Course Schedule
Week 1
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| Jan. 26 | TU | Course Introduction | |||
| Jan. 28 | TR | Rhetorical Listening: Chapters 1-2 | Reading Response Syllabus Quiz |
Week 2
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading & Viewing Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| Feb. 2 | TU | Rhetorical Analysis | What Writing Does and How It Does It Chapter 10 Rhetorical Analysis | Reading Response | |
| Feb. 4 | TR | The American Institution of Slavery and the rhetoric of race | Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Chapters 1-6 Watch: 13th (Free on YouTube) | Reading Response |
Week 3
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| Feb. 9 | TU | The American Institution of Slavery and the Rhetoric of Race | Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Chapters 7-11 and Appendix | Proposal for Essay #1 Due by Midnight Reading Response | |
| Feb. 11 | TR | Integration vs. Segregation | What Writing Does and How It Does It Chapter 2 (Poetics and Narrativity: How Texts Tell Stories) | Reading Response |
Week 4
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| Feb. 16 | TU | Integration vs. Segregation | Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Link posted on Blackboard) Chapters 1-20 by Harriet Ann Jacobs | Reading Response | |
| Feb. 18 | TR | Arguments from the Civil Rights Movement | Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Chapters 21-41 by Harriet Ann Jacobs | Reading Response |
Week 5
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| Feb. 23 | TU | Arguments from the Civil Rights Movement | “The 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech” by Booker T. Washington” The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois Chapter 1-7 | Reading Response | |
| Feb. 25 | TR | Arguments from the Civil Rights Movement | The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois Chapter 8-14 | Reading Response |
Week 6
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| March 2 | TU | Multimedia and Race during the early 20th century | What Writing Does and How It Does It: Chapter 11 (Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems) Watch Film: 4 Little Girls Location: Films On Demand: Master Academic Package (Infobase) | Reading Response | |
| March 4 | TR | Multimedia and Race during the late 20th century | Inaugural Address (1963) The “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever” Speech Governor George Wallace of Alabama Video Recording can be found here: Link “An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense” by Eight Alabama Clergymen. January 16, 1965. “A Call for Unity”- The “Good Friday” letter criticizing King’s actions in Birmingham, April 12, 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. (This reading is posted on Blackboard) “The Case against the Civil Rights Bill” by George S. Schuyler (This reading is posted on Blackboard) “Dr. King: Nonviolence Always Ends Violently” by George S. Schuyler (This reading is posted on Blackboard) | Reading Response |
Week 7
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| March 9 | TU | Arguments from the Civil Rights Movement | Rough Draft of Essay #1, Peer Review Day | Peer Review Essay #1 Rough Draft Due in Box | Peer Review Essay #1 |
| March 11 | TR | Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapters 1 and 2. | Essay #1 Due by Midnight Reading Response Proposal for Essay #2 Due by Midnight |
Week 8
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| March 16 | TU | No Class- Spring Break | |||
| March 18 | TR | No Class- Spring Break |
Week 9
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| March 23 | TU | Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapters 3 and 4. | Reading Response | ||
| March 25 | TR | Ebony Magazine Activity (A link to this reading is posted on Blackboard) What Writing Does and How it Does it: Chapter 1 (Content Analysis: What Texts Talk About) Chapter 6 (The Multiple Media of Texts) Watch: Ethnic Notions Location: Films On Demand: Master Academic Package (Infobase) | Reading Response |
Week 10
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading & Viewing Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| March 30 | TU | What Writing Does and How It Does It: Chapter 3 Linguistic Discourse Analysis | Reading Response | ||
| April 1 | TR | Speeches by Malcolm X: OAAU Founding Rally (June 28, 1964) Oxford Union Debate (December 3, 1964) London School of Economics (February 11, 1965) Not Just an American Problem, But a World Problem (Feb. 16, 1965) Watch: Make It Plain (Located on Vimeo) | Reading Response |
Week 11
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading & Viewing Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| April 6 | TU | Larry Neal, “The Black Arts Movement,” essay, Drama Review, Summer 1968, excerpt Spoken Word by Haki Madhubuti ( Rise Vision Comin LP) Resonance of Resistance: The Spoken Word Albums of Haki R. Madhubuti By Earl Brooks (This reading is posted on Blackboard) Watch: Black Power Mixtape (Rent on YouTube for 2.99) | Reading Response | ||
| April 8 | TR | Race Matters by Cornel West (Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2) Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality by Thomas Sowell Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 (This reading is posted on Blackboard) Watch: LA 92 (Located for free on YouTube) | Reading Response |
Week 12
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading & Viewing Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| April 13 | TU | Rough Draft of Essay #2 | Peer Review Essay #2 Rough Draft Due in Box | Peer Review Essay #2 | |
| April 15 | TR | Black Feminist Arguments | Race Matters By Cornel West (Chapters 3-8) What Writing Does and How it Does it: Chapter 4 Intertextuality: How Texts Rely on Other Texts | Essay #2 Due by Midnight Reading Response |
Week 13
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| April 20 | TU | Black Feminist Arguments | “The Last Taboo” by Paula Giddings (Located on Blackboard) “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves” by Elsa Barkley Brown, Deborah K. King, and Barbara Ransby (Located on Blackboard) “Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory” by bell hooks (Located on Blackboard) Watch: Anita: Speaking Truth to Power Location: Films On Demand: Master Academic Package (Infobase) | Reading Response Essay #3 Proposal | |
| April 22 | TR | The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” by Audre Lorde (Located on Blackboard) “Africa on My Mind: Gender, Counter-discourse, and African American Nationalism” by E. Frances White (Located on Blackboard) | Reading Response |
Week 14
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| April 27 | TU | Black Feminist Arguments | The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Autumn: Chapter 1 to Spring: Chapter 7) | Reading Response | |
| April 29 | TR | Black Feminist Arguments | The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Spring: Chapter 8 to Summer: Chapter 11) | Reading Response |
Week 15
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading & Viewing Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| May 4 | TU | Language and Culture | Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. by Geneva Smitherman and H. Samy Alim (Chapters 1 and 2) Watch: Do You Speak American? (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) | Reading Response | |
| May 6 | TR | Language and Culture | Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. by Geneva Smitherman and H. Samy Alim (Chapters 3 through 6) | Reading Response |
Week 16
| Date | Day | Topic | Reading Due | Writing Due | Class Activities |
| May 11 | TU | Peer Review- At Least First 5 Pages of Final Essay | Rough Draft Due in Box Final Essay Due May 17th | Peer Review |