Course Announcement

LITR 585: Visualizing Pedagogies: Teaching Literature and Art

SUMMER 2011
July 25-August 5
LITR 585: Visualizing Pedagogies: Teaching Literature and Art

(NOTE: This course satisfies one of the Literature for Teachers requirements for the MA in English Studies for Teachers)

This section of LITR 585 Literature for Teachers will invite students to investigate the interconnections among literature texts, visual art, and classroom practice through an interdisciplinary and multimodal exploration of literary and visual art works. I hope to establish an environment for inquiry that will allow us to pursue both shared and independent inquiries into a range of literary genres related to visual arts, pedagogy, and the image of the artist.

At area museums (Detroit Institute of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, EMU Art Galleries), we will engage in onsite viewing and analysis of visual art work that is the subject of literary texts and/or gives visual treatment to literature and narrative. Assignments will include pedagogical planning around core visual and literary art works, comparative and multimodal interpretive analyses of visual and literary art works, and inquiry into the hybrid genres of literary and visual texts for 21st-century readers and writers.

The two off-site visits (one to the DIA one to UMMA) connect to the critical, literary, and pedagogical readings informing discussion during the 2-week seminar. Also during the 2 week seminar students will develop pedagogical demonstrations anchoring grade level learning outcomes with pedagogical practices integrating visual arts and literature. After the 2 week intensive session, students will continue to develop a critical pedagogical project which will synthesize their understanding of course themes, texts, and issues of teaching and learning. These will be due at the end of the Summer term on August 17.

For more information about the course readings and expectations, contact John Staunton (jstaunto@emich.edu).