Creative Eye 200, Fall 2006,
Loyola College
Instructor:  Elizabeth Leik, HU 204, 410-617-5392
esleik@loyola.edu    Office Hours:  T/Th 2-4 and by appointment

A Look at Baltimore and Maryland history, literature, and present conditions.

This course is designed to give you background on writers who spent time in Baltimore and historical events so that you may get a sense of the city’s past while we discuss its present and future. From speakers, movies, and readings we will cover emerging issues in Baltimore and Maryland. You will be encouraged to follow local news stories and use the web for background information on Baltimore. Your outside research and class discussion will help you find a topic which allows you to offer your own insight and a possible proposed solution to an issue dealing with Maryland.
 
Required Text Books:   David Simon’s  The Corner
    Anne Tyler’s   Saint Maybe
    Map of Baltimore City (your choice)

Due to the nature of this class, participation is a key component to passing for the semester.  If you know you will be absent, please email to let me know why. You are allowed 2 excused absences (to be determined by you and me) before your grade drops, one half grade for each additional absences. Certainly, if you get very sick or have an emergency, make sure that you contact me or the school. I am willing to work with you if you are able to make the commitment. This schedule is what I would like to follow, however, issues and presentations may come up that fit what we are covering and may alter this syllabus for interest.

Sept. 5—Using the web, Blackboard and postings; Your knowledge of the city;
creating an image; how to sell a place
7—Early writers, the development of writing in Maryland 1600s to 1700s;
Read The Corner “Winter”

Sept. 12—View Screen Painters; Read The Corner  “Winter”;
Begin Essay #1:  Personal look at the City
14—Discuss The Corner, Journal writing: Your role in college

Sept.  19—Maryland writers from 1800 to early 1900s. The developing
(Visits to the Freedom Academy and Latin Opinión this week)
21—Wayne Schaumburg: background on Baltimore; North/South Baltimore

Sept. 26—Speaker: Alan Fink, urban planning, the growth and development of downtown Baltimore; Revitalization; Discuss The Corner,  “Spring”
28—View Homicide, first episode; detective writing, from Edgar Allan Poe;
to Dashiell Hammett; Essay #1 Due

Oct. 3—Speaker: Jeff Ellis, teaching in Baltimore public schools;
Journal writing:  Your education background;
Begin Essay #2:  An issue to consider
5—Library research

Oct. 10—Living the American dream: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald,
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Discuss The Corner, “Summer”
12—The role of the newspaper:  H. L. Mencken’s words and views

Oct. 17—Field Day
19—Blogging, another way to cover news; Essay #2 Due

Oct 24—Art in the city:  Gertrude Stein and the Cone Sisters;
Begin Essay #3
26—Barry Levinson and Jewish Baltimore; Discuss The Corner “Fall”

Oct. 31—Zora Neale Hurston, Christine Lincoln
Nov. 2—African American culture in the city

Nov. 7— Read Saint Maybe, Ch. 1-5
9— John Waters’ view of Baltimore

Nov. 14—Read Saint Maybe, Ch 6-10
16—Latino growth in the city, Essay #3 Due

Nov. 21—Presentations

Nov. 28— Speaker:  Jim Burger, writing about a city
30—Revisions and workshops

Dec. 5—Revisions and workshops
7—Portfolio due

Discussion and Participation:  This includes your insight and interpretation of the topics read and events attended. Although there are assigned topics for the day, much of the issues we cover will be mixed in to every class discussion. For example, I have listed Nov.  16 as Latino growth for the topic, but we will discuss this and other topics along the way to see how the city blends together, yet can be very separate at times. Please be prepared for class discussion so that I can listen and learn from what you have to say.

Essay Writing:  This includes your writing style and strengths (i.e. your ability to write clearly and academically as well as creatively). Workshop and discussion will greatly enhance your writing skills. We will complete three essays this semester between 5-6 pages long.

Essay #1  Personal Essay
Essay #2  Issue in the city
Essay #3 Reflection, issue, possible solution

Journals:  Please keep track of daily and at home writing by placing your writing in a folder or keeping it in your notebook. These writings will be helpful for you in your essays and class discussion.

Portfoli  At the end of the semester, you will revise two of your essays and one of your observations to be included in your portfolio. You must submit a portfolio to pass the class. We will work on these the last few weeks of the semester.

Readings:  Each reading is due that day in class and will be discussed. You’ll need to look at the next class period to see what we are discussing that day.

Field Day: This is a day that you have to catch up on work or get ahead on your writing. These days are especially good for journals.

Attendance and Participation:  Please make sure that you don’t miss more than two (2) classes. Keep in contact and let me know why you have to miss a class and that you are able to make up work. Then you won’t be surprised at the end of the semester.

Grading Policy: Each assignment will be given points so that you can keep track of your grade. I don’t always like to give points to writing, as it can be an arbitrary subject, but I want to make sure that you have some sort of means to gauge your improvement and grade throughout the semester.

Journals:    20 points
Essay #1  10 points
Essay #2  15 points
Essay #3  15 points
Participation and
Attendance  20 points (this includes all in- and out-of-class writings; class
discussion, and feedback on peer reviews)
Portfolios  20 points

There may be a short optional writing at the end of the semester that will allow you to improve your grade.

Diversity and Service

This fall, our class will spend time with two places in the city so that we can get a better picture of Baltimore beyond Inner Harbor. The first site we will consider is the Baltimore Freedom Academy, a high school located in Fells Point.  http://baltimorefreedomacademy.org/
It is an innovation school partially funded by Bill Gates, but still part of the public school system in Baltimore. This year will be their fourth year and they will have grades 9-12 for us to work with in small group settings. Students from my previous classes have been working with this school for the past year and we have built the program into small workshops for writing, math, and social studies/history classes.  You can choose one day a week to spend about 1.5 hours at the school. At this time, the hours are between 4-5:30 p.m.
The other option for service learning is the possibility of working on Latin Opinión, the newspaper for the Latin community in Baltimore. I am working on finding out exactly what our role would be for this newspaper. I came in contact with the editor recently and he is interested in having students get involved in the paper and the Latin community in Baltimore. http://www.latinopinion.info/
From the readings and participation in the city, you will develop a perspective of Baltimore that goes beyond the typical tourist information that is advertised or the late-night news headlines that we watch. You will learn about the people who make up the city, past and present, and you will be able to see how a community is developed and maintained. We will all be exposed to ideas and actions that may be beyond our everyday experience. I hope that this diverse look at Baltimore will provide you with the interest to look at all communities in a new light.
I have attached Loyola College’s Jesuit Vision statement and the Mission of The College Diversity Committee. Both of the statements are incorporated in the class, and the college’s goal is to have students incorporate these missions and visions into their everyday life.
Certainly, this is a different way of teaching and learning, one that gets us out into the community and allows us to use what we study in class. I am extremely excited to participate in these projects and can’t wait to get started with everyone.
Below are the Jesuit Vision statement for the college and the Mission of The College Diversity Committee. These are goals that are ingrained in us as humans, but I provide them to you so that you can see how the college plays a role in the community at large. Often, as students, you may find yourselves secluded from the city. This course will meet the college’s diversity requirement, but I hope that these visions and missions will become a part of your own life.

The Mission

Loyola College in Maryland is a Jesuit Catholic university committed to the educational and spiritual traditions of the Society of Jesus and to the ideals of liberal education and the development of the whole person. Accordingly, the College will inspire students to learn, lead and serve in a diverse and changing world.

Vision Statement

The education of men and women of compassion and competence, imbued with the desire to seek in all things the greater glory of God, represents the enduring aspiration of Loyola College in Maryland. That ideal, first elucidated by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus and namesake of this university, continues to guide Loyola as it strives to lead students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends forward to the promise of an examined life of intellectual, social and spiritual discernment.

In pursuing these goals, Loyola asserts a bold ambition: that the College will be among the top Catholic universities in the United States. The standards by which we measure that achievement will be many: the enrollment of outstanding students; the creation of a diverse and supportive community; the cultivation of a rigorous intellectual climate; the scholarly achievements of the faculty; the recognition of peers; the intellectual and professional attainments and generosity of spirit of the alumni.

Loyola will do so by providing undergraduate students with a liberal education that transforms them, that ensures they place the highest value on the intellectual life, and that instills in them an understanding that leadership and service to the world are intimately connected. Likewise, Loyola will be a recognized leader in graduate education, offering programs which are responsive to the needs of the professional and academic communities it serves, inspiring its graduate students to leadership, and inculcating in them the knowledge that service to the larger world is a defining measure of their professional responsibilities fully understood.

In all of this, Loyola College will remain ever mindful of the Jesuit precept that the aim of all education ultimately is the ennoblement of the human spirit. http://www.loyola.edu/about/visionvalues/vision.html

Vision
The Loyola College in Maryland College Diversity Committee imagines a campus where every member of the campus community celebrates diversity; engages issues of diversity, values and respects the diversity of individuals, their experiences and opinions; and encourages expressions of that diversity while supporting the Jesuit Core Values.

Mission
The College Diversity Committee provides campus leadership on diversity issues through education and action.  It serves as an advocate for the diverse groups within the Loyola community and promotes change in campus climate, curriculum, policies, and procedures to bring them into agreement with its vision and mission.
The diversity issues addressed by the Committee include: diversity in undergraduate and graduate student populations; curricular diversity in undergraduate and graduate programs; recruitment, mentoring, and retention of faculty, staff, and administrators of color; creating a campus climate that assumes, accepts, and engages diversity as necessary to the pursuit of the Jesuit educational mission; creating mutually supportive linkages, and enhancing the College’s reputation, in Baltimore; creating mutually supportive relationships with other colleges and universities in the Greater Baltimore area; and other issues as they arise and complement the committee’s charge. http://www.loyola.edu/academics/diversity/cdc/mission.html
http://www.loyola.edu/academics/diversity/cdc/index.html

We are required to recognize our roles as a teachers, students, and members of society while acknowledging the differences in each culture, especially within America. Whether a student comes from the highly populated New York City area or a small farm in Missouri, attending Loyola College means that each student will find his or her direction and motivation by following the Jesuit Mission. A combination of academics and service to others keeps students aware of the morals and values that exist beyond the textbooks and homework assignments.  In the classroom, in a service learning site, in any social setting, each student develops a place in the immediate surroundings and a place in the world.