Drop Dates
Last Day to Drop a Class With a Refund:Tuesday, January 24
Last Day to Withdraw With a Grade of W: Wednesday, March 21
Note: If you stop attending class, I will not necessarily drop you from the roster. You are responsible for officially dropping the course if you no longer attend.
Alerts and Emails
E2Campus Alerts: All students should sign up for e2campus alerts so that they will be informed via text message when all classes are cancelled (due, for example, to snow) or when a campus emergency arises.
Email Communications: Due to legal restrictions I may only respond to emails sent via your CVCC email address. I cannot respond to academic questions via facebook or personal emails. When you send me your email, please use your cvcc email address. I will also use this email address for all academic email communications I send to you. Please check your email regularly.
Prerequisites
English 112 or division approval.
Prerequisites
English 112 or division approval.
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Course Description
Examines the literary and social aspects of science fiction, emphasizing development of ideas and techniques through the history of the genre. Involves critical reading and writing. Prerequisite ENG 112 or divisional approval.
In terms of format, I intend to teach this class along the same lines as I would teach a graduate level seminar in English.
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Required Texts
Please secure the bookstore's editions of the text so that we may refer to specific pages readily.
Stevenson, R.L. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Wells, H.G. The Time Machine
Orwell, George. 1984
Bradbury, Ray. Farenheit 451
Miller, Walter. Canticle For Leibowitz
Heinlein, Robert. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale
…….and assorted short stories which I will provide you.
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READ THIS NOTICE
What I Will Do:
This is a class designed around the proposition that we will all read these books critically and carefully and then come to class prepared to discuss them intelligently.
- I will not teach you information alone; Wikipedia can do that. I am here to teach you a complex and challenging way of thinking about texts.
- I will not lecture ad nauseum, nor will I tell you what you must think about the literary text. I will not give you the "right" answer.
- I will not quiz you with standardized tests to see what you recall, nor give intelligence-numbing tests in the model of the SOLs.
- I will not merely explain the text's meaning according to me (though I will give my point of view), and then require you to recapitulate what I explained and think; that is not thinking.
- I will serve as guide and participant in the discussion.
- I will orchestrate your discussion, serving as a sort of ringmaster for an active and insightful conversation about the text, providing prompts, specialized knowledge and background, and literary-critical insights as needed, but that is all. The real insights must come from you. If it works correctly, we will all learn.
What I Expect of You:
- I expect you to attend regularly. Those who are absent (in body or mind) will find the course less interesting and the material more difficult than those who attend and participate. You cannot "make up" the discoveries and the intellectual give-and-take created by a classroom full of individual personalities. Your absence also deprives the class of the unique perspective that only you can bring. I expect the real insights about the texts to come from collaboration as you share your ideas and work through your questions and comments about the text.
- I expect you to read. If you hate reading; if you intend not to read the texts or to read bookrags or sparknotes or gradesavers (yes, I know and have read all of these), or some other formulaic webpage instead, then you are in the wrong class. Now’s a good time to see what else is available in the course options.
- I expect you to be open to learning about the texts and subject. If analysis of literature seems pointless, irrelevant, or overkill to you, or if you are just looking to coast through in order to gain a few elective credits, then, again, you are in the wrong class. Now’s a good time to see what else is available in the course options.
- I expect you to state and defend your analysis and to listen respectfully to the analyses of others, giving everyone a chance to participate. Feel free to ask your peers to clarify, explain, restate, or offer their point of view. If, however, you feel shy about speaking out in class or feel I do not give you adequate opportunity to do so, come speak with me about your concerns, and we will address them.
- I expect lively discussion, new insights, practice in thinking for its own sake, and a chance to learn and to teach.
· I expect you to bring your sense of humor and your intellect to class with you.
Along the way, in the interests of assessing what you have learned, I will require one presentation, one formal essay, an exam, and some informal commentary on the texts
(Discussion Questions).
Class Policies
Cell Phones Etiquette:
Whatever message you wish to send or receive via texting, twitter, facebook on your smartphone, tablet, or cell phone call can almost always wait until class ends.
Therefore, unless you clear it through me in advance (i.e. you have to have access to your phone for emergency services duty, a kid in the hospital, etc…), use of cell phones, Blackberrys, tablet, etc…in class is annoying, rude, and, therefore, STRICTLY forbidden. If I see you texting, I will ask you to leave the class and you will be counted absent for that day.
Attendance
This class will be discussion-oriented, and in order for it to be successful, each of you must show up regularly and on time. Those students who attend class regularly almost invariably perform better than those who do not.
What constitutes an excused absence is fairly straight-forward:
Documented doctor appointments
Documented court appointments
Funerals…
Documented military service All excused absences must be accompanied by timely, appropriate, written documentation. More than three unexcused absences per semester will adversely affect your grade as follows
Ø 1-3 absences = no penalty
Ø 4 absences = -10 points from final grade
Ø 5 absences = -20 points in final grade
Ø 6 absences = -30 points in final grade
Ø 7 absences = failure of class
Students more than five minutes late to class will be counted absent for that day. If you are late, it is your responsibility, not mine, to ensure that I counted you present. To do so, check with me after class time ends.
Late Work:
All work is due during class or prior to class. Work submitted after class will not be accepted.
Assignments emailed to me, placed in my office mailbox, or those slipped under my office door, unless under my direct instruction, are not on-time submissions.
No late work is accepted without an excused absence.
Discussion Questions (280 Points + 20 Points for Completing All Seven Sets ):
In order to facilitate discussion and close analysis of the literary works, I will require you to compose three discussion questions for each reading. You will receive a maximum of fourty points for each of the seven sets of discussion questions you submit. In order for you to receive full credit for these discussion questions, you must:
- Submit your questions on time.
- Type at least one page for each set of three questions
- Compose questions that generate discussion, not simple statements of taste: “I liked this”/ “I hated that”/ “This scene was cool”/ “I fell asleep at this part”, or simple questions of fact or plot: “Was Dracula written by Bram Stoker” or “What happens to the garlic around Lucy’s neck”
- Spend some time articulating in writing what puzzles you about the text, pose a question about that issue, speculate on why the author did what s/he did, consider the historical or cultural or aesthetic impact on the text, etc…
- Then answer your own question. Each of the discussion questions, then, has two parts. A question (together with what led you to think about it) and an answer to the question
- Indicate through your discussion questions that you have in fact read the text to the assigned point.
- Draw my attention to specific pages or passages in the text to make your point
The purpose of these questions is to let me know what you think about the text and to structure class discussion around key questions about the readings. Basically, they are a tool for organizing and stimulating discussion.
If you ask a question, be prepared to expound upon it in class when I call on you. Do not write the questions ten or twenty minutes before class. Give them serious attention and at least an hour of your time. The more interesting you make your questions, the more interesting the class will be.
ACHTUNG: I grade the discussion questions leniently if you follow the above guidelines. They comprise the single largest segment of your grade. Treat them seriously. Student who miss more than one or two sets of questions almost invariably do poorly in the class, students who turn in all of their discussion questions almost invariably do well.
Note: For pity’s sake, write and underline and comment in the margins of your text. You cannot sell these books back for much money, so write in them, it will help a great deal when it comes time to compose your final paper and discuss the text in class. Put in sticky notes, bend back pages. It helps! And Seven Times Always bring your book to class when we are discussing it.
Presentation, Paper, and Exams (600 points)
Session Leaders 200 Points:
For each text we study, I will choose a group of students to lead discussion. Each member of this group (of two or more people) will pick at least one of the following areas to research for each text:
· Historical period in which the text was written (Not the same as a literary period. For example, literature written during the Romantic Literary Period is written during the historical period of 1770 to around the mid 1830’s in England.) Tell me the quirky interesting facts, as well as the new ideas, recreational activities, media, fashion, sports, art, technologies and theories that came from the era. Do not use a timeline or series of dates for events that happened. Describe the period as you would describe our own historical time.
· Biographical information about the author (Do not provide time lines or lists of dates here. Tell us the story of the author’s life; that is, tell us anything interesting about the author and how that biographical information may have shaped his or her work). Give us the good, the bad, and the ugly about the author: like it is an expose on E! as much as a biography on PBS.
· Literary analysis of the text (In other words, what trained critics have discovered about how we can or should read the text, not reviews (it was good/I liked it or It was bad/I hated it). I’m looking for interpretation of the text. In short: you must summarize the argument of one serious academic article on the text we are discussing. You may refer to Spark Notes, Cliff’s Notes, Masterplots,Bookrags, Wikipedia, etc. -- but you must use at least one genunie scholarly article or book chapter. See me if you have difficulty finding such information, but start with Project Muse or JSTOR available at the CVCC library page)
· Literary movement to which the text belongs (See me for help in identifying the literary period of your text. Literary periods include: the Victorian, Romantic, Renaissance, American Renaissance, fin de siecle, Medieval, Modern, etc…..What are the tratis of that period? What were the common themes, concerns, artistic techniques, etc…tie in music and art here as well.)
On the first day we discuss a text, the session leaders will present their information to the class. The presentation should contain the following components:
· Individual oral presentations of the subject matter researched (these should last about five minutes each)
· A typed handout from each member of the group (put your MLA header on it), outlining the information presented and
· The bibliographic sources used, listed in correct MLA, Works Cited, style.
· One copy of each handout should be made for every member of the class.
· I will copy these handouts for you if you submit them to me in a reasonable period prior to class time. If you show up to class without copies, you will lose points.
· An activity to stir the class’s imagination, entertain us, and test out knowledge of the material you present.
- Make sure you work together on this and have it ready to go prior to class; last minute figuring out of presentation details in class (deciding who goes first, honing rules of the activity, or other signs of being ill prepared) will negatively affect your grade.
· Important Note: No two groups may use the same activity. Ie. If one group uses a scavenger hunt, a jeopardy game with prizes, or a skit, no subsequent group may do so.
Your grade will depend on the depth and enthusiasm of your presentation and on your use of correct MLA documentation style.
In a sense, group leaders will lead discussion for a given text. Now, I will, of course, also help orchestrate discussion in various ways, but the discussion groups should always be ready to introduce a new line of inquiry by calling on their fellow students to answer and speculate on the questions they asked.
Note: I have had group leaders in the past try every manner of pedagogical approach; sometimes an approach works brilliantly, sometimes not. It all depends on the class and the group. Some classes respond well to trivial pursuit style games (complete with prizes provided by the group to the winner), testing everyone’s knowledge of the material presented in the group presentations; others despise them. Some classes respond well to dramatic readings, group work, enactments of scenes, group videos, thematic cake decorating, collages, craft projects, song-writing activities, puppet shows, etc… Whatever works best should be employed, but you should use—as session leader—the entire class period on the day of your presentation, and you should keep us interested, so be creative.
One Researched Paper 300 points:
A seminar paper of about seven to ten typed pages will be due on the last day of class discussion.
This essay:
1. Must be a minimum of seven pages in length
2. Must analyze at least two of the texts, drawing connections between them
3. Must make and defend an argument on how the texts should be read/understood (i.e. they should make an analysis of the texts)
4. Must use pretinent quotations from the text to support key points
5. Must not summarize the texts
6. Must use MLA format
7. Must be carefully edited for grammar and style (Poff’s Pet Peeves)
8. Must use and quote from at least five secondary sources in addition to the two primary sources. I suggest you use Project Muse, J-Stor, and the MLA Database as tools for locating literary criticism on a given text or author.
All of these sources must appear originally in print form or as part of an academic online journal or database.
You may not use the following to meet the requirement of your five secondary sources :
Encyclopedias
Dictionaries
Collections of Quotations
The Bible (or other Holy Book)
Wikipedia
Non-scholarly Webpages
Sample Essay Sites
You may, of course, discuss any and all paper topics with me in advance via conferences during office hours and or phone calls.
I am, of course, more sympathetic to topics that are submitted to me a week or month in advance than I am to those submitted an hour or two before class.
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The Final Exam: 200 points:
The final exam will be an in-class or take home essay test that will ask you to make connections and distinctions between the texts we have studied utilizing your critical skills and the information you have gleaned about these texts during the course of the semester.
You will be required to respond to one of a number of questions I present to you, using your texts and notes.
I strongly recommend you choose the question you will respond to ahead of time and plan your answer, being careful to find and identify key quotations useful to supporting your point before sitting down to write your response.
You should spend no more than two hours typing your response to the exam.
Grading:
There are a maximum of 1000 points in the class. At the end of the semester, I will simply total all the points you have accumulated to determine your final grade. A standard college grading scale will be used to determine your letter grade:
A = 900-1000
B = 800-899
C = 700-799
D = 600-699
F = 599 and below
The breakdown of points for each assignment is as follows:
Discussion Questions: 300 points
Presentation: 200 points
Researched Paper: 300 points
Final Exam: 200 points
This syllabus is subject to change at my discretion. You will be informed immediately of any changes
VERY IMPORTANT WARNING ABOUT THE HONOUR CODE
Okay, let us be honest: we have all been tempted to cut corners in our classes. This class, in particular, will require a great deal of difficult reading, and at one point or another, depending on your level of interest, you may be tempted to read the Sparknotes, Cliff’s Notes, Grade Saver, Bookrags or whatever other nonsense turns up on a quick google search, to skip the reading, to “fake it,” and so on. I understand you have busy lives, that this is not your only class, and that sometimes we will read a text that is not your favorite.
Nevertheless, to turn in any written work on a text (discussion questions, exams or papers) which you have not actually read is an act of academic dishonesty.
In other words, if you turn in written work on a text, you are tacitly claiming to have read the assigned text in its entirety. If you have not read the text, and you turn in the questions, exam, or easy on it, you are committing an act of academic dishonesty or plagiarism.
Since we cannot have a meaningful class discussion when only one or two of us have read the text, I will vigorously enforce the policy on academic dishonesty as explained in your student handbook, and you must include a signed copy of the following statement with each written assignment you submit.
I attest that I have read the assigned text(s) in its (their) entirety prior to composing the following written assignment. I am aware that turning in a written assignment for a text I have not read constitutes academic dishonesty (cheating). Signed:
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(Your Name)
Academic Plagiarism—including the unacknowledged use of another’s work—is a serious offense. The minimum penalty for plagiarism is a grade of F for the course and may result in expulsion or suspension from CVCC. Please refer to your student handbook for more information about plagiarism and its consequences.
Please be aware that plagiarism includes submitting work you wrote for another instructor or another class whether in college or otherwise, and whether substantially revised or not, submitting work in which you claim to have read an assignment you have not read, using outside sources which you do not quote and/or cite appropriately, having someone else write your work for you, or copying your work from an online essay source, and etc…
Please see the student handbook for definitions of plagiarism and how it can affect your academic career.