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Back
to Spring 2006 Course Page
Spring
2006
English
Composition Syllabus
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John
Biggers, Shotgun Houses,
Third Ward (1966)
tempera and oil, 30 x 48 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Instructors: |
Mary
C. Gray
The U of H Writing Center
Agnes Arnold 217
mcgray2@mail.uh.edu
Office hours: by appointment |
“How
can I tell what I think till I see what I say?” – E. M. Forster
English
Composition Policy Statement
Welcome to the English Composition
portion of the English/History course. You must also
be registered for HIST 1378 with Dr. Mintz to be enrolled in this class. In these collaborative classes, we will be working
toward developing critical thinking skills and strengthening written communication
while becoming active historians. Readings in this class should both complement
and enrich your studies in History. By
examining texts from American writers and artists since 1877, you will
discover that art and literature come not just from a person, but from
a time and place, and, as cultural expression, are inseparable from historical
process. We will also have the additional advantage of having experts
from the College of Education to help us learn to integrate technology
into our writing, plus consultants from the Writing Center to help us
to formulate and execute our ideas.
Syllabus
Note:
Links to websites ouside of Writing History open in a new window; close
that window to return to this page.
Learning
to Look, Listen, and Create |
War Dept.
(ca 1902). Roundup on the Sherman Ranch, Genesee, Kansas. |
Class
1: January 17 |
Introduction
to the Course |
Class 2: January 19 |
Receive
prompt for Web Project 1:
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The
1890s as a Turning Point |
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), a Dakota Sioux Indian. 1921. |
Class
3: January 24 |
Read: " School
Days of an Indian Girl" - Zitkala-Sa – 1900
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Class
4: January 26 |
Receive
prompt for Essay 1: The Problems
and Promise of American Life |
Progressive
America |
The
New England Magazine,
January 1892 |
Class
5: January 31 |
Read:
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Class
6: February 2 |
Read How
the Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis – 1890
Enter
the site and read Chapter II – “Awakening”
Take
a virtual tour of The
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
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In
class - View Photographs by Jacob Riis and
Lewis Hine |
The
Meaning of World War I |
Equipt
(sic) for the trenches. ca. 1914. |
Class
7: February 7 |
Read “Dulce
et Decorum Est” – Wilfred Owen – 1918
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Web
Project 1 due
Receive
prompt for Web Project 2:
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Becoming Modern |
Cover
of Survey Graphic, March, 1925. University of Virginia.
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Class
9: February 14 |
Look through the March 1925 Issue of Survey
Graphic.
Read: "The
Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" Langston
Hughes - (1926)
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Class
10: February 16 |
Read:
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Class
11: February 21 |
Read:
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In
Class - View art of the Harlem Renaissance |
Class
12: February 23 |
Strategies for writing Essay 1 |
The
Great Depression |
Eighteen
year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant. Dorothea
Lange, 1937. |
Class
13: February 28 |
Read: Excerpt
from The Grapes of Wrath (handout) - John Steinbeck – 1939
Additional
activities (optional):
- Read
the article
on the National Public Radio website
- Listen
to Brian Naylor's report
on National Public Radio
- Listen
to Woody Guthrie's 1940 song "Tom
Joad" about The Grapes of Wrath
-
Watch a scene from the 1940 film The
Grapes of Wrath
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In
Class - View depression photographs from Library
of Congress |
Class
14: March 2 |
History
Test
Work
on Essay 1 and Web Project 2 |
World
War II |
Attack
on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. |
Class
15: March 7 |
Peer Review Project 2
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Class
16: March 9 |
Web
Project 2 due
Receive
prompt for Web Project 3 - Toward
the 21st Century
Read:
"Arrival at Manzanar" (handout) - Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and
James D. Houston
Browse
through Born
Free and Equal, Ansel Adams' book on the Manzanar Camp. |
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In
class: View
Ansel Adams’ photographs of Japanese American internment
at Manzanar:
"Suffering
Under a Great Injustice”
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March
13-17: Spring Break |
Postwar,
1945-1960, The Cold War |
Reiss,
Winold. "[Langston Hughes, Half-Length Portrait, Seated,
Facing Right, with Right Hand Under Chin]." |
Class
17: March 21 |
Peer
review Essay 1
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March
23 |
No
Class |
Class
18: March 28 |
Essay
1 DUE
Receive
prompt for Essay 2: American Legacies
Compare “The
Dream Keeper” and “Dream Variation” (1925)
in Selected
Poems to "Harlem
- A Dream Deferred" (1951) – Langston Hughes |
Class
19: March 30 |
Work
on Web Project 3 |
The Tumultuous 1960s |
Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., behind bars in jail in St. Augustine, Florida. 1962. |
Class
20: April 4 |
Read:
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Class
21: April 6 |
Research
in M. D. Anderson Library |
The
Vietnam War |
Barron,
B.
Young US Marine. |
Class
22: April 11 |
Read:
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In
Class: View American memorials and monuments as visual rhetoric |
Class
23: April 13 |
Work on Essay 2 and Project 3 |
The 1970s and 1980s |
MD Anderson
Library
University of Houston |
Class
24: April 18 |
Bring introduction to Essay 2 to class |
Class
25: April 20 |
Peer review Project 3 |
America
in our Time |
Students
in History-English Linked Courses |
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Web
Project 3 due
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Class
27: April 27 |
History
Test
Last
class day
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Tuesday,
May 2 |
Essay
2 due by 5:00 in the Writing Center |
Thursday,
May 4, 5:00 |
Last
day to turn in essays, with a letter grade penalty |
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Images Used:
American Indian
stories / Zitkala-Sa. Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), a Dakota Sioux
Indian. Lincoln and London : University of Nebraska Press, 1985,
frontispiece. Reprint of 1921 edition. Library of Congress. Online image.
18 January 2005.
<http://www.loc.gov>
Barron, Brian.
Return to Saigon. 29 April, 2000. BBC News. Online image. 1 February
2005. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/718412.stm>
Biggers, John. Shotgun Houses, Third Ward.
1966. Online image. The Smithsonian American Art Museum. Purchase made possible by Anacostia Museum. The Smithsonian
Institution. Online image.
3 January 2005.
<http://americanart.si.edu/highlights/artworks.cfm?id=AA&StartRow=6>
Cover
of Survey Graphic. March, 1925. University of Virginia, Electronic
Text Center. Online image.
18 Januray 2005.
<http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/>
Equipt
(sic) for the trenches. ca. 1914. National Photo
Company Collection. Library of Congress. Online image.
18 January 2005.
<http://www.loc.gov>
Lange,
Dorothea. Eighteen year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California
migrant. 1937. Library of Congress. Online image.
18 January 2005.
<http://www.loc.gov>
NASA. Ticker tape
parade for Apollo 11 astronauts. 15 September 1970. Online image. <http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/mirrors/images/images/pao/AS11/10075352.jpg>
New
England Magazine. 1892. Illustrations from the "Yellow Wallpaper."
18 January 2005. Online image.
< http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/ywillus.html>
Reiss,
Winold. "[Langston Hughes, Half-Length Portrait, Seated, Facing Right,
with Right Hand Under Chin]." 1927. New York World-Telegram &
Sun Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Online
image. 18 January 2005.
<http://www.loc.gov>
Students
in History-English Linked Courses. Online image. Spring 2004.
<http://www.writinghistory.uh.edu>
"The
terrific explosion of the destroyer USS SHAW when her magazine exploded
after being bombed by Japanese aircraft in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor
on Dec. 7, 1941." 7 December 1941. National Archives and Records
Administration. Online image. 26 January 2005.<http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc>
University of Houston,
MD Anderson Library Construction Project. Online image. 1 April 2005.
<http://info.lib.uh.edu/building/photos/index.html?id=212>
War Department.
Roundup on the Sherman Ranch, Genesee, Kans. Cowboy with lasso readied
looks beyond the herd on the open range to his fellow cowpunchers waiting
on the horizon. ca. 1902. National Archives and Records Administration.
Online image.
18 January 2005.
<http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc>
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