Reflective Essay

Haneen Al Ibrahim
Reflexive Essay

For this course syllabus, I decided to choose The Norton Introduction to Literature
Media Version, Ninth Edition 2007 as a textbook after looking at other anthologies and sources
for teaching literature. The reason I chose this book is because I think it contains many useful
texts and background information on literature, and it is divided into clear and organized
sections, which made it easy for me to decide on the reading assignments for class meetings and
on how to choose the focus point for each meeting. The background information is useful in
making any handouts for class as well.

The second book I chose is Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with Exercises,
2007. It is a very good source for information on the literary terms, and I decided to use it for
class assignments on definitions of literary terms because I think they are important for any
student of literature to know about them.

I also included other books, like two novels and one short course packet that contains
essays. I divided the course schedule into five unites: poetry, drama, fiction (short story), fiction
(novel), and nonfiction (essay), and I decided to create a course packet because the anthologies
does not contain essays, but it has some useful background information on essay writing and
the elements and types of essay.

I tried to make the learning experience in this course as useful and enjoyable as
possible; therefore, I decided to use the CD’s that come with the anthology as an extra method
for learning about literature. I understand that some students might buy a used book online and
it might not come with the CD’s, so I decided to use them in class rather than asking students to
listen to them prior class meeting. They will be for enjoyment purposes.

As for the midterm exam, I decided to divide it into two parts, one to be taken in class
and one to be taken at home. I had some concerns that this might create an extra load of
studying on students, so I decided not to include so many questions and to provide as many
options as possible for students to choose from. The other concern I have is the grading scale. I
assigned 200 points for the midterm exam, but I do not know if this is sufficient or not because I
have not taken undergraduate classes in the U.S. before and I do not know the suitable grading
criteria for undergraduate courses. However, I tried to do my best and to use to own judgment
on this matter.