Everyday Uses for Literature and the Weight They Carry
Everyday Uses for
Literature and the Weight They Carry
I have been concerned with high impact practices and strong student engagement in higher education for a number of years. One aspect of student engagement that I think is often lacking in higher education is a strong connection between course work and a student’s own life, a way to connect learning to life. While it is sometimes easier to see how their major may connect to their life goals, it is not always as easy to see how literature might connect to their world. This project is designed to show a direct connection between texts they read and study in the class and some aspect of their own lives, often an aspect that they may not have thought of in these terms [or in any terms] before. The final project requires students to identify a personal or familial artifact [either tangible or intangible] and apply what they have learned from the fiction they have read to an analysis of that artifact.
Outline
Appendices
a. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker [PDF document]
b.
Chapter from The
Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien [PDF document]
c.
Chapter from Shoeless
Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa by W.P. Kinsella [Word Document]
d.
Two chapters from Ghost Singer by Anna Lee Walters [PDF document]
e.
Example set of student created questions [Word
Document]
f.
Literary Discussion Circle prompt [Word
Document]
g.
Project Prompt with Rubric [Word Document}
h.
Three articles that helped me decide to explore
this method of connecting with students [Two Word Documents and one PDF
document]
i. Fourteen examples from pervious students with a variety of focuses [Word Documents]
a.
A Generational Ironing Board
b.
A Gold Vase
c.
A Non-Traditional Tradition
d.
Don’t Quit
e.
Dorothy and Her Paintings
f.
Ford Windstar and a Scar
g.
Importance of a Horseshoe
h.
Lane Cedar Chest
i.
Musical Legacy
j.
Painting
k.
Requiem
l.
Thanksmas Bible
m.
The Bed Frame
n.
War Capsule