Syllabus 2005

Here's the syllabus for the course as I ran it in 2005

English 005 TAP:
The Great White North: An Exploration of Canadian Culture

From Canadian music (Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, the Barenaked Ladies, and Avril Lavigne to name a few), to Canadians in film and television (actors like Jim Carrey, Mike Meyers, Kiefer Sutherland, William Shatner and Keanu Reeves; directors such as James Cameron, Atom Egoyan, and David Cronenberg; and newscasters such as John Roberts and the late Peter Jennings), to Canadian literature (authors such as Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Rohinton Mistry and Michael Ondaatje), Americans hear, see, and read work by Canadians on a daily basis. At the same time, most Americans know virtually nothing about the country that is its largest trading partner and with whom they share a remarkable amount of history, not to mention the world’s longest undefended border.

In this class, we’ll dig deeper than the obvious examples given above and begin to explore some lesser-known but equally engaging works of Canadian music, film, and literature in order to learn more about our enigmatic neighbor to the north. As this is an English course, there will be a strong emphasis on Canadian literature; the books we read will help to give you a sense of the broad diversity of the country’s peoples, history, and regions as well as of the richness of its literature. This will also be a technology-driven, writing intensive course that will see you writing, blogging, and even podcasting about your new discoveries about Canada. The course will include a mandatory class trip to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, during which we will visit Parliament, the National Gallery and Museum of Civilisation, and, yes, even attend a hockey game.

Finally, I also encourage you to purchase your books from the campus bookstore. A number of the books I've chosen are not normally available in the United States and the UVM bookstore has gone to great efforts to track them down for us. You will find it easier and not likely much more expensive -- if at all -- to buy these books on campus rather than online.

Technology:

One of the exciting things about this course is that it will be breaking new ground at UVM. For the duration of the Fall semester, you will all be loaned Apple 20 G color iPods and Griffin iTalk microphones to use in this course and, if you wish, for other classes. This project will allow us to test this technology as a teaching tool that, hopefully, UVM will be able to deploy on a wider scale in coming years for courses that would most benefit from access to audio materials. Texts we will be using the iPods to access will include a wide variety of Canadian music, readings or lectures from important writers and thinkers, and excerpts from Canadian radio with a particular focus on comedy programs like The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour, the Vinyl Cafe, and the Vestibules. Because in Vermont we also get CBC television, you will also be watching a lot of Canadian TV!

When you receive your iPod it will already be preloaded with a great deal of content. You are free to browse and listen to any content you like and to add whatever you wish to the iPod in terms of audio, images, or even files (you can use the iPod as a hard drive to hold data as well). Every week, or close to it, there will be listening assignments and, on at least a couple of occasions including our trip to Ottawa, audio recording assignments. Treat these assignments as you would any readings for the course. They will be part of your overall exploration of Canadian culture. The audio files I want you to listen to each week will be conveniently arranged as "playlists" on your iPod. These playlists and the course content will likely change throughout the semester, so you will be required to synchronize the course portion of your iPod's library with a computer located in the media center in the basement of the Bailey/Howe library. I will inform you every time you need to sync your iPods, but expect to do so on a weekly basis.

There will be several classes over the course of the term where we will focus on how to use the technology, so don't be alarmed if you've never used an iPod before or don't yet know a lot about blogging, or even computers.

The course blog is located at http://pwmartin.blog.uvm.edu/005/ You are required to read the content on the blog regularly. There will also be assigned online discussion topics and opportunities for you to blog further about content connected to the course. To create your own personal blog, visit http://www.uvm.edu/blogging to sign up for your own blog on the UVM system.

An important note about the content I am distributing to you on the iPods:
You not be allowed to share any of the music you are being lent nor will you be allowed to make permanent copies of it. Once the course is over, you are obligated to delete any copyrighted material used for the course from your computers. This course-use of the copyrighted material is permitted under the provisions of the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act enacted in 2002 as an amendment to the Copyright Act of 1976. (See http://www.usg.edu/legal/copyright/teach_act.phtml for further information).

Field Trip!

One of the great things about being so close to Canada is that it's easy for us to zip across the border to study first hand our neighbors to the north. Reserve October 20-22 for our class field trip to Ottawa, Canada's capital. If you need a note for any other instructors to explain your absence from their classes on Oct. 21 & 22, please ask. The trip is mandatory for this TAP class and will be optional for my students in English 180, the Canadian literature course I am teaching this fall. Around 50 or 60 of us will head to Ottawa early Thursday morning and, over the course of two and a half days, we will do everything from attending a sitting of the House of Commons to seeing a hockey game (the Ottawa 67s). The full itinerary will be announced closer to the trip.

There is a nominal fee for the trip which I will announce as soon as I have it confirmed. Thanks to the support of the Canadian Studies Program at UVM and the Department of English, the cost should be quite modest.

Required Texts:

Books:
Richard Harrison, Hero of the Play
Jacques Poulin, Volkswagen Blues
Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water

Audio:
Content distributed on the iPods

Hardware:
A protective case for your iPod. You are responsible for returning it in good shape, allowing for reasonable wear and tear.

Assignments

• Group presentation 25%
• Audio essay 20%
• Blog postings 10%
• Term paper (cancelled)
• Participation and attendance 15%
• Final exam 30% (will include questions on EVERYTHING covered in the course)

N.B. Late assignments will be penalized one grade increment per day past the assigned deadline, unless accompanied by a doctor's note outlining medical reasons for the delay.

Tentative Schedule

August 29th: Introduction
31/08/05: iPods
02/09/05: Intro to Canada
05/09/05: Labor Day
07/09/05: Intro to Canada
09/09/05: History (readings TBA)
12/09/05: History (readings TBA)
14/09/05: History (readings TBA)
16/09/05: Volkswagen Blues
19/09/05: Volkswagen Blues
21/09/05: Volkswagen Blues
23/09/05: Media and Govt. (readings TBA)
26/09/05: Media and Govt. (readings TBA)
28/09/05: Media and Govt. (readings TBA)
30/09/05: Media and Govt. (readings TBA)
03/10/05: Canada and the US (readings TBA)
05/10/05: Canada and the US (readings TBA)
07/10/05: Canada and the US (readings TBA, to include "Talking to Americans")
10/10/05: Hockey - the game
12/10/05: Hockey and Canadian culture (readings: the Hockey Sweater)
14/10/05: Fall Recess
17/10/05: Class cancelled
19/10/05:
October 20 – 22: Ottawa Trip. No class October 21 (Canadian comedy - videos on bus trip)
24/10/05: Hockey - the game (group presentation)
26/10/05: Hockey, Hero of the Play
28/10/05: Canada/US Relations continued, Hero of the Play
31/10/05: Podcasting workshop
02/11/05: Podcasting workshop
04/11/05: Podcasting workshop
07/11/05: Podcasting workshop
09/11/05: First Nations: Green Grass, Running Water
11/11/05: GGRW
14/11/05: GGRW
16/11/05: GGRW
18/11/05: The Truth About Stories (audio)
21/11/05: The Truth About Stories (audio)
November 23 – 25th: Thanksgiving Recess
28/11/05: Canadian Comedy
30/11/05: Canadian Comedy
02/12/05: Canadian Music (term paper due)
05/12/05: Canadian Music
December 7: Last day of class, review

December 15, 4 pm Final Exam