Donald Wolff

Office Hours:  MW 10-12, T 1-3; and by appointment.

Office Phone:  (541) 962-3527  Office:  LH153

Email:  dwolff@eou.edu

Course will meet in LH 116, M-W 8:00am — 9:50pm.

ENGL 201:  Shakespeare

CRN:  92756-S10

This syllabus subject to minor changes during the term.

Required Texts:

Shakespeare, William.  The Riverside Shakespeare.  2nd ed.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin, 1997.  [ISBN:  0-395-75490-9]

 Hill, Wayne F. and Cynthia J. Öttchen.  Shakespeare’s Insults: Educating Your Wit.  Cambridge, UK:  Mainsail, 1991.  [ISBN:  0-9518684-0-3]

Catalog Description: 

ENGL 201- Shakespeare*AEH Credits: 4.00

Gen Ed Core-Aesthetics & Humanities

Study of selected comedies, tragedies, and historical plays.

Prerequisite: WR 121 or 131, any 100-level English course and sophomore standing.

General Education Category and Outcomes:  Aesthetics and Humanities

Content Knowledge.  Demonstrate increased vocabulary, content, and conceptual knowledge in a breadth requirement.

• Consistently and accurately uses key concepts, themes,  and vocabulary in a given discipline
• Consistently and accurately identifies and describes issues and ideas within a given discipline.

Means of Assessment:  Study Guides require accurate use of ideas, concepts, vocabulary and themes from Shakespeare study.

Inquiry.  Demonstrate the ability to employ approaches to inquiry from a variety of disciplines

• Inquiry emanates from a problem of interest to the student that can results in deeper knowledge or understanding
• Inquiry has a well-conceived methodology appropriate to the discipline leading to a conclusion based on the data
• Inquiry demonstrates appropriate use of technology
• Inquiry is connected to relevant research and expertise

Means of Assessment:  Study Guides, Insult Exercises, and the Final all require inquiry modes appropriate to the study of Shakespeare, including but not limited to extensions of personal interest in the subject.

 
GEC BREADTH OUTCOMES (AEH)
 
Demonstrate an appreciation for aesthetic expressions of humanity and the ability to analyze texts. (AEH)

• Demonstrates appreciation for aesthetic expressions of humanity, especially the history of such expressions across cultures, genres, and social contexts.
• Demonstrates the ability to analyze texts—written oral and visual.
• Employs critical and evaluative analysis, synthesizes ideas and points of view, and explores ideas in depth.
• Analyzes the rhetorical purposes of addressing diverse audiences, subjects, occasions, and purposes.

Means of Assessment:  Study Guides, Insult Exercises, and the Final all  require students to demonstrate their growing understanding of aesthetics and its relation to a specific historical epoch (Renaissance England) through the literary analysis (close reading) of key Shakespearean texts.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: ENGL 201 will focus on the literary, social, and aesthetic dimensions of five Shakespeare plays and The Sonnets, with brief forays into five additional plays through Insult Exercises.  The Study Guides will direct the ensuing class discussion, which should expand our understanding of each play and enable us to extend our understanding to other texts we’ve read and seen (Shakespeare on film or in our own Eastern Theatre production), as well as to the social context in which the plays were written, and to our own personal experience with the themes and inter-personal dynamics the plays present for our consideration.  A rubric will be provided for the Study Guides.  The Insult Exercises will require a brief summary of a play we don’t treat in class, as well as the use of insults from this additional play to craft a contemporary response to a theme.  The exercises will be based on our secondary text, Shakespeare’s Insults: Educating Your Wit.  Insult Exercises can be crafted by a single student, a pair of students, or a group of three students.  The resulting script will be presented/performed in class.  The Final will require each student to recite with expression one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.  The student will then provide a paraphrase of the sonnet, then a close reading, then indicate why the student selected the sonnet and, finally, how the sonnet relates to the plays and their ideas, concepts, and themes, as we have discussed during the term.  The sonnet recitation will require a more or less dramatic presentation of the selected sonnet, meaning that it is expected students will recite their sonnets with expression, which requires some practice outside of class in reading aloud with expression and fluency.  A rubric for the Sonnet Recitation (the course Final) will be provided. 

ENGL 201 Course Outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to

• read with facility and understand Shakespeare’s dramatic poetry in Early Modern English.  (Method of assessment:  Close reading of speeches; Insult Exercises.)
• paraphrase accurately any Shakespearean speech.  (Method of assessment:  Study Guides, Insult Exercises, and the Final all require close reading of speeches.)
• discuss the poetic and rhetorical devices and strategies of any Shakespearean speech.  (Method of assessment:  Study Guides require analysis of speeches.)
• discuss Shakespeare’s genres of tragedy, comedy, and the problem play.  (Method of assessment: Most Study Guides require such analysis.)
• read a contemporary piece of Shakespearean criticism or a related critical text from Shakespeare’s time and discuss its connection to issues represented in a given play.  (Method of assessment:  Some Study Guides require such analysis.)
• understand the power of character in terms of personal dilemma and character interaction in Shakespeare’s plays.  (Method of assessment: Most Study Guides require such analysis.)
• address the enduring power and popularity of Shakespeare’s plays.  (Method of assessment: Class Discussion, Study Guide responses, Insult Exercises, and Final Recitation.)

UWR Writing Intensive Outcomes:

• Students will produce at least 3,000 words (including drafts, in-class writing, informal papers, and polished papers); 1,000 words of this total should be in polished papers which students have revised after receiving feedback and criticism. 

Means of Assessment:  Students will begin to compose 20 Study Guides and 5 Insult Exercises in class and then revise and polish them for submission the following class period. 

• Students will be introduced to the discourse forms appropriate to the discipline the course represents. 

Means of Assessment:  Students will write 20 Study Guides in which they are introduced to the typical issues, forms, and formats of literary analysis associated with the study of Shakespeare. 

• Students will write at least one paper integrating information from at least one source, employing the appropriate documentation style for the discipline represented by the course. 

Means of Assessment:  Several of the Study Guides will require the integration of outside sources and most will require some form of MLA documentation, if only for identifying passages from Shakespeare’s plays.

• Students will draft, revise, and edit their formal written work. 

Means of Assessment:  Students will begin to compose 20 Study Guides and 5 Insult Exercises in class and then revise and polish them for submission the following class period. 

• Students will seek assistance from a Peer Writing Assistant in the Writing Lab when needed and when referred by the instructor.

Means of Assessment:  Students are encouraged to get feedback from the instructor on their Study Guides, particularly if they are having trouble with the assignments; students with a pattern of scores of  14 (C-) or below on assignments must review the assignments with the instructor and then are encouraged to work on drafts of future work with the help of a Peer Writing Assistant or the instructor.  We will try to draft Study Guides in class.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS.

Reading and Writing.  English 201 is a writing intensive and reading intensive course.  Students are expected to come to class having read and re-read the assigned material from Shakespeare.  Writing requirements consist of 20 Study Guides, which may not be handed in late or early.  Study Guides are usually drafted during the first 10-15 minutes of class and then revised, edited, typed, and turned in first thing the next class period.  Revised, typed Study Guides are due in the first five minutes of the next class period; they may not be turned in before class.  Study Guides are worth 20 points each (for a total of 400 points). The same method will be applied to the Insult Exercises.  Grading scales are provided below.  Students must meet with the instructor if they establish a pattern of receiving 14 or below on the Study Guides; they will then be encouraged to work on drafts with the instructor or a Peer Writing Assistant.  It is the responsibility of the student to follow through on such recommendations.  All students are encouraged to see the instructor if they have any questions about their grades or course material.  All assignments will be posted in our Blackboard site; all grades will be posted on the Blackboard Gradebook.  The final consists of an expressive oral recitation of a sonnet, introduced by a paraphrase and close reading of the sonnet and then an explanation of why the student chose that particular sonnet.  The presentation will end with an explanation of the connections between the sonnet and any of Shakespeare’s ideas, themes, and use of language discussed during the term. (This final recitation and the Insult Exercises are the clearest examples of the Inquiry outcome in this course).  Extra credit is available for writing a review of Eastern’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, performed on campus May 19 - 22.  

GRADING AND STANDARDS:  Your final grade will be based on successful completion of assignments.   Each Study Guide is worth 20 points, for a total of 400.  The Study Guides should be written in formal academic prose:  Use complete sentences; write solid, well-focused, well-developed and coherent interpretive paragraphs; employ precise language; edit carefully; use MLA documentation.  (I will provide a model and a rubric.)  I do not expect you to write perfectly but I will look closely to see that you are writing clear sentences and have edited carefully.  The Insult Exercises are worth 20 points each, for a total of 100 points.  The Final will be graded on the clarity of the introduction to the sonnet and the expressive power with which the sonnet is presented, as well as its intellectual treatment of the sonnet’s theme and the clarity of the connections made between the sonnet and the plays we’ve discussed.  The final is worth 100 points. 

Extra Credit.  The extra credit assignment is worth 20 points.  The assignment requires the viewing of Eastern’s production of Much Ado about Nothing in May.  The assignment is then to write a formal review of the play (500 words), analyzing its production values (scenery, acting, directing, costuming, lighting) and an analysis of the way these production values served to interpret the theme(s) of the play.  The analysis should also include a personal response, elucidating the way seeing the play performed helped you to understand it better, led you to new insights about it.

Shakespeare Study Guide and Insult Exercise Grading Scale

        20-19 = A

        18    = A-

        17    = B

        16    = B-  

        15    = C

        14    = C-

        13    = D

        12    = D-

    11- 5    = F

0 = Work Not Turned In or Not Turned in On Time (also counts as an "F," but much harder to make up with subsequent grades—avoid at all costs!)

(Fine Print:  Study Guides (but not Extra Credit or Insult Exercise Assignments or the Final) can be made up if you or your children are very sick, if you obtain my permission to hand your work in late.  You must obtain that permission before your work is due.  Athletes or those participating in college-sponsored extracurricular activities who will be absent for a class because of competition or other obligations must make prior arrangements with me to get their work in on time.   Almost no other excuses are accepted.   Be careful:  0s are almost impossible to make up and you can get a 0 simply for not handing in your work on time (during the first 5 minutes of class).   With just a couple of 0s on a number of assignments, your grade begins to fall precipitously.  This course rewards consistency of effort.  In the past students with D and F averages for coursework—due mostly from not turning it in—tried raising their grades by acing the rest of their assignments and the final.  That didn’t work very well.  Late papers are treated as failures to turn in the assignment on time; they receive a score of 0.  You are encouraged to seek tutorial assistance from me or in the Writing Lab if you are encountering difficulties.  Just be professional and you’ll avoid all serious problems.)

Shakespeare Grading Scale for Final

      100 - 95 = A

       94 - 90 = A -

       89 – 86 = B+

       85 =  B

       84 – 80 = B-

       79 – 76 = C+

       75 =  C

       74 – 70 = C-

       69 – 66 = D+

       65 =  D

       64 – 60 = D-

       59 - 50 = F

        0 = Missed the final!  Yikes!

Final Course Grade:  At the end of the course your points will be totaled to determine your Final Grade.  See the scale below.  There are 600 points possible (plus any extra credit points).  I don’t round up.  You can see your scores at any time by looking in the Blackboard shell for this course.

ENGL 201 Grading Scale (Final Grades)

600 - 576 = A

575 - 540 = A-

539 - 516 = B+

515 - 510 = B

509 - 480 = B-

479 - 456 = C+

455 - 450 = C

449 - 420 = C-

419 - 396 = D+

395 - 390 = D

389 - 360 = D-

359 -     0 = F

What I’m Looking For:  Study Guide final drafts will be graded on formal qualities (organization and focus, clarity, grammatical correctness), in addition to their accuracy, intellectual content, and the quality of literary analysis. Often a fully developed, coherent paragraph of 10-12 sentences will suffice for each interpretive paragraph, although students who do “A” work often write more than that (they often use several well-developed paragraphs).  You may type Study Guides single-spaced right onto the downloaded questions from Blackboard (although you may want to write out a rough draft first) or you may retype (or cut and paste) the prompt or question and respond.  Be sure to include any direct quotations from the plays that are included in the Study Guide prompt.  Responses to the Study Guide questions should be in paragraph or short essay form.

I should point out that the paragraphs you need to write in response to the questions I ask on the Study Guides usually have to be at least 10-12 sentences long.  Those who do best often write even a little more than that, taking 250-500 words to respond to a prompt and provide a complete interpretation.  (There are two Study Guides due each week, plus an Insult Exercise every other week.)  There is nothing magical about length, of course, but it is difficult to explore the complex matters we will address in short paragraphs of only three to five sentences.  The objective is to demonstrate how well you understand the concepts we cover and relate them to your experience, whether personal or textual or both.  In short paragraphs, students often simply point out an idea from lectures or class discussion, without exploring it in any depth, which fails to demonstrate the student’s depth of understanding. I will provide a model and a rubric for the Study Guides; I will provide models for the Insult Exercises; I am happy to help anyone having trouble responding to the prompts.

Documentation:  When paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting, you must employ signal phrases and MLA in-text citation format.  You should review those formats in a grammar handbook like Hacker’s The Bedford Handbook; I will also provide a model of a Study Guide. When doing Study Guides you MUST include proper in-text citation for quoting from Shakespeare’s plays.  I will provide a guide for proper citation of a Shakespeare play.  If you just follow it closely, you will do fine. 

Plagiarism:  Since we all have the same Shakespeare textbook, you do not have to provide a Works Cited list on your Study Guides, unless you use an outside source (that I have not provided for you).  Failure to acknowledge an outside source or the use of someone else’s words will be treated as plagiarism and that assignment will be given a 0.  (It takes me less than 30 seconds to find a plagiarized text on the internet; I am required to report all cases of plagiarism to the Dean of Students.)  Instead of plagiarizing, just come and see me and I’ll help you write your papers or you can work with a Peer Writing Assistant in the Writing Lab.

Grading Disclaimer. I require a lot of written work in this class and try to respond to it in a timely fashion; however, you should not expect graded work to be returned before one week.  You will be writing three to five pages a week; I will be grading 60 -100 pages a week, 600-1000 pages for the quarter, for this one class.  In order to do this, everything has to run smoothly.  I will make every effort to return your Study Guides the next class period. That means your papers should come back within a week.  Occasionally, I may get behind.  I hope you will be reasonable in your expectations.  Unfortunately, my responding to your writing with alacrity reinforces the expectation of a quick turnaround. But constant questions about when the papers will be handed back makes me grouchy and that's not good for when I do get around to looking at your work.  If there is a delay, there is usually a good reason, so try to be patient.  Actually, I can’t afford to get behind anymore than you can.

All assignments will be posted in our Blackboard site.

Addenda

Disclaimer: 

Class schedule, syllabus, and assignments may be altered during the course of the term as needed.

Statement on Academic Misconduct:

Eastern Oregon University places a high value upon the integrity of its student scholars.  Any student found guilty of an act of academic misconduct (including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, or theft of an examination or supplies) may be subject to having his or her grade reduced in the course in question, being placed on probation or suspended from the university, or being expelled from the university—or a combination of these.  (Please see the Students’ Academic Honesty Code at http://www2.eou.edu/saffairs/handbook/honest.html).

Accommodations for Disabilities:

If you have a documented disability or suspect that you have a learning problem and need reasonable accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Program in Loso Hall 234.  Telephone:  962-3081.

Schedule: