In this course we will explore how narratives are used to make meaning, particularly explain tragic or strange events. We will read primarily one form of narrative, the novel, but within this genre we will examine narrative more broadly in terms of how story becomes the tool through which we organize identity, community, and the events of our lives.
In the general literature program, students read and write
about selected works of prose and/or poetry from diverse
cultural traditions, analyzing the context, aims, and methods of literary expression. Thus, the novels in this course are drawn from different time periods and cultures and we will be focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the ways narrative is used to make meaning out of difficult circumstances.
Student Learning Outcomes: At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
ü Identify and understand varied characteristics of literature
ü Apply techniques of literary analysis to texts
ü Use literary study to develop skills in careful reading and clear writing
ü Demonstrate understanding of the diverse social and historical contexts in which literary texts have been written and interpreted.
Required Texts:
1. Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Mariner Book Edition, 2005.
ISBN #978-0618711659
2. McEwan, Ian. Atonement. New York: Anchor Books, 2003. ISBN#0-385-72179-X
3. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Broadview Edition. ISBN #9781551113081
4. Sijie, Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Anchor Books, 2002.
ISBN # 978-0385722209
5. Articles on Blackboard
Course Policies
Participation Requirements and Expectations
To successfully complete this course, you are expected to actively participate in weekly discussion posts. Because this class does not meet face to face, your discussion participation verifies that you are completing the readings and “attending” the course. Unlike in a traditional class where the time constraints of the class period prevent everyone from talking, in an online form input by each student is expected. Using proper etiquette in your online communication will also be an important part of your grade. Although the temptation to be less polite when not face-to-face with someone may arise in our online community, you will be held to the same expectations as if you were having a discussion in person.
Participation is defined as posting thoughtful responses to weekly questions, completing online assessments on time, and responding to discussions and emails. Additionally, you must complete the following assignments in order to receive better than a C as your final course grade:
1. Post to all discussions and fulfill your “discussion leader” assignment.
2. Complete all exams.
3. Demonstrate excellent etiquette in discussion posting.
Late work:
I do not accept late work or allow make up exams unless you inform me of extenuating circumstances ahead of time.
Email Policy:
I will make every effort to respond to your email within 24 hours, nights and weekends excepted. Please keep this in mind when you email about course material, tests, and papers. If you email me the night before a paper is due or the night before a test, I may not be able to answer your question. Thus, it is in your best interest to prepare for assignments with enough time to ask questions if needed.
The University Writing Center
A good writing practice, for new and seasoned writers, gathers feedback from numerous outside readers. Using myself, your peers, or writing center consultants as outside readers will help improve the quality of your writing. The Writing Center is located in 3211 MHRA, and is open Monday through Thursday, 9am-8pm; Fridays, 9am-3pm; and Sunday evenings, 5-8pm. The Writing Center also offers online sessions.
Office of Disability Services:
Students with documentation of special needs should arrange to see me about accommodations as soon as possible. If you believe you could benefit from such accommodations, you must first register with the Office of Disability Services on campus before such accommodations can be made. The office is located on the second floor of the Elliott University Center (EUC) in Suite 215, and the office is open 8am to 5pm, Monday - Friday. Telephone: 334-5440; e-mail: .
Academic Integrity:
As a member of UNCG’s academic community, you are expected to uphold the Academic Integrity Policy:
“Academic integrity is founded upon and encompasses the following five values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. Violations include, for example, cheating, plagiarism, misuse of academic resources, falsification, and facilitating academic dishonesty. If knowledge is to be gained and properly evaluated, it must be pursued under conditions free from dishonesty. Deceit and misrepresentations are incompatible with the fundamental activity of this academic institution and shall not be tolerated” (from UNCG’s Academic Integrity Policy). To ensure that you understand the university’s policy on academic integrity, review the guidelines and list of violations at <http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu>. I expect you to abide by the Academic Integrity Policy.
Guidelines for Testing in an Online Environment: You are expected to do your own work on all quizzes, tests, and papers and you should not seek assistance from any one else or have anyone else take your test for you. All discussion board assignments are open book and open note; however, you must write and post your own work and not the work of anyone else. Plagiarized posts will receive zeroes.
Grade Scale (Percentage of Final Point Total):
A= 90-100% C = 79-70% Grades are rounded up, if you make a .5 or higher.
B = 89-80% D = 69-60% Example: 89.4% is a B, but 89.5% is rounded to an A.
59% and below
Grade Calculation:
Discussion Board Posts 20%
Reader Response and Responder 15%
Quizzes 10%
Exams 10% x 4
Close Reading Paper 15%
Total 100%
Assignments
______
Discussion Board Posts:
Every week you will complete one discussion board post due at the end of the week. Although there is not a required word count for this assignment, in general a sufficiently thoughtful and analytical post will be somewhere around 200-400 words. Just as when speaking in a classroom discussion you need to be aware of how long you are speaking so that you do not lose the attention of your audience, your post (as discussion leader or in response) should not be longer than 500 words. For most of these posts, you will respond to one of several student posts that act as “discussion leader” for that week. Once in the course of the semester you will be discussion leader. This means your post will be due one day before the usual deadline, to give everyone a change to read and think about your ideas before they respond. Discussion leader posts will be written in response to a prompt described in the forum for that week; the prompt will be related to the readings and topics for that week. Please note the additional, specific requirements for the discussion leader poss (such as including questions at the end of the post) that are listed below in the rubric.
At the completion of the discussion forum, I will write a synthesis of the major issues discussed by the class. If needed, I will add important information or topics that may not have been fully addressed. These synopses will be useful study tools for exams and may also provide useful ideas for your paper. Remember, however, that although I may add some information it is largely up to the class to contribute thoughtful, meaningful posts in order to create a body of knowledge for our class community.
Please Note: You are allowed to miss one discussion board post (not counting when you are a “discussion leader”). After this, you will lose a letter grade off the final course grade for every post you miss. Failure to post on time means that you will not receive credit for that week’s post.
Online discussions should be conducted ethically and respectfully. The UNCG population reflects differing backgrounds and experiences including but not limited to age, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, geographic region, language, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Everyone in this online course should work to foster a community in which every person is treated with dignity, respect, and justice. Encouraging a diversity of responses will also help you as a scholar to gain more from the course material as you encounter new ideas and fresh perspectives.
Please Note: Comments that represent disrespectful or inappropriate language or content will be deleted immediately, and you will need to meet with me in a face-to-face conference before you can continue in the course. If you feel that someone has posted or responded in an inappropriate way, please contact me immediately.
You should use this rubric as a guide or checklist when constructing your posts each week.
Rubric for Discussion Posts
With the exception of our opening posts (introductions), for which you will get full credit as long as you post on time, each discussion board assignment will count for 15 points. Please note the evaluation is based on different criteria for the “discussion leader” posts. Failure to post on time means that you will not receive credit for that week’s post.
Above Average 14-15 Points
· These responses are insightful, original, and thorough.
· The response refers specifically to a discussion leader post, using the person’s name and also specific reference to points made in the original post.
· These posts are well-written and demonstrate good etiquette – consideration of and respect for diverse viewpoints; an openness to other students and differences in the class without hostility toward other students or differing viewpoints; grammatically correct English.
“Discussion Leader” Posts:
· These responses use specific examples from the text in a meaningful way to support the writer’s points
· demonstrate that the writer can make connections to previous or current content or to real-life situations
· are capable of inspiring rich discussion from other members.
· tend to make larger connections to course material (thereby fostering discussion) while also remaining tied to the specific text assigned for that week.
· Questions at end of post encourage others to offer different viewpoints or to make connections to other material or to discuss other parts/components of the text.
Average 11-13 Points
· These responses reply to one of the discussion leader posts in a sufficient manner but may be less developed and thorough.
· Responses may tend to rely more heavily on summary of a discussion leader response with only a few sentences of original analysis.
· are well-written and demonstrate good etiquette – consideration of and respect for diverse viewpoints; an openness to other students and differences in the class without hostility toward other students or differing viewpoints; grammatically correct English.
“Discussion Leader” Posts:
· Incorporates textual quotes or evidence, but may not fully analyze the reference or fully connect the rest of the post to the textual evidence used.
· Makes few or basic connections to previous or current course content or to real-life situations.
· May contain some analysis but more (or better) analysis would make for a stronger post.
· Questions tend to be more superficial than analytical.
Below Average 8-10 Points
· These responses are noticeably “skimpy” in their answer to discussion leader posts.
· Responses are fairly superficial with very little analysis or insight, may simply restate ideas from another post, may be off-topic completely, or neglect to fully answer one or more parts of the questions provided.
“Discussion Leader” Posts:
· These posts do not refer specifically to the text and tend to ramble without a clear point
· do not provide a clear connect to the text or material for that week.
· They tend to offer “yes” or “no” questions and are not capable of fostering good discussion.
Disqualified 0 Points
· Posts are disqualified if they are not posted by the deadline or if the do not demonstrate good etiquette or make inappropriate comments
If you are not achieving the number of points you would like for your discussion posts, please contact me.
______
Reading Response and Responder:
In addition to a weekly discussion board post, you will write a weekly reading response to a specific prompt designed to engage with the assigned reading for that week. This assignment has two parts: your reading response to the novel (called your reading response) and your response or engagement with one of your peer’s reading responses to the novel (called your responder post).
Your reading response will need to be a half page single-spaced or 250 words. The response must be posted to your group page by midweek. Your reading response should engage in a thoughtful way with the question asked (this means formulating some kind of opinion and stating some kind of claim) and should make at least one specific reference to the text.
For your responder post, you will choose one of your peer’s reading responses and reply. Your reply must be a half-page and should engage directly with the writer’s ideas. In your role as responder, you should accomplish two goals: 1) build on the ideas the writer discusses and 2) suggest another perspective or issue that may not be included in the reading response. At the end of this responder post you must include one to two questions that the writer could consider in addition to his/her own ideas. As you write your responder post, consider the following questions:
· How does this response differ from your own? Are there similarities?
· What perspective about the text does the response offer that you had not thought about?
· What is an idea or point that the writer could have considered but did not?
· In what ways can you build off the response to suggest additional lines of inquiry?
All Reading Responses must be posted to the correct group page by mid-week. All Responder posts must be posted by the end of the week. Failure to post either your reading response or responder post on time means that you will not receive credit for that week’s assignment. A detailed rubric for the reading response and responder post is below. You should use this rubric as a guide when constructing your responses each week.
Rubric
Each Reading Response and Responder post is worth 15 points. Note this includes both the half page reading response and the half page responder paragraph. Thus, if your reading response fulfills the “above average” qualities but your responder post does not, you may not receive the 14-15 points necessary for an “above average” on this assignment. Failure to post either your reading response or responder post on time means that you will not receive credit for that week’s assignment.