A Look at a Special Topics in British Literature Module and class

I thought I'd share how I designed and taught a module in my Special Topics in British Literature class.

This course can be retaken for credit as the theme/topic/focus changes each time it is offered. The idea was this would allow professors to offer the most engaging work that refleted the most current readings and scholarship.

I chose monsters as a theme.

I divided the class into four modules (You can find the complete syllabus here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LD_IVHZEbMi47C2FCrWBJ7tzTxd6yLjXGue9sZ-hNn0/edit). In the first module we used Guthlac as foundational text. For the second module I wanted to focus on analysis and responding to scholarship. Originally I had a list of articles, pieces, I planned on having the students respond to. But I realized as we worked through the first module that scholarship without context was not going to work. So I redesigned these weeks.

Instead I chose a major British work and chose a single scene in each work taht we would focus on. For each work the students got that excerpt of that scene for them to read and annotate in preparation for class, an in-class viewing of that scene from an adaptation, and articles/scholarship about that scene or the work as a whole that they also read before class. 

My idea was that the close reading focus would allow students to have a manageable section to focus on, a known lens through which to view it (monsters), and a model/example of analysis in the  scholarship. I wanted to do several things through this. The first was walk students through how to operate in a seminar. We only meet once a week for 3 hours, so the set up is ideal. But most had never taken a seminar, so a lot of the groundwork was laid in the first module. I prepped packets of historical context, notes, the text to close read, then scholarship that we went over in class so they learned by doing in class. Then in this module they have packets that are similar but less material that they are expected to read before class.

They also got a worksheet on how to prepare for seminar, and we went over and reviewed these steps, what it looked like.

The three texts I chose were:

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• The scene where the Green Knight appears
• We also read excerpts from Norton of Le Morte d'Arthur so they'd see "Old Arthur"
• Frankenstein
• We focused on the creation scene
• We watched the correlating scene in the 1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by Kenneth Branaugh
• We read Tracy Cox’s “Frankenstein and Its Cinematic Translations” chapter from Critical Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1998)
• Dracula
• We focus on the opening scene when Jonathan Harker arrives
• We will watch the correlating scene from 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula
• They will read Ahmet Anil Aygun's "The Genealogy of Bram Stoker's Dracula An Evolutionary Literary Analysis of The Vampire as a Meme"
• We will look a presentation of Vampire Memes I put together

At the beginning of class I fill our board with notes. I do this for all my upper level classes. I like to provide a road map for students. I don't always cover all of it in our discussion, but it's there if/when I make reference. The students also often take pictures of it so they have it.

Here is a picture of the board notes for Sir Gawain.

This class was our first in the module and while we used the entrance of the Green Knight as a focus, reading it in the original, in translation, the movie scene, we also read excerpts from Malory, and they had a timeline and notes on Arthurian texts in general. Even thought they had these packets before class to prep we still mostly looked at the close readings together, me asking guiding questions, them looking in text to answer. Once of the reasons why I like The Green Knight is that I think it reflects a lot about Arthurian tales- Morgan, older Arthur, pride of knights, corruption of round table, who is a hero, has honor? I think the movie while based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also makes a great way to talk about themes more broadly as represented by multiple text.

I opened with giving a mini-lecture, more explicitly walking through the timeline of texts, the board notes. Then we looked at the manuscript information, then the original, transation. After we'd focused on lines, diction, descriptions, we watched the scene. I asked more guided questions here too after first asking what they thought. I asked how they saw certain things from the texts, asked them to think back over certain aspects.

Since this was our first we connected the scholarly chapter to what we were talking about, but did not focus on it as much.

Here is a picture of the board notes for Frankenstein.

Sometimes I do the board notes first as visual notes. Most often I construct the visual board notes based on my notes and prep for class.

I have started each class asking what they already knew about the topic before prepping for the week. I like to do this to see what preconceived notions they have but also so that they can clearly identify for themselves what they thought/knew versus what the text says. Then we compare that to the adaptation. For Frankenstein this was a perfect fit because Cox explicitly says people's understanding of the Creature comes from popular culture and not the text.

I model, explain this to students, but I ask them to first read and annotate the text, then go through and make their notes for class. I encourage them during this second look to organize, look for themes, etc.

Each week after class I scan my notes/packet and upload for them so they have access to it. Many say they cannot read cursive, so that's been an obstacle to accessibility.

I opened our discussion of the text by asking how they did with it. They said having the shorter bit to focus on helped, as did knowing they were looking at it through the lens of monsters.

After asking students what their preconceived notions of Frankenstein were, I always open discussion with "what did you think?" I like to build in space for them to talk about what they liked, didn't, were confused by, and then use this as a way into "what do you want to talk about? What lines struck you? What did you notice?" This is where their notes, their line choices, come in. I tell them when they're prepping for class to specifically think of things they want to talk about in class.

Sometimes this works great, sometimes not, so I always make sure I have close readings for us to look at.

When students ask questions I try to direct them back to the group- "well what do you all think?" Sometimes I fill in the blanks depending on the question, or provide some context. I also encourage students during these discussions to add to their notes. Their seecond assignment asks them to analyze one of the texts we've covered, so I also encourage them as they read, as we talk, to identify things they might want to base their paper on. This analysis assignment is designed for them really just to use what we've done in class. The only outside work is that they need at least two secondary sources and the packets for Frankenstein and Dracula only have one, but I feel confident they won't have a problem finding the second.

After a while, the students don't need me to prompt them, they're connecting one line/scene to another, and referencing what each said in class. They stay grounded in the text- "On page 32 where he says..." As the conversation winds down, I make sure I build in wait time, giving them a chance to process, gather their thoughts. When I think we're about done I ask "Is there anything you wanted to cover that we haven't talked about?" This lets them think about this, go back over their notes and check, or ask something they hadn't originally marked but came up as a result of the conversation.

Because their analysis assignment is grounded in close reading, in addition to them demonstrating it in discussion I also wanted them to have some practice physically doing it so I prepared a worksheet for them. I chose close reading lines from the section/scene we focused on.

We did the first one as a group, I wrote the title on the board and I wrote things down as they called out.

We did not do all the lines on the worksheet, but we did a couple more so that they understood and feltt comfortable doing it. They also then have these if they want to use any of these lines for their paper.

All this was about half of class, so we took our break.

When we came back I put on the scene from Kenneth Branaugh's Frankenstein that we had read. It was about twenty minutes and I ask them to think of the lines we worked on and discussed, the themes and big ideas they came up with, and take notes on those.

I like that the students have access the previous class (and scans available) to the texts, but that they go into the movie scene blind.

After we finished the scene we did something similar as we had with the texts- what did you think, what did you want to talk about. I take detailed notes on the scenes as part of my class prep, points to make, connections. I used this a lot last week with The Green Knight. This week the students really didn't need any prompting. But again, they will have access to all my notes in case they want to go back and look at something or supplement their own.

Once we had exhausted this we turned to what Cox said, although several times the students brought up what the chapter said as part of our discussion.

I made sure to tell them repeatedly throughout the class how proud I was of their prep, their engagement, how on point it was. How good. I ended class by reminding them to be thinking of their text choice for the paper.

I'm looking forward to finishing this module next week and seeing how the students build on these first two weeks with Dracula. 

The module after this focuses on Macbeth, and we watch the 2010 Patrick Stewart adaptation first, then the week after dive into the text, so I think the work we've done in this module is a great preparation for that. Their assignment for that module is another close reading but they're expanding to talk about how it shows a bigger theme or topic.

Their final assignment is to give a presentation based on a 16 week syllabus THEY have created for British Literature, talking about what works they included and why. What sources, articles, blogs they'd assign, why. What themes they'd focus on.