Whenever I work on a syllabus, I always have some amorphous idea for a theme and for the texts I want to use in the course. For introductory composition courses where the goal is to teach students to write argumentative essays and move towards the incorporation of sources into their work, I always structure the course around personal narratives because, for me, starting by … Read More Personal Memoir Syllabus
Over the past few days, I’ve had to pull together a literature and composition course for the fall semester. As I thought about the course, I moved from Appalachian literature with writers such as Crystal Wilkinson, David Joy, and S.A. Cosby to mystery novels with Cosby and others to my already planned “The Reverberations of World War II” syllabus for a more introductory course. … Read More “Who Watches Superheroes?” Syllabus
Since childhood, I’d been fed the constant patriotic narrative of World War II, imbibing the events in which the United States had direct involvement from Pearl Harbor to D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and more. I never really veered from those stories until I started looking deeper into World War II a few years ago, specifically the connections between Jim Crow and the … Read More The Reverberations of World War II Syllabus
Over the past few years, I have thought about various iterations of a Civil Rights memoir course. One example of this is the “Civil Rights Memoir” syllabus I posted about a year ago. Each of these syllabi seek to move students beyond thinking about the movement merely in relation to the “nine-word problem.” As I thought about this course more, I decided to focus it on … Read More Women In the Civil Rights Movement Memoir Syllabus
+ alice walker, banned books, carmen maria machado, ernest j gaines, martin luther king, jr, syllabus, toni morrison
Book bans and challenges are nothing new; however, over the past few years, with the rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation and “anti-woke” rhetoric that has led to various bills against the teaching of “divisive concepts,” these bans and challenges have increased dramatically. Of course, as PEN American points out, “Black and LGBTQ+ authors and books about race, racism, and LGBTQ identities have been disproportionately affected … Read More Banned Books Syllabus
Interminable Rambling 