Montville High School-ENGLISH/HISTORY 185
UCONN ECE MARITIME STUDIES (MAST) 1200
Ms. Wendy Halsey –English
Mr. Michael Marelli – History
Fall and Spring Semesters of 2012-13
Classrooms 210 and 207
Office Hours: Every Tuesday from 2:20 to 3:20
Course Description : ECE Maritime Studies is an interdisciplinary course designed
for students who are ready for the demands and rigor of a college course in their senior
year. The curriculum will be a thematic approach to exploration of the sea and the
literature that has arisen from people’s relationship to it. Throughout history, the sea has
served as a highway, a source of food, and an arena for warfare and a stage for discovery.
More recently, a dumping ground for our planet's garbage and economic disaster debris.
This course will explore Maritime History with attention to international linkages
afforded by the ocean. Students will consider the literature that resulted as humans
interacted with the ocean along with art, music, photography and film. The course is
designed as a general education credit for UCONN, but also an Introduction to Maritime
Studies offered at Avery Point Campus of UCONN.
Through reading, discussion, seminars, filed trips and lectures, we will explore
the literary and historical topics from a variety of perspectives. These will include ethnic,
gender, historical, religious, political, intellectual and economic.
Course Requirements:
Class Participation
Written assignments of various lengths and genres
Presentations
Formal Written Evaluative Exercises
Exhibitions
Class Participation:
Many classes will involve discussion of readings, lectures, films and reflections.
Participation is absolutely mandatory. Many of the issues will be controversial which will
require open minds, civil manners, and a willingness to shift perspectives with new ideas.
Often, homework will require a preparation for discussion, so it is essential that you
complete assignments on time. Participation will be a part of your grade.
Written Assignments:
ECE English program models their writing practices on Joseph Harris’s book
Rewriting; we will do the same. There are five steps to writing; Coming to Terms with
the text, Forwarding the text, Countering the text, Taking an Approach, and finally,
Revising. Students may purchase the book at Amazon or accept copies in parts.
Field Trips:
Field trips are considered a required part of this course. These will include visit to
the Mystic Seaport, various battlefields and war sites in the local area, New London
waterfront, Stonington Village, Boston Harbor, the Nautilus and others to be determined.
A written assignment will accompany each visitation that will be a part of your grade.
Presentations:
Presentations will occur several times during the year. These will usually be a
collaborative effort between small groups of students. Everyone is invited to use
whatever level of technology they are comfortable with, but students should also
challenge themselves to try a new technique or software. The presentations will be multifaceted incorporating a variety of mediums including music, poetry, speech, a visual
component and/or culinary.
Formal Written Evaluative Exercises:
At the end of each quarter, students will be required to write an evaluative
exercise on the ideas and the content that has been covered in class and in readings.
These will be open-ended questions, research based analysis that include a reflection of
learning.
Exhibition:
The culminating activity of this course will be a project that expresses the
students’ understanding of content and an ability to create their own definition of our
relationship with the sea. Students are invited to develop projects that are based on their
individual strengths and talents.
Thematic Units Include:
Current Environmental Issues and Navigation
Middle Passage and Pirates
Whaling and Fishing
Navy and Recreation
Readings Include:
Summer Reading_-Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
Longitude by Dava Sobel
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly
Or
The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Captain’s Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw
Looking for a Ship by John McPhee
Excerpts, short stories, and choice books include;
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano
The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding
Sea Wolf by Jack London
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
Whale Hunt by Nelson Cole Haley
White Squall