Summer C Term, 2008

Class meets MTWR 3:30-5:30 PM in Owens 202

(available at the Bookworm or you may use your own copies):

T. H. White, The Once and Future King, bk. 1: The Sword in the Stone (complete by June 25)
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays  (complete by July 1)

selections from

J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) [SS]
---, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) {CS]
---, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) {PA]
---, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) [GF]
---, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) {OP]
---, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)  [HB]
---, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) [DH]

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the literary genre of fiction
2. Students will demonstrate their skills in analyzing and interpreting various works of literature.
3. Students will demonstrate their abilities to use appropriate terms of literary criticism accurately
4. Students will demonstrate their abilities in critical reading, thinking and writing
5. Students will reflect their understanding in various written and oral forms (class discussion, quiz answers, group presentations, critical essays, examinations)

This class will be graded on the plus/minus system;. In this class, A  94-100; A- 91-93; B+ 88-90; B  84-87; B- 81-83; C+ 78-80; C  74-77; C- 71-73; D+ 68-70; D 64-67; D- 61-63; F  0-60.  You must turn in all assignments on time to pass the course.

Grading and Assignments

• Regular participation* including short reading quizzes: 20% (for clarification, half is your quiz grade, half is your in-class participation grade)
• one GEM (Ghastly English Midterm): 15%
• a house (group) oral presentation: 20%
• an EFT (Excruciating Final Test): 25%
• a critical Research Paper (6-8 pp. or one roll of parchment, exclusive of Works Cited Page): 20%
  
  *You will be divided into Houses and your collective scores on your quizzes, tests, and presentation will lead to the awarding of the House Cup to the winning House.

Plagiarism Policy

Please review the English Department’s policy on Using Borrowed Information at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm. You are responsible for reviewing the Code of Student Conduct in your Student Handbook and the description of plagiarism in The Prentice-Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage and handling source materials correctly. If you turn in plagiarized work, I reserve the right to assign you a failing grade for the paper or even for the course. The University Policy on Plagiarism is explained at http://www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/Judicial/judcode.htm under section V, "Academic Misconduct."

Attendance Policy

Late Paper/Assignment Policies

• Hard copies of all assignments are expected at the beginning of class on the due date.
• Under no circumstances will an assignment be accepted more than two class periods after the due date; it will receive a grade of zero.
• Failure to submit any graded assignment means failure for the course. No exceptions!

If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, please contact Ms. Gena Smith, Coordinator, Services for Students with Disabilities, at 323-3290, as soon as possible. Once you have your professor notification letter, please notify me so that we are aware of your accommodations well before the first accommodated assignment is due.

The professor considers this classroom to be a place where you will be treated with respect as a human being – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, political beliefs, age, or ability. Additionally, diversity of thoughts is appreciated and encouraged, provided you can agree to disagree. It is the professor’s expectation that ALL students consider the classroom a safe environment.

If you do not have a Winthrop POBox e-mail account, go to 15 Tillman immediately to set it up. We will create an informal class listserv and we will be using it.

• If you are not enthusiastic about being in this course, fake it. Four weeks is not forever. You must participate to succeed in this class.
• If you need to make a certain grade in this class to maintain a GPA or keep a scholarship, the time to start working on it is at the beginning of the summer session, not in the last week.
• Multitasking is not appropriate during class time. Cell phones, iPods, and other communications devices must be turned off in class.* If they disrupt the class you will be graded absent for the day. Text messaging or checking personal messages is not permitted during class. Repeat offenses may earn you an "F" for class participation for the semester.  Offenses will also cost your House points toward the House Cup. (*I will have my cell phone available for messages through the Winthrop Alertus system.)
• We will do our best to keep our office hours but emergencies sometimes arise. If we can't keep hours, we will e-mail the class discussion list and try to get someone to put a note on the office door.
• Failure to prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on our parts.
• We expect to see visible signs you are doing the work, such as bringing the required materials to class, annotations in your books, note-taking in class, notebook entries, reading notes, bringing in required drafts, etc. If we do not, your class participation grade will be affected, significantly.
• If you are not prepared for class, we reserve the right to send you to the library for the class period to do your preparation. It’s not fair to other people who have done the preparation to have to drag you along with them. So be prepared!
• We do not read minds. If something is going on that affects your work in the class, you need to tell us about it. We won’t just sense that "something’s wrong."
• If some life crisis arises that will make you miss a lot of class, tell us as soon as you realize this—don’t disappear for a week, then come back and say, "Uh, did you miss me?" There are accommodations that can be made if you give reasonable notification but few or none if you don't.