Reading, life, writing : an experiment in collaborative honors teaching and learning : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

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Authors
Merritt, Janice G.
Advisor
Edmonds, Joanne H.
Issue Date
2005
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (B.?)
Department
Honors College
Other Identifiers
Abstract

This thesis examines the development and fruition of a course called "Reading-Life-Writing" that I designed and team-taught with Dr. Joanne Edmonds. The initial idea for the course grew with encouragement from Dr. Edmonds. I developed the idea during a year-long Undergraduate Fellowship under her guidance, and the entire project culminated in an Honors colloquium in the fall of 2004. This thesis begins with an introduction about the emergence and development of the idea for the course, followed by a compilation of various materials from the course, paired with my commentaries. The course materials that I have chosen for this collection include: the course syllabus and its supplements, various assignment sheets, an end of semester review, and the course evaluations. Also included are two proposals: one Dr. Edmonds and I submitted to receive the Undergraduate Fellowship, and the other for the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, where Dr. Edmonds, Reading-Life-Writing student Emily Van Dyke, and I presented the course as a model for alternative pedagogy for Honors students across the nation. With this thesis I hope to show how Dr. Edmonds's and my teacher-student collaboration emerged as an effective pedagogical model for Honors curricula, and that the results of the course worked because of the student-teacher-student relationship, which is aligned with the interconnectedness of the course's focus: reading-life-writing.