New York City College of Technology
English Department

ENG2200: American Literature I
Dr. Williams
NAMM 503
Office Hours: Wed 4-6pm

Schedule:

Week 1: Welcome, course design, expectations. Reading: Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” pg. 9

Week 2: Discuss “Self-Reliance.” Reading: Emerson’s “The American Scholar” (online) and Thomas Paine’s “The Age of Reason,”pg. 306. Response Paper 1: Transcendentalism.

Week 3: Twain’s “The Lowest Animal,” pg. 199. Response Paper 2: Deism.

Week 4: Exam 1. Read Chopin, I-XX.

Week 5: Discussion. Response Paper 3: The Napoleonic Code.  Small groups.

Week 6: Chopin XXI-XX. Response Paper 4: Evolution of American Feminism. Small group Discussion.

Week 7: Conclude Chopin

Week 8: Exam 2. Read Chesnutt I-XV

Week 9: Chesnutt XVI-XXII. Response Paper 5: Emancipation Proclamation and Lynch Laws. Small group Discussion.

Week 10: Chesnutt XXIII-XXX. Passing. Small group discussion.

Week 10: Film: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Week 11: Exam 3. Read Norris I-XX.  Research Paper.

Week 12: Holiday

Week 13: Discussion. XI-conclusion. Response Paper 6: Abstract Due on Open Lab

Week 14: Conclude Norris and discuss papers

Week 15: Final Exam, Research Paper due (MUST SUBMIT ON OPENLAB)

 

Note: Depending on the pace of our discussions, this schedule of assignments may change. As such, attendance is essential to staying on track.

Objectives, Activities, Assessment

Instructional Objectives: For the successful completion of this course, students should be able to do the following: Instructional Activities Assessment: Evaluation methods and criteria
Define and discuss evolution of the period—historically, traditionally, and currently. Class, group
Discussion of readings, films.
Researched response papers. Exams, response papers, and topic included in final research paper
Participation in group work.

Understand the development of genre. Examine historically impacting philosophical and religious essays that changed the country’s development. Look at authors’ missions through philosophical and theoretical lenses. Class, group
Discussion of literature, film
Researched response papers. Exams, response papers, and topic included in final research paper

Participation in group work.
Analyze, define, and contextualize readings from around the world. Discuss differences in the writings based on global laws and continuing oppression. Examine the societies and the writer’s place within the historical time. Look at the fictive world and examine the social history. Class, group
Discussion of literature, news articles, social media
Researched response papers. Exams, response papers, and topic included in final research paper
Open Lab
Participation in group work.
Look closely at racial oppression and voice. Discuss the Black enslavement and womanist movements. Class differences. Violence. Discussion of literature, current events, film
Individual and group analysis of texts
Researched response papers.
Exams, response papers, and topic included in final research paper
Participation in group work.
Open Lab
Discuss women as writers. Fame and infamy. Physical dominance over women. Misogyny.
Discussion of literature, historical events, news
Exams, response papers, and topic included in final research paper
Open Lab

Gather, interpret, and evaluate research from a variety of sources for the completion of response papers and a final research paper. Understand the historical and socially relatable Global lens to this vastly layered genre. Writing and research-based lectures and assignments

Exams
Independent research Response papers
Research paper
Online and library investigation
Develop critical thinking, reading skills, research, and effective writing strategies that analyze and respond to course texts and topics in both written and oral forms. Navigating online sources. Individual and group analysis of texts
Researched response papers.

Assignments in reading, writing.
Assigned topics for online and library research
Response papers
Research paper
Assess participation
Open Lab
Draft and revise for content, organization, MLA style, clarity, and argument. Abstract for final Research paper
Grammar direction Written feedback

Open Lab