Education Commons^™

Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk

Faculty Publications & Research

Why Tolkien?

Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?

Topic 5: Rawlsian Ethics, Lee Eysturlid

Considerations in Ethics

John Rawls (b. 1921, d. 2002) was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness envisions a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His account of political liberalism addresses the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, aiming to show how enduring unity may be achieved despite the diversity of worldviews that free institutions allow. His writings on the law of peoples extend these theories to liberal foreign policy, with the goal of imagining how a peaceful and tolerant international order might be possible.

Project 3: Clip Et Critique D'Une Chanson, Brenda C. Crosby

French

No abstract provided.

Rhinocéros: Animals, Ideologies And Global Awareness, Brenda Crosby

French

French IV-V students read the Theater of the Absurd play Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco. The foci of this unit are more oriented toward history, politics, global awareness, and unexamined assumptions (les idées reçues) than theater as such. Students do, however, present most of the play in the Reader’s Theater style. The pre-reading activity introduces the final evaluation of the unit. Students first associate animals to ideologies and concepts. This first activity also allows the instructor to introduce the ideas fanaticism, totalitarianism, and conformism. The final assessment asks each student to chose one country, not necessarily a French speaking country. For …

La Jeunesse Et La Quête De Soi Un Scénarimage D'Un Remake, Brenda C. Crosby

French

Students most often see films as a consumable and not a resource from which one can learn about themselves and others. Students make a ten-image storyboard demonstrating a cultural adaptation, “une transposition culturelle”, for an American audience of one of the films. Non-historical films are better suited to this storyboard for a remake project. The cultural adaptation must demonstrate a very clear connection to American culture, experiences, and sensibilities, remain true to film’s original intent, and changes must be clear and logical. The characters’ roles, role of society and/or culture, setting (time and space), and ending must be clear and …