College of Liberal Arts

De La Salle University

Course Code : GREATWK

Course Title : Great Works
Prerequisite :None
Prerequisite for :None
Course Type :General Education
Academic Year : 2020-2021
Term : THIRD
Schedule : TH 1245-215
Instructor : Oscar Solapco Jr. oscar.solapco@dlsu.edu.ph
0917-585-0427
Consultation :via FB messenger only Mon-Fri 8am-5pm.
Other times, will reply when online and available.
For urgent concerns, text me at given number above.

Course Description: The course is designed to center on a theme built around three Great
Works from various cultures/disciplines that have exerted influence on the way human beings
think about themselves in relation to the world. The course will be taught by a team of three
teacher-facilitators who will rotate every four weeks in three classes. Each teacher will facilitate
the reading and discussion of one work. Towards the end of the term, the teachers will meet as
a team with all the students of the three classes in sessions that will serve to integrate the
discussions on the three Great Works. Through the course, students are given a venue to
participate in multidisciplinary discourses on how a particular Great Work "reads" or "thinks
through" the human problems with new perspectives and paradigms.

Specific Theme: INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

Description of the Theme: In these times, social problems such as poverty, corruption, income
inequality, environmental destruction, and exploitative modes of profit extraction pose threat to
human dignity. Hence, people think of ways to transform society for the better, contributing
much to making “social transformation” as today’s universal catchphrase. Social transformation
refers to the holistic improvement of human existence, encompassing its moral, political,
economic and social aspects. Ideally, freedom – be it spiritual, political, cultural or economic (or
a combination of these aspects) – is very useful in seeking and implementing social
transformation. Using various contemporary texts relevant to the Philippine and global setting,
and providing a comprehensively transformative world view, this Greatwk triad will tackle the
complexities, possibilities and constraints of using freedom of an individual or lack thereof in a
society and how this could lead towards or away from social transformation.

Learning Outcomes:

CLA-DLSU ELGAs Learning Outcomes

Critical and Creative Knowledge
Producer
Socially Responsive and
To analyze and discuss issues on power (hegemony,
democracy, nationalism, justice, morality, and social
transformation) through group sharing and individual
recitation
To engage in group discussion on practical ways to

Collaborative Citizen
Competent Professional
Diversity-Sensitive Communicator
Morally Principled and Faith-Inspired
Leader
resolve contemporary social problems, using the texts as
springboard
To organize thoughts in a comprehensive manner
through writing reflection papers, writing assignments or
creative output.
To discern similarities and differences between
approaches to using power towards social transformation
in various cultures and contexts
To explore ways to expand the sensitivity of people on
issues of power and social justice

Final Course Output:

Learning Outcomes Required Output Due Date

One reflection paper for To be set by individual
 To analyze and discuss issues
every segment of the triad. facilitators
on power (hegemony,
Can be changed by
democracy, nationalism, justice,
facilitators based on
morality, and social
module needs.
transformation) through group
sharing and individual recitation
 To engage in group discussion
on practical ways to resolve
contemporary social problems,
using the texts as springboard
 To organize thoughts in a
comprehensive manner through
writing reflection papers
 To discern similarities and
differences between approaches
to using power towards social
transformation in various
cultures and contexts
 To explore ways to expand the
sensitivity of people on issues of
power and social justice

Rubric for Reflection Papers

Exemplary
Satisfactory Developing Beginning
CRITERIA (Rating:
(Rating: 90-95) (85-89) (Lower than 85)
96-100)
All parts of the Most parts of Some parts of Very few parts
Logical essay manifests the essay the essay of the essay
Thinking 30% logical thinking, manifest logical manifest logical manifest logical
thinking. thinking. thinking.
Social/Historical The whole Most parts of Some parts of Very few parts
Context essay manifests the essay the essay of the essay
40% a clear and manifest a clear manifest a clear manifest a clear
meaningful and meaningful and meaningful and meaningful
social/ social/ social/ social/
historical historical historical historical
 context. context. context. context.
The whole Most parts of Some parts of Very few parts
essay manifests the essay the essay of the essay
a manifest a manifest a manifest a
Comprehensive
comprehensive comprehensive comprehensive comprehensive
Synthesis
synthesis of synthesis of synthesis of synthesis of
30%
ideas from or ideas from or ideas from or ideas from or
inspired by the inspired by the inspired by the inspired by the
text. text. text. text.

Learning Plan:

Conceptual framework: The Hero’s Journey (Campbell and Vogler)

HIMALA

WEEK 1 Introduction
WEEK 2 Hero’s Journey
WEEK 3 Himala
WEEK 4 Himala

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART

WEEK 5 groupings and tasks distribution

WEEK 6 INDEPENDENT LEARNING WEEK
WEEK 7 America Is In The Heart
WEEK 8 America Is In The Heart

BLINDNESS

WEEK 9 groupings and tasks distribution

WEEK 10 Blindness
WEEK 11 Blindness
WEEK 12 INDEPENDENT LEARNING WEEK

WEEK 13 FINAL OUTPUT CONSULTATION

WEEK 14 FINAL OUTPUT SUBMISSION
GRADE CONSULTATION

** should there be any changes in module schedule and rotation, they would be discussed in
class or announced via FB group page posts

Fourth Hour Activities: Film Showing, Lectures In-Campus and Off-Campus, Exhibit Visits
(In-Campus or Off-Campus), Synthesis Research or Preparation Time
Other Requirements and Assessments:

Regular attendance, class participation and evidence of careful reading of the assigned
materials. Other policies and requirements will be discussed in class.

Grading System:

 Each module represents 1/3 of the student’s final grade. Each module facilitator will explain
to their classes the breakdown of their grades for their module and how this can be earned by
the students.
 Module grades total per module =100 points (to include participation, quizzes, recitations,
projects and module exams or activities)
 As such Final Grade for the Greatworks triad will be computed as:
[ Sum of Module 1, 2 and 3] / 3 or [sum of module1 2 3+synthesis ]/4
where the passing grade is 70 or is equivalent to 1.0

** Other important policies regarding attendance, grades and failure in greatworks class will
be discussed in class

Sample grading for S11:

HIMALA 100 POINTS

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART 100 POINTS
BLINDNESS 100 POINTS
FINAL OUTPUT/SYNTHESIS 100 POINTS
____________
400 POINTS/4 = FINAL TOTAL/GRADE

Selected Great Works:

HIMALA by Ricky Lee (Screenplay)

Himala ("Miracle") is a 1982 Filipino drama film directed by Ishmael Bernal and produced by the
Experimental Cinema of the Philippines. The film's script was written by Ricky Lee based on a series of
alleged Marian apparitions to schoolgirls on Cabra Island in the province of Occidental Mindoro, which
took place from 1966 to 1972.

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART by Carlos Bulosan

Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart is a personal history of Bulosan’s experiences

and those of the Filipino manongs in the United States during the 1930s – 1940s. It is a seminal
work on the beginnings of Filipino diaspora. It is a gripping and poignant recollection of the
experience of exile, alienation, homelessness, and loneliness in the midst of racial oppression
and subjugation in a foreign land. It also serves as a significant historical document chronicling
specificities of the Philippine conditions during the troubling period of American colonialism, and
those concerning US-Philippine colonial relations.

BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago

Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly

everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the
misfortune of a handful of unnamed characters who are among the first to be stricken with blindness,
including an ophthalmologist, several of his patients, and assorted others, who are thrown together
by chance. The ophthalmologist's spouse, "the doctor's wife," is inexplicably immune to the
blindness. After a lengthy and traumatic quarantine in an asylum, the group bands together in a
family-like unit to survive by their wits and by the good fortune that the doctor's wife has escaped the
blindness. The sudden onset and unexplained origin and nature of the blindness cause widespread
panic, and the social order rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the apparent
contagion and keep order via increasingly repressive and inept measures.

Sources:

THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. California: New World Library, 2008.
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters.
California: Michael Wiese Productions, 1992.

HIMALA

Lee, Ricky (2009). Si Tatang at mga Himala ng Ating Panahaon. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing.
Lee, Ricky (2012). Lee, Ricky, ed. Sa Puso ng Himala (in Filipino and English). Loyola Heights, Quezon
City, Philippines: Philippine Writers Studio Foundation, Inc.

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART

Bulosan, C., 2014. America is in the heart. University of Washington Press, p.327.

BLINDNESS

Saramago, J. and Pontiero, G., 1988. Blindness. Harcourt, p.304.

 Approved by:

Dr. Jazmin Llana

Dean

College of Liberal Arts