Syllabus Greek 295, Fall 2021 (M-W-F meetings)
3 credit hours:
Instructor Name: Jacques Bailly
Contact Information: email is best (jacques.bailly@uvm.edu)
Office Hours: M 10:30-11:30, T 1:00-2, and by appointment: to request an
appointment: email me with a few suggestions for times.
Pre-requisites or co-requisites: Greek 052 or the equivalent
Schedule:
- Week #
- M assignment
- W assignment
- F assignment
- Week 1 Aug 30-Sept 3
- 1st class: Howdy!
- Reardon 1-15
- Daphnis and Chloe 1.1-6
- Chariton Intro + Bk 1
- Daphnis and Chloe 1.7-12
- Chariton Books 3-4 (pp. 49-75)
- Kyle quizletteering
- Week 2 Sept 8-10 (Sept. 6 is Labor Day)
- D&C 1.13-18
- D&C 1.19-23
- Kyle's quizlet due (send screenshot of completed learn and
completed test: the score on the test counts, but I don't care how
many times you do it until you get 100%)
- Grad presentation: Alex and Kyle
- Madeline quizleteering
- Week 3 Sept. 13-17
- D&C 1.24-29
- D&C 30-32, 2.1-3
- D&C 2.4-8
- Madeline's quizlet due (see last week for what to do)
- Grad Presentation: Kyle and Madeline
- Alex Quizleteering
- Week 4 Sept. 20-24
- D&C 2.9-14
- D&C 2.15-20
- D&C 2.21-25
- Alex' quizlet due
- Grad Presentation: Madeline and Alex
- Kyle Quizleteering
- Week 5 Sept. 27-Oct. 1
- D&C 2.26-31
- D&C 2.32-37
- D&C 2.38-39, 3.1-3
- Kyle's quizlet due
- Grad Presentation: Alex and Kyle
- Madeline Quizleteering
- Week 6 Oct. 4-6 (Oct. 8 is Fall Recess)
- D&C 3.4-9
- D&C 3.10-15
- Madeline Quizlet due
- Bailly Quizleteering
- Week 7 Oct. 11-15
- D&C 3.16-21
- D&C 3.22-27
- D&C 3.28-33
- Bailly quizlet due
- Grad Presentation: Kyle and Madeline
- Alex Quizleteering
- Week 8 Oct. 18-22
- D&C 3.34-4.1-5
- D&C 4.6-11
- D&C 4.12-16
- Alex quizlet due
- Grad Presentation: Madeline and Alex
- Kyle Quizleteering
- Week 9 Oct. 25-29
- D&C 4.17-23
- D&C 4.24-28
- D&C 4.29-34
- Kyle quizlet due
- Grad Presentation: Alex and Kyle
- Madeline Quizleteering
- Week 10 Nov. 1-5
- D&C 4.34-40
- REVIEW
- MIDTERM
- Week 11 Nov. 8-12
- Aethiopica!
- rinse and repeat.
- etc.
- Week 12 Nov. 15-19
- Week 13 Nov. 29-Dec. 3
- Week 14 Dec. 6-10
Course Description
- Purpose of the course: to develop fluency in reading Greek accompanied
by a commentary, a grammar, and a dictionary, and sometitsimes on
own with nothing but the Greek in front of us.
- The first half of the course we will work on reading Daphnis and
Chloe. After that, I'd like to read Heliodorus' Aethiopica.
Course Learning Objectives
- To move considerably closer to being able to pick up a Greek text
without any dictionary or grammar and read it with enjoyment and
understanding -- a distant goal.
- To come closer to the goal of reading Greek as Greek rather than a
mighty funny (strange) way to write something that should be English.
- A practical/doable goal for the semester: we will do well if we can
simply achieve being able to re-read with understanding material
(that we have previously prepared) with nothing but the Greek text in
front of us. My guess is that that is not possible for all y'all now,
but you are coming closer and closer.
Course Materials:
- Recommended and on reserve at Howe: Daphnis and Chloe,
commentary and text by Byrne and Cueva, printed by Bolchazy-Carducci,
2012.
- Recommended and on reserve at Howe: Daphnis and Chloe by
Morgan, printed by Aris and Philips.
- Recommended and on reserve at Howe: Reardon's Collected Ancient
Greek Novels.
Course Website:
- The course website is:
http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/Greek%20Novel/
Expectations:
- Assigned work is to be done before class. Texts should be prepared to
the point where you can explain them without hesitation. Quizlet or
other material is due before class.
- Attendance is mandatory and essential.
- Classroom Environment Expectations: we are a learning community. We
help each other. We study together. We communicate often and gladly. We
are also gracious professionals who respect each other and do what it
takes to make the environment pleasant and productive for all. Our ego
is not a factor.
- Making mistakes is a sign of learning. Recognizing where we are unsure
is a sign of learning. Perfection can be the enemy of progress.
Grading Criteria/Policies:
-
Undergraduate:
- 1. 40%
End-of-term anonymous peer review evaluation of your contribution to
class,
which will include participation in discussion, and impression of
overall level
of preparation in both primary (Greek) and secondary (Burn)
readings.
- 2.
40% Accuracy and Completeness of mastery of the assigned readings,
assessed via a midterm and a final (20% each, non-cumulative)
- 3.
20% grammar, vocabulary, etc. quizzes on Quizlet (send me a
screenshot of completion of 'learn' and results of a test): we can
reassess this whenever, but we will have a component that is
student-driven and includes learning odds and ends, vocab, forms,
etc.
- Graduate (undergrads may do any of these desired after consultation):
- 30% same as 1 above but presentations and quizlets will also be peer
evaluated
- 30% same as 2 above
- 20% create quizlet with 50 items for class: anything useful and
relevant from our reading up to then that you want to learn or you
hear others needing/wanting to learn: anything in the text is fair
game: round robin: Alex, Madeline, Kyle, repeat.
- 20% one of the following 3: 1) term paper, approx. 8-page
single-spaced on an aspect of ancient novels (anything, historical,
social, literary, influence on novel, influence of novel, papyri, MSS,
etc.), 2) create content creatively based on novel, 3) extra ancient
novel(s) of comparable length compared and contrasted in an
approx. 8-page single-spaced paper.
Course Evaluation:
- Students are expected to complete an evaluation of the course at its
conclusion. Evaluations will be anonymous and confidential, and the
information gained, including constructive criticisms, will be used to
improve the course.
Tips for Success: pick and choose what works for you
- Work with each other: social learning helps. Asking Chris "What's this
form" helps you and helps Chris (of course, this must never go over to
the dark side of doing each others' work).
- Work in short bursts, particularly for memory tasks. 3 hours in one
long session will not work as well as short sessions, because getting
your neurons to fire Greek requires making them fire it for a while,
then leaving it alone, then making them re-fire. If you only study in
one long session, they will not fire that way and it will not as
reliably enter your memory. Because neuroscience.
- Interleave review with new material: neuroscience studies shows that
always working on the new material even in a cumulative course like this
results in less reliable learning than explicitly devoting regular time
(25% or so seems good) to review.
- If you find yourself puzzling over a sentence long after you think you
know what each word might mean and what each form is, do not go find a
translation: simply highlight it, underline it, boldface it, and GO ON
or take a break. Come back to it after a while. WOrking on something and
then figuring it out is the absolute best way to learn Greek.
- Any time you are stuck for more than a couple minutes, 1) STOP. Study
something else. Eat a snack. Exercise. Then go back to it. AND/OR 2)
SKIP IT: go on to the next task and come back to it, perhaps repeatedly.
It's just like on a test: if you get stuck on the 2nd question, you'll
never finish. Make a note, go on, and come back to it.
- Read the entire passage aloud before doing anything, even if you feel
as though you do not understand it at all. Read aloud often. This helps
by making you produce the language, and also by letting you hear the
language: your tongue and ears are learning tools. Use them.
- Encounter the Greek by itself without any help as often as you can.
This will feel difficult and maybe even demoralizing (that's stinkin'
thinkin': note it and put it aside), but it is a bit better if you do it
as part of your regular review (e.g. regularly take the passage we read
last class and encounter it with ONLY the Greek text in front of you).
- It is important not to always rely on crutches such as notes, vocab.,
dictionaries, etc. They are useful and important, but only to a point.
Regularly practice trying to take off the training wheels.
- Mix it up judiciously: if you are in a groove and you know it, it may
be a good groove or it may be a rut: you may be being falsely efficient.
It may not be a learning groove, but simply a gettin'thru'it rut that
you fall into. For example, if you make vocab. lists and drill them, try
simply rereading the passage multiple times (better anyway). I can't
predict what your rut might be, but you can notice them.
- Often one person spends hours more than someone else and seems to
learn less: try asking how other people learn and see if you can pick up
just one little thing that might work for you.
- Resist the siren song of looking at a translation: if you find
yourself doing so, if you can't resist, trick yourself into delaying it
by saying "I won't look UNTIL I have a good solid guess written down in
full" or "I won't look until I've tried it on my own on two separate
occasions." Working with a translation at your side is fooling yourself:
you are not really reading Greek. It's like those calorie counters on
gym machines: they all lie. Better yet, it's like Seneca, who
though that he was exercising when he was being carried in a litter by
servants. Be good to yourself: minimize this compromise.
- On the other hand, read largely in English translation! to get the lay
of the land, the big picture.
Credit Hours: official UVM policy:
·
Our
course is designed with the following in mind: count on spending at
least 2 hours on this class outside of class for every hour in class,
which adds up to at least 3 hours in class per week plus 6 hours outside
of class per week. Usually in Greek courses, students laugh at the idea
of spending ONLY 2 hours outside of class for every hour in class.
·
This
policy applies to every UVM course for credit.
o
1.
One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two
hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen
weeks for one semester hour of credit or the equivalent amount of work
over a different amount of time; or
o
2.
At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of
this definition for other academic activities as established by the
institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio
work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit
hours.
o
3.
“Direct faculty instruction” must include regular and substantive
faculty/student contact regardless of delivery mode (for example,
face-to-face, hybrid, distance/online).
o
All
courses should span the full term (15 weeks in fall and spring) of the
semester in which they are offered.
Classroom conduct expectations: Respect and grace and love for each
other
There are many resources outlined below that you should use if you
or anyone in your community needs them. We all need to look out for each
other and stand up for each other.
Once in a while, the material in
this course may upset one or more of us, or it may be deemed offensive
to and by one or more of us. When that happens, if it is relevant to
course material and possible, we need to work through the upset and
offense in productive ways. Education is not always comfortable: it
includes challenging ourselves in many ways and it includes exploring
ideas. Whether I, the professor, am the cause of the upset or
offensiveness, or a guest or a student or something we are examining is,
we need to work through it. Why? Because the issues that cause upset or
offense are very important. How will we do it? By taking a deep breath,
thinking before speaking, and charitably and cautiously approaching the
issues. Such things are usually highly dependent on specific
circumstances, and so there is no one approach that will work, but
exercising honesty, grace and charitable respect always help.
Part of what I am talking about is
the fact that I am a "cis-gendered," "white," "male," "heterosexual,"
"of a certain age" person, among other things, and that carries with it
much history. Each of us can produce a list of the identities we wear or
have put on us, and those affect how we view the world and how it views
and treats us. Approaches to these things have been in a wonderful
exciting state of flux for the past few decades, which I call progress
even as I struggle to keep up, but which inevitably causes confusion,
friction, and the need to be respectful, careful, thoughtful, and
sympathetic, but also interested and curious and honest and constantly
examining things.
Every one of us is responsible for
these matters, not just me, and certainly not just the person who is
negatively affected. If the matter strays too far from the class
material, it may be necessary to figure out a way to keep the class on
track rather than forego the class material.
Student Learning Accommodations:
In
keeping with University policy, any student with a documented disability
interested in utilizing accommodations should contact SAS, the office of
Disability Services on campus. SAS works with students and faculty
in an interactive process to explore reasonable and appropriate
accommodations, which are communicated to faculty in an accommodation
letter. All students are strongly encouraged to meet with
their faculty to discuss the accommodations they plan to use in each
course. A student's accommodation letter lists those accommodations that
will not be implemented until the student meets with their faculty to
create a plan.
Contact
SAS:
A170
Living/Learning Center;
802-656-7753;
access@uvm.edu
www.uvm.edu/access
Religious Holidays:
Students
have the right to practice the religion of their choice. If you need to
miss class to observe a religious holiday, please submit the dates of
your absence to me in writing by the end of the second full week of
classes. You will be
permitted to make up work within a mutually agreed-upon time. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/religious-holidays
UVM Academic Integrity policies:
The UVM
policy governing plagiarism, fabrication, collusion, and cheating will
be upheld in this class. https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/acadintegrity.pdf
UVM Grade Appeal policies:
If you
would like to contest a grade, please follow the procedures outlined in
this policy: https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/gradeappeals.pdf
UVM Grading policies:
For
information on grading and GPA calculation, go to https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/grades
Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities:
http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/rightsandresponsibilities/
FERPA Rights Disclosure:
The
purpose of this policy is to communicate the rights of students
regarding access to, and privacy of their student educational records as
provided for in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of
1974.
http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/ferparightsdisclosure/
Promoting Health & Safety:
It is a
basic priority of The University of Vermont to support a healthy and
safe community:
· Center
for Health and Wellbeing:
o
https://www.uvm.edu/health
· Counseling
& Psychiatry Services (CAPS)
o
Phone:
(802) 656-3340
· C.A.R.E.
: If you are concerned
about a UVM community member or are concerned about a specific event, we
encourage you to contact the Dean of Students Office (802-656-3380).
If you would like to remain anonymous, you can report your
concerns online by visiting the Dean of Students website at https://www.uvm.edu/studentaffairs
Final Exam Policy:
The
University final exam policy outlines expectations during final exams
and explains timing and process of examination period. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/final-exams
Statement on Alcohol and Cannabis in the Academic Environment
Alcohol
and cannabis have no place in an academic environment. They can
seriously impair your ability to learn and retain information not only
in the moment you may be using, but up to 48 hours or more afterwards.
In addition, alcohol and cannabis can:
· Cause
issues with attention, memory and concentration
· Negatively
impact the quality of how information is processed and ultimately
stored
· Affect
sleep patterns, which interferes with long-term memory formation
Do
everything you can to optimize your own and others' learning and to
fully participate in this course.