Course: HONR 268B Pathways to Literacy: Developing an
Educational Curriculum for Children Using “Songs Inspired
by Literature”
Dates/Times: Tuesdays 2:00-4:30 pm
Room: EDU 1210B (The small building beside the College of
Education facing the Merrill School of Journalism)
Instructor: Dr. Steven Selden
Email: selden@umd.edu
Office Hours: Students should plan on at least one
individual conference with the instructor during the
spring semester. Room 3112C Benjamin Building (College
of Education)
Course Reflector: honr268b-0101-spr10@coursemail.umd.edu
I.
Course Bibliography
Required Texts/Songs
Beckett, S. (1954). Waiting for Godot: A tragicomedy in
two acts. New York: Grove press. Ray Manzarak, “He Can’t
Come Today”
Eliot, T.S. (1930/1991). The collected poems of T. S.
Eliot, 1909-1962. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Anna Porter, “Hunger
Letham, J. (1999). Motherless Brooklyn. New York: Vintage
Books. Deb Talan, “Tell Your Story Walking”
McBride, J. (1996). The color of water: A black man’s
tribute to his white mother. New York: Riverhead Books.
McCourt, F. (1996). Angela’s ashes. New York: Scribner.
Deborah Pardes, “7th Step”
O’Brien, T. (1990,1998). The things they carried. New York:
Broadway Books.
O’Connor, F. (1954/1976). A good man is hard to find and
other stories. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. Tom
Watts, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Silverstein, S. (1981). A light in the attic. New York:
Harper Collins. Scarth Locke, “Bucking Bronco”
Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. New York: Hill and Wang.
Gaskit, “Peel This Away”
Print and Non-Print Resources (distributed during first
class meeting)
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Hall, D. (1988). The one day. New York: Ticknor & Fields.
(Compliments of the course instructor)
Padres, D. (2003). Songs inspired by literature CD:
Chapter Two. San Francisco: AFL Project
www.SIBLproject.org (distributed during first class
meeting; please return at the semester’s end).
Padres, D. (2002). Songs inspired by literature CD:
Chapter One. San Francisco: AFL Project
www.SIBLproject.org (distributed during first class
meeting; please return at the semester’s end).
Optional Before-Class Readings
Bloom, A. (December 10, 1982). “Our Listless Universities.”
National Review, pp. 1537-1538, 1544-1548.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed008
1.html
Fox, M. (2006). Michael Riffaterre, 81, a scholar of
literature at Columbia. New York Times, June 5.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/books/05riffaterre.html
Scott, A.O. (May 21, 2006). “In Search of the Best.” New
York Times Book Review.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scottessay.html
II.
Course Introduction
Consider this musical/literary question: “What do John
Steinbeck, Bruce Springstein, and Samuel Beckett, all have
in common?
The answer is that they’re all associated the Artists
for Literacy project, and the “Songs Inspired by
Literature” (SIBL) initiative
<http://www.siblproject.org/home.html>. The project links
Steinbeck’s, Grapes of Wrath with Springstein’s, “The Ghost
of Tom Joad”.
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/TheGhostOfTomJoad.htm
l. Using the funds generated by the sale of the CD’s, the
project mounts a series of initiatives designed to increase
adult literacy.
And it’s here that HONR 268B Pathways to Literacy comes
into the picture. We’ll springboard from the CDs’ songs,
to a close and careful reading of the outstanding literary
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
selections listed above, to the creation of education
materials for instructional use.
This spring, HONR 268B will form an alliance with the
national program for adult literacy, Artists for Literacy
<http://www.artistsforliteracy.org/home.html>. In
collaboration with KQED, the Library of Congress, and the
California Council for the Humanities, this project has
developed a program for increasing adult literacy using
their CDs, Songs Inspired by Literature (Chapters One and
Two). The CDs includes music donated by Grace Slick,
Suzanne Vega, Jill Tracy, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Manzarak,
and Steve Earle, Tom Watts, among others. In appreciation
for our working with them AFL is providing our class with
free copies of their two CD’s, “Songs Inspired by
Literature.” (Please download them onto your media
players, and return the CD’s to the instructor by the
second week of class.)
Taking Matthew Arnold’s (1822-1888) neo-Platonist
dictum that one should know “the best that has been said
and thought in the world,” HONR 268B will use literary
selections from SIBL’s CDs’ as the course focus.
However, unlike Arnold and his contemporary
supporters, and while recognizing the importance of
Flannery O’Connor’s theological commitments to her work,
our class will more closely follow the approach taken by
Columbia University’s Michael Riffaterre (1925-2006) and
others.
Riffaterre focused on the way readers perceive
linguistic symbols through the “often difficult act of
reading [while ignoring issues] peripheral to the text like
the background or ideology of the author . . . .” In a
somewhat parallel fashion, one which privileges the
meanings drawn by the reader in the process of reading
rather than exclusively on the author or the text, we will
follow a reader-response approach to literature,
popularized by FIU’s Stanley Fish and others,
http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/litcritassign.html, and
the Annenberg Foundation’s support for excellence in the
classroom,
http://www.learner.org/workshops/hslit/session1/index.html.
We will also consider the audience that the above
curriculum might serve, its messages, themes, cultural
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
import, who is present in the readings, and who is absent.
Additionally, and of direct interest to literate citizens,
we will consider whether readings such as these represent a
worthwhile instructional program.
The bottom line? HONR 268B is designed to provide an
exciting opportunity to spend a semester seriously reading
and discussing great books, broadening our perspectives on
literature, getting a deeper sense of the wisdom of the
Humanities, and making rigorous connections to a national
curriculum initiative directed at increasing literacy.
Welcome!
III.
“The Free Lunch Program”
Despite protestations to the contrary, there is a
“free lunch.” And groups of students (3-4 at a time) are
invited to have lunch with the instructor at convenient
times Adele’s Restaurant during the semester. Watch for
the sign up sheets distributed during the second week of
class.
IV.
Course Goals
Goal 1
Our course’s first goal is to plumb the assigned plays,
novels, memoirs, short stories, and poems for their many
levels of meaning. For example, Sam Beckett’s “Waiting for
Godot” could be understood, on the surface, as two guys
hanging out by the side of the road near a tree.
But that is not where we’re going this spring. We’re
reading for what my colleague (and Shakespeare Scholar)
Professor Sandy Mack calls, “the wisdom of the Humanities.”
And you may rightly ask, just what is that? Dr. Mack
argues that,
[The wisdom of the Humanities] is that life is not just a series of engineering
problems to be solved, but a process of growth, failure, success,
forgiveness, pain, and ecstasy that does lead to the grave, but gives us
unlimited opportunities to make rich, human and humane choices along the
way.
HONR 268B agrees with Professor Mack, that such wisdom can be gained
this semester from interacting with literature that considers human identity,
poverty, random and state-sponsored violence, life’s absurdity, Tourette
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Syndrome, as well as a meeting between Deaf Donald and Talkie Sue.
Goal 2
HONR 268B second goal will be the development of
curriculum materials, specifically two (2) lesson plans
based on selected texts, to be submitted to the SIBL
project for their use. In order to successfully achieve
that goal, students enrolled in HONR 268B will learn how to
create an effective lesson plan, test and evaluate it with
their peers and course instructor, and optionally, to
implement it with local public school students.
Goal 3 (optional)
Our third, optional goal, will be the development of a
lesson plan based on poem(s) from Shel Silverstein’s, A
Light in the Attic and to tech this lesson to students from
the UM STARS Program. This option will be open to a limited
number of students this semester.
VI.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the foundation of learning. The
university has approved a Code of Academic Integrity
available on the web www.shc.umd.edu/code.html. The code
prohibits students from cheating on the exams, plagiarizing
papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses
without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent
documents, and forging signatures. In the specific case of
HONR 268B, students are not to use SparkNotes or other online sources for text interpretation. We want to
understand the meanings that are created between you and
the texts in conversation and community. Please sign here
before our second class meeting, that you have read and
will abide by the code, _________________________________.
VII.
Accommodations for Students with Documented Disabilities
Academic accommodations will be provided to students
with documented disabilities. Please contact the course
instructor during the first week of classes. Students
requesting an accommodation may also contact the acting
EDPS Chair, Dr. Francine Hultgren <fh@umd.edu>, and the
Office of Disability Support Services, (301-314-7682).
VIII.
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Religious Observances
In keeping with University policy, students will not
be penalized due to observance of their religious beliefs,
and will be given an opportunity, whenever feasible, to
make up within a reasonable time any academic assignment
that is missed due to individual participation in religious
observances.
IX.
STUDENT EVALUATION
Grades for HONR 268B will be determined by totaling the
following items:
1. 25% of the final grade will be based on class
participation (each class).
2. 25% of the final grade will be based on the creation
of two (2) lesson plans based this semester’s
readings. The lesson plans are to be designed to
serve the needs of selected literacy-challenged 14-20
year-olds (one 25 minute lesson presented to class
April 20 – May 11, 2010).
3. 25% of the final grade will be based on completed
reading contracts (each class).
4. 25% of the final grade will be based on a take-home
final examination. The question will be provided
during the third week of classes (Returned to
instructor May 11, 2010).
5. (Optional Assignment) 25% of the grade will be based
on an optional lesson (Silverstein’s “Light in the
Attic”) with students from the Lakeland STARS tutoring
program with Paint Branch Elementary School students. The students
come to campus and this assignment will be in lieu of #4 above.
1. Student Participation (25 points)
Students are expected to attend all classes, read all
assigned materials in advance of class meetings, and to
actively contribute to class discussions. The basis for
these discussions will be the students’ completed reading
contracts. Hard copies of the completed contracts should
be brought to each class, and emailed to the instructor on
the due date of the assignment. Insofar as we are all
members of the UM Honors Community, students are also
asked, if possible, to read either the New York Times, or
The Washington Post, during the spring semester, paying
particular attention to articles that might relate to our
class assignments and discussions.
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Students unable to attend scheduled classes should
contact the instructor or another class member prior to the
next scheduled meeting regarding new assignments and to
obtain copies of any distributed materials. Professional
student-faculty appointments are encouraged. Please call
for mutually convenient times. Our class begins at 2:00
p.m. Insofar as others may use the room earlier in the
day, please plan to arrive a few minutes early to assist in
arranging the desks to facilitate our seminar format.
2. Reading Contract Format (25 points)
For each of this semester’s reading, students are to
prepare a reading contract using the form suggested below
(3-5 pages). Each contract is due on the evening the
assigned reading is to be discussed. Bring a hard copy to
class and email an e-copy in Word .doc format to the
instructor. The contract should include, at least, the
following:
Student name:
__________________________________________________
Course: HONR 268B
Spring 2010
Instructor: Dr. Steven Selden
I. Full Citation: e.g., Beckett, S. (1954). Waiting for
Godot: A tragicomedy in two acts. New York: Grove press.
II. Summary of Reading (one-three paragraph, prose style):
Categories may include: “What’s the genre?” “Who are the
characters?” “What themes appear to be present?” “What
motifs or symbols are present if any?” “Who speaks?”
“Structure, e.g., linear story line, flashback, cross-cuts,
other.” “Use of language?”
III. Critical/Analytic/Reflective Comments w/Exemplary
Quotes: What does this text mean? And what does it mean to
you? What evidence supports these interpretations (5-8)
IV. Relation to Other Readings/Class Discussions:
connections that draw upon II, and III above.
Make
3. Artists For Literacy Lesson Plans (25 points)
Respecting our own dispositions and skills, a
carefully focused practical component has been added to the
above academic issues. Serving as unpaid consultants to
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
the Artists for Literacy Project, students in HONR 268B
will construct two (2) well-designed and academically
appropriate lesson plans based on one of each of two (2) of
this semester’s readings. The lesson plans will be
designed to serve the needs of selected literacy-challenged
14-20 year-olds. Students will have 25 minutes to present
one (1) of their lessons to the class lessons will be
presented to the class. During the weeks of April 20 – May
11, 2010, all students will have a 25 minute period to
teach their lesson to the class.
4. Final Exam (25 points.)
A take-home final examination will be assigned, with
the question delivered during the third week of classes.
Examinations and class presentations will be evaluated on
clarity of thought, appropriateness of content, analytic
and synthetic strength, and creativity. Written responses
are expected to follow an accepted academic writing style.
Open book and 1 ½ hour time limit.
5. (Optional Assignment in lieu of take-home final exam)
The Light in the Attic and Elementary School Students (25
points)
At their option, students wishing to do so, will
create one (1) lesson based on Shel Silverstein’s, A Light
in the Attic, and have opportunity to engage elementary
school students with that lesson. Generally these students come to
campus to complete on homework from 4 to nearly 5. From 5 to 5:35 they do
special activity, but that can be flip-flopped. The last 10 minutes are devoted to
clean up and line up for the bus. Due to program limitations, this option is limited
to only five (5) students from HONR 268B. Currently, the following dates are
available: April 21, 2010, and April 22, 2010.
X.
Assignment/Grade Record Keeper
Due Date
1. Every Class
2. Every Class
3. April 20 - May 11
4. May 11
20 minutes
5.
(25 ____)
Grade Total
100_____
Assignment
Length
Participation
As Appropriate
Reading Contracts
>two pages
Lesson Plans
3-5 pp.
Take-Home Final Examination
25____
Optional Silverstein lesson
Grading Scale:
95-100 = A
90-94 = A-
8
Points
25____
25____
25____
3 hours
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
87- 89
= B+
84-86
= B
80-83 = BC77- 79
= C+
74-76
= C
70-73 = C67- 69
= D+
64-66 = D
60-63 = DBELOW 60 = F
XI.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS
Date
Concept and Assignment
___________________________________________________________
_____________
January 26, 2010
Course Overview
1. Preview course readings. Discuss:
Bloom, A. (December 10, 1982). “Our Listless
Universities.” National Review, pp. 1537-1538, 15441548.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/education/
ed0081.html
Fox, M., (2006). Michael Riffaterre, 81, a scholar of
literature at Columbia. New York Times, June 5.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/books/05riffaterre
.html
Scott, A.O., (May 21, 2006). “In Search of the Best.”
New York Times Book Review.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/review/scott
-essay.html
2. Preview “Songs Inspired by Literature” website
www.artistsforliteracy.org/home.html.
3. Discuss lesson plan assignment – distribute AFL
example lesson plans.
4. The curriculum and the Conservative Restoration
5. HONR 268B takes Matthew Arnold and the Conservative
Restoration seriously.
6. Interest groups that compose of this restoration:
 Neo-Liberals: valorize markets, and see freedom as
equal to individual choice
 Academic Neo-Conservatives: wish for a return to
discipline and traditional knowledge
 Authoritarian Populists: fundamentalists who want
theocratic schools
 New Middle Class: professional and managerial
monitors of the above
Figure 1. Linking Conservative Foundation Funding with
9
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Activist Social Neo-conservative, Academic Neoconservative, and Authoritarian Populist centers.
Social
Authoritarian
Neo-conservatives
FUNDING
SOURCES
Academic
Neo-conservatives Populists
Challenging
Challenging the
Challenging
Diversity
issues
Undergraduate
LGBT
Curriculum
“Great Books”
Curriculum
focus of HONR 268B
Bradley
Foundation
American Civil Rights
Institute
Institute for Justice
Pacific Legal Foundation
Castle Rock
Foundation
Earhart
Foundation
John M. Olin
Foundation
Intercollegiate Studies
Association
Madison Center for
Educational Affairs
American Council of
Trustees and Alumni
Center for the Study of
Popular Culture
Southwestern Legal Fund
Sarah Scaife
Foundation
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Family Research Council
Focus on the Family
Education Policy Institute
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
___________________________________________________________
_____________
February 2, 2010
The Search for Meaning: Vladimir and
Estragon Wait for Godot - Person or a
Thing? - Play
Beckett, S. (1954). Waiting for Godot:
A tragicomedy in two acts. New York:
Grove press.
SIBL song: “He Can’t Come Today,” Ray
Manzarek - SIBL Chapter One, track 12.
Videotape – “Waiting for Godot” staring
Burgess Meredith and Zero Mostel
(selected segments)
Teaching you lesson plan assignment for
April 20 – May 11, 2010: Class member
selects two readings for tentative
lesson plan development.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
February 9, 2010
Shedding Light on the Darkness:
Surviving the Theft of Your Knees and
Avoiding the Quick-Digesting Gink Children’s Poetry
Silverstein, S. (1981). A Light in the
attic. New York: Harper Collins.
Video - “The Actual '73 Giving Tree
Movie.” Spoken By Shel Silverstein.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZCP6O
qRlE>
Video - “The Missing Piece,” by Shel
Silverstein.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744JBwj
rlKk>
SIBL song: “Bucking Bronco,” Scarth
Locke - SIBL Chapter One, track 11.
Final exam question distributed to
class. Due to instructor May 11, 2010.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
February 16, 2010
Race, Identity, and A Mother’s Love -
11
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Memoir
McBride, J. (1996). The color of
water: A black man’s tribute to his
white mother. New York: Riverhead
Books.
SIBL song: “Don’t Let me Fall,” Vicki
Randle - SIBL Chapter Two, track 10.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
February 23, 2010
One Day, Two (or Three) Characters, and
a House - Poetry
Hall, D. (1988). The one day. New
York: Ticknor & Fields. (complementary
copies of the text distributed during
second week of classes)
Videotape presentation – Diversity and
Community in American Life Colloquium
Presentation. “US Poet Laureate Donald
Hall addresses UM community” (45
minutes)
For a brief piece, by Garrison Keillor,
on Laureate Hall, see:
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/b
ookshelf/hall.shtml
___________________________________________________________
_____________
March 2, 2010
Searching for Agency in Modern Life Poetry
Eliot, T.S. (1930/1991). “The love
song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in Eliot
T.S., The Collected Poems of T. S.
Eliot, 1909-1962.
www.bartleby.com/198/1.html
Video - T.S. Eliot reads “The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744JBwj
rlKk>
Video - T.S. Eliot reads “The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744JBwj
rlKk>
SIBL song: “Hunger,” Ana Porter - SIBL
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
Chapter Two, track 15.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
March 9, 2010
Searching for the Good in Modern Life Short Story
O’Connor, F. (1954/1976). “A good man
is hard to find” in O’Connor, F. A good
man is hard to find and other stories.
New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
SIBL song: “A Good Man is Hard to
Find,” Tom Waits - SIBL Chapter Two,
track 12.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
March 16, 2010
Spring Break (no class)
March 23, 2010
Viewing the World Through an Orphan’s
“Tourettic Impulses:” Deconstructing
and Reconstructing the Crime - Novel
Letham, J. (1999). Motherless
Brooklyn. New York: Vintage Books.
SIBL song: “Tell Your Story Walking,”
Deb Talan - SIBL Chapter One, track 2.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
March 30, 2010
Naming the Unnamable – Autobiography
Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. New York:
Hill and Wang.
Video - Elie Wiesel, “What Makes us
Moral? FORA TV,
<http://fora.tv/2009/07/27/Elie_Wiesel_
What_Makes_Us_Moral#fullprogram>
1:06.8.
SIBL song: “Peel This Away,” Freddie
Feldman - SIBL Chapter Two, track 16.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
April 6, 2010
Adults at the Mercy of Life - Children
at the Mercy of Adults - Memoir
McCourt, F. (1996). Angela’s ashes.
New York: Scribner.
SIBL song: “7th Step,” Deborah Pardes SIBL Chapter One, track 15.
13
Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
___________________________________________________________
_____________
April 13, 2010
More Darkness from the Heart - Fiction
O’Brien, T. (1990, 1998). The things
they carried. New York: Broadway Books.
SIBL song: “The Things We Carried,” Ron
DeChristoforo & Anthony DiFebbo
http://www.siblproject.org/winners.html
___________________________________________________________
_____________
April 20, 2010
Class Presentations: Selected Lesson
Plans for SIBL Project
Lesson plans due to instructor.
Students will have 25 minutes to
present one (1) of their lessons to the
class.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
April 27, 2010
Class Presentations: Selected Lesson
Plans for SIBL Project
Students will have 25 minutes to
present one (1) of their lessons to the
class.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
May 4, 2010
Class Presentations: Selected Lesson
Plans for SIBL Project
Students will have 25 minutes to
present one (1) of their lessons to the
class.
___________________________________________________________
_____________
May 11, 2010
Class Presentations: Selected Lesson
Plans for SIBL Project
Students will have 25 minutes to
present one (1) of their lessons to the
class.
Final exam emailed to instructor.
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Selden, HONR 268B Spring 2010
February 1, 2010
15