Week 1:
Intro to “Intro to Intro”

Week 2:
What are we doing right now?
Assignment: write an essay evaluating this document:
Hoyt, Elizabeth. 2019. “The Simplest Way to Write an Essay.” Fastweb March 6. https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/the-simplest-way-to-write-an-essay.

Week 3:
Field trip: Center for Experiential Learning
Journaling exercise: how does it feel to keep a journal?

Week 4:
(Class meets this week at 8:00 p.m. at Pie Society Pizza.)
Reading: Ekirch, A. Roger. 2005. At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past.

Week 5:
“The Properties of Intro Course Formal Lectures”
Reading: Adorno, T. W., Bob Hullot-Kentor, and Frederic Will. 1984. “The Essay as Form.“ New German Critique 32:151-71.

Week 6:
Arguments for and against politics in the college classroom

Week 7:
Group presentations: best practices in collaborative course work

Week 8:
Room class the flipping
Reading: Hofstadter, Douglas R. 1999 [1979]. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books. ISBN-13: 978-0465026562.

Week 9:
Pedagogy of humor
Discussion: “What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?”

Week 10:
Data driven insights: meta-analyses of previous research on this course

Week 11:
Classroom discussion: classroom discussions
Reading: Cave, Roderick and Sara Ayad. 2017. The History of the Book in 100 Books. Firefly Books. ISBN-13: 978-1770854062.

Week 12:
Classroom time management
First 12 minutes: on the importance of punctuality
Remainder of class: on the informal methods students use to signal readiness to break for lunch

Week 13:
(Class does not meet.)
Reading: Skury, Jaclyn. 2013. “Superstitious Numbers Around the World.” National Geographic September 14. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130913-friday-luck-lucky-superstition-13/.

Week 14:
Taking stock: learning what we’ve learned

Dec. 5, 2023: final exam due via email to bobprice@txstate.edu no later than 5:00 p.m.