English 1B

Introduction to Literature
Course Schedule
Spring 2016

Instructor: Richard Marquez Email: rmarquez@bakersfieldcollege.edu

Office: Humanities 34 Office Phone: 395-4217; Text via Remind App
Office Hours: T, Th 7:00a – 7:30a; M-Th 1:30p 2:30p; Other times by appointment.

Each student is expected to retrieve and read the assignments before the class date
indicated on the schedule. Readings followed by ** are located on InsideBC or on the
Internet via a link. These readings should be printed, read, and brought to class on the
due date. The remaining works are located in your textbooks or may be handed out in
class.

We may not be able to cover each work in class; however, you are still responsible for
reading the work, and it may be included on an exam or essay question.
As you read each work of literature, you should pause to consider its effect on you, the
reader. Did you enjoy it? Did you dislike it? Why? What about the work caused you to
pause and consider human behavior?

Week 1
M Jan 18 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
W Jan 20 Course Introduction
Group Work (Introduction to Poetry - Billy Collins; First Lesson - Philip Booth
Hands - Donald Finkel; Some Like Poetry - Wislawa Szymborska; A Loaf of
Poetry – Naoshi Koriyama; Pretty Words – Elinor Wylie)
Discuss Syllabus
Set up Remind App
Week 2
M Jan 25 “Responding to Literature” pp. 2-10
“Saturday in the Park” – Bel Kaufman**
“The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently” – Thomas Lux**
W Jan 27 Discuss tentative course schedule.
Hand out Journal Assignment
“The Chase” – Alberto Moravia**
Week 3
S Jan 31 Last day to drop without a “W”
M Feb 1 “A Poet’s Job” – Alma Villanueva**
“Constantly Risking Absurdity” – Ferlinghetti, pp. 185-186
“Reading Poetry” pp. 10-16
W Feb 3 Review Literary Terms
“My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke, pp. 968-969 Journal #1 Due
Week 4

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M Feb 8 Discuss Sonnet form (Shakespearean and Petrarchan)
“Sonnet” – Billy Collins, pp. 958
“Sonnet 73” –Shakespeare, pp. 1241-1242
“Death Be Not Proud” – John Donne, pp. 1243
Selected Sonnets – Petrarch**
W Feb 10 Discuss Freytag’s Pyramid
“The Lesson” – Toni Cade Bambara, pp. 98-103
“This Be the Verse” – Philip Larkin, pp. 187
Journal #2 Due
Week 5
M Feb 15 Washington’s Birthday Holiday – No Classes
W Feb 17 “Mother to Son” – Langston Hughes, pp. 199-200
“Advice to My Son” – Peter Meinke, pp. 200-201
“My Mother” – Robert Mezey, pp. 201-202
Quiz #1 – Bring 100-question Scantron 882E
Journal #3 Due
Week 6
M Feb 22 Read “Orientation” – Daniel Orozco, pp. 107-111
Read “Girl” – Jamaica Kincaid**
W Feb 24 Read “Good People” – David Foster Wallace, pp. 927-932
Read “Hills Like White Elephants” – Ernest Hemingway, pp. 923-926
Week 7
M Feb 29 Read “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” – Raymond
Carver, pp. 876 – 885
Read “Bitch” – Carolyn Kizer, pp. 948-949
Read “How Falling in Love Is Like Owning a Dog”** - Taylor Mali
W Mar 2 Read “My Last Duchess” – Robert Browning, pp. 173-174
Essay #1 Due
Week 8
M Mar 7 Read “Sestina for the Working Mother” – Deborah Garrison, pp. 699-700
Read “I Stop Writing the Poem” – Tess Gallagher, pp. 696-697
W Mar 9 Exam #1 (Bring Scantron Mini Essay Book in which to write exam)
Week 9
M Mar 14 Read “Woman’s Work” – Julia Alvarez, pp. 697-698
Read “Drown” – Junot Diaz, pp. 906-913
W Mar 16 Read “América” – Richard Blanco, pp. 707-708
Read “Superman Es Ilegal**
Journal #5 Due
Spring Break March 21 – 26
Week 10
M Mar 28 Read A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen, pp. 213-268
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
W Mar 30
F Apr 1 Last day to withdraw with a “W”

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 Week 11
M Apr 4
W Apr 6 Essay #2 Due
Week 12
M Apr 11
W Apr 13
Week 13
M Apr 18
W Apr 20 Journal #10 Due
Week 14
M Apr 25
W Apr 27 Essay #3 Due
Week 15
M May 2 Final Presentations
W May 4 Final Presentations
Final Exam
W May 11 Final Exam – 8:00a – 9:50a (Bring Scantron Mini Essay Book in which
to write exam)

Fine Print: I reserve the right to modify this syllabus as I deem necessary.