4.9: Literary Concept Map Group Assignment

Group Assignment #1: Literary Theory Concept Map

Context:

We have been studying the elements of fiction as well as the way that some literary theories have influenced our interpretation of literature. This group project will enable you to go a bit deeper in applying a literary theory to a specific literary work, as well as to see how other groups apply other theories to that same literary work.

The Overall Assignment:

You and your group members will work on annotating an assigned short story through the lens of a particular literary theory. Your group will then create a concept map which provides a visual representation of how this literary theory might be applied to this short story. Your group will then present this concept map to the rest of the class.

Please note: I know that working with a group presents many challenges; however, it also offers many opportunities to increase your creativity, knowledge, and critical thinking skills, so please try to navigate the challenges of working with your team members. If you find that some of your team members are not participating, do your best to reach out to them and see if they may need some encouragement to join in. You can also reach out to me if they don’t seem to be responding to your messages.

*** Also, if you absolutely do not want to work with a group, you may choose to do this assignment on your own. However, you need to let me know on the day that you receive this assignment so that I do not place you into a group.

Preparation for the Assignment:

Step 1— Individual Responsibilities
Please make sure to work together in order to evenly distribute the work for the assignment. It is your responsibility to work with your group to make sure that you have a job to do. At the end of the assignment, you will be asked to submit a reflection assignment that explains how you contributed to the assignment. If you did not contribute a relatively equal amount of work, it will affect your grade.

Step 2— Communication
Each group will decide the best way for the group to communicate. You will have parts of two class sessions to connect and collaborate with your group; however, you will need to communicate and collaborate outside of class as well. You might decide that the group would like to have Zoom video meetings, group phone texts, Canvas messages, a Discord group, etc. Whichever method your group chooses, please commit to checking this method regularly so that your group members can rely on you.

Step 3—Deadlines
Please fill out these blank lines with the dates from the calendar. We will also go over these in class.
_____________ Groups Assigned
_____________ Class Session #1 for Working with Group
_____________ Class Session #2 for Working with Group
_____________ Class Presentations

Each group should decide on deadlines that work for the group. For example, your group may decide that you want to have everyone gather their information by a certain date and put it into a Google doc so that you all can provide input before putting it onto the Canvas page. Or maybe your group would rather just send all of their materials to one person who will be responsible for organizing them and putting them together on the concept map. Whatever your group decides, make sure that you all agree on a deadline to have all of your materials done before the actual class presentation date. That way, nobody is waiting around at the last minute and wondering if one of the group mates is going to complete his or her work on time.

Requirements for Your Concept Map:

The purpose of your concept map is to make connections between your assigned literary theory and the elements of literature within the short story. All of the groups will be using the short story called “On the Gull’s Road,” by Willa Cather to apply their assigned literary theory.

Your group may choose to create this concept map on Padlet, Slickplan, another electronic platform, or on a poster board. I will be modeling how to create a concept map during one of our class sessions.

These are the minimum requirements for concept map. You are welcome to do more than this, but in order to receive full credit on the assignment, your map should have at least these items.

• 5 points: The center of the map should have the story’s title and author as well as the literary theory being applied.
• 5 points: Somewhere relatively close to that center should be a branch which suggests a theme that could be interpreted based upon your literary theory. You may want to save the theme for last because it is often easier to identify the theme once you have established the other elements and can begin to see patterns emerging between them.
• 5 points: Coming out from the center should be a branch to each literary element–character, plot, setting, point of view/narrator, symbolism, and literary and rhetorical devices. Please include an image for each of these elements as well as the text that identifies the element. These can be images from the Internet or ones that you create.
• 15 points: Connected to each element, please include 1-3 specific examples from the text that relate to each element with a brief description of how that example would be interpreted through your literary theory’s lens. Depending upon your particular theory, you may have more examples for some elements than others. Use textual examples in addition to the literary terminology. These examples may include specific references to events, characters, or items in the story or short quotations with page numbers.
• 5 points: Use colors and/or shapes around ideas in order to connect them to other ideas on the concept map that may not be directly linked together by annotated lines. For example, in “The Shawl,” one might identify the shawl under the element of symbol. However, that shawl might also be connected to the character section of the concept map in an example related to the sister. Therefore, you may want to choose a particular shape to draw around or color to use for each mention of the shawl in order to connect these ideas. This concept map is a graphic representation of your group’s interpretation of the story. Therefore, the organization of the elements, examples, and terminology should be clearly evident through brief explanations, as well as the use of color and/or shapes.
• 5 points: Somewhere on the map, include a brief description of some of the challenges of applying this theory.
• 5 points: Presenting your map to the class on the due date.
• 5 points: Individual reflection on your contributions to the assignment and evaluation of your groupmates’ contributions.

* You are welcome to include additional components besides those listed above. However, these are the required components.

Note: It is perfectly acceptable for you to consult other sources as you are creating your page, but if you choose to use any of the ideas, quotations, pictures, etc. from these sources on your page, please make sure that you cite them properly with an in-text citation as well as a Works Cited section at the end on your map.