PRAIRIE VIEW A&M UNIVERSITY
Department of Languages and Communications

SPRING 2008

ENGLISH 5343-001: CREATIVE WRITING: GENRES, TUESDAYS 5-7:50 P.M. (DR. KIRSCHTEN)

COURSE GOALS:

1. Students produce substantial work in various methods in three basic literary forms-poetry, narrative,
drama---thus exploring which best suits their creative skills and to understand how each operates by means of its construction.

2. Students edit and produce a class literary magazine to see how literary journals are constructed.

3. Students perform their work, especially drama, to gauge audience reaction and to develop skills in emotional presentation.

4. Students pay special attention on how to teach these literary methods.

5. Students will peer edit throughout, focusing on the process of rewriting and respectful commentary.

6. Students are introduced to digital media to produce poetry video.

TEXTS:

Williams Miller, Screenwriting for Film and Television                                                                

Handouts from screenplays: His Girl Friday, Some Like It Hot, Moonstruck

Poems and Shorts Stories: Ammons, Dickey, Masters, Shakespeare,

Poe, Faulkner, Frost, Moore, Browning, Ellison...

ENGLISH 5403-001: AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, Thursdays 5-7:50 p.m. (Dr. Mathison)

This course will explore African American literature, concentratiing on literature from the Halem                 Renaissance to the present. Students will become familiar with major events that shaped African American
literature, and discuss the major debates, history, politics, economics that have shaped the literature. The focus of the class will be on close readings of primary texts, but these texts will be supplemented with secondary critical readings.

Required Texts:

The Norton Anthology of African American literature.                                                                     

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God                                                                    

Ernest J. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men                                                                                

(Secondary Material as handouts)

Grading Policy:

Two Exams: Midterm and Final

One long research paper on a text read in class

ENGLISH 5053-001: STUDIES ON TEACHING ENGLISH, Wednesdays 5-7:50 p.m. (Dr. Scott)

This course will provide an intensive study of some theoretical and pedagogical implications of English Studies. Some specific topics that we will cover are making assignments, responding to student writing, understanding the composition/literature polemic, developing alternative curricular designs, grading, teaching features of the writing process, overcoming student resistance, incorporating technology, and embracing and improving the literary skills of People of Color (POC) and English as a Second languages
(ESL) learners.

We will make use of the following texts (which you should purchase before the first week of classes for a combine total of $150.00 or less).

TEXTS:

Judith H. Anderson and Christine R. Farris's Integrating Literature and Writing

Instruction: First-Year English, Humanities Core Courses, Seminars Chris M. Anson et al.'s Scenarios for Teaching Writing: Contexts for Discussion and Reflective Practice Linda S. Bermann and Edith Baker's Composition and/or literature: The End(s) of Education Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children: Cultural Conflicts in the Classroom Joseph Harris's A Teaching Subject: Composition Since 1966 Teresa Redd's A Teacher Introduction to African American English: What a Writing Teacher Should Know Richard Straub's A Sourcebook for Responding to Student Writing

Is this course for you? IT Probably is if at least on of the following applies: