GLST 101 Alpha Seminar - The American Experience
2006-2007
Fall Semester: American Dreams

Instructor: Dr. Erin Kenny
ekenny@drury.edu
Office: 334 Burnham Hall
873-7226
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:30-12:30 and by appointment

Course Description
Alpha Seminar is the gateway to the Global Studies program at Drury University, a unique and integrated approach to liberal education that sets Drury apart from other schools around the country. This course explores who we are as individuals and as a country, how our identity is constructed and transmitted, how we determine ideal relationships with society, and what consequences may follow from who we choose to be and how others see us. In addition to exploring the American experience, this course is specifically designed to develop student skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, and public speaking.

Required Texts

Additional texts and readings may be announced in class.

Points for Semester
Attendance 100
Participation 100
Homework (25 x 10 pts each) 250
Convo Papers (4 x 25 pts each) 100
Autobiography Paper 100
Clarification & Analysis Paper 100
Compare & Contrast 100
Final Paper (Narrative Essay) 150
Total 1000 points

Grading Scale
92% or higher - A
90 - 91.99% - A-
87-89.99% - B+
82 - 86.99% - B
80 - 81.99% - B-
77 - 79.99% - C+
72 - 76.99% - C
70 - 71.99% - C-
67 - 69.99% - D+
62 - 66.99% - D
60 - 61.99% - D-

Course Requirements
As with any class, we may find particular subjects that capture our interest or redirect our energies. I reserve the right to modify these requirements verbally throughout the semester, if situations arise that necessitate some changes.

1.  Attendance: I will say this to you many times during the year: about 70% of what you learn at the university happens outside the classroom. The most important skill you will learn here is to manage your time effectively, efficiently, and professionally. Therefore, missing class for legitimate reasons should not lower your grade. However, you are enrolled at a prestigious university, and Drury students are expected to attend all class sessions.

That said, I understand that every university student may have some personal issues during the course of the semester, including illness, the need to be present for a friend, the need to run a personal errand, or just plain old rainy Mondays. I believe that students are in the best position to make decisions about how to manage their time. Therefore, everyone will have three “no questions asked” absences each semester. After three absences, your attendance grade will be configured as a percentage of the number of times you are present over the number of times the course meets. This entire percentage counts as one-tenth of your grade, which can potentially mean the difference between an “A” and a “B” in the course. There will be no exceptions to this policy, including sports events or extended illnesses. You make the decision about how to manage your time.

Here are the practical nuts and bolts of our attendance contract for this course :

You can only earn attendance points for the times in class you are physically present; meaning you do not arrive late, you do not leave early, and you remain alert throughout the class period. Absence is never an excuse for missing an assignment! If you are not present, you cannot hand in homework or earn participation credit. According the homework policy (see #3, below), you have six “free passes” to use at your own discretion: these include the days that you may be legitimately ill, or out of town, or whatever – so use them wisely!!! I am implementing this new policy as an experiment this year, in response to critiques of former students that feel like “babies” in Alpha.

Understand: I believe very strongly that you're an adult with a professional future ahead of you. Learning to manage your time and maintain professionalism are crucial skills for functioning effectively in American culture. We will start cultivating that kind of engaged professionalism here.

2.  Participation: Class participation includes asking questions, commenting on current topics, becoming involved in discussion, effort during in-class group projects, and reporting the results from group work. Class participation also means engaging with your classmates (and me) and being a good classroom citizen – which means you pay attention, respectfully agree or disagree with others, avoid sleeping or chatting with neighbors, and definitely don't play with your phone or iPod or PDA or Gameboy or abacus or whatever. Be courteous and silence your electronics before coming to class: if you forget, just silence it as quickly as possible and act responsibly.

Allow me to stress: You simply cannot receive an A in this class if you do not participate regularly and constructively. If you're shy, and it's hard to speak up, come talk to me and we will strategize to improve your participation. Be proactive, participate, become reflexive and thoughtful and you will absolutely earn a high grade. No matter how brilliant you are, if you just sit there all semester, I cannot ascertain your intellectual growth and our entire intellectual community will suffer from your lack of presence. We learn by doing, so teach yourself to participate constructively and watch how your world changes.

3.  Homework: I am implementing homework assignments this semester to encourage students to develop good study habits. Students will submit typed assignments based on the questions that either precede or follow the assigned readings for that day. You must answer the questions in complete sentences with proper grammar and punctuation (this is college, this is a writing course), and the assignments must be handed in on the day the reading is due.

Each assignment will be worth 10 points and will be graded for effort, critical thinking, and thoroughness. Be aware that paired readings actually introduce two sets of questions to answer, but I would never expect a homework assignment to exceed two typed pages. There are 31 opportunities to do homework; over the course of the semester, I will tally up a maximum of 250 points for you. This gives you a certain amount of freedom in structuring your own schedule this semester. It means that six times during the semester, you have a “free pass” to choose not to do homework at all, or to accommodate for a session that you missed due to illness or an external activity . There are an unprecedented thirty students enrolled in this class, so I am counting on you to manage this flexibility like an adult: this will give you some practice with managing your time and your priorities.

For practical reasons, I will not accept late work, nor will I allow you to hand in assignments from a different week. (Imagine how that can potentially increase my workload for the last week of classes: all of a sudden, 30 of you hand in 25 homework assignments!! Not professional, not reasonable, not fair.) Please do not ask me to make exceptions to this very clear policy: making an exception for you represents an injustice to someone else who actually did do the assignment properly. Theoretically, if you hand in all homework assignments in order, you will be done with the homework portion of the grade by November 13.

4.  Convocation papers: This year's Convocation Series deals with the topic of Living in a Post-9/11 World. Each alpha student must attend four convocations (not including the opening convocation) this semester and write a two to three-page typed summary (including identifying the thesis and argument of the speaker) and a response to the convocation. (In general, a “page” at Drury is about 250 words, in 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. This page, for example, has about 550 words. ) Convocation papers are due on the first Monday that follows the convocation. Again, for practical reasons, I will not accept late convo papers.

Students must attend the Opening Convocation on August 24.

Students must attend at least four of the following:

Josh Filler & Nadine Strossen Debate
This America : Protecting Our Securities or Stripping Our Liberties?
August 31, 2006
7 pm - 8:30 pm, Clara Thompson Hall

Peter Clothier
Looking Askance: Staying Alert in Difficult Times
September 7, 2006
11 am, Clara Thompson Hall

Founders Day Convocation: Karen Williams
Global Security Challenges in a Post-9/11 World
September 21, 2006
11 am, Stone Chapel

Janis Karpinski
Inside Abu Ghraib
September 28, 2006
11 am, Clara Thompson Hall

Eric Posner
The Laws of War and the War on Terrorism
October 19, 2006
11 am, Clara Thompson Hall

Duane Bedell
The Perfection of Violence: Suicide Bombers and the New Rules of Engagement
November 2, 2006
11 am, Clara Thompson Hall

Nathan Hodge
Reporting on the Edge
November 30, 2006
11 am, Clara Thompson Hall

More information about each program is available at http://www.drury.edu/section/section.cfm?sid=291 .

Information may also be available in class.

5.  Papers: In keeping with the other Alpha sections, this section will complete approximately 20-25 pages of formal written work throughout the semester. For these formal papers, students will either be required to submit a rough draft to me before completing the final draft, or “workshop” the essay before revising it. Because writing is a process, grades will be determined in part by the improvement that the writing shows from the first draft to the final draft. Homework assignments should prove to be a rich source for ideas for these papers, so be sure to keep copies.

Good writing is a skill. It is perhaps the most valuable skill you will learn at the university, and so we will PRACTICE and PRACTICE this semester.

Over the course of the first semester, we will review a number of writing techniques, including brainstorming, thesis construction, outlines, rough drafts, and group workshops. Students will work alone, in groups, and with partners (both chosen and anonymously assigned) to prepare four writing samples:

Autobiographical Paper (5-6 pages)
Compare and Contrast Paper (5-6 pages)
Clarification Paper (5-6 pages)
Narrative Essay (6-8 pages)

More specific details about each of these assignments will be announced in class.

I encourage you to pay a visit to Drury's Writing Center , located in Olin Library, Room 204 (873-7224). The staff there can help with all stages of the writing process, from pre-writing to drafting, revising, and polishing your final project.

All written work must be edited, spell-checked, and typed prior to being submitted. Because the Drury community places a high value on academic integrity, plagiarism in any form is prohibited and all sources (even for paraphrases and statistics) must be identified and cited properly.

Course Outline, Reading Schedule, and Homework Assignments

Some adjustments may be made to the course schedule and course requirements during the course of the term. All changes will be announced in class in advance.

Articles from the Alpha Reader are always preceded by a section called “Questions for Discussion.” You must answer these questions in complete sentences and turn them is as homework on the day that the reading is due. If you are absent, your answers will not be accepted on a late basis.

INTRODUCTION:
CRITICAL THINKING IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

Aug 23 Mills, “What's So Good About a College Education?”
Alpha Reader, p. x-xiiii

Aug 25 The Kite Runner

Aug 28 The Kite Runner

Aug 30 The Kite Runner

Sept 1 The Kite Runner

Sept 4 Labor Day - No Class

Sept 6 Writing Workshop One – Active and Passive Verb Tenses
St. Martin's Handbook, p. 616-644

Sept 8 Autobiographical Paper Due (3-4 pages)

PART ONE:
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COMMUNITY: What are core American ideals?

Sept 11 Introduction to Alpha Seminar, “Declaration of Independence,” and “Bill of Rights”
Alpha Reader, p. 1-11

Sept 13 Hostetler, “The Amish Charter”
Re-Mix, p. 99-108

Sept 15 McClintock et al, “Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848”
Alpha Reader, p. 12-16

Sept 18 Udovitch, “A Secret Society of the Starving”
Re-Mix, p. 109-117

Sept 20 Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”
Alpha Reader, p. 40-49

Sept 22 Brooks, “Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia”
Re-Mix, p. 139-49

Sept 25 King, “Letter From Birmingham Jail”
Alpha Reader, p. 66-78

Sept 27 Paired Readings – Focus on Place
Re-Mix, p. 127-138

Sept 29 Nava and Dawidoff, "What Do They Want, Anyway?"
Alpha Reader, p. 87-102

Oct 2 Clustered Readings – Focus on the Wedding
Re-Mix, p. 347 -353

Oct 4 Writing Workshop Two – Rhetoric (and a little bit of punctuation)
St. Martin's Handbook, p. 43-56

Oct 6 Donahue & Granser, “The Land of the Setting Sun”
Re-Mix, p. 161-69

Oct 9 Paired Readings – Focus on Networks
Re-Mix, p. 149-160

Oct 11 Clarification and Analysis Paper Due (5-6 pages)

Oct 13 FALL BREAK - No Class

PART TWO :
IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE: Who am I?

Oct 16 Mills, “Theoretical Introduction” and Thornton, “What the Census Doesn't Count”
Alpha Reader, p. 105-113 Re-Mix, p. 65-68

Oct 18 McIntosh, “White Privilege” and White, “High School's Secret Life”
Alpha Reader, p. 183-188 Re-Mix, p. 15-20

Oct 20 Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Alpha Reader, p. 116-136

Oct 23 du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”
Alpha Reader, p. 138-144

Oct 25 Rodriguez, “Blaxicans” and Morales & Morales, “Ending Poem”
Re-Mix, p. 120-126 Re-Mix, p. 95-98

Oct 27 Byrd & Tharps, “Rituals of Black Hair” and Paired Readings – Focus on Hollywood
Re-Mix, p.120-126 Re-Mix, p. 424-431

Oct 30 Adams & Bettis, “Cheerleader” and Staples, “Star Spangled Hard Hat”
Re-Mix, p. 233- 242 Re-Mix, p. 243-245

Nov 1 Sanders, “Looking at Women” and Sternbergh, “Britney Spears”
Re-Mix, p. 329-339 Re-Mix, p. 371-382

Nov 3 Tannen, from You Just Don't Understand
Alpha Reader, p. 189-205

Nov 6 Martin, "The Egg and the Sperm"
Alpha Reader, p. 206-217

Nov 8 Wilson, “Dude Look Like a Lady” and Sullivan, “The ‘He' Hormone”
Re-Mix, p. 21-24 Re-Mix, p. 25-41

Nov 10 Cahan, “I Discover America ”
Alpha Reader, p. 151-169

Nov 13 Hammad, “A Road Still Becoming" and Grealy, “Masks”
Alpha Reader, p. 222-228 Re-Mix, p. 45-48

Nov 15 Lazarus, “The New Colossus” and Keillor, “A Wobegon Holiday Dinner”
Alpha Reader, p. 137 Re-Mix, p. 225-232

Nov 17 Writing Workshop Three – Disciplinary Writing
St. Martin's Handbook , p. 860-960, but especially 860-870 and your disciplinary interest

Nov 20 Compare and Contrast Papers Due (5-6 pages)

Nov 22 No Class- Thanksgiving Break

Nov 24 No Class- Thanksgiving Break

Nov 27 Paired Readings – Focus on the Family
Re-Mix, p. 185-194

Nov 29 “Introduction to Romance” and Kipnis, “Against Love”
Re-Mix, p. 261-270 Re-Mix, p. 308-317

Dec 1 Clustered Readings – Focus on Dating Rules
Re-Mix, p. 295-307

Dec. 4 Roiphe, “Profiles Encouraged” and Lee, “Fashion Victim's 10 Commandments”
Re-Mix, p. 376-382 Re-Mix, p. 69-76

Dec 6 Twain, “Two Views of the River”
Alpha Reader, p. xix-xx

Dec 8 extensive notes on your writing partner's paper

Dec??? Narrative Essay Due (6-8 pages)

Coming Attractions

Next semester,

we will continue building upon the topics and theories covered so far to
talk about Private Interest and Public Welfare in American Culture.
We will discuss two key topics: Nature and Technology.

We will also work toward developing library research skills and writing a major research paper of about 15 pages, not including a Works Cited page.