ENG 231 ONLINE Course Schedule Spring 2012

NOTE:  This schedule may change as needed.

WEEK 1WEEK 2WEEK 3WEEK 4WEEK 5WEEK 6WEEK 7

WEEK 8       WEEK 9       WEEK 10       WEEK 11      WEEK 12      WEEK 13    WEEK 14

WEEK 15     WEEK 16    



Native Voices

WEEK 1

T    1/10           Subject:  Course Introduction
                                                                           
         TO DO: 
                        taken an online class)
  •               Need an on-campus orientation to online learning?  Click here for
                        dates, locations, and times.
  •        Discussion Board, Forum #2:  Meet and Greet:  In approximately
                        300 words tell the class a little about yourself.  You can give us the
                        typcial things like where you are from, your age, a physical description
                        of yourself, the number of siblings you have, hobbies, where you see
                        yourself in ten years, etc., but try to make it a little more interesting.
                        For instance, tell us what you biggest pet peeve is,  tell us the one thing
                        about you that we may not know by just looking at you (if we could).
                        You can also tell us about some of your likes/dislikes:  What is your
                        favorite food, your favorite movie, your favorite actor, your favorite
                        singer/band, your favorite song, favorite book, etc.?  This post must be
                        completed by 8am on R 1/12

                       
                        You will find the link to the discussion board on the home
                        page for ENG 231 in Blackboard.  It is listed on the main menu as
                      "discussion boards."

  •        Read  "Native American Oral Literatures, pp. 18-21 &
                        "Creation/Emergence Accounts," 21-25 in text



R 1/12      Subject:  Introduction to Native American Literature (Creation Stories)

                       
TO DO: 
                        by Marc Turcotte;
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 1/17:
                        Compare & contrast the creation stories to the poems by Turcotte and
                        Ortiz.  What does each reveal about Native American Culture both past
                        and present?  You will find the link to the discussion board on the home
                        page for ENG 231.  It is listed on the main menu as "discussion
                        boards."


WEEK 2

                                             

T 1/17      Modern Native American Poetry:  Turcotte and Ortiz



                        TO DO: 
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 1 by 8am R 1/19.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)


                                                                  Utopian Promise
 
R 1/19     Subject:  Begin Study of Puritans/ Bradford & Morton

  TO DO: 
  •               Read William Bradford from “Of Plymouth Plantation,” 348-357; 358-                      361; 364-367
  •               Read Thomas Morton from “New English Canaan,” 321 top of 324; 326-
                        331

             

WEEK 3      



T 1/24             Subject:  Winthrop 

                        TO DO: 
  •               Read  "A Model of Christian Charity," by JohnWinthrop, 332-342;
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on R 1/26: Bradford,
                        Morton, & Winthrop: Compare and contrast the writing styles of these
                        three writers.  How are they alike?  How are they different?  Why would
                        Bradford and Winthrop see Morton's writing style as profane?   What
                        other reasons might Winthrop and Bradford have for not liking "New
                        English Canaan?
              
R 1/26     Subject:  Bradstreet & Taylor

                         TO DO: 

  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 2 by 8am M 1/31.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)  
  •               Read Bradstreet, 418-419, “Prologue,” 420-421; “The Author  to
                        Her Book,” 426; “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” 430;
                “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” 430-431; “Upon the Burning of Our
                        House July 10th, 1666,” 433-434
  •               Read Taylor, 492-495, "Upon Wedlock and Death of Children,” 504-505
                Do Reader Response 3 by posting a 300 word response to the
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 1/31:
                        Bradstreet or Taylor:  Explain how each poet's work illustates or
                        struggles with the idea of weaned affections
                        1/31;




WEEK 4


T 1/31             Topic Proposal for Research Projects due by 8am;
                        Subject:  Rowlandson

               TO DO: 
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 3 by 8am R 2/2.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •              Read "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary
                        Rowlandson, 461-477 (up to the 13th Remove)


R 2/2      Subject:  Rowlandson

                TO DO: 
  •               Finish Reading Rowlandson, 477-492
                        response to the discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T
                        2/7: Explain how Rowlandson's Narrative fits the definition of
                        jeremiad.  See Class Notes on thePuritans for a definition.   




WEEK 5

T 2/7      Subject:  Woolman & Occum

                TO DO: 
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 4 by 8am R 2/9.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •               Read Woolman, from “The Journal of JohnWoolman,” 713-722
  •               Read Samson Occom, “A Short Narrative of my Life,” 1175-1181
       


R 2/9             Subject: Edwards

      TO DO: 
  •                Be sure you listen to this week's voice threads and read the class
                         notes on Spiritual Autobiography, Johnathan Edwards, and the Great
                         Awakening (bottom of page) before beginning your reading and writing
                         your response.
  •               Read Johnathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands
        of an Angry God,”690-701
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 2/14
                        Compare and contrast the works of   Woolman, Occum, & Edwards:                                          Discuss their ideas about religion and equality.  How are they
                        alike/different?  How do these texts create, re-imagine, or rebel against
                        "American" myth.  Support your answer with quotes from the texts.


WEEK 6

                                                Spirit of Nationalism

T 2/14     Subject: Franklin

  TO DO: 
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 5 by 8am R 2/16.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)

  •               Read 837-840 & Part Two of Ben Franklin’s The Autobiography
                        Beginning at Continuation of the Account  of My Life (Begun at Passy,
                        1784), 909-919
              


R 2/16     Subject:  Jefferson & Wheatley

  TO DO: 
  •               Read Jefferson, 1022-1025 from "Notes on the State of Virginia," 1035
                        -1042; Read Phyllis Wheatley, “Letter to Samson Occom,” 1088, “To the
                        University of Cambridge, in New England,” 1249-1250, “On Being
                        Brought From Africa to America,” 1297-1299 & 1308-1309
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 2/21:
                        How do Franklin, Jefferson, & Wheatley create, challenge, or reimagine                                    American myth?  In other words how could have their ideas found in
                        these works have helped shape what the term "American" means,
                        resisted that definition, or reimagined it in someway.


WEEK 7


T 2/21            Subject:  Appess and Locke

                      TO DO:
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 6 by 8am R 2/23.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
                        Man,”                 
  •               Read Locke,  from "Essay on Human Understanding," 659-660" &
                        from "Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay," 1083-1084


R 2/23            Subject:  Thoreau

                      TO DO:
  •               Read Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil
                       Government,” 1859-1876
                Do Reader Response 7 by posting a 300 word response to the
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 2/28: 
                        How do Appess, Locke, and Thoreau create, challenge, or reimagine  
                        American myth?  In other words how could have their ideas found in
                        these works have helped shape what the term "American" means.
  •               Begin Work on Midterm Exam Essay; Keep in mind that you are                            writing a formal essay (not a reader response); you must have an intro with a
                        thesis, a body, and a conclusion that restates a thesis; when read together,
                        your intro and conclusion must form one idea; read exam instructions
                        carefully.

WEEK 8


T 2/28            Subject:  Thoreau, Appess, and Locke continued; work on midterm

                       TO DO:

  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for Reader Response 7 by 8am R 3/1.  In your follow-up responses
                        discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You may also ask
                        them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up responses
                        should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •               Midterm Exam Essay Due on R 3/1 by 8am  (see instructions in
                        Blackboard)



R 3/1      Midterm Exam Essay Due by 8am (see instructions in Blackboard);
                      Hector St. John de Crevecouer

         TO DO:
  •               Read J. Hector St. John de Crevecouer, “Letters from an
                        American Farmer”:  from Letter III:  What is an American? 954955; 961-
                        965; 967-974
  •                Do Reader Response 8 by posting a 300 word response to the  
                        discussion board  to the following question by 8am on T 3/13:                 
                       "Letters from an  American Farmer":  How does de Crevecouer define
                        the term "American"?  How does this create, challenge, or  reimagine
                        American myth? (Compare it to how other texts have defined what this
                        term means)


SPRING BREAK, MARCH 5-9


WEEK 9

T 3/13             Hector St. John de Crevecouer; WORK ON Annotated Bibliography

                       TO DO:
  •              Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 8 by 8am R 3/15.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)



                                           Masculine Heroes

R 3/15            Annotated Bibliography Due by 8am; Subject:  Cooper

                       TO DO: 
  •               Read James Fenimore Cooper, from “The Pioneers,” 2341-2344; 2351
                        -2356
  •               Do Reader Response 9: Cooper; Respond to the following                                        question on the discussion board in a post of a minimum of 300
                        words by  8am on T 3/20:  How does Cooper creat, challenge,
                        or reimagine American myth?  Hint:  Think about how he presents
                        man's treatment of the natural world.



WEEK 10




T 3/20            Subject:  Emerson & Transcendentalism

  TO DO: 

  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 9 by 8am R 3/22:  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •               Read Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1704-1706; “Nature,” 1707-1729
                        dicussion board to the following prompt by 8am on R 3/22:
                        Identify one passage in Emerson's essay and explain what you like
                        about it and/or wny you think it is important.  What do you find
                        particularly "heroic" (if anything) about Emerson's ideas?  Why/how
                        might they be important and relevant to modern times/life?
                       


R 3/22             NO READING ASSIGNMENT: Work on Research Projects

        TO DO:  
       
  •                Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 10 by 8am T 3/27.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •                Complete Outline for your research project and begin drafting
  •               To receive credit for Reader Response 11 you must post an outline for
                        your research project to the  discussion board (for RR 11) by 8am on T 3/27:
                        This outline must be a minimum of two pages, and you must use complete
                         sentences. 




WEEK 11


T 3/27           Subject:  Nat Love

  TO DO:
                        LOVE BETTER KNOWN IN THE CATTLE COUNTRY AS               
                        "DEADWOOD DICK" --BY HIMSELF-- A TRUE HISTORY OF     
                        SLAVERY DAYS, LIFE ON THE GREAT CATTLE RANGES AND   
                        ON THE PLAINS OF THE "WILD AND WOOLLY" WEST,  BASED
                        ON FACTS, AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF THE AUTHOR
  •                Work on research project (begin drafting).

R 3/29      Subject:  Complete Nat Love

  TO DO: 

                        LOVE BETTER KNOWN IN THE CATTLE COUNTRY AS               
                        "DEADWOOD DICK" --BY HIMSELF-- A TRUE HISTORY OF     
                        SLAVERY DAYS, LIFE ON THE GREAT CATTLE RANGES AND   
                        ON THE PLAINS OF THE "WILD AND WOOLLY" WEST,  BASED
                        ON FACTS, AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF THE AUTHOR
                        discussion board to the following question by 8am on  T 4/3:  Explain
                        how  Nat Love's story creates, challenges, or reimagines American
                        myth?  In other words how could have the ideas found in this work have
                        helped shape what the term "American" means, resisted that definition,
                        or reimagined it in someway.
                  
 



WEEK 12
T 4/3       Subject:  Emerson's "The Poet"

               TO DO: 
  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion board
                        for  NAT LOVE (RR #12) by 8am R 4/5.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total).
  •               Read Emerson's "The Poet," pp. 1763-1777
                        dicussion board to the following prompt by 8am on R 4/5:  Choose a   
                        passage that you like from Emerson's "The Poet" and explain what
                        you like about it and/or why you think it  is important. Do you think
                        Emerson found poets to be "heroic," why or why not?



R 4/5              Subject:  Whitman (& Emerson)

                TO DO: 
  •                Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 13 by 8am T 4/10.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •               Choose any poem by Whitman in your textbook and read it carefully
                        discussion board to the following question by 8am on T 4/10:  When   
                        Emerson wrote "The Poet" in 1844, he proclaimed that Poets are           
                        liberating gods . . . they are free, and they make free." He  wished for 
                        the emergence of a poet   "without impediment, who  sees and  handles
                        that which others dream of, traverses the whole scale of experience, and
                        is representative of  man."  Using these quotes by Emerson, explain if
                        Whitman has  indeed answered this passionate plea for a truly
                        American Poet? Is he truly "representative of man" (In other words       
                        does he represent the common American Man.  Also think about how   
                        he presents the idea of gender:  masculinity and femininity)? Is               
                        Whitman truly an "American" poet? Why/Why Not? What makes his
                        work "American?"
  •               You do not need to respond to the post of another student

WEEK 13
                                     Gothic Undercurrents

T 4/10    Subject:  Hawthorne & Introduction to the Gothic

                        TO DO: 

  •               Read "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 2398
                        -2401; 2451-2470
                        discussion board to the following question by 8am on R 4/12:  Explain
                        how  Hawthorne's story exhibits charateristics of  The Gothic.

                                           

 
R 4/12     Gilman
 
  •             TO DO: 

  •               Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 15 by 8am T 4/17.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)



WEEK 14
T 4/17             Subject:  Poe

                        TO DO: 

  •               Read Poe, 2484-2486; “Ligeia,” 2487-2497
                        discussion board to the following question by 8am on R 4/19:
                        Explain how  Gilman & Poe's stories exhibit charateristics of The
                        Gothic.
                      

Slavery and Freedom

R 4/19      Subject:  Douglass 

                        TO DO:
                        Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 16 by 8am  T 4/24.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •                Read Frederick Douglass, 2035-2037; “Narrative of the Life of
                        Frederick Douglass,” 2038-2059 (end of chapter V)
                     
                                          

WEEK 15
                                    

T 4 /24             Semester Research Project Due by 8am;
                         Subject: Douglass
     


                       TO DO:        

  •               Read Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick
                        Douglass,” 2059 (chapter VI)-2080 



                                               
R 4/26     Subject: Complete Douglass

                        TO DO: 
  •                Read Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick
                        Douglass,” 2081 - 2101
                        discussion board to the following question by 8am on T 5/1:
                        How does Douglass create, challenge, or reimagine American myth?  In
                        other words how could have the ideas found in his work helped shape    
                        what the term "American" means.
                        mind that you are writing a formal essay (not a reader response); you must
                        have an intro with a thesis, a body, and a conclusion that restates a thesis;
                        when read together, your intro  and conclusion must form one idea; read
                       exam instructions carefully.
                    

WEEK 16


T 5/1             Conclude Douglass discussion; work on final exam
                      
                        TO DO: 

  •                Respond to two posts made by other students on the discussion
                        board for Reader Response 18 by 8am R 5/3.  In your follow-up
                        responses discuss what new ideas their posts prompted for you.  You
                        may also ask them questions about their posts.  Each of your follow-up
                        responses should be a minimum of 150 words each (300 words total)
  •               Work on Essay for FINAL EXAM; Due by 8am on R 5/3 (see
                        instructions in Blackboard)
                        


                         

R 5/3       FINAL EXAM Essay Due by 8am (see instructions in Blackboard)

                        TO DO: 
  •              HAVE A GREAT SUMMER :)