tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post7564325943450361932..comments2023-12-20T17:48:18.108-05:00Comments on To Delight and to Instruct: Rocking the Gateway CourseHoracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15662740021328265642noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post-67520205295797692007-09-16T10:15:00.000-04:002007-09-16T10:15:00.000-04:00We do a course here that tries to get students to ...We do a course here that tries to get students to think about texts of all sorts. Most of us base the course in a rhetoric of popular culture text, and then maybe use something like *TextBook* along with reading a variety of texts.<BR/><BR/>My students do assignments on reading a mall or campus space, reading a web page, storytelling, a couple "traditional" literary texts, and a couple movies. Their culminating assignment asks them to think about representing themselves through a variety of texts in their lives.<BR/><BR/>The course is required for all our English major emphases, and seems to work well to give them a common vocabulary about texts and rhetoric, and set them up for the theory class (also required of all). It also starts them having a sense of community as English majors.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post-91266277062387560662007-09-11T18:16:00.000-04:002007-09-11T18:16:00.000-04:00Is the assumption that it is a gateway course to t...Is the assumption that it is a gateway course to the study of literature, or is the study of writing and rhetoric also included? You can probably guess what I see as missing based on that question.k8https://www.blogger.com/profile/07547334819703279971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post-53888874769150412952007-09-09T00:28:00.000-04:002007-09-09T00:28:00.000-04:00We do a 1.5-credit-hour freshman seminar required ...We do a 1.5-credit-hour freshman seminar required of all entering majors (yes, our first-years have to declare a major and stick with it to qualify for the "four years and out" promise we make). Runs about half a semester. Here's my <A HREF="http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl106s06/" REL="nofollow">first try at it</A>--try #2 coming in the spring.<BR/><BR/>Our gateway course as you describe it is Critical Reading, which I've taught a <A HREF="http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/crit.htm" REL="nofollow">bunch of times</A>.The Constructivisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07242149985581771922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post-85430313819670439452007-09-08T11:03:00.000-04:002007-09-08T11:03:00.000-04:00My undergrad English department organized this rea...My undergrad English department organized this really well, I think. Each faculty member designed a threeish-week-long unit for the required course, so the department had this big cache of well-designed lessons from which whoever was teaching the gateway could choose, say six or seven. Lots of variety in terms of method, period, theoretical emphases, lots of room for the person teaching it to maneuver, lots of different things for students to experience. You end up with weird progressions, like <I>Othello</I> next to Angela Carter next to Northrop Frye, but that's part of what's great about the system.<BR/><BR/>Don't know how well it would work at a big uni, with more folks designing lessons, but it's an idea.moriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12390704103460109691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36486960.post-78052364746490481022007-09-08T00:20:00.000-04:002007-09-08T00:20:00.000-04:00I sent you a thing. Well, an email actually. I hav...I sent you a thing. Well, an email actually. I have suggestions, but no ideas for rocking it out. <BR/><BR/>Ooh, 'cept maybe --- my ex did a course with a huge library component and took them in multiple times to special collections, where they got to see how books were made and bound and touch some famous old stuff. (well not that famous.) <BR/><BR/>I don't know if the _students_ were excited but the librarians _loved_ him.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.com