syllabus ENGL 344 Young Adult Literature
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY ZOOM SPACE. |
Fall 2022 Open Hours for students (office hours):
MW (in-person or Zoom) 12:00 (noon) to 1:30 T (Zoom only) 4:00-5:00 And by appointment (in-person or on Zoom) Make an appointment, either face to face or on zoom, during office hours or at another time: Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf. If you are meeting me on zoom, Use the zoom link to the left on this page, repeated every page of this site (and in my email signature). |
**Deadline to post to the Class Discussion Board and Book Club/Reading Journals is Tuesday night by 11:59 PM.
***All text in blue is a live-link to a reading, assignment, etc.
Week One (DUE DATE FOR WORK OUTLINED HERE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2022 @11:59PM)
Introduction to the course. Read through policies for the course, syllabus, and book club/reading journals assignment. Post questions/Concerns to ENGL 344 Q&A. Post to Class Discussion Board (By Tuesday, 13 September 2022 @11:59 PM): Your experiences with YA as a reader/writer. Click on this link to complete the google form with your 250 word bio for our class profile page (you can check out samples from previous semesters by clicking here or on the link in the drop down menu for our class).
Week Two (DUE DATE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2022 @ 11:59PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE to find out who is in your online book club group and to locate the link to your designated google.doc. Read also, the following short stories: Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, 7th Grade by Gary Soto. READ ALSO: information the Teaching Discussion Assignment on this website. POST: to your designated book club google.doc your Reading Journal. Post, also, to Class Discussion Board: p and First teaching scenario response See the full prompt on the Class Discussion Board page.
DUE ALSO: ONCE YOU’VE ACTUALLY READ the policies and syllabus for this course. You have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a reader's notes grade simply by completing the following assignment by 20 SEPTEMBER 2022.
1. Send me an email at [email protected] , CC me at [email protected]
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the website to find out information about assignments, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations, and to post my own writing to the class website in fulfillment of written assignments."
5. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email.
NOTE: Keep in mind, that when you send me this email, I’m going to assume you’ve actually done your due diligence about reading the syllabus and policies for the course, and I will hold you to those policies going forward during the semester.
6. POST ON THE CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (that link is live). Ask me a question about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. You can't tell me you have no questions. BUT, they shouldn’t be questions that could be answered if you read the syllabus and policies for the class.
7. Send me a meme to my BSU email. Include in your syllabus check-in email a meme of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about your semester so far.
Make sure I get this email by 20 September 2022. If you don't send it to me, you lose the freebie “A” for acceptable for a reading journal post.
Week Three (DUE DATE: 27 SEPTEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE READ ALSO: Little Women and “Who are Your Heroes?” (a critical essay on Alcott’s literary and philosophical influences—I've attached a .PDF of the file directly below). Finally, READ ALSO: Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. Post questions you have about the assignment in the Q&A discussion board. Post & Respond to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, considering what we’ve discussed, and the critical essay by Tarr (“Who are Your Heroes?”) what makes Little Women both “young” and “adult” and "literature." In addition to your initial post, you want to respond to the comments of your colleagues and fellow book club members in the book club google.doc. DUE ALSO: if you were going to update Little Women, how might you do it? Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live). In 300 words, provide a synopsis of your 2022 version of the classic Little Women. RESPOND in 100-200 words to at least one of your colleagues by either building on their update idea and/or suggesting why you think, as a reader or a teacher, this would work as an update (or wouldn’t).
***All text in blue is a live-link to a reading, assignment, etc.
Week One (DUE DATE FOR WORK OUTLINED HERE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2022 @11:59PM)
Introduction to the course. Read through policies for the course, syllabus, and book club/reading journals assignment. Post questions/Concerns to ENGL 344 Q&A. Post to Class Discussion Board (By Tuesday, 13 September 2022 @11:59 PM): Your experiences with YA as a reader/writer. Click on this link to complete the google form with your 250 word bio for our class profile page (you can check out samples from previous semesters by clicking here or on the link in the drop down menu for our class).
Week Two (DUE DATE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2022 @ 11:59PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE to find out who is in your online book club group and to locate the link to your designated google.doc. Read also, the following short stories: Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, 7th Grade by Gary Soto. READ ALSO: information the Teaching Discussion Assignment on this website. POST: to your designated book club google.doc your Reading Journal. Post, also, to Class Discussion Board: p and First teaching scenario response See the full prompt on the Class Discussion Board page.
DUE ALSO: ONCE YOU’VE ACTUALLY READ the policies and syllabus for this course. You have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a reader's notes grade simply by completing the following assignment by 20 SEPTEMBER 2022.
1. Send me an email at [email protected] , CC me at [email protected]
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the website to find out information about assignments, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations, and to post my own writing to the class website in fulfillment of written assignments."
5. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email.
NOTE: Keep in mind, that when you send me this email, I’m going to assume you’ve actually done your due diligence about reading the syllabus and policies for the course, and I will hold you to those policies going forward during the semester.
6. POST ON THE CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (that link is live). Ask me a question about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. You can't tell me you have no questions. BUT, they shouldn’t be questions that could be answered if you read the syllabus and policies for the class.
7. Send me a meme to my BSU email. Include in your syllabus check-in email a meme of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about your semester so far.
Make sure I get this email by 20 September 2022. If you don't send it to me, you lose the freebie “A” for acceptable for a reading journal post.
Week Three (DUE DATE: 27 SEPTEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE READ ALSO: Little Women and “Who are Your Heroes?” (a critical essay on Alcott’s literary and philosophical influences—I've attached a .PDF of the file directly below). Finally, READ ALSO: Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. Post questions you have about the assignment in the Q&A discussion board. Post & Respond to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, considering what we’ve discussed, and the critical essay by Tarr (“Who are Your Heroes?”) what makes Little Women both “young” and “adult” and "literature." In addition to your initial post, you want to respond to the comments of your colleagues and fellow book club members in the book club google.doc. DUE ALSO: if you were going to update Little Women, how might you do it? Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live). In 300 words, provide a synopsis of your 2022 version of the classic Little Women. RESPOND in 100-200 words to at least one of your colleagues by either building on their update idea and/or suggesting why you think, as a reader or a teacher, this would work as an update (or wouldn’t).
| who_are_your_heroes.pdf |
Week Four (DUE DATE: 4 OCTOBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, Gossip Girl#1. READ ALSO: This article on Feminism and The Baby Sitter’s Club series. DUE: Be ready to post to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, compare and contrast tropes, genre characteristics, etc of YA as they appear in both Little Women and Gossip Girl#1. How has the genre evolved (or not)? What does this say for the readership of YA literature? Complete details are available on your book club google.doc. Post to your book club google.doc: your draft of your Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. See my notes in your groups google doc for complete instructions for your online, small group workshop.
Week Five (DUE DATE: 11 OCTOBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE LISTEN: From “The Moth” Story hour: “Is Your Dad Single?”, “Maybe”, “The Secret Letter”. DUE: Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live). In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: In the glorious age of technology, how can we use media and technology in our classrooms in ways that don’t suck? How can it support good reading and writing? How can it support a student’s “literary” understanding. Using the three “texts” included this week, design a classroom experience for our scenario class.DUE: Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. Email your piece to me so I can post it to our class website. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Record your flash memoir and send me the sound recording to post alongside your “transcript” on our class website. A recording of your assignment will eliminate one absence from a synchronous class or failure to post anything during an asynchronous week without any requirement to make anything up.
Week Six (DUE DATE: 18 OCTOBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, To Kill A Mockingbird. Really read it, don't just remember it from high school. Read, also, "Another Lesson from the Mockingbird: Institutional Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird" (link is live to a .PDF) and "'I've got this vision of justice': Why To Kill a Mockingbird Is a Fraud" (link is live to a .PDF). DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze To kill A Mockingbird the way you would any other text for a 300-level lit class, what themes, literary tropes, imagery, etc does Lee use to tell the story? And what is the thematic result of that work? What is the writer asking us to think about by reading this text? POST ALSO TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Respond to this week's teaching scenario. To Kill a Mockingbird is still often taught as the (only) text that discusses race in the secondary education classroom. In your response, to this week's class, write about your experience of reading the text, and then, what you would do as a teacher of this text to problematize this novel as a story that is meant to explore race in the United States. While you are at it, check out this link to see how TKAM and other books get banned as recently as this year in libraries and schools across the country. See the CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD for complete details.
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, Gossip Girl#1. READ ALSO: This article on Feminism and The Baby Sitter’s Club series. DUE: Be ready to post to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, compare and contrast tropes, genre characteristics, etc of YA as they appear in both Little Women and Gossip Girl#1. How has the genre evolved (or not)? What does this say for the readership of YA literature? Complete details are available on your book club google.doc. Post to your book club google.doc: your draft of your Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. See my notes in your groups google doc for complete instructions for your online, small group workshop.
Week Five (DUE DATE: 11 OCTOBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE LISTEN: From “The Moth” Story hour: “Is Your Dad Single?”, “Maybe”, “The Secret Letter”. DUE: Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live). In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: In the glorious age of technology, how can we use media and technology in our classrooms in ways that don’t suck? How can it support good reading and writing? How can it support a student’s “literary” understanding. Using the three “texts” included this week, design a classroom experience for our scenario class.DUE: Flash Memoir: Reading YA Assignment. Email your piece to me so I can post it to our class website. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Record your flash memoir and send me the sound recording to post alongside your “transcript” on our class website. A recording of your assignment will eliminate one absence from a synchronous class or failure to post anything during an asynchronous week without any requirement to make anything up.
Week Six (DUE DATE: 18 OCTOBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, To Kill A Mockingbird. Really read it, don't just remember it from high school. Read, also, "Another Lesson from the Mockingbird: Institutional Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird" (link is live to a .PDF) and "'I've got this vision of justice': Why To Kill a Mockingbird Is a Fraud" (link is live to a .PDF). DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze To kill A Mockingbird the way you would any other text for a 300-level lit class, what themes, literary tropes, imagery, etc does Lee use to tell the story? And what is the thematic result of that work? What is the writer asking us to think about by reading this text? POST ALSO TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Respond to this week's teaching scenario. To Kill a Mockingbird is still often taught as the (only) text that discusses race in the secondary education classroom. In your response, to this week's class, write about your experience of reading the text, and then, what you would do as a teacher of this text to problematize this novel as a story that is meant to explore race in the United States. While you are at it, check out this link to see how TKAM and other books get banned as recently as this year in libraries and schools across the country. See the CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD for complete details.
Week Seven (Fake Fall Break)
I'm writing to let you know that I'm making a substantial change to the syllabus for the next two weeks and to give you a little bit of information as to why.
YOU WILL HAVE UNTIL 1 NOVEMBER 2022 TO COMPLETE THE WORK THAT WAS LISTED ON THE SYLLABUS AS DUE ON 25 OCTOBER 2022
There are several reasons for this. First, I neglected to post the discussion board for this week. I need to click a button to update the discussion board that I didn't click and so it never showed up on the website. I should have noticed, but I was in Pine Ridge, South Dakota with Dr Anderson doing some work at the Red Cloud Indian School. Those are long days of work and spotty internet reception.
But, more than that, I'm behind. I have a lot of things to say about what you've all been posting, and I need to do that. I want to and need to do that. So I'm giving myself the week to make that happen.
Additionally, I know that folks are struggling to keep up with the work as well. I've gotten some emails about it and I know from the listserv and the book clubs as well that people are behind. Heres' what I want to say about that: now would be the time to try to catch up. Don't post to the old discussion boards if you have not kept up with them. Email me your responses privately. If you have not turned in your memoir, you can still send it to me. Don't go back into the google docs and write responses to your book club members now. There is no point. That conversation is done. But you can still turn in your own response, again, by emailing me what is missing. I will accept any late work until 1 November 2022. After that, I won't.
This also gives you time to finish the Firekeeper's Daughter if you have not done so. And it gives you time to participate in your book clubs as usual. If you've already done all the work and have finished the book, great. Read ahead if you want or rest or catch up with other classes or whatever.
I'm calling this week a fake fall break for our class. As an online class, not holidays are automatically . I only just realized that Wednesday is a Friday schedule of classes. So hopefully by pushing the due date for this week's work, you might get a moment to yourself. And, to be clear, this is not at all just about giving you a break. I need to get on top of my many responsibilities on campus as well. After a very busy last few weeks, I too need time to dig myself out of a hole.
Week Eight (DUE DATE: 1 NOVEMBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, read The Firekeeper's Daughter. This short announcement about DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze The Firekeeper's Daughter the way you would any other text for a 300-level lit class, what themes, literary tropes, imagery, etc does the author use to tell the story? And what is the thematic result of that work? What is the writer asking us to think about by reading this text? POST ALSO TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Respond to to this week's Teaching Scenario. This week, what would a pairing of Mockingbird and Firkeeper's look like in an ELA classroom? In what ways would the books compliment each other? Challenge each other? How could you use that to engage students in both texts?
Week Nine (DUE DATE 8 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59) ELECTION DAY! VOTE! And the day after my birthday.
READ: CLASS UPDATE READ, ALSO: Explanation of Research on Reading Pecha Kucha assignment. Read, also, the article (See below) that corresponds to your google.doc book club group number. DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: Post to your google.doc, a 300 word summary of the article. Each person in the group should post their own summary. Respond to each other by identifying places you agree with your group mates, places you have some disagreement, where you think a group member interpreted the text differently. The goal is to be able for every group member to thoroughly understand what the article is about. These aren't easy articles. They are BIG theory/application.
GROUP ONE: Aesthetic Experiences in the School Curriculum: Assessing the Value of Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory
Download File
aesthetic_experiences_in_the_school_curriculum.pdf
GROUP TWO: A Theory of Narrative Empathy
Download File
theory_of_narrative_empathy.pdf
GROUP THREE: Reconsiderations: Louise Rosenblatt and the Ethical Turn in Literary Theory
Download File
reconsiderations.louise.ethical.pdf
GROUP FOUR: Which Reader's Response?
Download File
which.reader.response.pdf
GROUP FIVE: The Ethics of Teaching Disturbing Pasts: Reader Response, Historical Contextualization, and Rhetorical (Con)Textualization of Holocaust Texts in English
Download File
disturbing_pasts.pdf
Week Ten (DUE DATE 15 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE Also, read the following poems (all links are live) “Seven Stones”, “In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever”, “Take My Father and Brother to the Frick”, “When I grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”, “The Rider”, “Knoxville Tennessee”, “A Small Needful Fact”, and “The Sadness of Clothes”. DUE: Be ready to post and respond to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze one (or more if you chose) of the poems the way you would for any other 300-level lit class. DUE: Be ready to post to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live) your own piece of poetry. Respond with praise and love to at least one other classmate online. It’s been a rough couple of semesters. Let’s let poetry heal our wounded hearts and minds.Be ready to respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: design a poetry experience for our test class. Respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. Try to avoid the "I totally agree" response. Also using your google.doc space: Discuss, draft, revise, plan your Research on Reading Pecha Kucha. While this is a group project, I would suggest that you divide up the work using the assignment requirements as a guide and use the powerpoint template that I've embedded in your google.doc to bring all your work together. It's going to feel a little tricky, but it will work out.
Week Eleven (DUE DATE 22 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59 PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE DUE: Emailed to me or sent to me via drop box link, your completed group’s Research on Reading Pecha Kucha.
(ONGOING) RESPOND VIA EMAIL: to your midterm grade letter as you receive it. Keep in mind this will take a bit of time over the course of this week and next. I will send you a brief letter outlining your performance in the class so far and assign a midterm letter grade. In return, I am asking you to respond to the following questions. Your total response to all of the questions need only be somewhere in the range of 300 words. These questions will be repeated in the midterm grade letter email as well.
Week Twelve (DUE DATE: 29 NOVEMBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE .Also, Read The Catcher in The Rye. Read, also, This article, "Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection" DUE: Be ready to post and respond to your group in your to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: Catcher, like Mockingbird and Little Women is seen as a "classic" YA title, and one that is still often taught in the secondary ELA class. In what ways does this text reflect our initial definition of YA lit? In what ways does it say something about how YA in the classroom has changed? Or has it? As you post, please consider what you read in "Alienation". READ ALSO: the explanation of the Write Your Own YA assignment.
WATCH: The Pecha Kuchas of all the groups that you weren’t a part of. Also, Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live): what did you learn from the other Pecha Kuchas? In particular, what connections can you make to your own theory? Where do you see disagreement across the ideas? Where do the theorists diverge in terms of terminology or practice? NOTE: YOU HAVE UNTIL 21 DECEMBER 2022 TO POST TO THIS DISCUSSION BOARD.
Week Thirteen (DUE DATE: 6 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: Some Where Between Bitter and Sweet. DUE: Be ready to discuss and post to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: Consider out test class and outline how you might teach the text you read this week, consider why it would be great to teach, how it would be hard to teach. Respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. No Reading Journal/Book Club due this week.
Week FOURTEEN (DUE DATE: 13 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga. DUE: Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), This novel is an example of "genre fiction" (as opposed to literary fiction) in addition to being YA. In your post to the discussion board this week, in 300 words, discuss how the conventions of this genre (fantasy) work with or against the conventions we see in YA. How could reading a novel like Barren Ground connect young people to the kinds of texts typically taught in a high school classroom? How could it connect young readers (or any readers) to our actual world? Respond thoughtfully in 100-200 words to a colleague. POST TO YOUR GOOGLE.DOC BOOK CLUB: Write Your Own YA assignment draft or your modified version of the final project (literary analysis or assignment design). You don't need a complete draft, just whatever you've got done.. Read and respond to your group mates materials.
WEEK FIFTEEN (DUE DATE: 21 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: Seen: Rachel Carson. DUE: Be ready to post to our final CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: This is the only text we are reading this semester that is aimed at the middle-school reader. It is also a graphic novel. Consider our test class and outline how you might teach the text you read this week, consider why it would be great to teach, how it would be hard to teach. Be ready to respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. DUE: POST TO A FINAL DISCUSSION BOARD FOR AN ALL-CLASS READING JOURNAL. Final reading journal/book club, let's return to our original question of the semester: Let's return to our original question of the semester: how are the novels we read this semester literature? How are theyYoung? How how are they Adult? And, one more thing: what does it tell us, as folks who teach, about what really matters in the ELA classroom? DUE: Your Write Your Own YA or your modified version of the final project (literary analysis or assignment design) due to me. Email me either an word doc or a google.doc link set to "anyone with this link can edit".
I'm writing to let you know that I'm making a substantial change to the syllabus for the next two weeks and to give you a little bit of information as to why.
YOU WILL HAVE UNTIL 1 NOVEMBER 2022 TO COMPLETE THE WORK THAT WAS LISTED ON THE SYLLABUS AS DUE ON 25 OCTOBER 2022
There are several reasons for this. First, I neglected to post the discussion board for this week. I need to click a button to update the discussion board that I didn't click and so it never showed up on the website. I should have noticed, but I was in Pine Ridge, South Dakota with Dr Anderson doing some work at the Red Cloud Indian School. Those are long days of work and spotty internet reception.
But, more than that, I'm behind. I have a lot of things to say about what you've all been posting, and I need to do that. I want to and need to do that. So I'm giving myself the week to make that happen.
Additionally, I know that folks are struggling to keep up with the work as well. I've gotten some emails about it and I know from the listserv and the book clubs as well that people are behind. Heres' what I want to say about that: now would be the time to try to catch up. Don't post to the old discussion boards if you have not kept up with them. Email me your responses privately. If you have not turned in your memoir, you can still send it to me. Don't go back into the google docs and write responses to your book club members now. There is no point. That conversation is done. But you can still turn in your own response, again, by emailing me what is missing. I will accept any late work until 1 November 2022. After that, I won't.
This also gives you time to finish the Firekeeper's Daughter if you have not done so. And it gives you time to participate in your book clubs as usual. If you've already done all the work and have finished the book, great. Read ahead if you want or rest or catch up with other classes or whatever.
I'm calling this week a fake fall break for our class. As an online class, not holidays are automatically . I only just realized that Wednesday is a Friday schedule of classes. So hopefully by pushing the due date for this week's work, you might get a moment to yourself. And, to be clear, this is not at all just about giving you a break. I need to get on top of my many responsibilities on campus as well. After a very busy last few weeks, I too need time to dig myself out of a hole.
Week Eight (DUE DATE: 1 NOVEMBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE . Also, read The Firekeeper's Daughter. This short announcement about DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze The Firekeeper's Daughter the way you would any other text for a 300-level lit class, what themes, literary tropes, imagery, etc does the author use to tell the story? And what is the thematic result of that work? What is the writer asking us to think about by reading this text? POST ALSO TO CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Respond to to this week's Teaching Scenario. This week, what would a pairing of Mockingbird and Firkeeper's look like in an ELA classroom? In what ways would the books compliment each other? Challenge each other? How could you use that to engage students in both texts?
Week Nine (DUE DATE 8 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59) ELECTION DAY! VOTE! And the day after my birthday.
READ: CLASS UPDATE READ, ALSO: Explanation of Research on Reading Pecha Kucha assignment. Read, also, the article (See below) that corresponds to your google.doc book club group number. DUE: Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: Post to your google.doc, a 300 word summary of the article. Each person in the group should post their own summary. Respond to each other by identifying places you agree with your group mates, places you have some disagreement, where you think a group member interpreted the text differently. The goal is to be able for every group member to thoroughly understand what the article is about. These aren't easy articles. They are BIG theory/application.
GROUP ONE: Aesthetic Experiences in the School Curriculum: Assessing the Value of Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory
Download File
aesthetic_experiences_in_the_school_curriculum.pdf
GROUP TWO: A Theory of Narrative Empathy
Download File
theory_of_narrative_empathy.pdf
GROUP THREE: Reconsiderations: Louise Rosenblatt and the Ethical Turn in Literary Theory
Download File
reconsiderations.louise.ethical.pdf
GROUP FOUR: Which Reader's Response?
Download File
which.reader.response.pdf
GROUP FIVE: The Ethics of Teaching Disturbing Pasts: Reader Response, Historical Contextualization, and Rhetorical (Con)Textualization of Holocaust Texts in English
Download File
disturbing_pasts.pdf
Week Ten (DUE DATE 15 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE Also, read the following poems (all links are live) “Seven Stones”, “In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever”, “Take My Father and Brother to the Frick”, “When I grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”, “The Rider”, “Knoxville Tennessee”, “A Small Needful Fact”, and “The Sadness of Clothes”. DUE: Be ready to post and respond to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: In about 200 words, analyze one (or more if you chose) of the poems the way you would for any other 300-level lit class. DUE: Be ready to post to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live) your own piece of poetry. Respond with praise and love to at least one other classmate online. It’s been a rough couple of semesters. Let’s let poetry heal our wounded hearts and minds.Be ready to respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: design a poetry experience for our test class. Respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. Try to avoid the "I totally agree" response. Also using your google.doc space: Discuss, draft, revise, plan your Research on Reading Pecha Kucha. While this is a group project, I would suggest that you divide up the work using the assignment requirements as a guide and use the powerpoint template that I've embedded in your google.doc to bring all your work together. It's going to feel a little tricky, but it will work out.
Week Eleven (DUE DATE 22 NOVEMBER 2022 @11:59 PM)
READ: CLASS UPDATE DUE: Emailed to me or sent to me via drop box link, your completed group’s Research on Reading Pecha Kucha.
(ONGOING) RESPOND VIA EMAIL: to your midterm grade letter as you receive it. Keep in mind this will take a bit of time over the course of this week and next. I will send you a brief letter outlining your performance in the class so far and assign a midterm letter grade. In return, I am asking you to respond to the following questions. Your total response to all of the questions need only be somewhere in the range of 300 words. These questions will be repeated in the midterm grade letter email as well.
- Which of the texts (not just the novels but podcasts, poetry etc) that we've read has had the greatest impact on you as a reader and/or teacher and/or librarian?
- Which of the supplementary text had the greatest impact on you as a scholar of the genre?
- What do you feel like you've learned about the genre of YA and how does that affect you as a reader/teacher/librarian?
- What would be helpful to learn/study going forward?
- How is book club going? What would you like to see from your group mates that you would like to see more of or less of?
Week Twelve (DUE DATE: 29 NOVEMBER 2022 @ 11:59)
READ: CLASS UPDATE .Also, Read The Catcher in The Rye. Read, also, This article, "Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection" DUE: Be ready to post and respond to your group in your to Reading Journal/Book Club google.doc: Catcher, like Mockingbird and Little Women is seen as a "classic" YA title, and one that is still often taught in the secondary ELA class. In what ways does this text reflect our initial definition of YA lit? In what ways does it say something about how YA in the classroom has changed? Or has it? As you post, please consider what you read in "Alienation". READ ALSO: the explanation of the Write Your Own YA assignment.
WATCH: The Pecha Kuchas of all the groups that you weren’t a part of. Also, Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live): what did you learn from the other Pecha Kuchas? In particular, what connections can you make to your own theory? Where do you see disagreement across the ideas? Where do the theorists diverge in terms of terminology or practice? NOTE: YOU HAVE UNTIL 21 DECEMBER 2022 TO POST TO THIS DISCUSSION BOARD.
Week Thirteen (DUE DATE: 6 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: Some Where Between Bitter and Sweet. DUE: Be ready to discuss and post to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: Consider out test class and outline how you might teach the text you read this week, consider why it would be great to teach, how it would be hard to teach. Respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. No Reading Journal/Book Club due this week.
Week FOURTEEN (DUE DATE: 13 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga. DUE: Posted to CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), This novel is an example of "genre fiction" (as opposed to literary fiction) in addition to being YA. In your post to the discussion board this week, in 300 words, discuss how the conventions of this genre (fantasy) work with or against the conventions we see in YA. How could reading a novel like Barren Ground connect young people to the kinds of texts typically taught in a high school classroom? How could it connect young readers (or any readers) to our actual world? Respond thoughtfully in 100-200 words to a colleague. POST TO YOUR GOOGLE.DOC BOOK CLUB: Write Your Own YA assignment draft or your modified version of the final project (literary analysis or assignment design). You don't need a complete draft, just whatever you've got done.. Read and respond to your group mates materials.
WEEK FIFTEEN (DUE DATE: 21 DECEMBER 2022 @ 11:59 PM)
READ: Seen: Rachel Carson. DUE: Be ready to post to our final CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD (link is live), In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: This is the only text we are reading this semester that is aimed at the middle-school reader. It is also a graphic novel. Consider our test class and outline how you might teach the text you read this week, consider why it would be great to teach, how it would be hard to teach. Be ready to respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. DUE: POST TO A FINAL DISCUSSION BOARD FOR AN ALL-CLASS READING JOURNAL. Final reading journal/book club, let's return to our original question of the semester: Let's return to our original question of the semester: how are the novels we read this semester literature? How are theyYoung? How how are they Adult? And, one more thing: what does it tell us, as folks who teach, about what really matters in the ELA classroom? DUE: Your Write Your Own YA or your modified version of the final project (literary analysis or assignment design) due to me. Email me either an word doc or a google.doc link set to "anyone with this link can edit".