[Next week
brings a new semester, the last of my 11th year at Fitchburg State
University. So this week brings a series of spring 2016 preview posts, this
time focused on the texts we’ll be reading in my spring courses. I’d love to
hear about your spring syllabi, and other spring plans, in comments!]
My English
Studies Capstone course has to wear a lot of pedagogical hats: the course’s
overt purpose is to provide a space in which the students produce their senior
portfolios, but I also see it as both a place for very practical conversations
about the future (professional and educational) and for more philosophical ones
about English Studies and the different tracks that constitute it at FSU. Our
five readings help us approach one or more of those subjects:
1)
William
Zinsser’s On Writing Well (2006
30th Anniversary Edition): Because
of the portfolios, and because it simply links all of our different English
Studies identities, writing is a central topic throughout the Capstone, and so
we did into Zinsser’s engaging and essential guide many times over the course
of the semester. The book includes a great deal of practical and professional
advice, but is also a manifesto for why writing (and English Studies) matters.
2)
Steven
King’s On Writing (2010 10th Anniversary
Edition): To focus on Professional Writing, one of our three English Studies departmental
tracks, we spend a couple weeks reading King’s memoir/guide/advice book. King
is overtly the crazy, successful uncle to Zinsser’s wry, grandfatherly sage,
and the two books pair very nicely. Yet King is also quite simply a model professional
writer, not only in his career but in his voice and style.
3)
Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013):
I’ve previously used Junot Díaz’s The
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as the text for our two week focus on the
Literature track, but decided it was time for a change—and for a chance to
teach Adichie’s wonderful recent novel for the first time. I couldn’t be more
excited to share this novel with a group of senior English Studies majors, and especially
to hear their responses to it.
4)
Douglas
Thomas and John Seely Brown’s A New
Culture of Learning (2011): Finding a reading that works well for our
two week English Secondary Education unit has been a challenge; I used this
short book for the first time in my last Capstone section, and while it’s not
perfect I think it very effectively introduces a number of key challenges and
concepts for 21st century American education and society. Getting
students thinking about those issues is a key goal for this part of the course,
and this book should help me do that.
5)
Annie
Baker’s The Flick (2013): While
our Theater track moved a few years ago from English Studies to the Communications/Media
department, I still believe that including a dramatic reading in Capstone is an
important way to keep this part of English Studies in our collective
conversations. I’ve always used Death of
a Salesman in this spot, but once again it was time for a change and a more
contemporary work. I admit to not yet having read Baker’s play (we finish the semester
with it, in my defense), but it comes highly recommended by my colleague and
friend Joe
Moser (who has taught our American Drama course multiple times), and that’s
more than enough for me!
Next spring
preview tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What are you
teaching/reading this spring? Other spring plans you’d share?
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