English III/IVUpward Bound

College of Mount Saint Joseph 11 June – 13 July 2007

P. Jeffers-Coly

Course Description/Overview

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see a young man

who I have had the honor to mentor for six years graduate from IUPUI (Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis). In the next few months, this young man will be preparing to enter the Peace Corps. Prior to finishing his undergraduate studies, he took a semester off from school in order to take his first trip outside of the country to Venezuela, where he spent time negotiating an unfamiliar culture with limited cash and questionable Spanish-speaking skills. His travel plans and recent trip to Caracas, Venezuela speak volumes about the fact that this young man has a very clear sense that he is not simply a resident of Indianapolis. Or the Midwest. Or a native of Washington, DC. Or an American.

Instead, he strongly believes that he is a global citizen, that he must see, engage and broaden his understanding the world. He is committed to seeing himself in a global context outside the confines of the places he has been and lived thus far.

This is my hope for you. That you will begin, if you have not already, to gain a greater sense of the world we live in beyond the boundaries of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio. The world demands that you do. As you well know, our society has become

more multicultural and diverse. And, globally, the historic boundaries that once separated us continue to become more and more porous each and everyday. Thus, we will all be expected to effectively interact with cultures unique and different from our own.

This course, then, is designed to begin to expand your awareness and view of the world outside of the United States. In this course, we will explore texts by and about young people from different cultures.

From a literary perspective, we will examine how each text is constructed by closely reading the author’s rhetorical and stylistic choices. We will discuss the way each author uses various literary devises, style and form to render his/her text. Additionally we will identify the theme of each text and how those themes as well as literary styles compare. And, of course, we will always locate the text within its larger cultural, historical and social context.

And, while you may not like everything text we engage and we will not always share the same interpretations of a text, I am confident that this course will be eye-opening, mind-expanding, and rewarding for each of us.

Course Goals/Objectives

✓ To expand knowledge of issues and concerns facing youth internationally.

✓ To recognize the impact that culture in its various forms has on how an individual’s identity is formed.

✓ To understand the thematic concerns and means of expression of “minority,” immigrant, and international writers.

✓ To understand that literature and other forms of cultural expression can simultaneously reflect and challenge/question/critique/examine political, social, historical and economic realities.

✓ To expand familiarity with and ability to use internet and related technologies beyond social networking sites such as blogs, e-mail, streaming broadcasts, journalistic websites, academic websites, popular search engines, academic databases and file saving apparatus for academic purposes.

✓ To improve fundamental approaches to reading, analyzing, responding to and writing about literature in an academic setting.

Course Expectations

!Your behavior will reflect the rules and regulations as outlined in the student handbook. You are expected to behave in a fashion that allows others to learn and that reflects your desire to learn. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

!Late assignments will not be accepted. You are responsible for saving your work on a working and accessible flash drive. You are also responsible for backing that work up by e-mailing copies of it to yourself in case your flash drive is lost, damaged or stolen.

!Essays are to be properly-formatted: • double-spaced, • paginated beginning on the 2nd page, • typed in 12pt Times Roman font, • properly identified – name, course, assignment title, date • titled appropriately

!Essays are to exhibit sentence fluency; in other words, you will not submit papers filled with disruptive and distracting grammatical or punctuation errors. For assistance with these issues, you are to consult your TA as well as one or both of these on-line writing resources:

Purdue University Online Writing Lab

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Writing about Literature: A Writers Resource Supplement by Diana Hacker http://www.dianahacker.com/rules/pdf/WritingAboutLit-RULES.pdf

As a class, we will address style and rhetorical choices rather than focusing our time and energy on grammatical and punctuation concerns. A grading rubric/evaluation form will be provided for each assignment.