German 260, Course Syllabus, Spring 2001 (alternate link to syllabus with images)
Faculty: Lisabeth Hock, Department of German
Librarian: Damon Hickey, Director of Libraries
I would like to apply for a curriculum development grant to help me prepare a course that I will be teaching in Spring 2001. The course is entitled Kulturkunde: Introduction to German Studies. Traditionally, this course has been taught as an overview of 1000 years of German cultural history, and at larger universities it is taught as a lecture course. In the German Department, we would like to rethink this course in order to turn it into the springboard class between our "language and culture classes" (semesters 1-5 of German instruction) and our upper-level seminars that deal with literary, historical, and cultural texts written in German. I believe this would be the ideal point in our program to introduce our students to information literacy and library resources as well as to approaches to German Studies as a discipline. To do this, I plan to design the course around 7 specific topics from 7 different periods in German history. I imagine that this project will be similar in scope to those projects designed by Scott/Gustafson and Varga/Cardina. Creating this course, and especially the web page and activities we design for the course would, however, also be part of a larger project involving a reevaluation of our program and course offerings. Eventually, the German Department plans to apply for a grant that will help us with a departmental curricular project similar to that on which the Wooster English Department is currently working.
The course goals are as follows:
Students should
They should learn:
Attached, you will find a course syllabus that includes information literacy and writing goals for each of the seven units we will cover in the course.
Melon funding will help me to create a course web page that will include a syllabus with links to WWW resources, and most importantly, to a page of information literacy resources and other reference works that we will be using throughout the semester.
German 260
Kulturkunde: Introduction to German Studies
Semesterplan
I. The Novel: Scholarly and Popular Reception
Woche 1 15. Januar, 17. Januar, 19. Januar
Woche 2 22. Januar, 24. Januar, 26. Januar
Text: Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser (The Reader)
Information Literacy Session
Visit to COW library:
Reference works in Watson
Using Consort, Ohio Link, World Cat
German Literature and History data bases
locating book, movie, and theater reviews
Writing Project: Writing a book summary and a book review
II. Expressionism in Film and Painting
Woche 3 29. Januar, 31. Januar, 2. Februar
Woche 4 5. Februar, 7. Februar, 9. Februar
Texts: F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu + Expressionist Painting
Information Literacy Session:
Visit to COW library: II
Locating archives in Germany
German Archives and Libraries with on-line catalogues
Writing Projects: Film Review + Comparison of two scholarly articles
III: Remembering the Past
Woche 5 12. Februar; 14. Februar; 16. Februar
Woche 6 19. Februar; 21. Februar; 23. Februar
Texts: Monuments dedicated to Bismarck and/or the War of 1871
Information Literacy Session:
Using German History data bases
Using WWW search engines
Researching and Evaluating Information found on-line
Writing Projects: Web-site analysis, Discussion of Popularization of History
Selection of Research Projects
IV. The Author and the Process of Canonization
Woche 7 26. Februar, 28. Februar, 2. M?rz
Woche 8 5. März, 7. März, 9. März
Texts: Georg Büchner, Lenz
Information Literacy Session:
Research Excursion to Ohio State University Library
Writing Projects: Summary and analysis of two biographical sources, one of which is on-line and one of which is more traditional + 5 page text analysis
9. März (16 Uhr) - 24. März Frühlingsferien
V. Guiding Concepts: Romantik Longing
Woche 9 26. März, 28. März, 30. März
Woche 10 2. April, 4. April, 6. April
Texts: Poems by Caroline von Günderode and Novalis, Paintings by C.D. Friedrich, Art Songs by Robert
Schuhmann
Information Literacy Session:
Compiling Bibliographies for Research Projects
Writing Projects: 5 page analysis of poem, painting, or Lied
VI. Religion and Reason
Woche 11 9. April, 11. April, 13. April
Woche 12 16. April, 18. April, 20. April
Texts: Kant and Luther, Excerpts
Information Literacy Session:
MLA Style Sheet
Writing Projects: VERY short summaries of class assignments + first draft of research paper
VII. Guiding Concepts: Mysticism
Woche 13 23. April, 25. April, 27. April
Woche 14 30. April, 2. Mai, 4. Mai
Texts: Mechthild von Magdeburg, Romanesque and Gothic Architecture
Writing Projects: VERY short summaries of class assignments + work on research paper
Final Exam
Presentation of Research and Findings
Papers due