Course Engagement

Course engagement is 15% of your final grade.

You are most successful when you actively read, take notes, and write about our texts and class discussions.

Primary forms of course engagement

Various small assignments (including mini writing assignments) throughout the semester will contribute to your course engagement grade, and will often be done in class. See below for writing advice and paragraph format.

Additionally, course engagement includes a holistic grade made up of any of the below:

Ask questions and/or otherwise join our discussion about the course and its texts during class meetings and/or my office hours.
Listen and stay focused. Avoid distractions during in-person and online activities. Hear what others are saying (or not saying).
Be a responsive and engaged community member during group activities.
Be specific. Refer to specific terms, quotes, examples, and concepts. Make connections to other texts, courses, our critical approaches, current events, and so on.
Complete one or more of the options below.
Be an otherwise respectful, active, and encouraging member of our learning community

As mentioned above, I post course engagement grades on Brightspace twice: once at midterm, and once towards the end of the semester. Feel free to contact me to discuss strategies to better contribute to our learning community.

Additional course engagement options

Are you into social media? Post about a course text (short story, poem, novel, etc.) you've read for the class. Tag UIndy English (links: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) - @UIndy_English on Insta & Twitter). On Twitter, you can also tag me (@DrMLovesLit). Send me a link. (Bonus points if this leads to a sustained conversation with someone about the text!)
Similar to the above, write a blog post about a book you've read for the course. Send me a link.
Review of a course text on StoryGraph, Goodreads and/or LibraryThing. The review must be a thoughtful and reflective review of at least 300 words, and must use your real name and/or some other identifier so that I can properly give you credit when you send me the link.
Want to give me your insights and/or reflections on a course text but don't want to post it to a forum or talk about it in class through chat or audio? E-mail me instead and start a conversation!
Many of our authors have video recordings of their various live readings and events available online. Watch one of those and send me a link and an e-mail with your thoughts and reactions to how you feel this helped you better understand the text and/or their writing process.
Is there a movie or TV show out there that you think connects to the same issues and/or content as one or more of the texts in our course? You can opt to write a short blog post or essay connecting the two texts together. Check with me first (or look at the criteria in our Share & Tell assignment) to ensure that it indeed falls into the category of YA/MG texts, and then send me the link when you are done.
If you are inspired to create a visual element for a text we are reading (like what you would do for the Share & Tell assignment), feel free to send it to me and/or share it with the class.
And don't forget that we also have options this semester for extra credit, indicated on the syllabus.

Recommended format for body paragraphs:

As stated above, much of our course engagement will involve mini writing assignments. Often, I will ask you to you compose these using the following template, also known as the M.E.A.L. plan paragraph format! You can find examples from class here.

The "A" or "analysis" portion of each body paragraph is a great option for a place to incorporate the critical approaches we have been practicing in class. Don't forget to consult your critical approaches handouts and your notes for other suggestions and examples on critical approaches analysis and applications.

Rather than just thinking of your topic sentence as announcing the topic of the paragraph, think of it as advancing your thesis statement or main argument of the essay (hence, a kind of mini-argument). Begin and end each paragraph with your own words and ideas related to your thesis statement.

You can find a similar Anatomy of a Paragraph linked here.

Writing Tips

For specific examples and advice about thesis statements, scroll down.

Don't pick the first topic or prompt or texts that come to mind. Instead, review all of your options and strategically choose the one(s) that will best support your argument.
- As indicated below in the advice about thesis statements (scroll down) - narrow down your topic. So rather than just "parents", it may be helpful to make your argument just about "mothers" or "fathers."
Similarly, while your draft can be written in any order you want, when you revise, consider arranging your essay so that you can best show your argument in its strongest light.
Focus the majority of your essay on your analysis of your chosen texts and on strengthening the foundation of your thesis statement.
- Aim for about 1/3 or less of each paragraph to be comprised of someone else's words and ideas.
Revision is where the real writing happens. On your first draft, just get your ideas down. Work towards finding the line of your argument in your revisions.

When revising, pay attention not just to grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Instead, consider organization and overall structure:

Have you adequately examined all the terms necessary for readers to understand your argument?
Do you apply at least one critical approach in your essay, as they are defined by your critical approaches handout? Is it clear in the essay when/where you are doing so?
Does each paragraph work in support of your argument about your primary text?
Does each body paragraph have the elements discussed in the M.E.A.L. plan example above?
Is your argument and essay trying to do too much? Can you narrow down your thesis statement in order to clarify and strengthen your overall argument?
Do you need to revise your thesis statement?
I strongly recommend a reverse outline to help you better address organization and the above questions.

Literary thesis statements

Course engagement thesis statements are all about practice. Therefore, while they don't have to be perfect, it would help you most if you try to make them as specific as you can.

Advice

Your aim is for a narrow & debatable argument about about your texts and your topic. To a certain extent, a lot of young adult texts do similar things. Therefore, it is important to set your argument apart from everyone else’s by making sure it is specific to the texts and topic you have chosen. Some advice:

- Once you choose a topic, try narrowing that down further if you think it will help make your argument specific.
- Rather than having a broad, generic thesis statement that can apply to any text in YA literature (such as "these books help young adults relate to this topic"), instead aim for a more specific argument that ties your three texts together with your topic in a unique and interesting way.
- Just like any thesis statement for this class, you will want to devise a very narrow and specific main argument about your text(s) as a whole. Thus, your thesis statement will largely depend on how narrowly you present your topic.
  - Examples:
    - You may want to focus on a specific trend(s) you see happening in your particular chosen topic based on the texts you chose, and/or your insights into your topic and how it has evolved over time.
    - Maybe you make an argument about the major recurring patterns you see with your topic, and/or how those patterns shift and change throughout YA literature history and specifically in your three texts.
- Oftentimes, students will create an argument that is more about the topic, rather than about YA literature. Direct your focus so that it is appropriate to a literature class by using one or more of our literary approaches handouts.

More examples:

Let's say your chosen topic is "tennis" and your chosen texts are Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes, Game. Set. Match. by Jennifer Iacopelli, and When No One was Looking by Rosemary Wells.

(I know that this is not a real topic in the midterm list and that we have not read any of these books this semester - this is just an example :))

Bad example:

"These three texts shows how playing tennis also teaches you about life."

This example is not a good one because, to a certain extent, all YA literature about sports and other similar activities does this. Therefore, there isn’t much of an argument here for which to provide specific evidence. It's also super broad and vague, which means that likely no one will agree or disagree - that's the sign of something being a summary, rather than an argument.

Good examples:

"These three texts shows how competitors in YA tennis novels can also be friends by embracing female solidarity even despite competition."
"These three texts show how carrying on a family legacy started by your parents can sometimes lead to a positive self-image in both sports and life."
"These three texts all allude to tennis player Billie Jean King in order to draw attention to the specific ways in which both King and the protagonists fight harassment and being underestimated in a male-dominated sport."
"Focusing on the masculine stereotype about female tennis players in these texts allows us to understand how age, gender, and race together can make advancement in tennis difficult without support from someone in power."

The above examples are good because they are: (1) specific, (2) can only apply to those three texts and the chosen topic, and (3) can be debated (meaning someone can agree or disagree or provide another alternative, thereby proving it's an actual argument.)

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