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University of Wyoming

-English-

 

Introduction to Literature (ENGL 2020)

April Heaney

Director, Synergy Program; Lecturer, Department of English

 

“I used to think I was a horrible reader and I did not enjoy reading.  After this semester, I believe I truly enjoy reading.  I hadn’t read a book in several years before this class, and reading has really been fun.  I am surprised by how involved and interested I get in the books.  It took me about three days to read The Things They Carried because I just couldn’t put it down.”

ENGL 2020 student

 

Introduction to Literature is a high-demand course taken primarily by non-English majors.  Because this is often the last literature class that students take in college, one of the primary goals is simply to help them develop a lasting investment in reading.  The course also aims to impel students beyond their initial reactions of like or dislike when confronted with unfamiliar material.  April has identified the following literacies:

                                    Rich reading               Analytical writing

                  Multicultural literacy

Through the CLAAS project, April has fostered a learning environment in which literacies are central to all of the course assignments and readings.  She has adopted the following approaches to address these literacies:

  • Creating an atmosphere that does not judge students’ ideas.  Discussion, creative writing, autobiographical sketches, and short preparatory writing exercises encourage students to value their personal experience rather than suppressing or ignoring it.

  • Developing engaging assignments that help students recognize and reflect upon multiple layers in a text.  In the “Literary Perspectives” group project, for example, students become “experts” on varying perspectives which they then apply to several short stories and a TV episode of The Simpsons.  Student feedback has revealed that such activities have led them to apply these perspectives outside of class.

  • Leading students to ask critical questions about texts from unfamiliar cultures before attempting to analyze them.  Multicultural readings coupled with assignments like the “Literary Perspectives” project help students to acknowledge and appreciate different cultural viewpoints while becoming more conscious of their own.

The following links provide more information on this course:

Description of ENGL 2020 Literacies

Assignments for Multicultural Literacy