Versteeg, Taylor, Fischer
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The Doors of Perception:
Unlocking the Mind Through Reading and Writing
Instructors:
Kellie Fischer
Kim Taylor
Tom Versteeg
Office: 5-125
24-342
24-338
Phone: 533-3199
533-3465
533-4182
Email: kellief@spokanefalls.edu
kimt@spokanefalls.edu
Class Texts:
tomv@spokanefalls.edu
Carpenter and Huffman, Visualizing Psychology
Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Kennedy and Gioia, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Fifth
Compact Edition
Kirszner and Mandell, The Concise Wadsworth Handbook, Spokane Falls
Community College Edition
Li-Young Lee, Rose
Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
SFCC, Portfolio Preview (recommended)
This Course:
Welcome to The Doors of Perception, a 15-credit Learning Community including Introduction to
Psychology (Psyc 100), English Composition (Engl 101 or 102), and Introduction to Literature
(Engl 111). One good way to think of any English 101 class is as an introduction to the overall academic
discourse community. English 101 affords students a fuller understanding of the kinds of issues and ways
of thinking that are valued in the academic community, of what counts as convincing evidence within that
community, of how coherence, clarity, fluency, and intellectual honesty are defined in the academic
context. English 102 expands your writing skills achieved in English 101. At the same time, this
Learning Community allows you to discover how these issues play out more specifically within two
major disciplines of the wider academic community—psychology and literary studies. As the quarter
rolls along, you’ll become familiar with the vocabulary and methods that help facilitate inquiry,
discussion, and argument within these disciplines; you’ll have opportunities to examine some of the
assumptions and grapple with some of the controversies specific to these fields of study; and you’ll most
likely discover any number of ways that the ideas of psychology can help illuminate the particulars of a
story or poem and, likewise, numerous instances where the elements of a literary work—a particular
character’s behavior, say, or the specific language of a description—can provide concrete illustration of
one psychological concept or another. Ideally, too, you’ll get to have some fun as you gain a deeper
appreciation for the variety and richness of literary expression and a fuller understanding of the insights
and principles of psychology. Moreover, you’ll be doing all this exploring and discovering by engaging
in exactly the sort of activity most common to virtually all members of the academic community: you’ll
be attending carefully to various kinds of texts and then in various ways responding to those texts with
texts of your own. To find out more about some of the major ways all this will happen, read on . . .
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Seminars:
Seminars are organized class conversations—actually, the class will be divided into six seminar groups,
so we’re really talking about a set of conversations for each seminar topic—which students prepare for in
advance. You can plan on engaging in five seminars this quarter, each one focusing on an assigned
reading. In seminar you’ll be completely responsible for your own learning and for facilitating the
learning of other members of your group. You’ll be expected to arrive at seminar with a seminar paper in
hand. These papers serve both as “tickets” to the seminar—that is, you can’t attend a seminar if you
don’t have a seminar paper ready when you arrive—and as springboards into the seminar discussion;
moreover, these papers are the preliminary drafts for the quarter’s major essay assignments. Before long,
we’ll talk a good deal more about the nature and evaluation of seminars; for the moment, though, you
should understand that both the quality of your seminar papers and the quality of your seminar
performances will be factors in your final grade.
Book Clubs:
Plan to select a title from a list of contemporary novels we’ll provide and get together with the several
other class members who have chosen the same book in order to form a reading group, taking a little over
half the quarter to do a careful, active reading of the novel (groups will get an hour of class time each
week to compare notes and engage in discussions based on study questions a different group member will
be responsible for each week) and then spending the next two or three weeks planning and preparing an
elaborate multimedia presentation on the novel that you’ll deliver to the class near the end of the quarter
(see the separate “The Doors of Perception: Book Club Novels and Project Information” for a list of the
novels you have to choose from and a more detailed explanation of both the weekly discussion sessions
and the end-of-quarter presentation). The discussion questions you create will be a factor in your grade,
and your book club presentation itself will have a significant bearing on that grade.
Case Book:
Here’s another group assignment you should be able to have some fun with. You won’t actually receive
this assignment until a good half way through the quarter, but you might as well know now that we’ll ask
you to identify a character (or possibly a group of characters) from among those you’ve encountered in
our fiction, poetry, and drama reading whose behavior clearly embodies a particular psychological
mechanism or theory that you’ve learned about. To illustrate the connection you discover between
character and psychological idea, we’ll ask you to use your creativity as well as your analytic ability to
compose a brief dramatic presentation—that is, a brief play—wherein the fictional character interacts
with various psychological “authorities.” The voice of the character should indirectly—and
entertainingly—reveal his or her problem or condition while the more academic voices of the
psychologists offer explicit—and perhaps conflicting—diagnoses, explanations, and advice. You’ll be
working in groups of three or four on this one, and you’ll want to make sure each group member has a
part to play when you present your performance to the class. This should be an enjoyable and creative
way to demonstrate your learning, and your finished product will have a fair sized impact on your grade.
Attendance/In-Class Learning Activities:
There will, unavoidably, be times in this course when the class reverts to the traditional lecture format.
The bulk of class time, however, will be devoted to various sorts of learning activities and to open-ended
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class discussion. That is, we want you to be active, hands-on participants in your own learning; the
standard view these days, in fact, is that knowledge is “made” by the interactions of individuals within
communities like this one. Thus, very often in class we’ll ask you to do something, either individually or
in groups, and to share that something (often a text of one kind or another) with others in order to refine it
or further elaborate on it. You’ll engage in a wide variety of such learning activities as the quarter
proceeds; some will be self-contained while others will serve as preparation for more elaborate
assignments. In either case, the value of being present in order to participate in such activities, and, for
that matter, to process the information from the occasional lecture, is obvious—if you’re not in class, you
simply miss out on that learning, and in the long run that can’t be a good thing either in terms of the sort
of intellectual and human enrichment that education, ideally, is all about or in terms of more mundane,
though hardly trivial, concerns like grades. We assume, then, that you’ll want to come to class, but to
provide even more incentive for you to do so, we actually “pay” you to attend class—each day of class
we’ll pass around a sign-in sheet, and each day you initial that sheet and are prepared for class, you
receive 1 point toward your final grade. If you do not have your work ready, however, you will not
receive the participation points for that day. Since tardiness or leaving early are disruptive and should be
avoided, leaving early or arriving late counts as ½ an absence. Further, since we do not wish to attempt to
determine which absences would be excused and which would not, we will make no distinction between
the two. Therefore, up to five absences are “free” in case of an illness, etc. These are not vacation days,
and should be saved for legitimate use if at all. From 6-10 absences will result in a deduction of .1 per
day from your final grade. For example, 7 days absent will have a .2 deduction, which would take a 2.7
to a 2.5. More than 10 absences (two full weeks!) will result in a 0.0 for the quarter. If you have a reason
to miss a large amount of time in this class (a vacation, a surgery, or another event that will require
extended absence), this is probably not the best quarter to take English 101. Please see us immediately if
this is the case for you.
In addition to the points you receive for attending, and for missing no more than 1 day of class all quarter,
those of you who have at least a 2.0 in the class will have .2 added to your final grade as extra credit. For
example, should you miss only 1 day, your grade might go from 3.7 to 3.9. While the participation
points and extra credit you can earn from attendance aren’t likely to make the difference between an A
and an F, they could very well make the difference between, say, an A and a B. . . .
Some extra events that you are expected to attend. Please mark your calendars now and plan
accordingly:

Li-Young Lee poetry reading Feb 4, 2009—most will be during our regular class time

Othello presented by the SFCC Revelers in March: Spartan Theater (8 possible performance
times)

Others may be added to this list
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Impromptu Essay:
On at least two occasions during the quarter, you’ll have time in class to compose essays on topics related
to our study of psychology and literature. In the long run, you’ll select one of these essays to submit for
evaluation.
English 101 Portfolio Assessment (see “Dear English 101 Student” in Portfolio Preview and “English
Composition 101 Portfolio Assessment FAQs” in the opening SFCC section of The Wadsworth
Handbook):
Like all English 101 sections at SFCC, this class is participating in the English Department’s portfolio
assessment program. You’ll hear more about this later, but the basic idea is that by the end of the quarter
(Monday, Mar. 16, to be exact—Mar. 17 and 18 are the dates for final portfolio reading) you’ll choose
your two most successful revised essays from the class, put them in a folder along with the impromptu
essay of your choice, and submit all three to a panel of English teachers to be read. The only judgment
these readers make is as to whether or not the body of work in the portfolio is deserving of a grade of at
least 2.0 in light of generally accepted English 101 standards. Bear in mind that portfolio readers do not
determine your quarter grade; your instructors (that’s us) do so. One more portfolio note: you’ll want to
have one revised essay ready to go no later than Tuesday, Feb. 10 for mid-term portfolio, a sort of
practice run to help get you ready for the real thing.
Final Class “Collection”:
You’ll initiate five major essays this quarter—the five papers required for participation in each of the five
seminars. Each of these five drafts should be polished and effective when you bring it to seminar, and
each will receive a score on a 25point scale when you turn it in after seminar (fear not—you’ll be plenty
clear on the criteria of evaluation before you compose your first draft). However, you need follow up
with further revision on only three of these five. For the three that you decide to focus your efforts on,
you’re required to engage in a more extensive process of revision and consultation, involving peer
conferencing and submission of at least one intermediate draft to us for our feedback. Of course you can
show us more than one revised draft of each essay if you wish and, in fact, can continue revising these
three right up until the end of the quarter. At that point—March 10— you’ll submit your best version of
each of these three essays, along with all preliminary drafts, peer edit notes, etc, as the central documents
in your end-of-quarter “Collected Works.” Also included in your collection will be whichever of your
impromptus you believe to be stronger (doubtless the same one you submitted for English 101 portfolio)
and a cover letter explaining why you chose the essays you did and what they reveal about your strengths
as an essay writer and about what you’ve learned this quarter. English 102 students may have an alternate
piece of writing to submit instead of an impromptu. The final decision on that one is still out . . .
Essentially, your collection should be a showcase for your very best work; it will, by far, be the biggest
factor in determination of your final grade.
Special note: You are required to complete all five essays for seminar in order to be eligible to
submit your final “Collection” at the end of the quarter. That final “Collection” will include
seriously revised versions of only three of the five essays; however, if you don’t complete all five,
you’ll not have the opportunity to reflect on the various strengths and weaknesses of each one in
order to choose the three you could most effectively revise.
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Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the deliberate or accidental presentation of another’s ideas or words as your own. If you
copy a sentence from a book, magazine, or online source and pass it off as your own, if you summarize or
paraphrase someone else’s ideas without acknowledging your debt, or if you purchase or download a
paper to hand in as your own, you have plagiarized deliberately. If you carelessly omit quotation marks
or forget to mention the source of ideas that aren’t your own, you have plagiarized accidentally. Either
way, plagiarism is a serious violation of academic ethics. The mildest penalty you can expect for such a
violation is failure of the paper in question. A second occurrence will, at the very least, result in a 0.0 (F)
for the course and may also lead to expulsion. Obviously, this is a very serious breach of academic
honesty, so check if you’re not sure, and when in doubt, cite your source. Of course in our class—where
you’ll learn the conventions of MLA and APA documentation and get practice in recognizing and
avoiding unintentional plagiarism—we’ll do everything we can to help you negotiate these sometimes
tricky waters successfully.
Point Values and Final Grades:
Excluding the add-on points received for attendance, the total possible number of points a student can
earn from all assignments is 1000. Your quarter grades—typically you’ll receive the same grade in all
three of the courses included in our Learning Community—will be a function of the percentage of those
1000 points that you actually earn for your assignments. Listed below are the point values for all
assignments:
Seminar Performance:
20 for the first seminar and 25 thereafter for a total of
Seminar Papers:
25/ seminar for a total of
120
125
Book Club Discussion Questions (1 time):
30
Psych journal
75
Book Club Presentation:
175
Case Book:
175
End-of-Quarter “Collected Works”:
300
Total Possible Points:
1000
Note: Occasional opportunities for extra credit may arise during the quarter. We will inform you of these.
Keep in mind that a passing composition grade of 2.0 or better is required for these points to count.
A Note on Respect:
In order for learning to take place, students must feel safe; this safety is due all students, not only those
who share your values, beliefs, and life experiences. For this reason, courtesy, thoughtfulness, and
acceptance are essential in our discussions in and out of the classroom. Acceptance should not be
confused with agreement; one need not agree with a person to listen, and one must listen well in order to
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disagree respectfully. Every student in this course has a voice and so deserves the courtesy of attentive
listening and the freedom to express diverse ideas.
Additional Notes:
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Online Syllabus: Please make use of the online syllabus available through the SFCC homepage
at http://www.spokanefalls.edu/. Upon arrival at the SFCC homepage, locate the student section
in the left menu, select Online Syllabus, and then go to Taylor, Kim, Doors of Perception –
Winter ‘09. Here you’ll find class announcements, this syllabus, the course calendar, helpful
handouts, copies of our major assignments, quick links to a variety of useful sites, and other
nifty stuff.
Disability Support Services: Civil rights laws mandate academic adjustments/ accommodations
for students on an individual basis based upon documented disability. Disability Support
Services is the college’s designee for verifying disability and recommending appropriate
accommodations in accordance with state and federal laws. DSS will have an established file on
most students with disability and will send instructors notice of mandated accommodations.
Please feel free to let us know if you already have an accommodation in place. Call 533-3401
without delay if you think you need to schedule a DSS appointment.
Do not hesitate to ask for extra help either during office hours or by appointment. We’re more
than glad to help you.
What can I expect to learn from this LC?
Read on . . .
SPECIFIC COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES ENGL&101
Students should use what they have learned about sentences, paragraphs, conventions of the essay, the
writing process, and their own emerging capabilities as writers to:
1. Recognize that writing is a process requiring thoughtful reconsideration and revision
2. Discern and record details accurately as part of the composing process
3. Generate varied ideas as part of the composing process
4. Evaluate details and ideas in light of particular audiences and rhetorical purposes
5. Organize ideas in a coherent manner
6. Use specific details to support claims
7. Gather, use, and document information to develop an argument
8. Communicate with an academic audience to describe, analyze, and persuade
9. Observe the conventions of standard edited American English
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10. Meet deadlines and complete requirements
11. Write independently
12. Provide feedback for other writers
13. Use instructor and peer feedback to improve prose
SPECIFIC COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES IN ENGL&102
1. Analyze and evaluate texts in light of particular audiences and rhetorical purposes
2. Gather, evaluate, use, and document information to develop a position
3. Identify a topic of appropriate scope for a given assignment
4. Communicate with an academic audience to analyze or persuade
5. Use specific details to support claims
6. Organize ideas in a purposeful manner
7. Observe the conventions of standard edited American English
8. Critically evaluate student writing
9. Revise written work based on self-, peer-, and instructor- evaluation
SPECIFIC COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES IN PSYCH&100
1. Understand psychological theories and concepts, and be able to apply them to their lives and lives
of others.
2. Appreciate a variety of viewpoints on controversial topics, and encourage critical thinking.
3. Develop an inquisitive and curious attitude towards psychology.
4. Recognize the complexity of the behavior of individuals; be aware that behavior can be traced to
heredity, environment, and their interaction.
5. Appreciate that behavior changes throughout the lifespan.
6. Acknowledge, and respect the diversity of various cultural groups within and outside the U.S.
7. Understand a wide variety of resources of psychological information, and strive to be up-to-date.
8. Understand various psychological problems and the means by which to overcome them.
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