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About the course What do teachers and students from different countries and times reveal about their expectations and learning styles? Reading narratives from Iran, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, the Philippines, and Singapore and by African Americans and Native Americans will allow us -- as students and future teachers -- to ask questions about power, assimilation, control, cultural difference, and colonial domination in education. Throughout, we’ll consider what the differences are for male and female students and teachers. In this course we will apply the tools of reading and analyzing literature to works that especially concern future teachers, as well as anyone who has ever been a student. The course aims to introduce students to fiction and personal narrative about education so that we can read them critically. Instead of accepting our readings as transparent descriptions of what goes on in a classroom, we will examine the varied literary strategies employed to represent education to particular audiences, often with specific persuasive intentions. Assignments will give you a chance to reflect on your own education, to notice more about other ways of learning, and to think about how you would teach some of our readings. Schedule of Readings Jan 18: Introduction : representations of teachers and students. Jan 25: Analyzing representations of teaching and learning Sandra Weber and Claudia Mitchell, That's Funny, You Don't Look Like a Teacher: Interrogating Images and Identity in Popular Culture: excerpt, handout. Sophie Bell, “Dangerous Morals: Hollywood Puts a Happy Face on Urban Education.” (handout) Take a look at the op ed piece in the Jan 19 NY Times on the difference between teachers in movies and teachers in classrooms. Assignment: write a 2 or more page response to the articles. See the information under "Assignments and Grading" on what is expected of this response. In addition, bring in for the class a popular culture representation of a teacher. This could be something that falls into one of the categories outlined in the articles, or it could challenge them in some way. Be prepared to discuss what you’ve brought in. It can be a short (no more than 5 minute) video excerpt, a cartoon, a story, or a game (if you have a way for us to see it), or something else – look around. If you speak or read a language other than English, you might want to bring in a representation from outside the U.S. Feb. 1: Literacy Myths G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion Feb 8: Representations of school in fiction and memoir: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone How are children playing with and interacting with the Harry Potter series? Visit the Daily Prophet website. Jane Tompkins, A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned , excerpt. Feb 15: History and Culture of the American Schoolroom Historical background: Public School history links. History of American Education links. Film in class. Corporal punishment: Walt Whitman, “A Death in the School-Room” (1841) (handout) Link to an article on Whitman as a schoolteacher (supplemental) Immigrants and the school: Read "Morris and the Honorable Tim" and "A Passport to Paradise" in Myra Kelly, Little Citizens (1904) (Click on "Text" and scroll down or use the Edit-->Find in this page function to find the right chapter.You can cut and paste these chapters into a word processing program to print them out) Feb 22. Literacy in slavery and Reconstruction: In class: film excerpts on literacy in reconstruction Readings: Heather Andrea Williams, Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom, Chapter 1: “In Secret Places: Acquiring Literacy in Slave Communities,” (required) and Chapter 2: “A Coveted Possession: Literacy in the First Days of Freedom” (recommended) Handouts. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, chapters VI and VII online) W.E.B Du Bois, “How I Taught School” (1887, handout), “A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South” (1899), online Easier version to get at here Charles Chesnutt,“The March of Progress” (online) Mar. 1: Colonial Schooling within the U.S. Zitkala-Sa, “The School Days of an Indian Girl” ( online) Esmerelda Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican (excerpts, handout) Sherman Alexie, “Indian Education” (handout) March 8: Group project work: Pick one of the items on the list on which to report to the class. Which of the structures or formulas for writing about education do you see in it? How does it use familiar formulas? How does it depart from them or develop something different? Does it counter or question any of the formulas? March 15: spring break March 22: International Perspectives: Colonialism and Education Maryse Conde, Tales from the Heart (excerpts, handout) Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Among the White Moon Faces (excerpts, handout) Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John , "Columbus in Chains" onlne March 29. Group project presentations April 5. Colonialism and Literacy: International Perspectives Discussion of March 22 texts continued. Film in Class: Euzahn Palczy, Sugar Cane Alley - shown as part of the Department of Modern Languages Film festival; we will attend as a class. April 12: Learning (Pop) Culture, Oppression, Resistance Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Antonio Skarmeta, The Composition April 19: Class and Classes “The Transformation of Higher Education and the Emerging White Collar Proletariat,” from Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, from Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life excerpt (optional reading; handout) Selections from Michelle M. Tokarczyk and Elizabeth A. Fay, editors, Working-class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory : Elisabeth Johnson, “Working-class Women as Students and Teachers”: bell hooks “Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education” Laura H. Weaver, “A Mennonite "Hard Worker" Moves from the Working Class and the Religious/ethnic Community to Academia : a Conflict Between Two Definitions of Work” Patricia Clark Smith, “Grandma Went to Smith, All Right, but She Went from Nine to Five: a Memoir” Suzanne Sowinska, “Yer Own Motha Wouldna Reckanized Ya : Surviving an Apprenticeship in the ‘Knowledge Factory’” April 26: Narratives of Teaching Zitkala-Sa. “An Indian Teacher Among Indians” (online) Selections from Kevin Jennings, ed., One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories (handout) Esmé Raji Codell, Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year May 3: Wrap up, review. May 10, 5:30: exam is due in my office. Assignments and Grading: Assignments will be discussed in detail in our first class. Students will write weekly responses on the assigned readings. You will sometimes be given specific questions or challenges to write on in relation to the readings, but basically, your weekly writing will be a place to reflect on the assigned text in a way that demonstrates your full, reflective reading of it. You might question it, argue with it in a way that demonstrates that you’ve read all of it (rather than taking issue with a sentence). You may want to bring in your own experience, though you must ground your discussion in the reading. One role of your weekly writing is to generate discussion topics and questions. These will be assessed based on thoroughness of reading and thoughtfulness of response. So that I can read them before class, your weekly writing will be due by email, by 11 pm on the Wednesday night before class. Weekly writing (35%) Student group presentations. (10%) Two short analytical papers comparing works internationally and/or historically. (20%) Final exam. (15%) Class participation, preparedness, commitment, and attendance. (20%) Writing Assignments All written work done at home should be professional in appearance: typed, double spaced, with reasonable margins (1½ inches). Show respect for your work by rereading it and proofreading it. If you use a word processor, run the spell check on it as a first step in proofreading. Do not use the thesaurus or grammar check programs; either one is likely to create errors and problems rather than solve them. Handwritten corrections on typed copy are acceptable. Just staple or paper clip the pages – no report covers please. When you email your work, please email it as a WordPerfect or Word attachment. Be sure your name (not just your email address) is on both the email and the attachment. My computer has trouble reading Microsoft Works. If that is the only program you have access to, then simply cut and paste your assignment into the body of the email. Put a short version of the assignment name in the subject line, and include your name in the name you give the document. Except in assignments that ask you to gather background materials, all your writing for this course should reflect your own thinking. Do not use someone else's words or ideas as your own without explicit acknowledgment. The penalties for plagiarism are severe: an automatic F for the course, and a report to the Dean. Whenever you use anyone else's words or ideas, you must cite your sources according to the rules of the MLA Handbook (you can find these rules in the handbooks you used in EC1 and EC2, and in online handbooks), and you must include a Works Cited page. Word processors are available in the Open Writing Lab in Karnoutsos, the Electronic Learning Lab in the Professional Building, and elsewhere around campus. You'll find that using one will make it less tedious to revise. If you want advice on your papers before handing them in, you are welcome to come see me during office hours or make an appointment -- that's what office hours are for; take advantage of them. You can also meet with a tutor in the Open Writing Lab. Be sure to keep a copy of all work that you email me. Bring that copy to keep with you during class, so that you can draw on it to contribute to discussion. Late work will go down a grade for each session it is late, so a B paper handed in a week late will receive a C, and so on. Only if you talk with me in advance will I be lenient.Assignments will be discussed in detail in our first class. Students will write weekly response journals to assigned readings aimed at generating discussion questions. These will be assessed based on thoroughness of reading and thoughtfulness of response, and usefulness of discussion questions. (35%) Student group presentations. (15%) One short analytical paper comparing works internationally and/or historically. (10%) Assignment on teaching one of our texts. (10%) Final exam. (15%) Class participation, preparedness, commitment, and attendance. (20%) Texts in Bookstore: Codell, Esme Raji, Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year. Rowling, J.K., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood . Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion . Skarmeta, Antonio, The Composition Tokarczyk, Michelle and Elizabeth A. Fay, eds. Working-class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory. |
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