Course Expectations and Mapping Activity

YOU ARE HERE- PLACE BASED ENGLISH 250

In this course we will explore the environment and environmental writing as we learn to be better communicators in writing, speech, our use of visuals and technology. However, this will not be "an environmentalist course" as much as a class where we explore our understanding of place and our own role within it. We will examine not only the American wilderness but man-made considerations of the urban world and broader questions of community and identity, not limited to the natural environment.

The American landscape has long played a role in American literature. This course will explore how writers both reflect and construct “place” in their texts. Students will encounter readings by a diverse group of writers including Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and Michael Chabon.

This course will not only require analysis of American environmental literature—it will also push you to develop analytical skills and use them to examine your own ideas about environment, landscape, and home. Students will work in written, oral, visual, and electronic mediums to synthesize their understanding of “place”. Work will include two formal essays, a literacy autobiography, a photo project, a group project, a portfolio and regular blogging. 



In this class, we will  hone our skills of influence. Together we will discuss how that influence affects the places we are from, and the landscapes we inhabit. 

GOALS
To improve your ability to communicate by appealing to people's logic, emotion, and sense of credibility

• Have our messages heard by crafting poignant, clear, and timely communications that embrace the use of technology
• Meet the communication needs of our intended audiences
• Explore how others influence us using visual, aural, and written texts 
• Understand the landscapes and places the influence us better, and be able to articulate our relationship with place

EXPECTATIONS

• Recognize and take advantage of the fact that you have something to add to the discussion
• Respect each other, the class time we have together, and your own education
• Find a way to make this class personally enriching and enjoyable. 
• That you don't value yourself based on the grades you receive. Grades are destructive to the learning process, and although I am required to give them, they aren't always an accurate indication of growth. 
• That you communicate with each other and with me to answer questions you have, and to resolve problems that arise during the course.

What are your expectations? 

What are you expecting to get out of this class? 

Is there anything in particular you want to focus on during this class?

MAPPING ACTIVITY

In a course which explores the ways we represent the "places" we inhabit and the implications of those representations it makes sense to begin with mapping--to start by exploring the way we visually depict geographical spaces. What is gained by mapping a place? What is represented? What is lost? What does the map portray about the mapmaker?

This American Life: Episode 110: Mapping


http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/110/Mapping


"Maps have meaning because they filter out all the chaos in the world...and this is the age of maps...something like 99.9 percent of all maps have been made in this century. Every map is the world seen through a different lens."-Ira Glass

You can also map places with words:

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/place_where_you_live/
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/place_where_you_live/view/iowa_kid_5751/

Susan Holmes Anderson maps a place she knows well. She is an expert in this environment, and know its details and how it differs from other places. She had something to tell about this place that no one else can because she is familiar with it.

What lens do you see the world through? What places are you able to map through memory? How can you use a map to tell your own story of place?


In class: 

First: Sketch a map of a place that is important to you and that you would consider yourself to be familiar with. It can be your dorm room, your hometown, your childhood neighborhood, your family's vacation route, or any place that your remember well. Add as many details and memories into your depiction as possible.

Next: Map that place with words. Write down every element of a place you can remember, quickly, with as much detail as possible. What odd details do you remember? (e.g. the gargoyle shaped knot in the tree, a gray rug with a dark stain the shape of Brazil)?  What were your favorite things to look at in this place? Your least favorite? Why? What felt like yours and what didn't? 

Finally:When you have finished, share these with a neighbor. After you have explained your map, swap papers so you can read what the other person wrote. Below their writing, write a few sentences about what you can learn about this map maker based on the map he or she created. Hand in your map with your name, and the name of the partner who commented on it.

HOMEWORK


Homework will be posted here and to blackboard each week.

1)  Read Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts." This can be found in the reading folder of Blackboard course content. Bring this reading to class on Thursday for discussion.

2) Write your own first draft of Assignment 1, type it, and bring an electronic copy (by e-mail or flash drive or on your laptop) to class on Thursday 1/12. You will be sharing your draft with a classmate as part of an exercise and then sending it to me. You can find the assignment 1 prompt and rubric in the Assignment folder of Blackboard.