Introduction to Poetry

Course Number:

ENG 106Z

Transcript Title:

Introduction to Poetry

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: Assessment tools may include informal responses to study questions; evaluation of small- and full-group discussions; in-class and out-of-class writing; formal essays and other types of informal writing; individual and group presentations; essay exams; close reading exercises using support/evidence; writing exercises which include evaluation of various interpretations of a text and their relative validity. Both instructor and peer evaluation may be incorporated in the assessment process.

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 106 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.

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

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

• Evaluate the use of poetic devices (meter, rhythm, rhyme, imagery, persona, etc.) and their impact on formal and free verse poetry
• Investigate the relationship between form (devices and elements) and function (meaning)

Outcome #3: Build interpretations based on relevant evidence.

• Guide students through strategies of close reading, annotation and textual analysis.
• Create safe space where all students can contribute their unique analysis, verbally and in writing, and challenge/revise their initial interpretations.
• Challenge the implicit biases all readers bring to a text.
• Interrogate the myth that each poem has a single meaning
• Provide opportunities for students to practice scholarly research on poems and poetic
• Practice MLA format for integration and citation of textual quotes.

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

• Lead exploration of what delineates poetry from prose historically and in contemporary literature
• Examine poetic works that blur the lines between prose, poetry and/or drama. e.g., prose poems and plays written in verse
• Consider why authors choose to write poems rather than prose or plays, 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. There are many options including , Intro to Poetry, and many others.

We recommend a mix of formal and free verse poems from diverse cultures, time periods and voices.