ENGL410 in January 2014

If you’re a student in my English 410 (Elizabethan Poetry & Prose) class in Winter 2014, here’s what you need to know.

I’m away for the next two weeks, so the first three classes (January 9, 14, and 16) are replaced by these three podcasts of me reading Sir Philip Sidney’s The Defence of Poesy. Listen to them while you read along to the text in this anthology.

I’ve recorded this not only because I’m away, but because most of the content-delivery (i.e. readings like this) in 410 will be outside of class, so we can free up time in class for interactive discussions and other stuff than can only happen when like-minded people are in a room together. See here for more details on this ‘flipped classroom’ model. This model means you have to do your homework so we’re all on the same page — literally, that is.

Our first class (in SS012) is on Tuesday, 21 January, at 11:00. The day before, at the latest, I should be able to circulate an approved course outline and reading schedule — both here and to our D2L (Desire2Learn) page. (I would do it now, but that’s not allowed.) I can tell you some of the key information, though:

• You’ll be proposing your own due dates for assignments in this course, in something called a Writing Contract. But there are two key dates to know about. Nothing can be due later than March 21st, and your Writing Contract itself is due on January 28th. So review your other course deadlines now, and think about how to time your work effectively.
• The final exam will be a take-home, due in late April.
• We’re using Desire2Learn, not Blackboard, for this course. It’s going to take some getting used to for all of us, but with these resources and a little patience, we’ll do just fine. If you’re reading this, then I managed to figure out how to e-mail the whole class.
• We have just two textbooks for this course, a poetry anthology and a criticism anthology. They’re in the bookstore, or look somewhere like herefor used copies.
  • Read Sidney’s Defence of Poesy in the criticism anthology as you listen to the podcast.
  • Read pages 1-12 in the poetry anthology (from the introduction) for January 21st, and Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece in the same anthology (pages 296-303) for January 23rd.
• Your participation grade in 410 will be self-reported. It can include any combination of the following (or other) forms of engagement with the course material:
  • In-class attendance and questions
  • Posts on the course blog, and comments on other people’s posts — e.g. a review of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at MRU in February
  • Tweets using the #engl410 hashtag
  • E-mails asking me questions, pursuing ideas raised in class, about the readings, etc.
  • Writing or editing a Wikipedia article on any course-related subject/text
  • Meetings in my office hours, or other scheduled appointments
  • Posts in, and replies to, the discussion boards on Desire2Learn
  • Reviews of any movie even remotely related to our texts/authors and their historical period — including the “Elizabeth I” (2006) film on reserve in the TFDL, for end of March.

See you on the 21st.