ELIT 294 -11: Special Topics: Harry Potter (CRN 75)
M-R 10:10-12:10, SCHU 210

 Home -- Policy Statement -- Syllabus -- Assignments -- Angel -- Research Links

For this class you have 4 assignments: Angel postings, an article response, a presentation, and a final paper. All written assignments must be typed, and all need to be in MLA format. Each assignment is weighted as indicated in parentheses.

Angel Postings and Miscellaneous (25%): You will be required to log onto Angel, the course management program, and write 9 posts in the Harry Potter Discussion Board during the course. Posts are due by midnight on each day indicated on your syllabus, starting Thursday, 29 May. You have several options for your posts: you may respond to something that was discussed in class; you may write about a topic listed in the directions for the discussion board; you may respond to a classmate’s comments or to an article you read; 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 other classes. You are welcome to compare the books in the series, but you are not to summarize plot or discuss pedagogical issues.

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. Use standard academic English (i.e. no emoticons or internet/chat abbreviations) in your posts. 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. Note that you may post more than the required 9 times (and I encourage you to do so). Grades for the posts will be available on Angel. 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.

In addition to the Angel posting, I may occasionally assign additional in-class writings or give quizzes if I am dissatisfied with the quality of class discussions. These additional works will count as part of this component of your final grade.

Article Response (15%): For this assignment, you will read a critical journal essay (or an article published in a book) that is at least 5 pages long about the Harry Potter series and write a response to it in which you 1) give a short, 1-paragraph summary of the argument; and 2) discuss the positive and negative aspects of the author’s claims. You may choose any journal article about Harry Potter (or an article that is about a larger topic and contains an analysis of Harry Potter). The article does not have to discuss the entire series, though it may. Please note that you may not choose a book review as your article. I have placed several books that have articles about Harry Potter in them on reserve; I have also posted several articles on Angel (in the Articles folder under lessons) to choose from. You may also search for a different article if you are not interested in the ones supplied (and there are many more articles available for this topic).

Your response should be 2-3 pages long, in MLA format, and you should include an MLA citation of the article at the end of the response in a Work Cited section (it does not need to be on a separate page). Your goal is to analyze the author’s approach to Harry Potter. Questions to keep in mind as you’re reading the article and preparing your response include: What is the author’s thesis (i.e. main argument)? What books are being analyzed to formulate the argument? Is the textual evidence supplied by the author adequate to prove his/her point? Do you see any holes in the argument? Was there anything in the texts overlooked in the creation of the argument? Is there additional evidence to support the claim that the author overlooked?

Proofread your work carefully, for the grammar and mechanics policy will be applied to this assignment. You may submit the response in a hard copy or by e-mail attachment (use Word or Rich Text Format). The response is due on Friday, 6 June, by 5:00.

Presentation (30%): For this assignment, you will be required to choose an aspect of the Harry Potter series to research and present to the class. The presentation should last between 15 and 20 minutes. You can approach the presentation in a couple of manners:

• You may give a formal accounting of your research to the class and talk about where you stand on the topic in relation to the research you’ve found.
• You may lead a class discussion on the topic in which you get the class talking about the issue you’ve chosen. If you choose this aspect, you will still need to demonstrate your understanding of the resources you’ve found.
• You may use a combination of formal presentation and class discussion.

Regardless of which method you choose for presenting your material, you will be required to submit an annotated list of at least 5 secondary sources that you read as you prepared your presentation. These sources can be specifically about Harry Potter or they can be about the topic in general (i.e. if you choose consumerism, you may want to locate a source that addresses consumerism in literature in general, or in children’s literature, as well as resources that deal with consumerism in the Harry Potter series; similarly, if you chose an theoretical stance, such as queer theory or archetypal criticism, for your approach, you might want to find discussions of that theory and how to apply it.). Your annotations should be a couple of sentences long and just summarize the contents of the source. Citations should be in MLA format. During your presentation, you should try to make reference to the specific sources you read as you present the materials and/or lead the discussion.

There are a wide variety of topics that you may choose from including, but not limited to, the following list:

Do not feel limited to any of these topics. If there is some other aspect of Harry Potter that interests you, please propose that topic. Everyone in the class will need to present on a different topic, so have a couple of topics in mind when you come to class on Wednesday, 28 May, which is when you will sign up for your topic and dates for the presentations will be assigned. Presentations will take place on 11, 12, 16, and 17 June.

Because time is limited for the class, you will need to get started quickly on your research, and I recommend that you use one of the resources for this project as your article for the Article Response assignment.

Final Paper (30%): For this assignment, you will choose one of several prompts that I distribute on Monday, 16 June. The essay about this prompt will be due on Monday, 30 June in class, and we will spend that class discussing your papers and final thoughts about the Harry Potter series.

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