Below are some of the more engaging assignments of the course:
1. Defining Medical Humanities
After reading some foundational material and watching Dr. Rita Charon's TED talk on narrative medicine, you should have a basic understanding of the medical humanities. Considering this information and your major or reason for taking this course, develop your own definition of medical humanities. I will then put you into groups for the purpose of sharing and compiling your personal/individual defintions into broader, shared definitions.
After reading some foundational material and watching Dr. Rita Charon's TED talk on narrative medicine, you should have a basic understanding of the medical humanities. Considering this information and your major or reason for taking this course, develop your own definition of medical humanities. I will then put you into groups for the purpose of sharing and compiling your personal/individual defintions into broader, shared definitions.
2. Restitution Narrative: Introduction, The Decameron
Write a restitution narrative in the voice of the city of Florence. This narrative should be written in first person and include within the restorative details all of the key ideas that reveal societal, traditional, and individual changes resulting from the plague. Read some here.
3. Character Role Play*
Choose a character from The Rape of Lucrece or "The Yellow Wallpaper," and, in the voice of your chosen character, do one of the following:
1. Write a letter to another character in the same poem or story. The purpose and details of your letter should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
2. Write a restitution narrative or a quest narrative. The purpose and details of your narrative should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
3. Write a series of 3 or 4 journal entries, each focusing on a different idea/issue/concept. The purpose and details of your journal entries should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
*The in-class version of this assignment is a truer, you might say, version of role play. I give each student a character role and have them form character-based groups. Each group develops a text-based explanation of its assigned character and a question to ask another character group. Each group introduces its character and then poses its question to the appropriate character group. These question are asked in the persona of the group's character. What makes the question portion of this activity so interesting is that the group being asked the question has no advance knowledge of the question and, therefore, must formulate an answer on the spot. When there's time, I give the groups the option to create a character logo and slogan. For example, with the graphic novel Mom's Cancer, the group (spring 2015) that played the role of Cancer altered one of the images of Mom into a figure covered in shadow and created the slogan, "I will always haunt you."
4. Thematic and Conceptual Connections
On the flip pad sheets provided, chart the thematic and conceptual connections among the literary texts we have read thus far ( Introduction to The Decameron, The Rape of Lucrece, "The Yellow Wallpaper" ). As a group, be prepared to explain your understanding of two of the connections. For example, how is narrative imperative distinctly relevant to two or more of the texts?
My students in the Spring 2014 class working on assignment #4. . .
Write a restitution narrative in the voice of the city of Florence. This narrative should be written in first person and include within the restorative details all of the key ideas that reveal societal, traditional, and individual changes resulting from the plague. Read some here.
3. Character Role Play*
Choose a character from The Rape of Lucrece or "The Yellow Wallpaper," and, in the voice of your chosen character, do one of the following:
1. Write a letter to another character in the same poem or story. The purpose and details of your letter should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
2. Write a restitution narrative or a quest narrative. The purpose and details of your narrative should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
3. Write a series of 3 or 4 journal entries, each focusing on a different idea/issue/concept. The purpose and details of your journal entries should clearly convey your complete critical understanding of the character's situation in terms of the theme of this class.
*The in-class version of this assignment is a truer, you might say, version of role play. I give each student a character role and have them form character-based groups. Each group develops a text-based explanation of its assigned character and a question to ask another character group. Each group introduces its character and then poses its question to the appropriate character group. These question are asked in the persona of the group's character. What makes the question portion of this activity so interesting is that the group being asked the question has no advance knowledge of the question and, therefore, must formulate an answer on the spot. When there's time, I give the groups the option to create a character logo and slogan. For example, with the graphic novel Mom's Cancer, the group (spring 2015) that played the role of Cancer altered one of the images of Mom into a figure covered in shadow and created the slogan, "I will always haunt you."
4. Thematic and Conceptual Connections
On the flip pad sheets provided, chart the thematic and conceptual connections among the literary texts we have read thus far ( Introduction to The Decameron, The Rape of Lucrece, "The Yellow Wallpaper" ). As a group, be prepared to explain your understanding of two of the connections. For example, how is narrative imperative distinctly relevant to two or more of the texts?
My students in the Spring 2014 class working on assignment #4. . .