Larson-Thorisch: Hollywood’s America-blended
COURSE SYLLABUS
Hollywood’s America – HUMN 2663 - blended
Spring 2021 _ 202120
COURSE INFORMATION:
Section: 201
CRN: 20081
Semester Start Date: 19 January 2021
Semester End Date: 16 May 2021
Format: Blended
Class Meetings
Day(s) and Time(s): Wednesdays 6 – 7:20 pm
Campus/Room Number: Northeast Campus, Rm AB 219
CONTACTING YOUR PROFESSOR:
Instructor: Dr. Alexa Larson-Thorisch
Campus/Office Number: Metro Academic Bldg, Rm 512
Student Hours: (highly flexible!) while I will hold physical office hours Thursday afternoons between 1 and 3 pm at
the Metro Campus this semester following my 11 am – 12:20 pm class, our best opportunities to talk will be before and
after class on Wednesdays. If we are not able to stay over in our classroom, we will be able to find an open space at
NEC. Outside of our weekly meetings, Blackboard Announcements will alert you to when I am available for online office
hours and immediate email communication. We will also have the option of meeting virtually by appointment with
Blackboard Collaborate.
A third option may be texting with Remind. I used this service successfully during the 2020 Summer and Fall terms,
but have not yet set it up for the current semester. Remind is a free service available to educators and students that is
used by many K-12 schools. It allows educators at institutions that do not subscribe a certain number of free “classes”
too. If I have not used up my free trials, I will set up a single Remind class for all of my Spring 2021 students. Stay tuned
for more information here!
Phone: 918-595-7138. Since on campus office hours will be limited to Thursday afternoons during the Spring 2021 term
and I do not always check for voices messages, email (or Remind) will be your best option this semester. I also expect to
have a temporary office at NEC again this semester. On Wednesdays you should be able reach me there by phone
shortly before our class meets. Here is the ph. # 918-595-8400.
Email: alexa.larson-thorisch@tulsacc.edu. Once the semester is underway, I am usually able to answer student email
within 24 – 48 hours on weekdays. Weekends are less predictable. If you do not have an email response after 48 hours,
please resend or alert me some other way to your original message.
School Office Information
School: Liberal Arts
Campus/Office Number: Metro Academic Bldg., Rm 416
Phone: 918-595-7066
STUDENT SUPPORT:
Campus Access
To align with CDC guidelines for social distancing and in-person gathering limits, students will have limited access to
learning spaces on campus for study, technology use, and testing. Please monitor the TCC website @ www.tulsacc.edu
Template Revised 7/10/2020
Humanities 2663-201: Spr 2021_Larson-Thorisch rev. Jan 2021
Page 1
Larson-Thorisch: Hollywood’s America-blended
for the most up-to-date information about campus access. A complete list of how to access services, supports, and
resources is available @ www.tulsacc.edu/campus-life/campus-safety/coronavirus/college-updates/students. If you do
not see a resource that you need to be successful in completion of this course, contact me or Call2000 at 918.595.2000
or email at call2000@tulsacc.edu.
Technical Support
Call2000 at 918-595-2000 or email call2000@tulsacc.edu for help w. technology, incl. Blackboard, TCC email and MyTCC.
Academic & Student Services
Information about Student Resources is available on the TCC Website, and Safety and Wellness information is available
on the MyTCC Safety and Wellness page.
Microsoft Office
If you do not have Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), you can download it from MyTCC on the My Account
tab. Look for the “Student Software Downloads” link in the Student Quick Links box.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PREREQUISITES:
Course Catalog Description
This course explores how films about America and/or Americans both reflect and inform national and international
thinking about American society, history, heroes, heroines and villains and, by extension, real people. It will examine
values, myths and legends about America and Americans as portrayed by Hollywood.
Course Prerequisites: NA
Next Course in Sequence: NA - Humanities courses may be taken in any order.
TEXTBOOKS, SUPPLIES, & OTHER RESOURCES:
Required Textbook(s)
Title: AMERICAN FILM AND SOCIETY SINCE 1945
Edition: 5th Ed. if new; 4th Ed. + pdf copies of the Intro and Ch 9 if you purchase used. (See course site for PDFs)
Author: Leonard Quart and Albert Auster
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 978-1-4408-5945-8 (5e)
Textbooks and supplies may be purchased at:
eBook/Kindle – online at Amazon, TCC Online Bookstore or for rental, or any vendor of your choice.
OTHER:
For Spring 2021 you have the following required films (12) to watch – roughly one film per week -- plus a “Floater”
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Breakfast Club (1985)
- High Noon (1952)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- Thelma and Louise (1991)
- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- Good Will Hunting (1997)
- Rocky (1976)
- Spotlight (2015)
- All the President’s Men (1976)
- McFarland, USA (2015)
Floater (= not part of a Unit packet): Hidden Figures (2017)
To my knowledge, Amazon Video has each of the films to rent for streaming – $3.99 or less (approximately $50.00 for
the semester). Netflix and other streaming sites such as Hulu or Disney+ may be other sources. Although the timing is
sometimes tricky, most if not all of these films are part of the Tulsa City County Library collection. I will come to class
with a personal copy of each film. While TCC Library reserve copies will not be available this semester to you this
semester, it will be worth checking TCC’s Video on Demand collection before you pay to stream. In addition, our
Humanities Librarian Amanda Ross will again be looking for links to at least some of these films in subscription databases
Template Revised 7/10/2020
Humanities 2663-201: Spr 2021_Larson-Thorisch rev. Jan 2021
Page 2
Larson-Thorisch: Hollywood’s America-blended
or other online sources. Any links she finds will be available to us through the Library / Research Guide that she
manages. There are several ways you can access this Guide, including this link. The common way is through the Library
Home Page. From there, select: Research Guides, Humanities, Hollywood’s America (HUMN 2663).
A NOTE about Quart & Auster Reading Assignments: your weekly reading schedule follows the textbook Chapters.
Your Units in this course do the same. If you are inclined to read selectively, and skim or skip interpretations of
individual films not part of this course, that is fine. The introductory and the summarizing sections are most valuable to
us, as they contextualize Hollywood films decade by decade. You will also find that some of the films in our schedule are
not part of AMERICAN FILM AND SOCIETY SINCE 1945, while some are treated briefly and others are treated in detail.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Institutional Learning Outcomes:
Tulsa Community College graduates value cultural diversity, ethical behavior, and the unique role of public education in
sustaining a free society. The following institutional learning outcomes function independently and in concert. TCC
graduates demonstrate: 1. Communication Skills; 2. Critical Thinking; 3. Personal Responsibility; and 4. Social
Responsibility.
Program Learning Outcomes:
To access program learning outcomes specific to your degree or certificate, go to the online catalog and click Programs,
then select your program from the list and scroll down to Program Learning Outcomes.
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Recount the historical outlines of the United States since 1945
- Apply the structural concepts of film
- Interpret the social and cultural issues addressed in American film.
[or not! L-Th edit!]
- Reflect a multicultural perspective accompanied by a more finely tuned sense of what it means to be an “American”
or to live in Hollywood’s “America.”
TEACHING METHODS, ASSIGNMENTS and GRADING:
To fit the blended delivery format this semester while also preserving as much of the usual classroom discussions as
possible, I have positioned all film screenings as weekly homework. Unit reading assignments are located with film
titles, with the difference that Chapter readings from American Society and Film change per Unit, or biweekly. The silver
lining of offering this course in the blended format is that you will be able to watch each assigned film at a time that is
convenient for you in one sitting. You may also be able to watch with friends and/or family members. The loss to us as a
class is that of collective viewing, though you can expect some classroom screening as input for discussions. You will see
that the “homework” for a given week - required reading, required film screenings, long and short writing assignments appears in your Course Calendar above each Wednesday meeting date. Keep in mind that your weekly prep time is
more fluid than this visual indicates. Strictly speaking, your weekly reading, writing and viewing time starts on Thursday
after each Wednesday class. Put another way, textbook readings and film screenings are largely preparatory – Wednesday
to Wednesday. Writing assignments deadlines overlap with prep time, such that you will find yourself working two
different Units simultaneously. You will find due date reminders in your Course Calendar, oriented toward right-hand
margins. Submission deadlines are routinely set for 11:59 pm Sundays. Keeping an eye on the Online Blackboard (Bb)
Calendar will help you see this. This “at a glance” monthly format gives everyone a convenient visual overview of what
is due when. An added Calendar feature are the pop ups, which show you grade book descriptions of assignments.
Please note that 11:59 pm Sunday submission deadlines are the norm in online courses and that this easily
carries over to blended courses. Sunday evenings are consequently high traffic times in Blackboard. For this reason,
coupled with the fact that many more students than in past semesters will be submitting assignments electronically, I have
held off setting closing timers for most assignments for now. This is not an invitation to submit late work! Rather, it is a
safety precaution. The advantage for me, assuming everyone is comfortable with submission windows staying open past
their “published” deadlines, is that I will not need to reset end timers to facilitate approved, late-ish submissions. The
advantage for you is that you will have less cause to panic if you experience any sort of technical trouble around the
Sunday midnight hour or are interrupted by emergencies or health-related complications this term. Experience tells us
Template Revised 7/10/2020
Humanities 2663-201: Spr 2021_Larson-Thorisch rev. Jan 2021
Page 3
Larson-Thorisch: Hollywood’s America-blended
that the best remedy for Blackboard issues is logging out and taking a (short) break before attempting to submit or upload
again. Here is a final heads up: unless you have instructor approval, do not submit your work as email attachments.
Email will move things from you to me, but it also bypasses (a) required online plagiarism checks and (b) online grading
tools, which I often use. In short, submitting new work via email is very different from returning graded work via email.
As a whole, your writing assignments and our classroom discussions will prompt you to reflect on how you
watch, evaluate and absorb, modify, or reject any (new) ideas, information and images that Hollywood films present
to you. With respect to writing assignments specifically, it is important that you edit your work for mechanical errors
(punctuation, word order, spelling, upper and lower cases, subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference); appropriate
word choices (avoid slang, vary your vocabulary, think about connotations); and sentence structure and length. Think
about clarity, connotations, coherence and the rhythm of what you write. Ask yourself how your words work together
and how consistently you have organized your ideas. Is your focus steady? Have you gone beyond a string of surface
observations? Are you interpreting? In other words, think about the “At a Glance Writing Rubric” that is posted to
your course site! If your feedback includes “Dig deeper!” or an equivalent comment, you have not supported your
main ideas or worse yet, may not even have a main idea! Finally, when you are speaking from personal experience or
are explaining what you think and why, use the first person. Every semester I hear from students that they have been
taught not to write reasoned, first person opinions or first person reflective essays. What this usually means is that
they have been trained to report rather than grapple with articulating their own point of view. If this has been your
experience, get ready to shift gears and own what you write! I know the plots of the films we are watching. What I do
not know is how each you will respond to these films! So without losing track of the details of a given film, do your
best to tell me what I do not and cannot already know! Tell me what you think about each film in our list and why.
Grades will be posted as they become available. It is my habit to post announcements that track when I start and
when I finish grading most any assignment. I also tend to move around in the roster so that the same students are not
waiting for their scores each time an assignment is graded. Be aware that as long as Worksheet Packets are complete,
you will receive qualitative % scores. For this reason, individual worksheet sections do not receive specific point values
as feedback. The caveat is that incomplete sections in any worksheet trigger a shift to quantitative scoring that is usually
costly; fully number-based (= quantitative) grading systems are inevitably more rigid than more flexible, qualitative
grading systems when assessing writing assignments.
ASSIGNMENT SUMMARY
(POINT VALUES)
Intro Blog: Expectations, Predilections (1 x 1.25) =
PERCENTAGE
SCORES
01.25%
Unit Worksheets (12 x 1.0) + (12 x 3.0) + (6 x 6.5) =
o (12 film Blogs @ 1.0 pts each = 12 pts)
87.0%
o (12 First Step Worksheets @ 3 pts each = 36 pts)
o (06 Second Step Essay @ 6.5 pts each = 39 pts)
Wk 6 Blog: These Amazing Shadows (1 x 1) =
01.0%
Final Blog: Hidden Figures (1 x 1.25) =
01.25%
Final Matching Quiz = (24 x .25 = 6) (+ 2 pts ec poss.)
06.0%
Final Essay: Reflection(s) on Violence (prompt TBD)
03.5 %
100 pts = 100%
____________________________________________________________________________________________
100.00 - 89.5% = A
89.49 - 79.5% = B
79.49- 69.5% = C
69.49 - 59.5% = D
Below 59.5% = F
ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION:
NA Fall 2020 re TCC Covid-19 accommodations. Given our circumstances this semester, I will keep weekly attendance
records as usual, but will not post specific attendance & participation scores to the gradebook. Be aware, however, that
I may factor in attendance for students whose final scores come in just below a grade level. In short,
necessary absences will not directly harm your final grade, while consistent attendance may benefit it secondarily.
Template Revised 7/10/2020
Humanities 2663-201: Spr 2021_Larson-Thorisch rev. Jan 2021
Page 4
Larson-Thorisch: Hollywood’s America-blended
LATE ASSIGNMENTS AND MAKE-UP WORK:
Late work and make-up assignments will not be accepted without instructor approval and may be subject to a ceiling
of 83.33%. It is best to communicate early if you have a conflict or an emergency. Email is pragmatic since it is time and
date stamped, but you may also be able to communicate with me by text if I create a Remind class or speak to me
before or after class. Due to continuing special circumstances this semester, submission deadlines will again be more
flexible than usual. The move to electronic submissions and returns should help us all keep up with the Course Calendar
in terms of weekly preparation as well as submission deadlines, but this is an expectation, not a firm rule! Be advised
that it is usually most fair and effective to grade student work in batches rather than separately. That said, I am not a
fan of hasty writing. Please allow yourself enough time to proofread and edit once you have a working draft of any
writing assignment. Submitting work that you like yourself is most rewarding for all.
COURSE WITHDRAWAL:
See Course Enrollment and Withdrawal for information on withdrawing from a course.
“Indicate under which circumstances (if any) you will administratively withdraw a student from your class.”
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Academic Integrity is a foundational value of TCC and students are expected to behave as responsible members of the
college community and to be honest and ethical in their academic work. This link provides access to guidelines for
academic integrity, as well as forms of academic dishonesty. In case of academic dishonesty, penalty/penalties will be
applied with reference to intention, repetition of irresponsible or dishonest behavior, follow-up communication with
your instructor and simple common sense.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Each student is responsible for being aware of the information contained in the TCC Catalog, the Student Handbook, and
the Academic Calendar. All information may be viewed on the TCC website.
SYLLABUS CHANGE:
Occasionally, changes to the syllabus may be necessary. Notification of any changes will be posted to your course site.
SYLLABUS ATTACHMENT:
The Syllabus Attachment provides critical student information for all TCC courses and is considered to be a part of this
syllabus. Students are responsible for reading the statements contained within.
COURSE CALENDAR: this document is posted separately to your Blackboard course site.
Sensitive Matters Statement: Higher education fosters intellectual and personal growth through exposure to and
interaction with a wide range of ideas, creative expression, and information. You can expect to engage with and think
critically about ideas and perspectives which may be very different from your own, and which may be personally
challenging or even occasionally uncomfortable. You are encouraged to discuss any questions or concerns about course
materials with me, but please see them for the chance to learn more about yourself, your peers, and how cultures
evolve, stall, diversify, etc. that they are intended to be.
*
Statement of Understanding. This syllabus constitutes the procedures and rules of the course. By remaining
in this course, you are tacitly agreeing to accept these procedures and rules. If any of these procedures and
rules are not acceptable to you, it is your responsibility to withdraw from this course in a timely fashion,
with reference to the current academic schedule.
*
Template Revised 7/10/2020
Humanities 2663-201: Spr 2021_Larson-Thorisch rev. Jan 2021
Page 5