August 31, 2009 Archives

This class asks you to post an online reaction to the assigned readings, by 4pm each Monday.  You don't have to be finished with the readings by that time, but I do want you to make a specific statement about a specific passage.

There won't always be a note in the "Monday" column of the course calendar, but you should plan to post your online responses every Monday, for every individual item marked as a "Text."

So... by 4pm on Aug 31, please leave a brief comment on the course web pages for the texts by Foster, Hawthorne and Poe,

About your "Agenda Item"

You can post just about anything, as long as you include a specific quotation and a comment about that quotation. Length is not really an issue. Two brief sentences will adequately fulfill the assignment requirements, but later in the term you will be asked to produce evidence that you are capable of writing in depth, of participating in a discussion, and several other criteria. (I'll introduce the specifics after we're comfortable with the general idea of blogging as a class.)

Here is what my students wrote about their Foster reading, last term in American Literature I. As you can see, many of them posted a link to a page on their own SHU weblog. Everyone will get a SHU weblog and everyone will have time to get comfortable with how to use it. 

The end result for each text will be a study guide that students in this class construct for each other, and that lets me see in advance what the students find noteworthy.

Your online comment should include a brief excerpt from the text, with the page number (where appropriate), and a statement of what you would say about the passage if called on in class.

There is no single "right" answer, and it may very well be that you disagree with your classmates (and with me).  That's fine -- so long as we are ready to point to specific passages in the work that back up your claims.