Literature Question

The Project

Overview:

Create a mini-unit that could be used in an Introduction to Literature (201) course. Provide a description and rationale for your unit and the texts you have included in the unit.

Text requirements for the Mini- Unit:

• Recommend 1 fiction text The Story of an Hour or The Cathedral
• Recommend 1 poem Phenomenal Woman or Still I Rise
• Decide whether you would recommend using Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes or Trifles by Susan Glaspell, or would recommend finding another play (you don’t have to read or recommend another play, although you could, but you do need make an argument for why you would not want to use either of these plays). In other words, you want to make an argument for using one of these plays, or for why you wouldn’t choose either. You might make a recommendation for what you would look for in choosing a different play.

Note: These texts can be chosen from the texts that were assigned or that you chose to read in class. However, you are not limited to texts that you used for this class or even texts in our textbook. I am not requiring any additional reading, but if you have read a text that you would like to recommend, you are welcome to use that text in your unit. You are also welcome to include more than the recommended number of texts in the unit if you would like to for some reason. Please provide a link to any text you are recommending that is not available in the book.

Content: Rationale for Unit and Texts:

Overall unit rationale (Introduction). As an introduction to your project, explain your rationale for the unit you organized. There are many approaches you might take. Was your objective to create a unit that featured a lot of variety in texts? Or did you create a unit that was more focused? Did time-period or setting factor in? What about gender, ethnicity, race, or sexuality? You might decide to create a unit that focuses on a group of authors that you think should be highlighted in classrooms (women of color, or LGBTQ authors, for example). Or you might create a unit around another theme. There are many options. In this introduction paragraph/section, explain the approach you took to organize the texts you chose into a unit.

Individual text rationale (Body). For each text you recommend (so you are going to do this 3 times), you will need to provide a rationale for your choice. Your rationale should include the following:

1. Your personal response to the text (minimum of 1 paragraph or the equivalent)
2. Explain why you think your classmates (and/or future classmates) would (or would not if you are arguing against using the plays we read) benefit from reading the text. Consider elements of the text in addition to the author and the setting (including time period) in which the piece was written. How does this text fit into the overall unit you are trying to create? (minimum of 1 paragraph or the equivalent)

1. Explain in detail what elements of fiction, poetry or drama you would recommend a teacher focus on when teaching this text. Please be specific and include at least 2-3 elements. In this section, you must provide direct quotes from the text you’ve chosen and at least one quote from our textbook – Consider all the “instructional pages” you read for each unit. They are listed in the overview page for each unit. So, if you are recommending that a teacher focus on “tone” in a particular poem – look at the section about tone on page 830. You can also pull from information about poetry in general in Chapter 11. You may also use any contextual information or supplementary texts provided in our textbook if that helps you provide a rationale for your choice. (minimum of 2 paragraphs or the equivalent)

Note: Quotes are required in section 3, but direct quotes and examples from the literary texts should be used to support your responses in sections 1-3.

Conclusion. Wrap up the project, circle back to the overall rationale of why this unit is beneficial/important/needed, and include a final thought.

Format:

You have a choice of how you want to present this unit. You can use whatever format works best for you to make your case for the unit and the texts you have chosen. Regardless of your choice of format, the information requirements are the same. Provide your overall unit rationale and the rationale for each text, covering #1-3 above, and include direct quotes from the literary texts and our textbook.

NOTE: Regardless of your format, your project should include a typed Works Cited page in MLA format that includes all texts from your unit and any other sources cited. If the rest of your project did not include written text (for example, an audio essay or podcast), please attach a typed Works Cited page to the project (quotes with in-text citations can be in audio format within the project).

Format Options:

• A written paper
• A multimedia presentation
• A website
• An audio presentation (audio essay, podcast, etc.)
• Another format (send me an email for approval)

Requirements:

• Regardless of format, this presentation should have a clear introduction (that includes the unit rationale), body (that includes the rationale for each text), and conclusion (that wraps up the project, circles back to the overall rationale, and includes a final thought). What this looks like or sounds like will depend on the modality used in the presentation, but all this information should be included in every project.
• This project should follow MLA format for in-text citations and should include a typed Works Cited page in MLA format (regardless of the format of the rest of the project).
• Make sure the unit has a title that captures the essence of the unit.

Here is the link to the Story of an Hour:

Here is the link to Still I Rise poem:

Here is a link to Trifles:

I also attached some pages from Water by a Spoonful :).

Requirements: 3-4 pages Times New Roman Size 12 Font Double-Spaced MLA Format   |   .doc file