1. Gather all of your writing (posts, assignments, compositions) into one word document and read over all that you've written. Then write a brief analysis of what you learn from reading over your writing from the term and append this to your word document containing all of your writing.
2. Book Club Presentations and analysis
You've probably noticed that I've given very little direction for your final presentations. Hopefully, you've also at least guessed why. Here's the thing: I could give you very concrete goals and objectives and a rubric for how you'd be evaluated, but then the goal (on one level) would be for you to do what I asked of you. The problem is that my goal for you is to do something quite different.
A major goal of the class is for you to see American Literature as a multi-genre platform for writers from various times and conditions to respond to their world and ask others to be part of that conversation. I also want you to see American Literature as alive; we are constantly watching movies and tv shows, listening to music--and yes, even reading essays, poems, articles, and books-that "count" as American literature and invite us into discussions about what is going on in our world. Sometimes we also create the poems, films, essays, music, etc., and ask others to participate in conversations that we start.
I think it's important that you be able to have real-even sophisticated-conversations with each other and realize the value of those conversations. The next step is for you to decide as a group what the purpose of your presentation is and how best to achieve that purpose. Your audience is clear-the rest of the class that signed up to learn something about American Literature. In my view, if I intercede by telling you what the final product should look like then I dilute the goal. You've been taught for a long time: this is a place for you to do try out teaching.
You'll need to turn in a 2-3 page analysis of the book-club process including your goals for the presentation and how well you met those goals (due June 11). In your own analysis, what worked and what didn't for the whole process, from choosing the book to presenting on it? What would you recommend doing differently the next time?