Six-Week Syllabus Overview
In this sample unit syllabus, the controversy surrounding Christian Science
is used mainly as a means to get students to begin thinking about a suffering-related
controversy. It could be expanded and dealt with more extensively (possibly
as an entire unit of its own, leading up to this one), but for a short,
six-week unit, I recommend using it simply as an introduction to suffering
and controversy, and an early example of “mapping.”
This allows the instructor to distribute the formal group speech
mapping assignment already in the first week,
while still offering students a loose example of what it means to “map”
a controversy. Since the Christian Science controversy raises difficult
issues about religious faith, medical practice, parental responsibility,
and law, it transitions quite smoothly into the “representations”
texts on suffering. I have allowed two “flexible time” days
in the first two weeks because discussions are likely to run over from
one class period to the next. Aside from the content to be considered,
there are several fruitful opportunities to discuss genre, authorial style,
reader response, and the limits of expression in rhetoric and suffering.
By the third week, students should have selected
groups, chosen a suffering-related controversy for the mapping speech,
and begun researching various stances on that controversy. Meanwhile,
class work will turn to a close and thorough consideration of the euthanasia
controversy in order to model the level of depth and sophistication that
students should strive for in their own group speeches. During the third
week, the instructor should not only discuss the language and persuasive
strategies of individual essays, but encourage students to situate the
various authors' viewpoints in relation to one another--mapping not only
the major positions, but also the values and beliefs which underlie those
positions. The instructor should also strive to keep the class focused
on rhetorical analysis, not advocacy. If possible, the students' personal
opinions about the euthanasia controversy should not be allowed to surface
until the fifth week. Again, some "flexible time" has been incorporated
into the fourth week as well, since the discussions of the euthanasia
material will likely run over into additional class periods.
In the fourth week, students perform the group mapping
speeches, exposing their classmates to several viewpoints on several different
suffering-related controversies. These controversies may be selected as
topics for the formal advocacy essay which is due at the end of the sixth
week (but no student should be allowed to write on the same controversy
he or she addressed in the group speech).
In the fifth week, one or both of the Christian
Science and euthanasia controversies can be revisited—this time
allowing students to inject and advocate their personal viewpoints as
useful practice for the formal advocacy essay.
I also recommend a series of short debates on selected topics because
students often find this activity fun and it serves as another useful
means to observe and practice advocacy (see option 3 of the speaking
assignments).
In the sixth week, I recommend setting aside one
class period for students to workshop their essays with their peers. The
formal advocacy essay is due at the end of the unit—in this case,
the end of week six. The essay should not only require students to advocate
their personal opinion, but to map that opinion in relation to others,
and to think consciously about how the various opinions are informed by
suffering. Students should be encouraged to appeal to specific values
or beliefs regarding suffering when constructing and advocating their
viewpoints. Again, there is “flexible time” incorporated into
the sixth week as well because there are so many ways in which this schedule
could be adapted to incorporate additional materials. If, for example,
you wanted to incorporate attention to visual forms of rhetoric, you might
include supplementary materials such as the movies Life as a House
(Kevin Kline) or Wit (HBO movie with Emma Thompson).
There are countless ways to organize this unit, including the following
recommended syllabus.
Note: DAY = HOUR
Week 1: When Medical and Religious Practices
Conflict
Day 1: Discuss essays on Christian Science from Praying
for a Cure: When Medical and Religious Practices Conflict; distribute
group speech mapping assignment
Day 2: Discuss Christian Science controversy (cont., with additional
readings)
Day 3: Discuss chapters 6 and 7 in The
Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis (p. 86-118)
Day 4: Discuss excerpts from The War
on Pain, Scott Fishman (p. 5-8, 12-25, 28-31, 33-35)
Week 2: Science, Faith, and Self-Help
Day 1: Discuss chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 17 from Devotions
Upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne
Day 2: Discuss excerpt from Talking
About Death Won’t Kill You, Virginia Morris (p. 49-92)
Day 3: flexible time
Day 4: flexible time
Week 3: Euthanasia and the Scope of Individual
Rights
Day 1: Discuss essays on euthanasia:
Anonymous, "It's Over Debbie"; Charles Colson, "It's Not
Over Debbie"; James Rachels, "Active and Passive Euthanasia"; Sidney
Hook, "In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia"; Leon R. Kass, "Why Doctors
Must Not Kill"
Day 2: Discuss essays on euthanasia (cont.) and begin "mapping" major
stances and underlying values/beliefs
Day 3: Discuss and "map" additional euthanasia essays: "Removing Life
Support Systems: Cruzan vs. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health"; Arthur
Dyck, "An Alternative to the Ethic of Euthanasia"; Ellen Goodman, "Who
Lives? Who Dies? Who Decides?"; Terry Golway, "The Culture of Death"
Day 4: Discuss and "map" additional euthanasia essays: Cecil McIver,
"Assisted Dying as a Moral and Ethical Choice: A Physician's View"; Timothy
M. Quill, "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making"
Week 4: Mapping Suffering, Mapping Controversy
Day 1: flexible time; distribute formal essay
advocacy assignment
Day 2: flexible time
Day 3: Group Mapping Speeches
Day 4: Group Mapping Speeches (cont.)
Week 5: Rekindling the Debate: Christian
Science, Euthanasia, and Advocacy
Day 1: Open discussion of suffering, controversy, and student viewpoints
on Christian Science and/or euthanasia—possibly with additional
readings
Day 2: Open discussion of Christian Science and/or euthanasia
Day 3: Mini-debates or panel debates on selected topics regarding Christian
Science and/or euthanasia
Day 4: Mini-debates or panel debates on selected topics regarding Christian
Science and/or euthanasia
Week 6: Pain, Death, Dignity, and Euthanasia
Day 1: Formal Essay Workshop
Day 2: flexible time
Day 3: flexible time
Day 4: Formal Essay DUE
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