LITR 243: Major Author in Children’s and YA Literature: J.K. Rowling (CRN 273)
MWF 9:00-9:50, HECO 126
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Blackboard Posts, House-led Discussions, and Miscellaneous (20%): During the course, you will be required to post 7 original posts to Blackboard discussion boards, one for each novel, plus 14 responses to others’ posts, 2 for each book. For each original post (see the syllabus for the specific deadlines), you will submit a post to the designated discussion board (labeled by the name of the main book or genre being discussed for the Presentations board). You have a couple of options for your posts: you may respond to a question/comment posted in the instructions for the discussion board, or you may come up with your own topic of discussion. Some things to consider discussing about all of the books include character analyses, thematic elements, imagery/symbolism, and other aspects of literary analysis that you have learned in this and other classes. Do not summarize plot or focus on likes or dislikes. You may also choose to respond to something discussed in class, but if you do so, you need to contribute something new to that discussion, not just rehash what was said in class.
I’m looking for a solid paragraph or two of concrete, specific analysis, and I encourage you to reference specific passages in the texts in your analyses. Choose only a single aspect of the text to discuss or your post will be too broad. Use standard academic English (i.e. no emoticons or internet/chat abbreviations) in your posts.
In addition to writing original posts, each week during which an original post is due, you must also write a response to 2 different posts by others. You may not write your original post and your response posts on the same day (though you may do the responses on the same day), so make sure that you return to the discussion board in the designated time to write your responses. Your responses to the posts should engage with the specific topic discussed by the original author. Though you do not have to write as much in your responses as you do in your original posts, you should do more than indicate agreement or disagreement with a point being made. The goal of this assignment is to begin a conversation about the texts.
I will be grading the original and response posts as a group. Posts will be graded on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 = no post; 1-5 = E; 6 = D; 7 = C; 8 = B; 9-10 = A. Flaming posts will earn you an automatic 0 for the post, and a second occurrence of flaming will earn you a 0 for the remainder of this portion of your grade. Grades for the posts will be available on Blackboard. The grammar and mechanics policy will not be applied to the posts; however, excessive errors will have an adverse effect on your post’s grade. Note that you are required to submit all posts each time to receive full marks. If you only submit one post, you will lose 6 points (not counting any points lost for the content of the post); if you submit only 2 posts, you will lose 3 points. If one of the posts is late, you will lose half a point; if all are late, you will lose 1 ½ points. You may submit late posts up to one week late. After one week, you will receive a 0 for the post.
For the House-led Discussions, you will work with your house to lead the class discussion of the designated book (see syllabus for specific dates). How the house chooses to run the class is up to you: you may distribute a list of questions ahead of time for the class to think about; you may pose questions you’ve generated and have the class as a whole respond; you may break the class into groups and assign them questions to answer and then have the whole class discuss them after the groups have worked together for a while. The questions you choose to use are up to you as well. You may continue with some topics the class has already discussed or you may lead us in a new direction. You may also ask the class to read a short article and focus your discussion on it. (I am happy to distribute copies of the article as long as I get them the Monday before your discussion.). I expect all members of the house to participate in some manner in the discussion. The house-led discussions will be graded on a 20-point scale and each member’s participation level will be noted. If your group has any questions, please let me know.
In addition to the Blackboard posts and house-led discussions, I may occasionally assign additional writings or give reading quizzes if I am dissatisfied with the quality of your discussions. These additional works will count as part of this component of your final grade.
Participation (20%): Discussions will form a heavy part of this course, and I expect everyone to be an active and engaged participant. You will be graded, starting on 23 Jan, on how often and well you participate in class discussions, both full class and small group. The grading will be calculated on a 5-point scale each day as follows:
I do not assign 1 point for this grade. I will update you on your participation average several times during the semester, and you may send me a query about your average any time.
Paper (15%): Your first out-of-class project requires you to choose a chapter from the list below and to argue using only that chapter as evidence that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is good art. (Alternately, you may argue that it is bad art.) You must choose one of the following chapters:
As you work on your paper, you will need to define what you mean by “good art” (or “bad art”): is it how Rowling develops character, plots the story, the theme, the pacing, etc.? Once you have established your definition, you must use specific examples from the chapter to demonstrate how the chapter fulfills the definition. You are focusing just on that chapter; the rest of the novel and series should not enter into your discussion.
The paper should be 4-6 pages long. If you want me to look at a rough draft, you must send it to me no later than NOON on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The final draft is due by 5 on Monday, Feb. 18, and should be submitted as a Word or PDF document to the Dropbox on Blackboard.
Major Project (25%): For your major project, you will have several options, and I encourage you to be creative with the project. Here are some possibilities:
Don’t see something you like but have an idea? Come see me, and we’ll see if we can work something out. Please note that if you are a fan-fic writer, you should be submitting something new to me. Regardless of what you choose to do for you major project, you must have some analytical element to it. For the creative options, you must discuss how what you’ve read in the series has led to your creation.
If you want me to look at a rough draft of you project, you must submit it to me by NOON, Wednesday, Apr. 24. The final draft is due by 5 on Monday, Apr. 29.
Final Exam (20%): Your final exam is scheduled for Monday, May 6, from 8:00-10:30. You will write an essay. The exam will be open-note, open-book, and you will be allowed to write it on your laptop or tablet or by hand. The grammar and mechanics policy will not apply to the final exam. I will have more specific information about the exam as it approaches.
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