August 19: Construction of Syllabus and Assignments.
August 21: Bring to class a copy of the Goals for the Major from the the English (these can be printed from the Department Website).

8/26: Reading: FIT, 235-252 (intro to "How We Read")
         Discussion of what it means to read theoretically
8/28: Reading: Things Fall Apart, FIT 323-333 (Achebe), read assorted essays on Things Fall Apart in pairs (start in class)
Bimonthly Prompt: Read the Goals of the Major document. If you are in English Ed, read that mission statement as well. Respond. Due 9/4

9/2: Essay pair talks: Teach the major points of the essay you have read to the class. 
9/4: Essay pair talks: Teach the major points of the essay you have read to the class. 

9/9: Reading: FIT, 310-322 (Morrison), 334-348 (Harris, Spivak)
9/11: Meet in Paradise Lost groups to read, write, and prepare presentations (For the presentations, you are to 1) provide summaries of each of the books that you are assigned, and 2) perform a significant passage from each book, using, but not necessarily limiting yourselves to, the language of the poem itself.)
Bimonthly Prompt: What difference does it make to approach a text from a inappropriate or limited aesthetic context (for instance, to approach an African text from an American context, or to approach an American text as if African American or Native American influences didn't matter)? Or, to put the matter more positively, what difference does it make to approach a text from a more appropriate aesthetic context? Due 9/18

9/16: Reading: FIT, 121-136 (intro to "What We Read") 
         Meet in Paradise Lost groups to read, write, and prepare presentations
9/18: English Studies Symposium

9/23: Paradise Lost presentations for Books 1-4
         Reading: FIT, 147-152 (Smith)
9/25: Paradise Lost presentations for Books 5-8
         Reading: FIT, 378-390 (Levine)
Bimonthly Prompt: What do you read, and how do you read it? Due 10/9

9/30: Paradise Lost presentations for Books 9-12
         Reading: FIT, 391-397 (Berube)
10/2: Reading: FIT 211-217 (Purves), 225-233 (Bloom), 111-119 (Scholes)
Short Paper Due

10/7: Reading: The Golden Compass, FIT 15-30 (intro to "Why We Read")
10/9: Reading: FIT 31-48 (Vendler, Graff)
Censorship Letter

10/14: Reading: FIT 49-59 (Eagleton), 68-78 (Freire)
10/16: Reading: FIT 349-355 (Booth)

10/21: The Subtle Knife
10/23: The Subtle Knife
Bimonthly Prompt: What informs you personal code of ethics? How do you answer the tough questions in life? Where do you find guidance to answer the question "how then must we live?" OR Free will? Destiny? Which? To what degree? Can there even be degrees in such a debate? Due 11/4

10/28: Conferencing
10/30: Conferencing

11/4: The Amber Spyglass
11/6: The Amber Spyglass

11/11: The Matrix
11/13: Discussion of similar thematic elements in Paradise Lost, His Dark Materials, and The Matrix

11/18: The Matrix Reloaded
11/20:  Discussion of similar thematic elements in Paradise Lost, His Dark Materials, and The Matrix movies

Thanksgiving Break

12/2: Synthesizing discussions
12/4: Synthesizing discussions