ENG 365.

01 FOLKLORE
Baldwin Hall 314 | 3:00-4:20 TR | Dr. Priscilla Riggle | 660.785.7777 | priggle@truman.edu Office OP 1101 | Office Hours Mon 10:30-11:30 Tues 2:00-3:00 Fri 9:00-10:00 & by appointment Please stop at reception desk when visiting during office hours.

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course begins by surveying the major stages in the development of the study of folklore, in particular its dominant assumptions, theories, and research methods. From this common foundation you will each build a variety of projects exploring folklore in the world around you. In addition to creating several shorter writing and multimedia projects, you will engage in a substantial fieldwork project that will span several weeks, while simultaneously working on other projects. These activities will all require you to practice observing and interpreting what you observe as a folklorist would. By the end of the semester, that folklorist will be you.

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the semester, you will be able to: o identify and describe major stages, developments, scholars, and theories in the field of folklore; o define key terms relating to folklore and its study (including folklore); o write a clear, cogent summary of a scholarly reading from the field of folklore; o identify multiple areas which might lend themselves to fruitful folkloristic investigation; o engage in thoughtful, revealing analysis of assigned and self-selected folklore; o understand and appreciate the many ways that culture shapes both the production of folklore and the ways in which outsiders respond to and interpret that folklore; o demonstrate respect and appreciation for folklore that comes from a world other than your own; o create high-quality written and multimedia projects that effectively communicate the products of your original research and analysis; o reflect on your own thought processes as you read, write, and otherwise engage the field of folklore; o participate in class and online dialogue in such a way that your own learning and that of your peers is advanced; o provide useful feedback to your peers regarding their written and spoken work. o explore how knowledge, theories, and/or methods in your home discipline or field (if not folklore) might be brought to bear on your work in this course. NOTES: The learning outcomes for ENG 365 Folklore reflect the stated outcomes for each of these areas for which it counts. This is a writing-enhanced course that fulfills the Aesthetic: Literature Mode of Inquiry and the Intercultural Interconnecting Perspective of the LSP. ENG 365 Folklore is required for the Folklore minor, counts in the World Lit area of the English B.A. major, and is approved for Honors Scholars. This course counts toward the 63-hour Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) graduation requirement.

FALL 2011
Truman State University | Department of English & Linguistics | English

TEXTS AND MATERIALS Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions, Sims and Stephens I intentionally selected a very reasonably priced textbook and resisted the urge to have you purchase other common readings. In exchange, you will need to budget for a modest amount of copying and a little printing from Blackboard and other sites. CLASS ACTIVITIES AND ASSIGNMENTS Reading assignments and Class Discussion I expect you to have completed the assigned reading and be prepared for class discussion every time we meet. I do call on students (nicely), so dont be surprised if I ask you to speak even if you havent raised your hand. As you will see on the schedule, I use Blackboard as the course entry point for our online learning environment. That means you will need to be able to access BB as a regular part of homework, so please be prepared to do so. Quickwrites You will regularly do a bit of writing about our reading/discussion. Often this work will take place on Blackboards discussion board, but sometimes we will do quickwrites in class. Occasionally Ill ask you to exchange what youve written with a classmate to get some response from them before submitting to me, and I may read a few quickwrites in class or share on Blackboard. In every case, be aware that I am not always your only audience. I do not pre-determine the total number of quickwrites or what the total points possible will be in this category. I can tell you that quickwrites are a regular part of class and I use them a) to give you low-stakes practice working with course material and b) to make sure everyone is keeping up with assignments and taking away the most important concepts from the readings and other assigned activities. Some quickwrites will be weighted more heavily than others; I will let you know about point values on each prompt. No make-ups will be allowed on missed in-class quickwrites. Ill offer one or two extra credit quickwrites that will help offset a few missed points to give you a chance to have a bad day. Other assignments o autobiographical folkgroups Prezi o fieldwork pitch o fieldwork proposal and mini-bibliography o comparative folklore project (multi-media) o fieldwork project o fieldwork Prezi Mid-term and Final Exams Exams are designed to determine whether and to what extent you are meeting course objectives and achieving learning outcomes (see above). Rather than demanding just rote memorization, you will need to be able to analyze, connect, and apply what youve been learning. You should be prepared to work with unfamiliar texts or artifacts. Exams will take place during our scheduled class time. I will go over format and expectations in advance of each exam.

FALL 2011
Truman State University | Department of English & Linguistics | English

EVALUATION Work will be evaluated according to criteria specified in each assignment. Because this is an English course AND a writing-enhanced course, your writing will be judged according to both the ideas you present and the quality of delivery, including such matters as audience awareness, organization, use of relevant illustrations/examples, grammar/usage/mechanics, documentation of source material, and sentence-level editing. Assignment value and the course grading scale are as follows (listed in order of appearance): 35% 2% 5% 1% 5% 10% 10% 15% 2% 15% quickwrites autobiographical Prezi article summary/response fieldwork pitch fieldwork proposal and mini-bibliography midterm exam comparative folklore project fieldwork project fieldwork Prezi final exam

COURSE POLICIES Community Building I expect all of us to engage in behaviors that build and maintain a supportive, engaged, and powerful learning environment. Some suggestions: Listen carefully to what others say and when you can, connect your own comments to what has been previously said (as you would in any good conversation). If you can, try not to direct all of your comments to mepractice speaking to the group (unless youre answering a question I have posed) or to the classmate to whom you are responding. The content of a course like Folklore can bring up topics of a rather personal nature, and inevitably there are times when each of us may get uncomfortable. So long as no one intentionally pushes boundaries to get a reaction from others, I think we have to live with a reasonable amount of occasional internal squirming, irritation, or even distaste. If a more significant issue arises, well deal with it then. In the meantime, you may not agree with everything others say, but I hope you can be supportive of them anyway. It takes courage for some people to speak up in class. I dont respond well to one student trying to shut another student down, and Im sure you all are capable of providing others with the kind of respect youd like to receive from each of us. Late Work/Making Up Work Please make every effort to complete work on time. If you miss a deadline or if youd like to request extra time for an assignment in advance of a due date, please see me.

FALL 2011
Truman State University | Department of English & Linguistics | English

Missing Class I will compile and share with you a class contact sheet. If you miss class, please check Blackboard first to see if I did a classroom capture that day. If not, I suggest you get notes and discuss what you missed with a classmate or two before asking me what you missed. Then feel free to touch base with me for further clarification. (Missing a quickwrite is a natural consequence of missing class, so I dont count off extra. If you have a University sponsored event that will require you to miss class, youll have an official method to communicate this with me, and youll need to make arrangements for what you will miss before that happens.)

UNIVERSITY POLICIES Accommodations for Students With Disabilities If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, I encourage you to contact the Disability Services office (x4478) and consult with me as soon as possible. Academic Honesty As noted in the General Catalog, Students are expected to do their own academic work. Any student involved in cheating on a paper, an examination or in any other form of academic dishonesty will be subject to disciplinary action, including suspension or expulsion from the class, the students academic program, or the University (http://catalog.truman.edu/content.php?catoid=1&navoid=18#Academic_Dishonesty). In addition to the obvious, please note that you are not allowed to submit the same work for more than one course without instructor permission.

BIG DATES 12 September (Mon), 9:00 a.m. 19-23 September (Mon-Fri) 22 September (Thurs), 9:00 a.m. 27 September (Tues), by class time 30 September (Fri), 5:00 p.m. 4 October (Tues), in class 11 October (Tues), by class time 13-14 October (Thurs-Fri) 25 October (Tues), by class time 11 November (Fri), 5:00 p.m. 17 November (Thurs), by class time 21-25 November (Mon-Fri) 1-2 December (Thurs-Fri), EOB Fri. 6 December (Tues), by class time 15 December (Thurs), 11:30-1:20 summary due to Blackboard required fieldwork project pitch meetings proposal and mini-bibliography for fieldwork project due to Blackboard IRB applications due to me for review and signature IRB application to due review committee mid-term exam autobiographical material for comparative folklore project due to Blackboard MIDTERM BREAK comparative folklore project due to Blackboard annotated rough draft of fieldwork project due to Blackboard workshop assigned fieldwork project drafts THANKSGIVING BREAK ENG/LING Sr. Sem. Conference summary/response due to Blackboard fieldwork project and Prezi due to Blackboard final exam

FALL 2011
Truman State University | Department of English & Linguistics | English