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AMERICAN
LITERATURE 246—“W” Course Jim Roth Office: Phone: 533-7058 E-mail: jroth@scc.spokane.edu Web
Site: http://ol.scc.spokane.edu/jroth TEXT: Perkins: The American Tradition in
Literature, Volume 2, 11th
Edition ABOUT THE COURSE:
American Literature 246 is an interdisciplinary “W” course that
gives us the opportunity to study recent American authors and their
works. The time span will be roughly from
1865 to the present. Course content
not only includes literature, but also history, philosophy, science,
religion, and social movements including racial, labor, political, and legal
issues. No attempt will be made to
convert you to a particular belief; no particular belief will be exempt from
scrutiny. Class time will include both small-group discussion, general
discussion, and research. Please
remember that this is not a lecture course, and so, to profit, always read
assignments in advance and come to class willing to discuss them; please do
not attend if your intention is only to have other class members or me tell
you what we think the assignments mean.
Expect an occasional pop quiz to encourage participation and reward
those who complete assignments on time. If you browse through the text’s table of contents, you will
realize that this course’s content is difficult to simplify. Therefore, understanding and enjoying this
literature will demand extra time and effort from all of us. In
addition, your reading skills must be at college-level to understand much of
what we will be reading. If you
feel your reading skills are not at this level, please consider enrolling in
a reading improvement course before enrolling in English 246. THE WEB SITE
Please
visit our course web site often. On it
you can check your grade, find announcements, assignments, due dates,
calendar updates, handouts, and additional resources. Just go to http://ol.scc.spokane.edu/jroth. If you need help getting to this site, please
stop by my office for a demonstration. EXPERIENCES (EXAMS) (100 points each--three
during the term)
There will be three of these, roughly dividing the course into
thirds. All questions will be short
essay. Each experience is worth up to
100 points and cannot be taken late
unless you make arrangements in advance.
Because this course provides a "W" credit, your
success on these experiences (exams) will depend upon your use of written
English as well as upon your mastery of course content. PREPARATORY WRITING
ASSIGNMENTS (20 points each, several throughout the term) Occasionally, prior to a
discussion class, I will ask you to write a one to two page formal reaction
to the reading or readings that we will be discussing in class that day. Number and date the assignment, and be sure
to put the name of the work it is about at the top of the page. Be ready to share your reaction and turn it
in at the beginning of the class. These preparatory writing assignments are due at the beginning of class and will
not be accepted later during class that day for any reason. This is because they only have value if
they are written before the discussion and the writer then participates in
the discussion. The keys to success are
the following: ·
Read the assignment
carefully and answer the specific question(s) the assignment poses. ·
Always have your
assignment written before class. I will
be calling on each of you to share your entries throughout the quarter. ·
Be honest. Write what you really feel, not what you
think you are supposed to say. ·
Show respect for
the English language—use it correctly.
Because this course provides a "W" credit, the points you
earn on these assignments will in part be determined by your use of written
English. COMPUTER LAB
TIME I have reserved
a computer lab on Wednesdays for our class.
We will do an introduction shortly. ATTENDANCE
POLICY I do not take attendance because
I believe that at the college level, attendance is the student’s
responsibility. Unlike earlier,
required school participation, enrolling in college is a choice you freely
make; in addition, it is a privilege, not a requirement. Therefore, if you choose not to take
advantage of it by not attending, that is your choice. CLASSROOM CONDUCT and BEHAVIOR No student has the right to
interfere with another student’s opportunity to learn. To
this end, I expect all of my students to act like responsible, socially
skilled adults or they will be asked to leave the class and/or drop the
course. Please see the S.C.C.
Student Code of Conduct for more information. DISCRETIONARY
POINTS AWARDS
On occasion throughout the
quarter I will award points for work we are doing in class or at home. For example, after a particularly rewarding
class where all of us have done our best and actively participated, I might
award five discretionary points to everyone present. Please note: even though discretionary points awards cannot be made up in any way, they do, in
fact, become part of the total course points used to determine your grade. MAKING UP LATE
ASSIGNMENTS
There are no make-ups unless you
make arrangements in advance. However,
to allow for the unexpected, you may make up one missing assignment without penalty as long as you make it up within
one calendar week of its due date. Please attach your da Vinci Late Assignment Submission Form
to your late assignment. This one make-up opportunity does not apply
to the three experiences (exams). PORTFOLIO FOLDER Please keep all returned assignments in your
portfolio folder. Being able to
produce a returned, graded assignment is the ONLY WAY to verify that you have completed the assignment if my
records indicate otherwise. YOUR FINAL GRADE: S.C.C. uses the decimal grading system. I will first convert your grade to percentage by dividing you total points by the total points possible. I will then convert your percentage grade to a decimal grade using the chart below. The decimal value will appear on your grade sheet and transcript.
Reading Skills Assessment Exercise Directions:
Please read this excerpt and then take the five-question quiz that follows: From William Bradford’s Of
Plymouth Plantation, Book II They
began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses
and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and
strength, and had all things in good plenty.
For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were
exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took
good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want, and now
began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did
abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store
of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck a meal a week
to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many
afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England,
which were not feigned but true reports. Questions: 1.
What time of the year does the passage
describe? 2.
True or False: The passage indicates that many of the
people are sick or in poor health. 3.
True or False: The passage indicates that fishing is very
poor, which is leading to the people’s fears of hunger. 4.
True or False: The author suggests that the number of
animals to hunt has decreased since the group first arrived. 5.
True of False: The author suggests that the people wrote
their friends truthfully about the food supply. If
you had difficulty reading this passage and/or answering the questions that followed,
your present reading skills may keep you from being successful in this
course. If this is the case, please
consider enrolling in a reading improvement course before enrolling in
English 246. |
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