Doug, it is always, as you say, a choice between trying to be comprehensive
& giving students a chance to dig in deeply. In my case the decision was
made based largely on the sort of students I have at Clarkson. Even though
this is an upper-division (jr / sr) course, it has both majors and non-major
in it. What 20th century lit they've read has been mostly prose. So my
choice was to try to sketch in the landscape for them, establish the
landmarks, so that they would be prepared, if they wish, to explore further
& spend more time in one place. It is, consequently, a fairly standard, even
conservative, syllabus.
jd
On Jan 18, 2008 11:40 AM, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Intriguing posts, Joe. I was interested in your course outline, as
> someone who over the years came to want fewer poets & more poems by
> those I chose to present (then sent students off to read others for
> their papers). I also had the class presentations on a particularly
> famous volume by one of the poets being taken up in the class. That
> often proved interesting (always, as usual, depending on how 'into it'
> the presenters got).
>
> It's a hard choice, either way can work. In my CanLit classes near the
> end, I only included a couple of books of poetry, along with the
> novels, & the collection of Alice Munro's short stories.
>
> Let us know how that poetry ploy works with the 15 year olds, eh.
>
> Doug
> On 18-Jan-08, at 9:24 AM, Joseph Duemer wrote:
>
> > - Winter birds
> >
> >
> > - Teaching poetry to fifteen year olds
> >
> >
> > - Tillie Olsen film (via A Practical Policy)
> >
> >
> > - Blogging the Bach suites for unaccompanied cello & trying to catch
> > up with Jonathan Mayhew
> >
> >
> > - Etc.
> >
> >
> > http://sharpsand.net
> >
> > --
> > Joseph Duemer
> > Professor of Humanities
> > Clarkson University
> > [sharpsand.net]
> >
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ <http://www.ualberta.ca/%7Edbarbour/>
>
> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>
> Nothing I'd read
> prepared me for a body this unfair.
>
> John Newlove
>
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
|