= Course Description. This course, GST 150, is
one of two entry points (along with ENG 150) into Salve Regina’s undergraduate
Core Curriculum. The Core is designed with four major goals in mind:
cultivating lifelong learning, liberal arts skills, awareness of Catholic
identity, and responsible citizenship in a global context.
Thus
the Portal course starts students on a journey not just toward a degree, but
more broadly toward a lifetime of learning and responsible citizenship in a
global context.
As
a
Using
a text-based, writing intensive approach, students will enter into
dialogue with some of the most powerful and provocative answers ever given,
answers that for many have been doors to wisdom. In the process, students will
join their fellow human beings across time and culture in this search for
wisdom.
= Course Objectives. (1) To introduce students to
the Core Curriculum. (2) To help students imaginatively engage six key themes
essential to Catholic identity, responsible citizenship in a global context,
and the building of a worldview. (3) To spark enthusiasm for further engagement
with great ideas. (4) To begin establishing good learning habits central to the
liberal arts, such as close reading, thoughtful questioning, civil but
challenging discussion, and clear writing. (5) To lead students formed in
today’s image-based culture into the practice of critical, conceptual
reflection and toward a life of just and merciful action. (Note that a detailed
correlation between these objectives and those specified in the Core Curriculum
can be found on page six below).
= Required Texts (all
available in Salve bookstore)
Augustine, The Confessions
Plato, Symposium
Green/Lattimore, Sophocles I
The Trial and Death of Socrates
Homer, The Odyssey
Martin, How Can I Find God?
The Bible (New Revised Standard
Version, Catholic Edition)
= Course Method. The primary learning method
is a process of written and oral conversations with the texts, fellow students,
and the professor. Students discover, engage, and refine ideas through
discussion and writing. In a typical cycle, students
read an assigned text,
respond to the text in writing
(Participation Papers and/or Draft Papers),
discuss the text, and then
rethink/expand what they have read (Final
Paper).
At the end of the semester,
in the final examination, they will be asked to synthesize what they have learned and make
connections.
= What are the writing assignments? There are two types: the Participation Paper and the Portfolio Paper:
Participation
Papers
At various points in the course, the instructor will assign a brief Participation Paper that students will write after they have finished an assigned text. The purpose of the Participation Paper is to help students to understand the text they have just read and to discuss it in class.
·
There are
different ways of writing this type of paper. The professor will specify which
format will be used, for example: Write a “journal entry” about the reading.
Answer certain questions. Summarize. Describe key points in the text. Play a
role (“Imagine you are . . .”).
·
The Participation Paper is counted as an indication of a student’s
participation. It receives a pass/fail but not a letter grade. In this sense it
is “No Fault” – the student can
explore ideas in written form without the pressure of a letter grade.
Writing Portfolio
During the semester, students will put together a writing Portfolio. In this Portfolio there will be a minimum of nine pages of written work (double spaced, 12 point font) that has gone through a draft/revision process and received a letter grade. The student may also add other writings (for example drafts or participation papers) to the Portfolio as s/he desires.
·
Papers in the Portfolio are based on the readings covered in class.
They are not research papers on material outside the class.
·
The instructor will determine how the nine page minimum will be
achieved. For example: a set of 1-page papers, three 3-page papers, or some
other combination.
·
The instructor will also determine the nature and timing of the draft
or revision process for papers receiving a letter grade.
·
At the end of the
spring semester, students will assemble their Portfolio and add it to the
Portfolio they created in their ENG 150 course in the fall.
Evaluation
Criteria for Papers Receiving a Letter Grade
Thesis /
Topic: Is the thesis/topic clearly focused and presented in the
paper? Can the reader figure out the point the student is trying to make?
Support: Does the student support and develop the
thesis/topic with proper evidence and persuasive argumentation? Are quotations
from the text accurate and appropriate to the point being made? Are the
opinions expressed in the paper simply the result of “I feel” statements, or
has the student reasoned them out using sound logic and creative insight?
Organization: Is the paper structured well, such that it coherently
guides the reader from one idea to the next? Are individual paragraphs unified
around a main idea, and do they connect to support the overall thesis in a
meaningful way? Or is the paper merely a collection of disconnected, random
thoughts?
Sense
of Audience: The student understands the intended audience (as
determined by the professor) and chooses language that is appropriate for it.
Mechanics: Does the paper exhibit good sentence
structure, proper grammar, accurate spelling and punctuation?
= Course Policies: What is the
student expected to do?
The
Portal Course requires consistently focused participation in order to function.
This is not a course where students can sit back for weeks and then cram for a
midterm and final. Students must actively participate in building their own
intellectual self-discovery and expressing that discovery in writing. For this
reason, students are expected to:
·
Attend all classes and Plenary sessions.
·
Read the assigned items before the class discussion.
·
Contribute to class discussion (which may at times include leading a
discussion).
·
Hand in required work on time; the intensive writing process requires
punctuality in order to maintain proper space in the cycle to complete
revisions of drafts.
·
Keep copies of all papers and handouts.
How is the final grade calculated?
(Evaluation/Assessment)
50% of the final grade is
based on written work, including the Portfolio.
30% is based on
participation. The professor may use attendance, Participation Papers, quizzes, and/or
involvement in class discussions as the basis for this grade.
20% is based on the final
examination. This blue-book essay
examination, held during the final examination week, is cumulative. Questions
will ask students to comment on and synthesize what was covered during the
semester.
Disability Accommodations Announcement. Students with disabilities
should submit a Notification of
Disability Form to the professor within the first two weeks of class. This
form is available through the Office of Disability Services in the
Word of Wisdom
This
process is not entirely about “things out there” – old writers and ideas from
long ago and far away. It is about a continual process of intellectual growth –
the habit of curiosity about the accumulated wisdom of the human race. This
habit – in some ways also an art – will help students to learn new things
across a lifetime and to face personal and professional challenges. In the end,
no process, instructor, or course can teach the art of intellectual curiosity.
Only the student can realize the power and wisdom in the images, ideas, and
actions studied this semester. The Portal Course opens the door to this
journey.
Relationship
of Portal Course to Goals/Objectives of Core Curriculum
(Note that the numbered
references below refer to the matrix of objectives developed for the Core
Curriculum but not included in this syllabus. They are for faculty use.)
Goal 1: An Education with a Catholic Identity.
Foundational to Catholic identity is the belief that God is encountered through
human and worldly realities rather than apart from them. The road to truth
cannot bypass the deepest questions about the world and human existence-- hence
the traditional Catholic affirmation of the interconnection between faith and
reason, and its institutional expressions in monasticism and the medieval
university. Moreover, the tradition
affirms that wisdom must be sought not simply from within Catholicism but
through engagement with all human attempts in the search for truth, be they
philosophical, scientific, or cultural.
The attempt to seek wisdom through an exploration of
perennial human questions from multiple perspectives is itself, then, an
expression of Catholic identity. It requires engagement with Jewish and
Christian texts, figures, and symbols (1.1, 1.3, 1.4), as well as with other
religious perspectives (1.5). It
connects directly to the integration of faith and learning (1.7), the essential
unity of all knowledge (1.8), and the cultivation of attitudes that reflect an
abiding respect for the dignity of all persons (1.9).
Goal 2: Liberal Education. The principal
contributions of the Portal Course in this area will be in fostering the skills
necessary for critical self-inquiry (2.1), skills which the professors will
model in their exploration of the material. These skills will be applied to the
examination of enduring human insights, values and principles (2.2), and toward
an awareness of the complexity of other cultural traditions (2.3).
Goal 3: Developing Responsible Citizens of the World. Citizenship
is the fifth theme of the course, and thus will obviously be directly
addressed. Engagement with the other themes will offer opportunities to enhance
students’ understanding of both Western and non-Western cultures (3.1-3.4), as
well as help students broaden their self-definition beyond their local group
loyalties and identities. (3.5).
Goal 4: Developing Lifelong Learners. Lifelong
learning emerges from a love of learning. The Portal Course will attempt to
cultivate this by opening up to our students a world of powerful and
provocative images, ideas, and actions, and the world of intellectual
discussion surrounding them. Intrinsic to such discussion are the skills
related to critical reading and writing (4.6), the integration and synthesis of
information and ideas (4.7), and the development of imaginative skills for
recognizing beauty and goodness (4.8). These skills, if sustained and
developed, can become virtues that establish a trajectory of lifelong
learning.