| |
English Studies |
| |
-
ENGL 7010 - Children’s Literature
3 cr.
Students in this class study the content of classic and contemporary children’s literature plus various approaches for interpreting and teaching a wide variety of children’s texts. Close attention is paid to emerging trends in children’s literature as well as to the literature’s enduring concerns.
|
| |
-
ENGL 7012 - The Modern Secondary School
3 cr.
This course is required of all MAT candidates who do not have initial licensure to teach and covers a broad range of issues faced by teachers in today’s secondary schools. Students become familiar with the complexities and demands of secondary school teaching. The course includes 25 hours of prepracticum experience.
|
| |
-
ENGL 7020 - Teaching College Writing
3 cr.
This course is designed to prepare English graduate students or others with proper academic credentials to teach introductory college-level writing, introduce students to central issues, problems, and theories in composition studies, and to examine ways in which our experience as writers can help shape the teaching of composition. Although the emphasis on this course will be on the central, practical tasks of teaching writing, we will move beyond a simple, prescriptive “how-to” in order to examine other theoretical and pedagogical issues that shape what we do and why.
|
| |
-
ENGL 7850 - Advanced Special Methods in English
3 cr.
The approach in this course for the Post Baccalaureate Certificate, Initial Licensure, provides a holistic framework for teaching secondary English emphasizing the interrelatedness of all language abilities: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We experiment with and evaluate a variety of teaching strategies for creating responsive, reflective, and responsible readers, writers, and speakers as well as methods for the assessment of student performance. A prepracticum is required.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 7016/2860 and /4700 or equivalent and a 2.75 overall GPA and 3.0 in the major, Communication/Literacy MTEL and Subject Area Exam.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8000 - Advanced Methods of Teaching at the Secondary Level
3 cr.
This course combines academic study with clinical practice and supervision. Theories and topics studied and demonstrated include learning styles, critical thinking, computer applications and inclusive learning environments. Emphasis is placed on integrating culturally or linguistically diverse students and those with special needs. Interdisciplinary course development and implementation, student assessment including portfolio assessment and writing are studied for utilization across the curriculum.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 7012 or initial teacher licensure.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8020 - Creative Writing
3 cr.
This course facilitates the writing of poetry and/or short fiction in a workshop atmosphere.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8035 - The Robert Cormier Collection
3 cr.
This course is a study of the writings of Robert Cormier, the internationally acclaimed Leominster author, using materials in the Robert Cormier Manuscript Collection at Fitchburg State University. The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, Tenderness, Heroes, Frenchtown Summer, and other works by Cormier are examined.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8040 - Theories and Principles of Language Learning
3 cr.
*
This course provides teachers of multilingual students with a theoretical background for the teaching and learning of languages. It introduces research into second language acquisition from perspectives of the fields of linguistics, psychology and education. Topics include language acquisition; learning styles and strategies; effects of personality, age, motivation and sociological factors; and the role of the first language. Discussions explore the relationship of theory to methodology and classroom practice.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8042 - Methods and Materials in ESL
3 cr.
*
This course will explore the major methodological approaches to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), including a historical survey and a review of current applications. The following topics are discussed: interactive, communicative classroom practices; teaching reading, writing, listening, oral communication, grammar, and vocabulary; testing and designing and evaluating classroom materials.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8050 - Advanced Research in English Studies
3 cr.
Designed for students who are new to the English Graduate Program, this course promotes the student’s ability to do independent and creative scholarly research and to become more competent in critical approaches to literature, research techniques, new methodologies, and technologies, as well as library and archival examination. Students in the MAT in English Licensure Program develop the research proposal for the classroom research project required during their 400 hour Internship/Clinical experience.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8070 - Literature in the Classroom
3 cr.
This course examines the place of literature in today’s middle and secondary school classroom. Using the Standards for the English Language Arts (NCTE and IRA) and the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework as guides, we consider the choice of classic and contemporary literature for whole class and individual reading, strategies for creating responsive and reflective readers of literature, and means of assessing student performance.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8071 - Literature for Young Adults
3 cr.
Literature for Young Adults is a survey of current books written especially for middle and secondary school students, as well as a study of strategies for teaching them. The emphasis is on the newest books available in paperback that are suitable for classroom use or recreational reading. Strategies for encouraging student engagement with literature, for pairing young adult novels with the classics and for sharing responses are modeled by the professor and evaluated by students.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8076 - Creating Literacy Experience: Building Reading and Writing into the Content Areas
3 cr.
Writing across the curriculum provides learners with the opportunity to investigate their own thinking as they go beyond the surface level of text or subject matter to arrive at meaningful connections and insights. Students investigate creative approaches to introduce current research journals into portfolios and audience assessment. Working independently and in cooperative learning groups, participants immerse themselves in the reading/writing/thinking process, create their own portfolios, design mini-lessons, conduct research, and share their learning and thinking.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8085 - Literature and Film
3 cr.
This is an introduction to the relationship between literature and film through the critical study of each medium. Special consideration is given to matters of characterization, narration, plot, setting, theme and tone in written works and films. Students are introduced to conventions of the documentary and fictional film, principles of scriptwriting and the elements of formal screen production.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8090 - Practicum
6 cr.
Teacher candidates complete a practicum in an educational setting under the direction of a supervising practitioner who is certified in the area of licensure sought by the candidate, and under the guidance of a program supervisor. The purpose of the practicum is to ensure candidates are ready to teach and make an impact with students on day one in a classroom. Targeted and specific feedback on observations of candidates, measurement of candidate impact on student learning, student feedback and additional evidence will be used to demonstrate and improve candidate performance on Professional Standards for Teachers indicators and the Candidate Assessment of Performance. This course is taken in conjunction with the practicum seminar.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8260 - Curriculum Design & Development
3 cr.
This course is designed to provide students with knowledge and skills of the curriculum development-revision process. The course examines societal demands on the curriculum and the role of the American school in a democratic and multicultural society as students assess, revise, and implement instructional programs and the curriculum in a systematic and logical way. Active participation in school-based curriculum teams, IEP teams, site-based management teams and community groups teach effective delivery of services to all students and school improvement/reform efforts. In collaborative groups students review, revise, and expand the curriculum and assessment procedures in order to integrate current research findings and education reform initiatives.
|
| |
-
ENGL 8750 - Advanced Special Methods in English
3 cr.
The approach in this course for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate for Initital Licensure provides a holistic framework for teaching secondary English emphasizing the interrelatedness of all language abilities: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. We experiment with and evaluate a variety of teaching strategies for creating responsive, reflective, and responsible readers, writers, and speakers as well as methods for the assessment of student performance. A prepracticum is required.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 2860 or 7016, and ENGL 4700 or or equivalent and a 2.75 overall GPA and 3.0 in the major, Communication/Literacy MTEL and Subject Area Exam.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9000 - Literary Theory: Practical Applications for Today’s Readers
3 cr.
This course surveys theories of literature with emphasis on applying them to our readings of a wide variety of texts. Study includes a brief historical survey, but focuses on such contemporary practices as cultural studies and feminist theory. Texts and theoretical schools may vary from semester to semester. Practical applications in the classroom and in one’s own reading guide class discussion.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9010 - Chaucer
3 cr.
Students read Chaucer’s major works, beginning with early poems and lyrics, then concentrating on The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. Focus is on the Middle English Language; critical approaches, and literary analysis.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9011 - The Literature of the Middle Ages
3 cr.
The course surveys selected texts from the Middle Ages, starting with Beowulf and Old English lyrics, and including representative Middle English, Celtic, Anglo-Norman and French works. Various genres are covered, including epic, lyric, drama, Arthurian romance, legend, religious verse and satire. All works except the Middle English are read in translation.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9012 - The Practice of Poetry: Critical Reading, Creative Writing
3 cr.
This active-learning course explores the contemporary poetry scene: productions, performances and discussions of poetry as it is practiced today. Students compose original poems in a variety of styles and learn interactive methods of responding to poetry. Students read literary works representing major poetry trends. Students visit the computer lab, learning the basics of accessing online poetry groups and publications online. Students attend a live or taped reading, research several literary journals and prepare either a final paper or a selection of original poems.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9015 - Folklore in American Culture
4 cr.
Folklore constitutes an integral link between traditions of the past and the practices of the present. The course introduces the study of folklore - its guiding theories and methods, as well as its historical and present day contributions to research in the humanities and the social sciences. The course culminates with student field research.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9016 - Composition Theory and Practice
3 cr.
This course is intended to help students create a framework for generating their own philosophy of writing. It is intended to help students develop a deeper understanding of their own writing processes, to recognize the complexities of literacy and writing, and to become more conscious of the rhetorical choices writers make in different writing situations.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9017 - Genre, Adaptation and Hybridity
3 cr.
In this course we will study writers who create literature in more than one genre or who defy genre by destabilizing fixed systems of classification. Artistic combinations include poet/novelist, poet/musician and novelist/screenwriter. The course considers an author’s thematic and stylistic consistencies from one genre to another, as well as his or her reasons for choosing to write in one particular genre. Also, the course will address hybridity as a concept in identity and its corresponding multi-generic textual expression. We will consider theories of adaptation and links between originals and adaptations.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9020 - Shakespeare’s Major Plays
3 cr.
This course examines Shakespeare’s major plays in relation to the culture and interpretive concerns of both Shakespeare’s world and our contemporary one. Special emphasis is placed on his works as read, taught, performed and constructed in regard to power, gender, class and literary aesthetics.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9025 - Romantic Women Writers
3 cr.
Romantic-era literature is known for its invocations of the power of the imagination through lyric poetry that illustrates the contemplations of a mind nurtured by the power of nature. While these ideas hold true to well-known male poets of the period (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, et al), they seem less precise in describing writings by female authors of the Romantic era. This course will examine works by female poets, novelists, and critics from 1789-1834 to uncover how women’s writing can adapt, challenge, or controvert well-established ideas about the Romantic era. Our readings will include works from writers such as Helen Maria Williams, Hannah More, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Smith, Joanna Baillie, Mary Robinson, Anna Barbauld, Dorothy Wordsworth, Felicia Hemans, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, and Mary Shelley.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9035 - Revisiting the Romantics
3 cr.
This course emphasizes the work of romantic era writers (1780-1830). Students examine the key aesthetic and political debates of the time through an analysis of essays, poetry, novels and plays. Authors include such writers as Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, William Godwin, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats and Byron.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9036 - The Quiet Revolution: 19th-Century American Women Writers
3 cr.
This course considers texts by Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fanny Fern, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ida B. Wells, Zitkala-Sa, Sui Sin Far, and many others. We will analyze their works as complex literary texts, and also consider how these writers used such literary genres as public forums for discussing issues such as sexism, racism, the reform of labor, marriage, property, voting, and education.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9037 - American Renaissance: Works by Hawthorne, Poe, and Others
3 cr.
This course looks at fiction and poetry by several great American writers of the mid 19th century. Readings will explore the revolution that took place in the treatment of nature and science in the middle of that century.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9040 - Mark Twain and American Humor
3 cr.
This course surveys several of Twain’s works, with a focus on his performance as a humorist and as a wry commentator on and critic of American life. The course explores Twain’s treatment of such serious issues as race and cultural conformity through the medium of laughter. Humorists who share the Twain legacy, such as Kurt Vonnegut and stand-up comics, are also studied.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9046 - American Art and Literature 1800–1860
3 cr.
This course explores the relationships between the visual and literary arts of the new nation. Students learn to identify the forces that inspired imaginative production in multiple art forms and genres during the period that attempted to define the American style. Visual, digital, and multimedia texts will be analyzed alongside literary works.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9047 - Women in European Literature
3 cr.
At the center of this course are texts by women authors from various European countries written during the 18th through the 20th centuries. Students consider the kinds of writings published by women, their audiences and motivations and the accessibility or popularity of their writings. Close analysis and discussion of individual texts lead students to consider variations of these factors between countries and time periods.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9048 - Multicultural Children’s Literature
3 cr.
This course focuses on contemporary multicultural children’s literature and requires students to learn and apply appropriate interpretive strategies for understanding texts and cultural contexts. Students gain and demonstrate a firm understanding of the major critical issues regarding multicultural children’s literature and formulate and support personal responses to these issues.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9049 - The World Novel to 1914
3 cr.
This course examines significant novels outside the American/English literary canon in translation representing the development of the form. Selected authors may include comic, romantic (Sand), realist (Balzac, Flaubert), and psychological (de Assis, Micha’lis).
|
| |
-
ENGL 9050 - American Historical Fiction: Practice and Theory
3 cr.
This course typically examines several sub-genres of the American historical novel, looking in each case at multiple primary text and excerpts from scholarly approaches to the sub-genre. At the broad level, this course’s goal is to help us think about how we read and define a literary genre, both in terms of our own individual analyses and the ongoing critical conversation; concurrently, one specific goal is to develop working definitions for both the “American” and the “historical fiction” contained within our title. Studied authors may include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Chesnutt, William Faulkner and Leslie Marmon Silko.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9052 - 20th Century British and American Poetry
3 cr.
This seminar explores the works of poets such as Auden, H.D., Lowell, Plath, Roethke, Kinnell, Rich, Heaney, Bishop, Walcott and Hughes. Students make presentations on assigned topics and may also be required to attend live and filmed poetry readings.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9055 - Modern Irish Literature
3 cr.
This seminar concentrates on major works by Irish poets such as Yeats, Heaney, Muldoon; Irish fiction writers such as Joyce, O’Connor, O’Faolain; and Irish playwrights such as Synge, O’Casey, Friel.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9058 - Contemporary World Literature
3 cr.
Particular emphasis in this course is placed on authors who write to effect changes in our perceptions of the other so we may understand the otherness of ourselves. Authors studied include: Conrad, Forster, Achebe, Gordimer, Fugard and others.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9059 - The Shapes of Modern Drama
3 cr.
In this seminar students read plays from such traditions as the realist, the symbolist and the expressionist, including works by Yeats, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter and Mamet.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9060 - Women Writers Around the World: Stories of Maturation and Initiation
3 cr.
Students take a global approach to women’s stories of growing up found in autobiographies, novels, short stories, and poetry. This course includes works by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Nawal El Saadawi, bell hooks, Leslie Marmon Silko and Jeanette Winterson. Much of this literature is appropriate for use in the high school classroom.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9061 - Africa Through the Novel
3 cr.
Students read, examine and discuss texts by African writers who have (re)constructed, in their imaginary worlds, specific and multiple visions of African life. All texts were written in the 20th century, although some portray periods prior to that time. Emphasis is on characteristics of style, politics and culture evoked in these works and aspects of contemporary literary theory pertaining to African literature today.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9063 - Canon Formation in African American Literature
3 cr.
This course examines texts by African American writers who have (re)constructed in their imaginary worlds specific and multiple visions of African-American life. All of the texts read in this course were written during the 19th and 20th centuries, but some of them involve historical periods prior to these times. Others are informed by variations of historical consciousness of the past/present/future.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9064 - Three American Literatures: Native American, African American, and Asian American
3 cr.
The focus of this course is on relationships between culture and society as works by three groups of Americans are considered within historical, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Discussion may concern questions of identity, family, initiation, politics and ideology, education, gender, aggression and violence. Special attention is paid to the novel as a popular art form in aesthetic and social terms.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9065 - Women in Contemporary Society
3 cr.
Women as a force in society are the focus of this cross-discipline course. The political, social and economic issues concerning women are subjects for student research. Areas explored include anthropology, business, education, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, science and the arts. Students also consider the role of cultural diversity (both nationally and internationally) in the scholarship of women.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9066 - Latin American Novels
3 cr.
This course offers an introduction to the literature of the various cultural areas of Latin America. Such authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Amado and Miguel Angel Asturias are studied in their English translations. The roles of the church and the Latin American family are examined as well as the image of tropical nature. Comparisons to English/North American literature are made when useful.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9067 - Asian English Literature in Cultural Context
3 cr.
This course covers selected works, mostly fiction and memoir, of American, Canadian and British writers of Asian ancestry including Maxine Hong Kingston and Gail Tsukiyama. We gain familiarity with the Asian cultural framework of the writers in order to understand differences with western traditions and expectations.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9075 - Topics Course
3 cr.
Course content varies from semester to semester, reflecting contemporary issues in the discipline and depending upon student and faculty interest.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9080 - Independent Study
3 cr.
Independent study provides special individualized study under close supervision for students excelling in scholarship.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9090 - 20th Century American Women Writers
3 cr.
American literary history in the 20th century can be centrally defined by the expanding and significant community of women writers present in each era and genre. In this course we will trace the century’s literary history across multiple moments and movements (from turn of the century innovators and modernists to postmodernists, ethic writers, and 21st century voices), focusing at length on key individual authors and texts but adding lots of additional writers into the mix as well. Authors to be read may include Cather, Larsen, Plath, Morrison, and Tan.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9100 - Master’s Thesis Research
3 cr.
The student researches in depth a topic of their own interest in English. Students who successfully complete this course should enroll in ENGL 9200 - Master’s Thesis Writing
Prerequisite(s): Signed permission from the Graduate English Chair.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9200 - Master’s Thesis Writing
3 cr.
Using the research developed in the Master’s Thesis Research course, the student will write a master’s thesis under the guidance of a faculty member and following the Graduate English Thesis Guidelines.
Prerequisite(s): Signed permission from the graduate English chair and Master’s Thesis Research.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9500 - Internship
6 cr.
The internship is a clinical, capstone experience allowing full integration and application of content knowledge and pedagogical theory and practice. It should incorporate all standards specific to the discipline of English as well as all common standards for classroom teachers (section 7.04). Students must fulfill a minimum of 400 clock hours or one full semester on site under the auspices of the university.
|
| |
-
ENGL 9600 - Pedagogical Research
6 cr.
In this six-credit capstone, students cover extensive readings in research theories and methodologies, submit a proposal to the IRB, and pending approval, conduct their own action research under the guidance of a supervisor.
Students must complete 33 credits of graduate coursework to enroll.
|
| |
Print this Page