Announcements: In Need of Reading Recommendations?
Hello Everyone!
I’m writing to you all because I am need of your help. One of my assignments for school is creating course syllabi for community college and university students. I am currently working on two different syllabi for two of my courses and both of those syllabi are in need of a reading list. I will describe the classes in this post and if you know of any reading selections that fit with each of my course themes, please put it in the comments!
Course Syllabus #1
This course is an integrated reading and writing course aimed at preparing students for college-level writing in their major courses and elsewhere. It is mainly for students that are struggling with reading and writing and are need of a little extra help.
For this course, my overall theme is Identity in Media. Students will be reading a variety of texts and discuss how identity is shaped by social media and visual arts. Some questions that will be used in class discussion include what is aesthetic culture? To what extent should we discuss our political views on social media? To what extent do stereotypes in media affect our personal identities? How has media or art impacted our view on beauty and our physical appearances? To what extent does social and visual media actually represent “an honest” depiction of a person? How much power and control do we have in creating our identity?
I am interested in using a variety of fiction and non-fiction pieces (short stories, online articles, video clips, and etc) so students can practice using their reading and critical thinking skills in various mediums. And with these readings, they will develop argumentative essays.
There are the possible unit themes I am considering in this Identity in Media course.
- Aesthetic Culture
- Political Identity & Free Speech
- Stereotypes in Media
- Beauty Culture in Social Media & Art
So if you have any ideas of some articles, stories, or visual aids that could be incorporated in my course, please let me know.
Course Syllabus #2
For this course syllabus, it is a general education, lower division (freshman and sophomore) university course on world literature. This course is more of an introduction/survey course on world literature. It is aimed for students of all majors.
Now, most survey courses are structured by historical periods and genre, but I am hoping to have a theme for my world literature course and based my literary readings on that theme.
These are themes I am considering:
- Cosmology & Fate – Students will be reading stories about the struggle of fate vs. free-will. Some stories will include how fate is shown through cosmological symbols or predicted by seers.
- Dreams – Students will read stories about dreams and dream interpretations.
- Human Relationships: Love & Romance – Students will be reading literary texts about love and courtship.
There are requirements when it comes to reading recommendations for syllabus #2:
- It has to be literature.
- Works should be from around the world (I’m trying to get every continent).
- It must have been translated into English.
- Works can be from various historical time periods.
- It can be in any genre (novels, poems, plays, or short stories). However, if you recommend a novel, I might just use a selection of that novel, particularly scenes that fit with the themes above. So if you are going to pick a novel, please mention why you picked this novel and if there are any particular chapter or scene/event that fits with the themes above.
- When picking literary texts, they should be texts that you think students should read and know about.
When making recommendations, please list which course syllabus you are recommending the text to. If you are recommending literary texts for syllabus #2, please state which theme you are recommending this text to and explain why it is a good fit and include
Thank you very much for your recommendations and helping me out on this assignment! I really appreciate it! ❤
-Lyn
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Just Something About LynLyn 
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. You should also check out the movie coming out in Nov 👌👌
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CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
– for #2 human relations love and romance. it’s an lgbtq read and the author is from egypt, the story takes place in italy and it’s in the POV of a 17yo italian guy
– i figured it fit the l&r topic because it’s about a “summer romance” that we sorta think is just a fling type thing but that ends up being so much more for our MC. it’s told from when he’s much older so we see what happens in that summer and then there’s 2 time skips where he interacts with oliver (the american guy he likes) later
– i think ppl should read it because elio (mc) has very relatable feelings that one has when in love (or what i imagine to be love) and how courtships aren’t all pretty. also there’s some stuff i picked up about identity and labels, and how family plays a role in a non-homophobic way. plus the message of “if not later, when”
TURBULENT by SHIRIN NESHAT
– for #1 Political Identity & Free Speech. this is a short video by shirin neshat who is an iranian visual artists commenting on the relationship/contrast of men and women in iran
– she’s also got a lot of neat stuff like “rapture” which is better experienced in person. it’s a projected film in a gallery where we have women on one side and men on the other and it’s up to the viewer which side they pay attention to, and which they ignore
AI WEIWEI
I think anything by Ai Weiwei would also fit with #1 since he works a lot of political speech and the use of social media and there’s a lot of documentary stuff about the repercussions for his outspokenness. He also has this new documentary about the refugee crisis (human flow) that comes out in Nov: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6573444/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2
let me think some more xD
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I’m sure the deadline has come and gone, but if not then I’d recommend Capek’s R.U.R for your #2. It’s a great literary work from a talented Czeck writer and is where we get the word robot. I’d say it hits free-will on the head.
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