COURSE OUTCOMES

OUTCOMES ACTIVITIES

ASSESSMENT TOOLS

1. Understand the way major works reflect the cultures of England from the Anglo-Saxon through the Restoration period.

• Read and discuss in class assigned works from different literary and historical periods (OC, R, CT)
• In whole class and small group settings, discuss chivalry, identity, religion, and class.  (OC, CT)
• Participate in small group discussions, research, or discussion leadership that focuses on background material relevant to the authors’ lives, works, and literary periods (R, OC, CT)
• Watch videos that provide background and context for the literature of a particular period (OC, CT)
• Research cultural and historical issues surrounding the creation and publication of literary works(R, TS, CT)
• Use journals or double-entry journals to reflect on the relationship between literature and its cultural context (W, CT)
• Compose and answer mock test and quiz questions based on the literary works (W, OC, CT)
• Trace the evolution of specific literary genres through different literary periods (R, CT, OC, W)
• Assign character panels.  Have students portray particular characters in the text while other students formulate questions.  In class, the students get together  (characters and interviewers) and discuss the text’s themes and plot.  (CT, OC, W, R)

• Reading comprehension quizzes (R, W, CT)
• Explication of a poem (CT, R, W)
• Tests, hour exams, final exams (R, W, CT)
• Journals (R, W, CT)
• Individual or group oral presentations on authors and texts (R, OC, W, TS, CT)
• Short or longer essays on assigned works of authors from different literary and historical periods and from different cultural backgrounds (TS, W, CT)
• Researched papers on historical and/or cultural influences on the literature of a particular period (TS, W, R, CT)
• Self-assessment of the ability to recognize cultural patterns in major works (R, W, CT)

2.  In class discussion, informal writing, and formal essays, carry to a higher level the skillful analysis of language and texts that was developed in Composition II

• Review the literary concepts presented in Composition II in the context of discussing literature (OC, W, CT)
• Create responses to assigned readings (W, R CT)
• Perform peer reviews and writing workshops (R, W, CT, OC)
• Apply literary concepts in the written analysis of literary passages (W, CT,)
• Write and revise essays (W, CT, TS)
• Identify the various genres that emerge in the development of the literature.  These genres could include poetry, drama, narrative, travel narrative, autobiography.  (CT, R, W, OC)
• Compare and contrast the structure and theme of Milton’s Il Penseroso and L’Allegro (CT, OC, R, W)
• Identify literary structures  relevant to the time period: fabliau, couplet, sonnet, epic, kenning, personification.  (CT, R, W, OC)

• Class notes (OC, W,)
• Quizzes (CT, R, W)
• Tests (CT, W, R)
• Formal and informal writing (CT, W, R, TS)
• Self-assessment of the ability to use the concepts in small-group discussion (CT, OC)
• Journals (W, R, CT)
• Poetry explications (W, R, CT)
• Exams which include a section on literary vocabulary.  Define “kenning” and provide an example from the course’s readings.  (CT, R, W)

• 3. Trace through selected literary and historical texts that reflect the attitudes, sentiments, and social beliefs of England and its changing social, political, and literary structures from the Anglo-Saxon period through the Restoration. 
•  

• Review historical events that are relevant to literary themes.  These historical events could include the Reformation, the formation of the Church of England, the rise of the middle class, the opening and closing of the theaters, the plague, invasion of England by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the Civil War  (OC, R, CT)
• Actively read assigned texts using such techniques as underlining, highlighting, marginal notes, and summarizing main idea (R, W, CT)
• Create and maintain a literary and historical time line (CT, W)
• Assign discussion leaders that present background information on a specific writer or event and its relevance to a particular text.  For example, Donne’s conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism and his concern with salvation in his Holy Sonnets. (CT, R, W, TS) 
• Conduct small group discussions on the religious and scientific turmoil in Dr. Faustus.  Small group discussions on Milton’s Paradise Lost (CT, OC)
• Examine Chaucer’s General Prologue as an estates satire.(W, R, CT, OC) 

• Brief written summaries of texts or passages within texts (R, W, CT)
• Quizzes (CT, R, W)
• Tests (CT, R, W)
• Graded journals and notebooks (W, R, CT)
• Discussion leaders (TS, OC, W, R)

• 4. Recognize in English literature and in historical texts themes that continue to challenge societies today.  These themes can include race, religion, gender, and language.

• Examine the roles of men and women in Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, and The Rape of the Lock.(R, W, OC, CT)
• Discuss particular female writers such as Mary Wroth.  Examine how her sonnet sequence reflects and alters the sentiments in other sonnet sequences by Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser.  (OC, CT, R, W)
• Examine the social role of chivalry in the Arthurian legend. (OC, CT, R, W)
• Discuss in small groups what it means to be “noble.”  (CT, OC)

• Informal writing in response to topics and contexts created by instructor (CT, R, W)
• Formal writing on topics identified and researched by the student (CT, R, W, TS)
• Tests  (CT, R, W)
• Participation in class discussion (CT, R, OC)
• Self-assessments of participation in small group discussion (OC, W, CT)

5. Develop and express, formally and/or informally, points of view on these themes in order to stimulate critical thinking.

• Participate in class discussions (OC,R, CT, W)
• Identify an author’s view on a topic and evaluate its presentation (R, OC, W, CT)
• Conduct research to develop a point of view on one or more of the themes (TS, R, W, CT)
• Discuss major themes and issues in small groups and then report back to the class. (CT, OC) 
• Evaluate the opposing views on a theme by viewing Internet sources (TS, CT)
• Write reader responses to a theme (W, R, CT)
• Write comparison/contrast response papers (W, R, CT)
• Assign free writes (CT, R, W)
• Pinpoint themes for a particular writer and a particular period through in-class free writes or out of class double-entry journals (CT, R, W)
• Prepare an annotated bibliography.  (CT, TS, R, W)

• Response papers (W, R, CT)
• Reading journals (W, R, CT)
• Annotated bibliography (W, R, TS, CT)
• Comparison/contrast essays (W, R, CT)
• Documented essay (TS, W, R, CT)
• Graded in-class participation (OC, R, W, CT)

• Locate and assess Internet sites relevant to an area of interest (TS, R, W, CT)
• Read and discuss literary and/or historical analysis and criticism (R, CT, OC)
• Orally present research findings on an area of interest to the class (OC, R, W, CT)
• Develop a Powerpoint presentation on an area of interest for the class (TS, R, W, CT, OC)
• Write a documented essay that integrates primary and secondary sources (TS, R, W, CT)
• Create annotated bibliographies using internet and print sources (TS, R, W, CT)

• Working bibliography (TS, W, R, CT)
• Annotated bibliography (TS, W, R, CT)
• Oral presentation evaluated by peers, professor, and self (W, R, CT, OC)
• Powerpoint presentation evaluated by peers, professor, and self (TS, W, R, CT, OC)
• Documented essay (TS, W, R, CT)
• Graded Discussion Leaders (CT, TS, OC, R, W)

• Read literature aloud (R, OC)
• Listen to others reading aloud and discussing the creative process (OC, CT)
• Watch videos that provide context and interpret themes contained in the assigned readings (OC, CT)
• Create original work (poetry, short story, drama) in response to the assigned literature (W, CT, OC)
• Write reader response logs (W, R, CT)
• Verbalize immediate aesthetic responses to literature read (explaining what is meant by personal relevance and audience appeal) (OC, R, CT)
• Write reviews of films, plays, or albums which are thematically relevant to assigned literature (W, R, CT, TS)
• Conduct character panels (CT, OC)
• Attend performances at a local theater (OC, CT)

• Oral and written feedback on reading aloud (W,OC, R, CT)
• Journal and reading log responses that reflect on the reading process (W, CT, R)
• Journal and reading log responses that reflect on the aesthetic response to assigned literature (W, CT, R)
• Oral and written feedback on creative student material (OC, R, CT)
• Essays comparing two or more works of literature on the basis of their themes, characters, and/or situations presented (W, R, TS, CT)
• Reviews of films, plays, and albums (W, OC, CT, TS, R)
• Researched and documented essay on some aspect of the human condition as it appears in literature (W, CT, TS, R)

• 8. Strengthen Core Competencies in order to increase success in this
• and other courses and in the workplace.