Reading and Writing the Brooklyn Bridge
ENG2000: Introduction to Literature
Professor Johannah Rodgers
Final Project

PURPOSE

To engage students in a site-specific collaborative research project related to interpreting texts and responding to texts creatively and critically

PROJECT OVERVIEW

We have spent the semester reading texts about Brooklyn in a variety of genres.  We are now going to respond to one of the texts that we have read and respond to the Brooklyn Bridge as “text” by:

1/ Studying the Brooklyn Bridge and what it represents in its current cultural context through collaborative on-site primary research (note-taking, interviewing, journaling, photographing, etc.)

2/ Creating a representation in a medium of your choice reflective of what the bridge represents for you now in its current urban context (writing (creative or expository in genre of your choice), painting, drawing, photography, video, sound, sculpture)

3/ Comparing this representation to other representations of the Brooklyn Bridge that we have read about to consider how our current representations confirm, extend, comment on, erase, or otherwise alter prior representations of the bridge

DELIVERABLES

1. Documentation of your on-site group research
2. Presentation of findings and observations from group research
3. A concrete, concise representation of the bridge that reflects its current cultural status, meaning and context in the medium of your choice (length/size requirements by medium and genre will be forthcoming)
4. A 3-4 page written essay comparing and contrasting your findings about the Bridge with what the bridge represents and how it is represented in ONE of the works that we have read

DUE DATES

TBD:  This assignment will take place over several weeks and drafts of creative and critical projects (#3 and #4 deliverables) will be due one to two weeks prior to final project due dates

GRADING CRITERIA

Grading rubrics will be distributed for each one of the four deliverables for the project.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

•            Retrieve, evaluate, and interpret information from a variety of sources and points of view.
•            Evaluate evidence and arguments critically.
•            Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
•            Identify and apply the fundamental concepts and research methods of a discipline or interdisciplinary field exploring creative expression, including, but not limited to, communications, creative writing, media arts, music, and theater.
•            Analyze how arts of the past serve as a foundation for those of the present
•            Articulate how meaning is created in the arts or communications and how experience is interpreted and conveyed.
•            Use appropriate technologies to conduct research and to communicate