Course Home Page | Format | Topic Outline / Syllabus | Grading
Beginning A DATE TO BE DETERMINED, our freshman seminar will meet on Fridays from 2:10-4:00 PM for eight weeks in 27 Olson. In addition to attending all class meetings, you will carefully read assigned poems and critical texts, review poems in a literary journal and a book by a living poet, conduct independent research on course concepts and assignments, attend three performances, and complete three poems a week. At least once this quarter, you will perform a poem at an open mic in Davis or Sacramento. During week seven of the quarter, you will also read a poem and discuss your research for the class with the instructor on the radio.
With regard to course materials, in addition to the book os poetry you choose, students will review materials distributed by me, usually in digital form. Often one or more of the writing assignments for the following week will be announced and explained in class, so plan to attend all class meetings.
A typical class will be structured in this way:
First hour:
- We will meet, review the day’s agenda, and tell any stories about poetry readings and other creative performances viewed since the previous class.
- I will review and comment upon the poem genre due that day, and upon any poems assigned for you to read from class handouts and online texts.
- You will present your checklists and the three poems due that day; I will initial your checklists to indicate “receipt” of these assignments. You will keep these creations in a paper portfolio to be submitted at our final meeting. Fill out the checklists completely, including assignments and poem titles.
- You will share and read (digital versions of) the poems created for that day’s class. Plan to read aloud several examples of your work over the course of the quarter.
- All of us will comment, critique, and offer suggestions for revision.
Final hour:
- I introduce the next writing assignment and some suggestions for composition.
- Class participants will often write a rough draft of the assignment in class.
- Class will conclude with my offering further composition suggestions, as well as tips on researching the topic in the library and on the internet.
At home before the next class:
- You will research the assigned writing task, and any poems or other texts mentioned in the previous class. Some of this research will require review of online resources and trips to the library.
- You will read another eight or more works from reputable online sources, from one or more literary journals you have purchased, and from your chosen book of poetry by a living poet.
- You will complete the poem begun during the previous class.
- You will create an additional response to that writing assignment (e.g., a second poem on a different topic from your first poem), and a third poem responding to an assignment of your choosing.
- You will revise the three texts and thus prepare to share them (and perhaps read the best of the three) in the next class.
Note that these instructions will sometimes be amended in order to meet class objectives (and in the interests of time).
