Syllabus for English 005 Fall 2009

English 005 TAP:
From Pucks to Parliament: Exploring Canadian Culture

From Canadian music (Arcade Fire, Neil Young, Nelly Furtado, Joni Mitchell, the Barenaked Ladies, Leonard Cohen, and Avril Lavigne to name a few), to Canadians in film and television (actors like Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Seth Rogen, 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.

And yet, if you ask the average American about Canada, you’ll find that most know very little about this mysterious land north of the US, labeled on most American maps as nothing more than “Canada.” In this course’s exploration of Canadian culture, we’ll “travel” from coast to coast to coast in our quest to learn more about the people, culture, politics, and history of Canada, the United States’ largest trading partner and one of its most important allies. Throughout our journey, we’ll be paying particular attention to Canadian literature, music, television, and movies.

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.

For the duration of the course, each student will also be loaned an iPod loaded with Canadian music, audio books, and lectures connected to the topics we will be studying.

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. You will also be watching some Canadian TV.

When you receive your iPod it will already be preloaded with a great deal of content. Take time to explore as much music and other content as you can. 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 likely be conveniently arranged as "playlists" on your iPod.

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 are not allowed to share any of the music you are being lent nor are you permitted 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 22-24 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 those days, I will be happy to provide that. The trip is mandatory for this TAP class. Around 100 students in total will head to Ottawa early Thursday morning and, over the course of two and a half days, we will do everything from touring Canada's Parliament and the Museum of Civilization to seeing a hockey game (the Ottawa 67s). The full itinerary will be announced closer to the trip.

The fee for students in our English 005 TAP class is $210 ($240 for other students), which includes all transportation, admission fees, two nights in a nice hotel in downtown Ottawa, and likely a dinner on Thursday night.

For crossing the border, make sure that you have a passport. Students without the proper documentation will not be allowed on the bus.

Required Texts:

Books:

Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road

Thomas King, The Truth About Stories

James, Patrick and Mark Kasoff, eds. Canadian Studies in the New Millennium

Other photocopied or online readings distributed by Professor Martin

A journal or notebook devoted solely to in-class writing


Audio:
Content distributed on the iPods

Assignments

• Blog postings 20%
• Group presentation 10% (due Nov. 6)
• Midterm exam 20% (October 17)
• Podcast 15% (due Nov. 7)
• Term paper/Final project 25% (due Dec. 10)
• Participation and attendance 10%

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

Sept. 2: Introduction; why study Canada?

Sept. 9: Canadian geography; Readings: Canadian Studies: intro and chapter one

Sept. 16: Canadian History; readings: Canadian Studies: chapter two; iPod distribution; Listen to: Week 1 playlist

Sept. 23: Three Day Road (have the entire book read); Canadian Studies: chapter four; Listen to Week 2 playlist

Friday Sept. 25: Joseph Boyden reading (4:00 PM, Memorial Lounge in Waterman)

SATURDAY SEPT 26th: Joseph Boyden at the Burlington Book Festival (1 pm, Great Room, 3rd Floor

Main Street Landing’s Performing Arts Center)

Sept. 30: Atlantic Canada; Alistair MacLeod stories; Listen to Week 3 playlist

Oct. 7: Canadian politics and government; Canadian Studies: chapter three; Listen to Week 4 playlist

Oct. 14: Ontario; PODCASTING WORKSHOP Listen to Week 5 playlist

Oct. 21: MIDTERM EXAM

Oct. 28: Ottawa (group presentations?); Listen to Week 6 playlist

Nov. 4: The Truth About Stories; have all of Thomas King's book read by today; Listen to Week 7 playlist

Nov. 11: Remembrance Day; Canada at war; readings TBA; Listen to Week 8 playlist

Nov. 18: Hockey and Canadian identity; Readings: poetry by Richard Harrison and Randall Maggs, "The Sweater" by Roch Carrier; Listen to Week 9 playlist

Nov. 25: Thanksgiving break; Listen to Week 10 playlist

Dec. 2: "Talking to Americans": Canada/US relations; Listen to Week 11 playlist

Dec. 7: TBA; RETURN iPods!!

UVM's policy on religious holidays:

Religious Holidays: Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their instructors by the end of the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester. Faculty must permit students who miss work for the purpose of religious observance to make up this work.

Academic integrity

Offenses against the Code of Academic Integrity are deemed serious and insult the integrity of the entire academic community. Any suspected violations of the code are taken very seriously and will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics & Standards for further investigation.