Learning Activities
See Grade Tracks below.
Students who take this online section have done some of the following
activities:
- Read, think, re-read, hypothesize about the reading, re-read, and
write to support your best reasoning about the work read.
- Somewhere between the first reading and the final writing about a
work, students may email the professor, each other, call the professor or
each other with questions or ideas, study sample writings by students or
maybe summaries of professional criticism. In some cases, looking at
videos or DVDs of a work can also help clarify your thinking about the
work.
See the course
calendar for specific tasks.
- Presentations (one is required of each student) may be done
individually or in groups. Individual presentations must be
recorded. Video can be sent in VHS format (not Hi8) or as Real
Player or Windows Media files; audio can be sent on standard cassettes
(not the tiny ones) or as .wav or Real Player or Windows Media files.
The presentation, done around midway through the course, is a form of
take-home midterm; as such, it is an application question: Can you
use the methods of critical thinking and interpretation that you have
learned so far in the course and apply those on your own to a contemporary
work in a non-print medium, usually a movie scene or a song?
presentations
- Other activities can include doing a PowerPoint about a work,
usually to augment the midterm presentation, or making a web page.
Other options, somewhat different from the usual course assignments, are
listed as extra-credit or substitute tasks that may be done at any time
during the semester--but they only count if they merit an A or a B (no
fair tossing off a lot of mediocre work, or worse, to earn a passing grade
for the course).
extra-credit options
The chart below shows that students who wish a top grade must work with
more complex readings for a couple of modules (yellow vs. peach
backgrounds), though everyone does the introductory modules, a spoken
presentation, and a final essay (aqua background). Details for these
modules are linked from the Course Calendar.
| If you wish to earn |
(required of everyone) |
either |
(required of everyone) |
either |
(required of everyone) |
| an A |
do the course tour and
the "Hills" module |
Oedipus or
Antigone or Hamlet |
an oral presentation |
Sonnet 116 and "Birches" |
Final Essay |
| a B or C |
Trifles |
"Gunner" and the "Silken Tent"
quiz |
|
