Sample Syllabus

Fall Semester: Critical Thinking Syllabus

Spring Semester:

1/11-Course Introduction

1/13-Introduction to Literature
Analysis/Interpretation Exercise

1/15-What is Short Fiction? 55-60
Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”
Paper #1 Assignment

1/18-Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

1/20-Imagery 571
Pound, “In a Station of the Metro”
Irony and Tone 136
Thurber, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

1/22- Joyce, “Counterparts”
Waring, “What Hurts” 975

1/25-Elements of Poetry

Gluck, “Palais des Arts” 785
Harjo, “Santa Fe” 800
Olds, “The One Girl at the Boys Party” 888

1/27-Silko, “Four Mountain Wolves” 940
Peter Blue Cloud, “Wolf” 693
Group Presentation Handouts
Paper #2 Handout

1/29- Paper Due

2/1-GROUP PRESENTATIONS
Allende, “Walimai”
Alurista, “Who Are We? . . . Somos Aztlan: A letter To ‘El Jefe Corky'”

2/3-GROUP PRESENTATIONS
Ellison, “Battle Royal” 257
Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

2/5-GROUP PRESENTATIONS
Marquez, “Eyes of a Blue Dog” 429
Burciaga, “World Premiere” 707

2/8-GROUP PRESENTATIONS
O’Brien, “Sweetheart of the song Tra Bong” 458
McDonald, “The Food Pickers of Saigon” 576

2/10-Group Presentations, con’t

2/12-Research Paper Due

2/15-Freud, Oedipus, and Drama 1434
Hamlet
1438-1443

2/17-Hamlet
1443-1463

2/19-Hamlet
1463-1482

2/22-Hamlet
1482-1499

2/24-Hamlet
1499-1548
Questions for Hamlet due
Class discussion

2/26-Mid-Term Examination

3/1-3/5-Spring Break

3/8-Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 752

3/10-Yeats, “Second Coming” (Handout)

3/12-Milton, “How soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth” 882
Paper Handout

3/15-Saenz, “Gloria, Woman Becoming her Name”
–“A Killing” (Handout)

3/17-Cervantes, “Bird Ave” (Handout)

3/19-Sexton, “For my Lover, Returning to His Wife” 925
Paper Due

3/22- Baca, “Imagine My Life” (Handout)

3/24- Viramontes, “Miss Clairol” (Handout)
Paper Handout

3/26- Cisneros, “There Was a Man, There Was a Woman” (Handout)

3/29-Mora, “Tigua Elder” (Handout)

3/31-Tafolla, “Right in One Language” (Handout)
Paper Due

4/5-Types, Stereotypes, and Archetypes 1710
Begin Fences, 1711-1724
Paper Handout

4/7-Fences
1724-1734

4/9-Fences
1734-1743

4/12-Fences
1743-1751

4/14-Fences
1751-1765

4/16-Paper Due

4/19-Walker, “Everyday Use: for your Grandmama”
Brooks, “The Mother”

4/21-Levertov, “Cancion” 596
Paper handout

4/23-Graham, “The Hiding Place” 791

4/26-Erdrich, “Love Medicine” 271

4/28-Akhmatova, “Lot’s Wife” 669

4/30-Sexton, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” 931

5/3-Ginsberg, “Howl” 776

5/5-Paper Due
Last Day of Classes

Final Exam Date: 5/8 Wednesday 9-11 AM