Murphy's Lit & Comp

Fall 2022, I will be teaching:

• English 130: Academic Writing
• English 342: Literature of the Child
• English 350; Science, Technology, and the Literature of Cultural Change

Online + Asynchronous

• All sections will be asynchronous (meaning no set group meeting times)
• The courses will not be facilitated on Blackboard. Instead, there will be a course website that serves as a hub for the work we will be doing

Contract Grading + Mastery Grading Scheme

• Contract Grading: I lay out what work is required what grade levels and if you do the work, you get the grade
  • There will be core assignments that must be completed to pass the course (with a C)
  • There will be 2 additional projects that can be completed to earn a B (one additional project of choice) or A (both additional projects)
• Mastery Grading Scheme: Assignment by assignment, rather than points, assignments are graded Credit (CR) / Revise for Credit (RC) / No Credit (NC)
  • There is no penalty for needing to revise and you can revise as many times as you need to meet the standards of the assignments
  • Requests for revisions will come with clear notes and suggestions

Course Materials

English 130: Academic Writing

This will be a zero-cost course, meaning any materials will either be open access or available through the Meriam Library.

English 342: Literature of the Child

A portion of the readings for this course are either in the public domain or carried by the Meriam Library (so I’ll compile them for us for easy access). There will be a unit for which you will need to arrange access (buy, borrow, etc.) to a text. You get to choose one of the following options:

• Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar (poetry, audiobook available) or
• Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen (graphic novel) or
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (narrative, audiobook available)

You will also get to choose a children’s book for a project that fulfills the Oral Communication SLO.

English 350: Science, Technology, and the Literature of Cultural Change

A portion of the readings for this course are either in the public domain or carried by the Meriam Library (so I’ll compile them for us for easy access). The main text we will be working with is a specific edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:

• Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, & Creators of All Kinds, written by Mary Shelley, edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert

The edition of the text does matter as it contains annotations explaining the science of the time. Open access to this text is available via the Meriam Library.

Spring 2022, I will be teaching:

• English 130: Academic Writing
• English 258: World Literature
• English 264: American Regional & Ethnic Writers

Online + Asynchronous

• All sections will be asynchronous (meaning no set group meeting times)
• The courses will not be facilitated on Blackboard. Instead, there will be a course website that serves as a hub for the work we will be doing

Contract Grading + Mastery Grading Scheme

• Contract Grading: I lay out what work is required what grade levels and if you do the work, you get the grade
  • There will be core assignments that must be completed to pass the course (with a C)
  • There will be 2 additional projects that can be completed to earn a B (one additional project of choice) or A (both additional projects)
• Mastery Grading Scheme: Assignment by assignment, rather than points, assignments are graded Credit (CR) / Revise for Credit (RC) / No Credit (NC)
  • There is no penalty for needing to revise and you can revise as many times as you need to meet the standards of the assignments
  • Requests for revisions will come with clear notes and suggestions

Course Materials

English 130: Academic Writing

This will be a zero-cost course, meaning any materials will either be open access or available through the Meriam Library.

English 258: World Literature

You will need to acquire the texts for this course. Note that for each unit you will get to choose between two options:

• Unit 1: either
  • Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá’s Daytripper (graphic novel) or
  • Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (audiobook available)
• Unit 2: either
  • Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (graphic novel) or
  • Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies (audiobook available)
• Unit 3: either
  • Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s Grass (graphic novel) or
  • Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime (audiobook available)

English 264: American Regional and Ethnic Writers

You will need to acquire the texts for this course. Note that for each unit you will get to choose between two options.

• Unit 1: either
  • Fatimah Asghar, If They Come for Us (poetry/audiobook available) or
  • Hasan Minhaj, Homecoming King (stand-up comedy/available through Netflix)
• Unit 2: either
  • Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (memoir/audiobook available) or
  • Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do (memoir/graphic novel)
• Unit 3: either
  • Eve L. Ewing, Electric Arches (poetry/audiobook available) or
  • Whoopi Goldberg, Direct from Broadway (stand-up comedy/available through HBOMax)