Course Outline
Course Outline
Literary Text: Selections from Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy (selected chapters)
Stretch Text (Optional): Full Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kenney or The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Culter
Rhetorical Perspective: The Personal Essayist’s Voice (Montaigne Tradition)
Critical Lens: Intro to Psychoanalysis, Psychology, and Therapy
Expected Timeline: 2 Weeks
Summary:
In this introductory unit, students will reflect on how their upbringing, environment, and formative experiences have shaped their behaviors, work habits, and self-perception. Through selected chapters from Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy, students will explore foundational psychological concepts including internal “parts,” emotional regulation, and attachment patterns. Drawing from Internal Family Systems Therapy, Buddhist psychology, and thinkers like Alan Watts and Carl Rogers, the unit challenges students to approach themselves and others with curiosity, compassion, and playfulness. This work establishes essential academic routines while laying the foundation for the psychoanalytic and psychological lenses students will use throughout the course.
Key Graded Assignments:
Text Annotation
Reading Log
Literary Text: Night by Elie Wiesel
Stretch Text (Optional): Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl or Belovéd by Toni Morrison
Rhetorical Perspective: The Historian as Storyteller (Herodotus; Zinn)
Critical Lens: Psychology - Logotherapy (Frankl) and Conditioning (B. F. Skinner)
Expected Timeline: 3-4 Weeks
Summary:
In this unit, students will explore memoir as both personal testimony and historical artifact, using Night by Elie Wiesel to examine how individuals convey trauma, memory, and resilience through storytelling. Through the lenses of psychology (Logotherapy and conditioning) and the rhetorical tradition of the historian as storyteller, students will analyze how lived experiences are shaped, preserved, and interpreted. Emphasis is placed on developing academic voice, using textual evidence effectively, and connecting literary devices to deeper psychological and historical themes. This unit lays the groundwork for structured analysis and critical engagement with complex texts.
Key Graded Assignments:
Reading Log
First Timed-Writing Exam
Short Response Exam on Rhetorical Perspective
Personal Narrative Outline
Literary Text: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Stretch Text: Dracula by Bram Stoker or The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Rhetorical Angle: The Literary Critic’s Lens
Critical Lens: Psychology and Narrative Structuralism - Freud's Consciousness and the Uncanny; Jung's Shadow Self; Campbell's Monomyth; Freytag's Pyramid
Expected Timeline: 4-5 Weeks
Summary:
This unit invites students to explore the haunting landscapes of Gothic and Romantic literature as a reflection of human psychology, moral tension, and the sublime. Anchored by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, students will analyze how ambition, isolation, monstrosity, and the blurred line between beauty and horror reveal deeper fears and desires within the human psyche. Through psychological and structuralist frameworks (Freud’s concept of the uncanny, Jung’s shadow self, Campbell’s monomyth, and narrative structures like Freytag’s Pyramid) students will uncover how both character and form shape meaning. Building on prior units, this module sharpens analytical writing and introduces feminist and genre-based critique, deepening students’ ability to engage with literature’s exploration of human darkness and transcendence.
Key Graded Assignments:
Reading Log
Sticky-Note Annotations
Timed-Writing Exams (2)
Literary Text: Macbeth by Shakespeare
Stretch Text: Hamlet by Shakespeare or Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Rhetorical Angle: Buddhist Dualism; Dōgen's Dialectic of Affirmation and Negation; Laozi and Daoist Rhetoric (Dao De Jing)
Critical Lens: Deconstruction (Derrida)
Expected Timeline: 5-6 Weeks
Summary:
In this unit, students will explore Macbeth and James Joyce’s The Dead through the intersecting lenses of deconstruction, Buddhist dualism, and non-Western rhetoric. Drawing from Dōgen’s dialectic of affirmation and negation, Daoist insights from the Dao De Jing, and passages from The Diamond Sutra and No Mud, No Lotus, students will examine how both Shakespeare and Joyce dismantle rigid binaries, revealing the instability of meaning, identity, and fate. Christian mythological texts, including excerpts from Paradise Lost, will provide additional perspectives on how suffering, failure, and contradiction can paradoxically give rise to growth, virtue, or grace, a theme echoed in Buddhist and deconstructionist traditions. Through close reading, paraphrasing, and performance-based analysis, students will develop linguistic precision while grappling with the ambiguity, irony, and layered contradictions that define these canonical works. Together, these texts challenge students to question binaries, embrace uncertainty, and investigate how language, belief, and narrative distort and reveal human experience.
Key Graded Assignments:
Reading Log
Passage ‘Translations’ (Paraphrasing Macbeth)
Timed-Writing Exams (2)
Short Response Exam on Deconstruction, Dōgen's Dialectic, and Daoist Rhetoric
Official Start of ENGL C1001 with Allan Hancock College (19 Instructional Weeks + Finals Week; 20 Weeks Total)
Literary Text: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Stretch Text (Optional): Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Rhetorical Angle: The Orator’s Tradition (Classical & Modern Speechwriting)
Critical Lens: Psychology, Critical Race Theory, Post-Structuralism (Foucault)
Expected Timeline: 9-11 Weeks (3 Weeks During Christmas Break)
Summary:
In this unit, students will analyze Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison as both a psychological and political exploration of identity, power, and invisibility. Through the intersecting frameworks of psychology, Critical Race Theory, and post-structuralist philosophy (Foucault), students will examine how race, surveillance, and systemic oppression shape individual perception and societal structures. The unit also draws on the Orator’s Tradition, guiding students in analyzing influential speeches (both within the novel and from historical sources) and composing their own speeches addressing critical social issues. Advanced students may engage with Jane Eyre to explore parallel questions of power and representation through a gendered lens. This unit deepens students' ability to engage with narrative structure, social critique, and rhetorical strategies, while fostering their own voice as analysts and advocates.
Key Supplementary Readings:
"Panopticism" from Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
"Of Our Spiritual Strivings" from The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
"The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" by Audre Lorde
Key Graded Assignments:
Reading Log
Sticky-Note Annotations (Invisible Man)
Final Timed-Writing Exam (Literary Analysis)
Construction of a Speech Addressing Critical Social Issue
Literary Text: N/A
Rhetorical Angle: The Logician; Deductive/Inductive Reasoning & Fallacy Identification
Expected Timeline: ~2 Weeks
Unit Summary:
In this unit, students develop essential critical thinking skills by examining the structure of arguments, applying deductive and inductive reasoning, and identifying common logical fallacies. Through real-world examples and targeted activities, students learn to construct clear, logically sound arguments and evaluate the reasoning behind claims in public discourse. This unit emphasizes practical application, preparing students to analyze, critique, and engage with arguments across academic, media, and everyday contexts.
Key Supplementary Readings:
"Love is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman
"The Hierarchy of Disagreement" by Paul Graham
Key Graded Assignments:
Presentation of Logical Fallacy Scavenger Hunt (real-world)
Presentation of Argument with Logical Map
Logical Map of Public Text
Literary Text: N/A
Rhetorical Angle: The Dialectical Method; Socratic Questioning & Philosophical Exploration
Expected Timeline: ~2-3 Weeks
Summary:
In this unit, students explore major ethical frameworks and the philosophical foundations of moral reasoning. Through analysis of real-world dilemmas, philosophical texts, and reflective writing, students examine how individuals and societies grapple with questions of justice, responsibility, and meaning. The unit emphasizes applying ethical reasoning to complex issues, fostering critical reflection on personal values, and constructing well-supported arguments grounded in philosophical thought.
Key Supplementary Readings:
"Existentialism is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre
Federalist No. 51
Key Graded Assignments:
Socratic Seminar (student-led questioning of a complex text)
Literary Text: N/A
Rhetorical Angle: Toulmin Model and Classic Debate
Expected Timeline: ~2-3 Weeks
Unit Summary:
In this unit, students apply the Toulmin Model to construct, analyze, and critique arguments with precision. By breaking arguments into claims, evidence, warrants, and rebuttals, students gain practical tools for building persuasive, logically sound positions. The unit culminates in formal academic debates where students present structured arguments, respond to opposition, and deliver timed rebuttals. Through this process, students develop critical thinking, public speaking, and rapid response skills essential for academic, civic, and professional discourse.
Key Supplementary Readings:
Excerpts from The Uses of Argument by Stephen Toulmin
"Democracy in Troubled Times: Democracy in Ancient Athens" by Saint Leo University
Excerpts from Rhetoric by Aristotle
Key Graded Assignments:
Formal Debate with Written Preparation and Outline
Toulmin Diagramming of Debate's Argument
Timed Rebuttal (Written and Delivered during Debate)
Literary Text: N/A
Rhetorical Angle: Rogerian Argument and Falsification Principle (Karl Popper)
Expected Timeline: ~2-3 Weeks
Summary:
This unit emphasizes empathy, intellectual humility, and critical self-examination as essential components of argumentation. Students learn to apply Rogerian Argument techniques to reduce polarization, find common ground, and engage in constructive dialogue across differences. The unit also introduces Karl Popper’s Falsification Principle, challenging students to test their own beliefs and assumptions as part of the reasoning process. Through perspective reversal, reconciliation exercises, and reflective writing, students develop the ability to argue with empathy, question rigid thinking, and strengthen arguments through self-critique.
Supplementary Readings:
Selections from "Conjectures and Refutations" by Karl Popper
"Tit for Tat and Beyond: The Legendary Work of
Anatol Rapoport" by Shirli Kopelman
Key Graded Assignments:
'Couples Therapy' with the Class; Post-Debate Reconciliation
Perspective Reversal Exercise (Argue from an opposing viewpoint)
Falsification Principle Application of Personal Truth
Literary Text: "Echoes" by Pink Floyd and Misc. Reflective Poetry
Rhetorical Angle: N/A
Expected Timeline: ~2 Weeks
Unit Summary:
This ungraded, reflective unit offers students space to process and express their intellectual and personal growth from the course. Through music, poetry, and open-ended creative work, students explore lingering questions, evolving beliefs, and the "echoes" of their learning journey. Final presentations provide a low-pressure opportunity to share insights, artistic expression, or personal reflections, fostering closure and connection beyond formal assessment.
Supplementary Readings:
"Echoes" by Pink Floyd
Student Choice from My Creative Writing Curriculum
Key Graded Assignments:
Open-Ended Creative Assignment Chosen from my Creative Writing Course Catalog
"Show and Tell" Style Final Presentation
Important Note: Final grades will be submitted just as this unit starts! I will literally be unable to grade you on anything in this unit. This is purely for us.