Call for Book Chapters: Renewable Assignments in Literature Courses

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals to be included in a forthcoming scholarly volume on ‘Renewable Assignments in Literature Courses’.

For many of us, the traditional essay assignment seems natural and inevitable – but what really comes of the hours we all invest in the writing and grading of literary analysis papers?
Open pedagogy advocate David Wiley coined the term “disposable assignments” to describe the assignments that “add no value to the world” -- and even, given the resources invested in a product that will end up in the recycling bin, “actually suck value out of the world.” Renewable assignments serve the goals of the conventional essay – developing language and analytical skills, fostering engagement with the course – while contributing to public knowledge.

We invite chapter proposals that rethink traditional literature pedagogy and offer concrete strategies for supplements or alternatives to the traditional literary analysis essay, such as:

• Annotating open educational resources
• Curating collections
• Developing video tutorials or podcasts
• Digitizing archival materials
• Creating web pages
• Other approaches developed to both measure and make use of what students are learning will also be considered

Please submit a 300-word abstract and CV to Melissa Ryan at ryanm@alfred.edu by July 19, 2020.