Introduction to Drama

Course Number:

ENG 105Z

Transcript Title:

Introduction to Drama

Created:

Aug 10, 2022

Updated:

Apr 25, 2024

Total Credits:

4

Lecture Hours:

40

Lecture / Lab Hours:

0

Lab Hours:

0

Satisfies Cultural Literacy requirement:

No

Satisfies General Education requirement:

Yes

Grading Options

A-F, P/NP, Audit

Default Grading Options

A-F

Repeats available for credit:

0

Alignment with Institutional Learning Outcomes

Major

1. Communicate effectively using appropriate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. (Communication)

Major

2. Creatively solve problems by using relevant methods of research, personal reflection, reasoning, and evaluation of information. (Critical thinking and Problem-Solving)

Not Addressed

3. Extract, interpret, evaluate, communicate, and apply quantitative information and methods to solve problems, evaluate claims, and support decisions in their academic, professional and private lives. (Quantitative Literacy)

Minor

4. Use an understanding of cultural differences to constructively address issues that arise in the workplace and community. (Cultural Awareness)

Minor

5. Recognize the consequences of human activity upon our social and natural world. (Community and Environmental Responsibility)

To establish an intentional learning environment, Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) require a clear definition of instructional strategies, evidence of recurrent instruction, and employment of several assessment modes.

Major Designation

1. The outcome is addressed recurrently in the curriculum, regularly enough to establish a thorough understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a thorough understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Minor Designation

1. The outcome is addressed adequately in the curriculum, establishing fundamental understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a fundamental understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Suggested Outcome Assessment Strategies

The determination of assessment strategies is generally left to the discretion of the instructor. Here are some strategies that you might consider when designing your course: writings (journals, self-reflections, pre writing exercises, essays), quizzes, tests, midterm and final exams, group projects, presentations (in person, videos, etc), self-assessments, experimentations, lab reports, peer critiques, responses (to texts, podcasts, videos, films, etc), student generated questions, Escape Room, interviews, and/or portfolios.

Department suggestions: Acknowledge the possibility of multiple interpretations of a text; articulate various possible interpretations of a text; recognize that not all interpretations of a text are equally valid. Assessment tools may include responses to study questions; evaluation of small and full-group discussion; in-class and out-of-class writing exams and essays; and reviews of plays. Performance of scenes from plays may also be included as an assessment task.

Course Activities and Design

The determination of teaching strategies used in the delivery of outcomes is generally left to the discretion of the instructor. Here are some strategies that you might consider when designing your course: lecture, small group/forum discussion, flipped classroom, dyads, oral presentation, role play, simulation scenarios, group projects, service learning projects, hands-on lab, peer review/workshops, cooperative learning (jigsaw, fishbowl), inquiry based instruction, differentiated instruction (learning centers), graphic organizers, etc.

Strategies that have worked well in ENG 105 include short lecture, videos, small group or OL forum discussion, group projects, peer review/workshops, journals, mini essays, essays and multimedia or creative final projects.

The Writing and Literature department strongly recommends culturally sensitive instruction and anti-racist pedagogy.

Course Content

Outcome #1. Articulate how culture and context shape literary texts and how literature contributes to understandings of ourselves and the world.

• Present students with the idea of Contextuality: how the era, culture and other forces shape literary plays in periods ranging from Classical to Elizabethan to Postmodernism.
• Present students with the history of oppression and exclusion of marginalized voices and communities in literature as well as the cultural forces (censorship, war, patriarchy, racism, sexism, etc.) that shape plays.
• Encourage students to develop their own relationships and text-based interpretations that center the personal relevance of individual texts. Create the opportunity for students to increase their understanding of others through empathetic reading, including out loud reading of the plays.

Outcome #2: Identify how literary devices and various formal elements contribute meaning to a text.

• Present and provide multiple opportunities for students to actively explore genres of Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, Satire and allegory.
• Identify and utilize theatrical elements such as monologue, dialogue. soliloquy, chorus, and choragus.
• Explore literary elements of setting, scenes, acts, plot, climax, characters (protagonist, antagonist and antihero), theme, Irony, symbolism, imagery diction and tone.
• Explore poetic elements of dramatic literature including blank verse, free verse, Iambic pentameter, couplet and prose verse

Outcome #3: Build interpretations based on relevant evidence. 

• Guide students through strategies of close reading, annotation and textual analysis.
• Provide multiple opportunities to practice MLA format for integration and citation of textual quotes.
  • Create safe spaces where all students can contribute their unique analysis and where they feel supported in challenging and changing their initial interpretations.

Outcome #4: Articulate the specific demands, parameters and rewards of plays, and how they produce meaning.

• Lead exploration of what delineates plays from other forms of literature
• Question how to read plays as written texts in light of their performance bias
• Consider why authors choose to write plays rather than other forms, and how that choice affects meaning

Suggested Texts and Materials

The Writing and Literature Dept. requires that 60% of all texts/materials be authored/created by marginalized authors including but not limited to women.

We strongly encourage the use of OER materials in lieu of textbooks. However, it is difficult to find modern and contemporary plays via OER. Purchasing individual plays is encouraged, as there is lifelong value in owning these texts.

We recommend a mix of classical, Renaissance and Modern plays that showcase diverse ideas and voices.