Time Schedule:
Kathleen Noble
WOMEN 417
Seattle Campus
Investigation of the psychological, cultural, socioeconomic, and political factors that enhance or inhibit the development of exceptional ability, focusing principally, but not exclusively, on women and girls. Pays special attention to issues of race, class, gender, geography, and an individual's orientation to the mainstream of her culture.
Class description
This course will investigate the development of talent and exceptional ability, principally but not exclusively in women and girls. Reading and class discussions will examine the psychological, socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors that enhance or inhibit the cultivation of exceptional ability.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Seminars led by both instructor and student teams.
Recommended preparation
An open mind. Curiousity. Willingness to grapple with complex issues. Well developed critical reading and writing skills.
Class assignments and grading
Required Texts: • Remarkable Women: Perspectives in Female Talent Development. Karen Arnold, Kathleen Noble, & Rena Subotnik (Eds.). NJ: Hampton Press, 1996. • Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and College Culture. Dorothy Holland & Margaret Eisenhart. IL: U of Chicago Press, 1992. • Smart Boys: Talent Manhood, and the Search for Meaning. Barbara A. Kerr and Sanford J. Cohn. AZ: Great Potential Press, 2001. • The Sound of a Silver Horn: Reclaiming the Heroism in Contemporary Women’s Lives. Kathleen Noble. NJ: Hampton Press, 2001.
Films (in class): • Good Will Hunting • Real Women Have Curves • Billy Elliot • Girl Wrestler Four interconnected and critical practices will be used: reading, discussion, writing, and oral presentation:
• Reading texts: Written materials and films will introduce students to scholarship about the complexity of talents and their development. Please give them your careful, thoughtful attention and take notes so that you can write intelligent, reasoned response essays and participate in lively, intellectually stimulating classroom conversations.
Writing: 3 response essays (5 pages each, typed, double-spaced, 12 point font) [10 points each]. A response essay is an analytical assignment, meant to help you think deeply about the issues we’ve been studying and engage the readings in a dialogue, synthesis, and/or critical analysis. What assumptions underlie the reading material and films? What issues are specific to different populations and which are global? What is their impact on the person and the larger society?
The response essay is not a book report or a summary. Focus on the texts. Use citations; be detailed and specific. Avoid generalizations and do not silence a text. Do not use any material other than the reading and film assigned for each essay.
Make sure you comply with the length requirement. 5 pages is the minimum, although you may write more. Fewer pages will detract from your grade, as will grammatical errors, poor sentence structure, and poor organization.
Use inclusive language: gendered pronouns and words to designate the universal human are not acceptable in any writing style (MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.). Use exclusive language only when you’re referring specifically to males or females.
• Writing: Final Essay (10 pages, typed, double-spaced, 12 point font) [30 points]. This essay is more personal and creative than the response papers. Using the model of talent development presented in class as a guide, I want you to reflect on the development of your own talents and abilities, and your future plans. Which of the readings, discussions, and films have resonance in your own life? What has helped to clarify your own journey of discovery and self-expression? How might your experiences augment the model and further elucidate the process – and politics - of talent development? How might you use what you’ve learned in class in your current and future work?
• Participation: [15 Points]: Your reading should prepare you to participate in a stimulating, productive exchange of ideas. Please come to class prepared to discuss specific questions, problems, and/or ideas that were raised by the readings, and to listen actively and respectfully to other students. Students will grade their own participation at the end of the quarter.
• Discussion Leadership [15 points]: Because this is an inquiry based course, a different team of students will be responsible for leading the discussion for the second hour of most class sessions. In preparing for discussion, students should isolate passages from the day’s reading that summarize the main points of the argument and prepare questions or exercises that will that generate class participation and a thought-provoking conversation.
• Presentations [10 points]: On the last class days students will present their final essays in 10-minute blocks.
Grading: I will use the following criteria to grade your written and oral work: • Excellent (9-10 points): Your written and verbal responses to the readings are focused, analytical, and insightful. Your ideas are thoughtful and stimulating and you integrate detail from the readings into your written work and class participation. You engage and stimulate the ideas of others in class discussion, and you listen well and actively. • Very Good (7-8 points): Your written and verbal efforts are thoughtful and probing and you take the assignments seriously. You are open to the ideas of others and participate actively and attentively in class. Your writing is clear but more attention needs to be paid to analysis, grammar, internal structure, and/or textual details. • Good (5-6 points): Your responses show some integration of the material with some evidence of probing and intellectual exchange with the readings. You participate regularly and occasionally move the conversation forward. Your written work is adequate but needs more attention paid to analysis, grammar, internal structure, and/or details from the texts. • Fair (3-4 points): You show some engagement with the readings, but your interaction with them is superficial. Your major strategy is to recap or list the ideas, but occasionally you contribute an original or analytical idea. You listen passively rather than actively to other students, or you dominate the conversation and don’t listen well. Your written work needs significant improvement (e.g.,it is shallow, poorly constructed, and/or ignores or silences the text. • Poor [1-2 points]: You show little real engagement with the readings and the class. . Your writing and participation lack detail and are shallow, trivial, or disrespectful of the texts or opinions of other students. • No credit [0 points]. You don’t participate in discussion; you fail to turn in a paper.
To determine your final grade for the class, add up the total number of points and divide by 25.
