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SyllabusUniversity of Massachusetts Boston English 201 Five British Authors Spring 2008 Course Syllabus
Professor Louise Penner Office: W-6-88 Office Phone: 287-6724 Email: louise.penner@umb.edu Office Hours: MWF 10:30-11:30 and M 1:30, and by appointment
Course information: English 201 is a required entry-level course for English Majors, but is open to any student who has completed the first-year writing requirement. For students in the College of Arts and Sciences this course satisfies a requirement in the category of Philosophical and Humanistic studies; for students in the Colleges of Nursing and Management this course fulfills a Humanities requirement. Our five writers range from the late fourteenth century to the late nineteenth century and their works include poetry, drama, and fiction. While the language of some texts is challenging, the amount of reading in the course is modest, and we will discuss the texts patiently and in detail.
Course Goals:
Texts: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Penguin) William Shakespeare, The Sonnets (Signet/NEL) William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (Signet/NEL) Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (Broadview Press) Charles Dickens, Hard Times (W.W. Norton) Eavan Boland, Outside History (W.W. Norton)
Course Assignments: Paper #1 on Chaucer 20% Mid-term take home exam on Twelfth Night 15% Paper #2 30% Final Exam 20% Attendance and Participation including quizzes 15% and short assignments
Notes on Attendance and Participation: Reading: One of this course’s most important goals is to teach and encourage students to read carefully, giving all of the readings a great deal of attention and thought. Your performance in discussions and in written work will depend on your having read the course materials with such care by underlining, highlighting, and/or taking notes on significant details in your texts. To be successful in this class, and (as important as being successful) to enjoy this class and the great works we will be studying, you will have to stay on top of the reading.
Regular attendance: Because our discussions of texts are crucial to the class, and to our understanding and enjoyment of the texts, attendance is required. Missing more than three classes will lower your grade. If you know you will have to miss a class, contact me ahead of time. If you have conflicts that make your attendance difficult, see me immediately.
Frequent and thoughtful class participation: Classroom discussions depend on students having carefully and thoughtfully read for class. It is through discussing a work that we learn how to do the kind of critical thinking that will open up a text and will allow us to enjoy and understand it. Participation is thus a part of your grade for this class. Please see me right away if you are someone who usually has a hard time speaking in class and I will work to incorporate your ideas into class in other ways.
Active participation can take many forms: posing questions, bringing to our attention places in a text that you find confusing, offering answers to the questions of others, adding to or qualifying another class member’s or my comments or questions.
Your contributions and questions are vital to this class!
WEEK 1 M 1/28 Course Introduction W1/30 Chaucer, General Prologue Interlinear Translation: http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/gp-par.htm F 2/1 GP
WEEK 2 M 2/4 Chaucer, Prologue to Wife of Bath’s Tale W 2/6 Wife of Bath’s Tale/ Last day to Add/Drop F 2/8 Chaucer, Prologue to the Oxford Scholar’s Tale and the Oxford Scholar’s Tale and Source Material for Oxford Scholar’s Tale: Petrarch’s Tale of Griselda: http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/authors/petrarch/pet-gris.html
WEEK 3 M 2/11 Chaucer, Prologue to Miller’s Tale and Miller’s Tale W 2/13 Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale F 2/15 Wrap up Chaucer: Assign Paper #1
WEEK 4 M 2/18 President’s Day Holiday (no class) W 2/20 William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 1 F 2/22 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2
WEEK 5 M 2/25 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 3 Paper #1 due W 2/27 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 4 F 2/29 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 5
WEEK 6 M 3/3 Wrap up Shakespeare, Twelfth Night W 3/5 Shakespeare, Sonnets F 3/7 Shakespeare, Sonnets/ Midterm take-home exam due
WEEK 7 M 3/10 Shakespeare, Sonnets W 3/12 Shakespeare, Sonnets F 3/14 Wrap up Shakespeare, Sonnets
3/15-23 Spring Break 3/24 Mid-Semester
WEEK 8 M 3/24 Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility W 3/26 Austen, Sense and Sensibility F 3/28 Austen, Sense and Sensibility WEEK 9 M 3/31 Austen, Sense and Sensibility W 4/2 Austen, Sense and Sensibility F 4/4 Austen, Sense and Sensibility
WEEK 10 M 4/7 Wrap up Austen, Sense and Sensibility W 4/9 Charles Dickens, Hard Times R 4/10 Pass/Fail and Course Withdrawal Deadline F 4/11 Dickens, Hard Times
WEEK 11 M 4/14 Dickens, Hard Times W 4/16 Dickens, Hard Times F 4/18 Dickens, Hard Times
WEEK 12 M 4/21 Patriot’s day (no class) W 4/23 Dickens, Hard Times F 4/25 Dickens, Hard Times
WEEK 13 Student Conferences on final papers this week, Mon.-Wed. M 4/28 Wrap up Dickens, Hard Times W 4/30 Eavan Boland, Selected Poems F 5/2 No Class
WEEK 14 M 5/5 Boland, Selected Poems W 5/7 Boland, Selected Poems F 5/9 Boland, Selected Poems Final paper due
Week 15 M 5/12 Boland, Selected Poems W 5/14 Wrap up and review
Two hour final exam on all five authors at time scheduled by registrar’s office
Disability Accommodation Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 offer guidelines for curriculum modifications and adaptations for students with documented disabilities. Students may obtain adaptation recommendations from the Lillian Semper Ross Center (617-287-7430). They must present these recommendations to each professor by the end of the add/drop period.
**A Note on the Reading Schedule** Though the course requirements and grading criteria listed on this syllabus are fixed, other aspects of this syllabus (reading schedule, paper due dates) are subject to change.
**A Note on Late Assignments** No late assignments will be accepted unless arrangements have been made with me prior to the Due Date.
** A note on Academic Integrity** Academic integrity is central to the mission of this institution. Without honest effort, a learning community has no substance or validity. All students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty. No excuses will be accepted for plagiarism, cheating, or any other act that suggests that you have not fulfilled your academic responsibilities in this course.
For more, including sanctions for academic dishonesty, see your Student Handbook sections on academic dishonesty pp. 150-158. For a printable version, click [HERE]
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