M/W 2:00 - 3:15 The primary goal for this course to give you the skills you need to solve rhetorical problems in your professional career. Technical Writing is not an in-depth study of one particular field, but rather an increased awareness of audience and concise response to a particular problem. In this class, you will be asked to think critically, examine many possible solutions, and then choose the best response to the given situation. For each assignment, I will provide the particulars, and we will work together to develop an effective rhetorical solution. However, as the semester progresses, you will be asked to solve these problem more independently. By the end of the semester, you will feel more comfortable solving these workplace dilemmas on your own. I want you to be ready to work on your own, since most on the job projects will ask you to solve these problems without the support of the classroom or a professor. By the end of this course, you will be able to:
create documents that adhere to the eight measures of technical writing excellence
incorporate graphic design elements effectively into your documents
collaborate effectively within a small group to identify and solve rhetorical problems
create a professional career portfolio, including a concise resume and cover letter
identify and address ethical dilemmas on the job, and respond thoughtfully
create and deliver a professional oral presentation based on your research
Required Text Mike Markel.Technical Communication 10th edition. Bedford/St. Martin.
The companion web site for the text, TechComm Web, written and maintained by Professor Markel:http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/techcomm.
English 240: World Literature Dr Rich Zumkhawala-Cook | W 6:30-9:15
English 243: Art of the Film
Dr Michael Pressler |
Education 290: Introduction to English Language Arts
Dr Thomas Crochunis | MW 2:00-3:!5
This course introduces you to several different spheres of knowledge that are important to your developing as a teacher. Through the course’s readings, discussions, activities, and assignments, you will improve your declarative knowledge of the terminology and concepts associated with education practice in secondary schools and learn about and try out new forms of procedural knowledge, becoming more comfortable with classroom practices such as devising assignments, developing lesson plans, and leading activities in class. Additionally, the course will ask you to engage with professional literature in order to reflect on your assumptions about teaching English, on the kinds of targeted diligence needed to teach effectively over time, and on the kinds of dispositions that a teacher needs to develop to serve students well.
Pedagogy TextsChristenbury, Leila. Making the Journey. Heinemann, 2006.
Olson, Carol Booth. The Reading/Writing Connection. 3rd Ed. Pearson, 2011.
Reeves, Anne R. Where Great Teaching Begins. ASCD, 2011
Wellington, Jerry. Secondary Education: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2006.
Literary Texts
Booth, Coe. Tyrell. Scholastic, 2007.
Crouch, Tim. I, Cinna (on D2L)
Joyce, James. Dubliners. Dover, 1991.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Cambridge School Shakespeare, 2009.
English 304: Literary Criticism Dr. M. Dokko
English 307: Poetry Writing
Staff | TR 2:00-3:15
English 308: Fiction Writing
N. Connelly | TR 11:00 - 12:15
Express your artistic vision in a serious, supportive atmosphere. Using great short stories and sometimes unusual prompts for writing exercises, the first half of the course will explore the essential elements of narrative. During the second half, each student will apply these concepts by writing an original short story, which will be read and reviewed by the entire class in an encouraging workshop. There are no prerequisites for the course, just a desire to write good fiction.
English 318: Studies in Renaissance Literature
Dr. D. Montuori | TR 11:00 12:15
English 330: Shakespeare
Dr. D. Montuori | TR 12:30-1:45
English 335: Creative Nonfiction Writing
Dr. K. Van Alkemade | MW 2:00-3:15
English 345: Women's Literature
Dr. M. Libertin | TR 2:00-3:15
English 358: Ethnic Literature
Dr. M. Dokko TR 12:30
English 366: History and Structure of English Language
Dr. William Harris |
English 380: Studies in 19th Century British Literature
Dr Dawn Vernooy | TR 9:30-10:45
English 381: Studies in 19th Century American Literature
Dr. Matthew Cella
In this course we will examine literary representations of the changing American landscape in a range of texts from the nineteenth century. Since Europeans first colonized North America, the encounter with and exposure to the American wilderness, so the story goes, offered a unique opportunity for forging what Emerson calls in Nature an “original relation to the universe.” This opportunity, combined with the abundance of pristine (and supposedly available-for-the-taking) wilderness, was a key component in the development of American exceptionalism: whereas the Europeans had their castles, ancient ruins, and rich history to draw on, America had its vast natural landscape and its promise of newness and rebirth. Natural history was American history. The relationships between human culture and nonhuman nature, between history and landscape, and between economy and ecology in America are not static, but instead are relationships that are constantly being renegotiated. We will focus on how these negotiations play out in the literature of the Age of Industrialization. Ultimately, we will concentrate on three manifestations of the nature-culture dialectic that have given shape, for better or worse, to American ideas about the landscape and the human place in it: the Transcendentalist movement; westward expansion; and the industrial revolution. Possible readings include (but are not limited to) Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance; Davis's Life in the Iron Mills; essays by prominent Transcendentalists (like Emerson and Thoreau); and some late-century dime novels. Assignments are likely to include a few short Quote-Driven Responses, a longer research paper, as well as a midterm and final exam (with essay components).
English 420: Studies in WritingDr Thomas Crochunis | MW 6:30-7:45 This course will prepare you to understand, teach, and coach writers in grades 4-12.
Students can expect to spend a significant amount of time in this course writing and reflecting on writing, frequently writing together in a workshop setting about self-chosen topics of importance and interest. We will also read some of the most influential texts on middle grades and high school writing pedagogy, considering how the design of the secondary writing classroom can best support student learning about how to write for authentic purposes. This course will give you plenty of opportunities to write about your own experiences and in a variety of creative forms and to connect your own experience as a writer to your thinking about teaching writing.
Along the way, we will consider a number of topics important to working with young people on their writing, including
- Writing for real world purposes and audiences
- Creating a classroom writing community
- Writing about literature
- Teaching creative writing
- Technology and writing
- Coaching student writers
- Assessing, evaluating, and grading writing
- Writing and standardized testing
- Researching and writing
- Models of writing classrooms today
Possible Course Texts
- Donald Graves, Writing: Teachers & Children at Work
- Nancy Atwell, In the Middle
- Peter Elbow, Writing with Power
- Penny Kittle, Write Beside Them
- Deborah Dean, Strategic Writing
- Linda Christenson, Reading, Writing, and Rising Up
Education 422: Methods of Teaching English in Secondary Schools
Dr. Erica Galioto | TR: 8-9:15 AM
“Methods” is a practicum in English/Language Arts instruction for secondary certification English majors in the semester before student teaching. Our primary concern will be the joining of theory about teaching and learning with the practical methods of implementing such theory in a secondary classroom. In our weekly readings and discussions, we will explore the theoretical foundations of different learning styles, composing practices, teaching models, ranges of critical thought, and education philosophies, to name a few. Extending beyond abstract analysis, we will then move these theories into their practical applications, as we use them to inform and challenge our own classroom practices. Each class will include a practical workshop component; we will often focus on planning lessons, sequencing assignments, constructing assessments, and differentiating the classroom. Drawing on our varied experiences as both teachers and students, we will develop teaching strategies, activities, and assignments that will address the diverse learners in our secondary classrooms. The students in this practicum will begin to form personal pedagogies that are situated in the larger field of English education, but are also very much rooted in their own classroom practices. Expect to leave this course equipped with a practical portfolio, philosophy of teaching statement, and an understanding of how to put theory into practice.
English 426: Teaching Adolescent Literature
Dr. Shannon Mortimore-Smith
| M 6:30-9:15
English 428: Advanced Fiction Workshop
This class gives you a chance to explore your potential as a writer of fiction. You'll compose smaller pieces like flash fiction and monologues as well as longer efforts like short stories or even novel chapters. Come hone your skills with fellow authors. While English 308 is a prerequisite for the course, students can be admitted with permission of the instructor in special cases. Contact me at noconnelly@ship.edu with any questions.
English 438: Advanced Technical/Professional Writing
Dr Carla Kungl | MW 2:00-3:15
This seminar will explore some of the theoretical issues raised in all types of professional communication: ethical and legal considerations, writing for various audiences, persuasive strategies, and research methodology. We’ll work on improving clarity and coherence in our writing, understanding more thoroughly how purpose and audience affect our work; develop greater skill in document design; and add web design (and building) to our skills. Since this is a smaller seminar-style course, students get a lot of individual attention and have a lot of freedom to work on projects meaningful to them.
Reflecting actual workplace strategies, much of the work we do this semester will be collaborative, with each group member actively creating and contributing to the larger project (indeed, half of your grade in the class will be based on collaborative work that you do with your team). Your major project for the course will be to write a proposal for a website, which your team will then build. The proposal will include all aspects of a long report, including complete front and back matter, appropriate graphics, proper document design, and bibliographic documentation. Among the possible computer programs we will be using this semester are Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, and Powerpoint.
Students who have gotten jobs in the fields technical writing, editing, or website building tell me that this was one of the most valuable courses they took here at Ship. If this sounds like your line of work, sign up now! This class is also part of the Technical/Professional Communications Minor and thus can fill up fast.
Text: Markel, Mike. Technical Communication. 10th ed. Bedford/St Martins, 2012.
English 464: Seminar in a Major Author
Dr. Erica Galioto | TR 9:30-10:45 AM
In 2012, Louise Erdrich won the National Book Award for her fourteenth novel, The Round House. Like her other fictional works, The Round House compelling reveals a difficult point of contact between a Native American reservation and the larger American society it intersects. The story includes unspeakable violence, mourning of loss, meditation on kinship, reflection of tribal spirituality, adolescent coming-of-age, and a web of characters that extends into her other novels.
In this seminar, we will enter Erdrich’s fictional world at its inception in 1984 with Love Medicine and meet the complex characters whose families’ futures intertwine over a hundred years through her subsequent novels. We will consider a range of critical and theoretical sources as we analyze Erdrich’s presentation of issues such as ethnic identity and cultural survival, gender and sexuality, orality and textuality, literary and cultural tradition, memory and identity, spirituality and religion, and reader response and identification. On our journey from Love Medicine to The Round House, we will read a selection of Erdrich’s other novels and contemplate her status as the most prolific and widely-read American Indian writer today.
English 465: Seminar in Creative Nonfiction
Dr Kim van Alkemade | MW 3:30-4:45
Women Write the Natural World
In this seminar, we'll be exploring American women writers of creative nonfiction whose focus is on the natural world. From popular to classic, from anthropology to exploration, from travel around the world to contemplation in one's own back yard, the books we read will illuminate the world around us through a literary lens. As we read and discuss the works, we'll be developing critical contexts for analyzing them. I haven't yet chosen all the books--I'll be researching the reading list over the summer--but so far I'm thinking Susan Orlean, Annie Dillard, Margaret Mead, Rachel Carsen, maybe Cheryl Strayed's Wild. The seminar is focused on critical reading and writing, and students will be free to develop the critical context most appropriate to their interests. One of three 5 page papers will be expanded into a 10 page paper.