The UCO student information sheet and syllabus attachment can be found at
http://www.uco.edu/academicaffairs/files/aa-forms/StudentInfoSheet.pdf.
English Literature Since 1800
ENG 2653-14572
College of Liberal Arts, Department of English
University of Central Oklahoma
Kurt Hochenauer, Ph.D.
Office: LA 221K
Work Telephone: 405-974-5669
Home Telephone: 405-606-5694
Email: [email protected]
This course meets on the Desire2Learn (D2L) learning management system,
which can be accessed at https://learn.uco.edu.
Online office hours will be announced on the course website. Please use the
D2L system to email me about class business during the time period of this
class. Response time for email is usually within 24 hours Monday through
Friday. Essay and other project grades will be available within seven days of
submission.
Course Catalog Description:
This course provides a survey of British literature and British literary
movements from 1800 with the emphasis evenly distributed.
Objectives:
In this course, we read British literary texts published in the past
approximately 200 years and apply a variety of readings to those texts. We
use such poststructuralist reading techniques as deconstruction, feminist,
Marxist, and new historicist to undermine and subvert traditional constructs
of British hegemony and mythology. As we read and write about these texts,
we improve our communication and critical thinking.
Here are the texts we are using in the class: The Longman Anthology of
British Literature, Volume B, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (1818) Charles
Dickens's Great Expectations (1860-61), and Virginia Woolf's Mrs.
Dalloway (1925). All the texts, however, are free, available online and
linked to on the discussion board. You DO NOT need to buy any
textbooks.
Some of you have never taken an online course before. Here are three things
to keep in mind as you begin the class.
(1) Online courses, like this one, tend to seem overwhelming at first because
all the information and assignments must be read and scrutinized alone
outside a traditional classroom. There is no one standing in front of you to
give you perspective or fellow students asking questions. Remember, you
can always ask me questions through emails and telephone.
(2) All the assignments requiring html code can be completed quite easily
using systems such as Webbly.com or Wix.com. I understand that you might
be creating web pages for the first time. My purpose is to help you, not grade
you down. Good effort and the willingness to learn will earn "A" grades on
these assignments.
(3) Because online courses lack f2f (face-to-face) contact, it is important we
practice netiquette when communicating with one another. Without body
language (a smile, a nod of the head, etc.), it is easy to be misunderstood.
Basic course requirement:
Students must access the course on at least four days of the online week
from Monday through Sunday. In addition, students must post on the various
discussion boards at least eight times during the week.
Assignments:
Essay One, 50 points
Essay Two, 50 points
Essay Three, 50 points
Alternative Audio, 50 points (Note: this replaces one of the essays)
Discussion, 200 points
Blog, 50 points
Web Page, 50 points
Team Project, 50 points
Final Grade based on 500 points possible:
450-500 A (Excellent); 400-449 B (Good); 350-399 C (Average); 325- 349
D (Below Average); 324 or below F (Failure).
Essays:
Essays should be approximately 800 words, which is roughly three doublespaced typed pages. The essays should argue for an interpretation of one or
more of the texts we read in class, corresponding to the particular time
period we are studying. Essay One will be about a text(s) in The Romantic
Period. Essay Two will be over text(s) in The Victorian Period. Essay Three
will be over text(s) in The Modern Period. You will submit each essay to
Dropbox by the due date listed in the class schedule, which can be found on
the course syllabus. In each essay, you should argue for an interpretation of
one or more texts (a poem, short story, or novel) in the corresponding time
period. You should not use outside sources in your essay. You should not
discuss the author's life. These essays are designed for you to create an
argument about a text(s) and then prove that argument through textual
evidence and logic. Each essay should have its own title. The student's
name should be on the upper left side of the essay's first page. Quotes from
texts do not have to be documented in MLA format, but you can use that
format if you choose. Simply put quotes marks around textual material or
indent ten spaces for longer quotes.
Alternative Audio:
It is important faculty and students create online content for courses using
new technologies.
Consequently, students in this class can replace one
essay assignment with an original mp3 file. In this file, students will either
read a poem or a section of a fiction and then offer a brief interpretation of
the text. These files will be made available on the class Web site.
Have fun
with this assignment. Give a real interpretation of what you think the text
means. Audacity is one of the leading, free recording software sites on the
Internet. PLEASE NOTE: This replaces one of the essays.
Discussion:
Students are required to post at least eight times on the discussion forums a
week during the online week of Monday through Sunday.
Posts should be substantive. Each of the eight posts should be at least oneparagraph long. The posts count even if it is a response to another student.
Students must post in the discussion forums labeled "required" to receive
full discussion points.
Students will be notified of their discussion grade midway through and at the
end of class in a D2L email. Students can email the instructor at anytime to
monitor how they are doing with the assignment.
This discussion assignment is one of the most important in the class and is
worth 200 points.
Blog:
Each student will be required to maintain a blog during the duration of the
class. There are a variety of free, easy-to-use blog services on the Internet,
including Blogger, one of the most popular blogging sites on the Internet.
There are others as well. An excellent open source blog platform, Word
Press, offers a free blogging platform.)
Your tasks are to (1) create your
blog, (2) post at least once a week on a topic related to, our class (a poem, an
author, an interpretation, etc.), and (3) and give me your link so I can list all
the class blogs on the main class site. You must post by midnight Sunday of
each week. You can blog anonymously, but I will have to know who you are
in order to give you credit.
If you already have a blog, just simply send me
your link so I can link to it and then blog once a week over class material
during the time period of the class.
Web Page:
This assignment calls on you to create a web page related to the class
material. The web page must contain the following: text (at least 300 words),
at least one image, and links. As part of your assignment, you will need to
load up your page on a server, such as Weebly.com. You will turn in your
assignment by submitting your URL/web address to me in a D2L
email.
You should use this page as your contribution to the team project.
You should communicate with your team members before you begin this
assignment. I have set-up forums for each team.
Team Project:
Your team project calls on you to create a website with at least one page per
team member. The site must have an overall theme, message, or point
related to the class material and agreed upon by team members. The site can
be practical and viable, or it can be creative and avant-garde, or both! Your
individual web page projects should be related to the team project. The main
page of the project should link to the individual pages. One team member
could, for example, create their page as the site's main page or the team
could create a new page altogether.
You will then send me the URL in a
D2L email.
Please discuss your ideas with your team members and on the
discussion boards. Feel free to ask me any questions.
Grading:
All submitted work will be graded using the following basic weighted
approach: Overall content, 70 percent; writing mechanics, 20 percent;
creativity, 10 percent. All assessments of work will be designed to
improve student performance on future assignments. Late work will be
accepted or not accepted at the discretion of the professor given the
individual circumstances.
Weekly Schedule, Fall 2016, Block Two
As you will see by reading through the schedule, most of the assignments are
due by midnight Sunday of each week. This does NOT mean that you have
to wait until Sunday night to submit your assignments. I encourage you to
submit your assignments before the due date. I made this the weekly
deadline to allow you to budget your own time. In addition, please note that
the first week requires you to (1) post a short bio of yourself on the
appropriate discussion forum in D2L and (2) and set up your blog. It is
important you complete this simple, one-time introductory work as soon as
possible. Remember to use D2L to email me about class business during the
time period of the class.
Week One (October 17-23):
Reading Assignment: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge
Read through the class material thoroughly. By midnight Tuesday, post a
short bio of yourself on the appropriate discussion forum. By midnight
Wednesday, set up your blog and email me your link through D2L. Read the
assigned texts. Post at least eight times on the class discussion forums.
Week Two (October 24-30):
Reading Assignment: Byron, Percy Shelley, Keats
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog.
Week Three (October 31-November 6):
Reading Assignment: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog. By midnight Sunday, submit Essay One.
Week Four (November 7-13):
Reading Assignment: Elizabeth Browing, Tennyson, Arnold, Robert
Browning, Rossetti
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog.
Week Five (November 14-20):
Reading Assignment: Charles Dickens's Great Expectations
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog. By midnight Sunday, submit Essay Two.
Week Six (November 21-27):
Reading Assignment: Yeats, Eliot, Joyce's "The Dead."
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog. By midnight Sunday, submit your Web page assignment.
Week Seven (November 28-December 4):
Reading Assignment: Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway
Access the course at least four days. Post eight times on the class discussion
forums. Read the assigned texts. By midnight Sunday, post once on your
blog.
Week Eight (December 5-11):
Reading Assignment: Auden, Thomas, Larkin
Access the course at least four days. There are no required posts this week.
By midnight Sunday, post once on your blog. By midnight Sunday, submit
Essay Three. By midnight Sunday, submit your Team Project.
Note about Readings
All the texts can be found in The Longman Anthology of British Literature,
Vol. B, except the novels by Shelley, Dickens, and Woolf. Individual poems,
stories and novels will be discussed in the forums under their titles, and I link
to all full texts online. We will discuss the author and their poems, short
stories, or novels in the order given in the below schedule as listed by the last
name of the author. The weekly reading assignments can be found in the
courses learning modules.
Week One:
Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge.
Week Two:
Byron, Percy Shelley, Keats.
Week Three:
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Week Four: Elizabeth Browing, Tennyson, Arnold, Robert Browning,
Rosetti
Week Five:
Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.
Week Six:
Yeats, Eliot, Joyce's "The
Dead."
Week Seven:
Virginia Woolf's Mrs.
Dalloway.
Week Eight:
Catch-up on reading if
needed.
Transformative Learning Outcomes
Transformative learning is a holistic process that places students at the
center of their own active and reflective learning experiences. All students at
the University of Central Oklahoma will have transformative learning
experiences in five core areas: discipline knowledge; leadership; research,
creative and scholarly activities; service learning and civic engagement;
global and cultural competencies; and health and wellness. This course
addresses six of the university's transformative learning goals.
Students enrolled in English 2653 will acquire discipline knowledge by
studying the history and development of British literature in the 19th, 20th
and 20st centuries British literature
demonstrate leadership by defining, developing and presenting major
independent projects demonstrating their mastery of the intellectual content
of the literature course
engage in research and scholarly and creative activities as they review
existing research, scholarship, and creative work within the field known as
literary studies
be encouraged to participate in service learning and civic engagement using
literary activists as one model from which to draw
learn the global and cultural standing of the British literary canon
and exercise their minds by reading, writing and discussing emotional issues
that give human existence meaning and vitality.