Assignments
Instructions
Blog posts: There are thirteen blog assignments, plus the midterm and final. For the regular blog posts, the idea is to respond to the reading by illustrating something in the book, extending a point, challenging an assumption, adding some relevant research, etc. Assume your reader has read the book, so there's no need to introduce it as in a book review. Don't focus on something that's basically tangential—really engage with the thesis of the book, chapter, or passage. Feel free to quote a short passage (include the page number in parentheses).
Format: The posts should be about 400-500 words. Your post will probably consist of four or five paragraphs—please use “block style”—double space between paragraphs and do notindent at the beginning of a new paragraph. When you create an entry, you’ll be asked to include a title and subtitle. It’s up to you, but generally the title is something poetic and the subtitle something more descriptive and prosaic. Also, remember to scroll to the "A Sense of Place" in the "Course" box and the appropriate assignment topic in the "A Sense of Place Topic" box.
Images: Each post has an image. Please give your selection of images some thought. It can be one of your own photos or something off the internet. Try out various key words on “Google Images” or whatever search engine you’re using. Please remember to include the URL for the website where you found the image so that you can give credit where it’s due. If it’s your own photo, say so at the end of the post. You can also add a video by pasting the URL in the video field at the bottom.
Process: Check this assignment page for recently-added details on the assignment; do the reading, then do a little outside research or read one of the articles on the bibliography page, then write your post, but don’t post it immediately. Read some other blog posts and see what ideas are going around; this might be a good time to write a comment on someone else’s post; then go back and revise your own post and post it to the website.
Comments: In addition to writing your own posts, you are required to write 15 short comments (50-100 words) on other people’s blogs, one for each assignment. The comment is not a teacher-like evaluation of the post’s quality. Instead, respond to some idea in the post by providing additional thoughts, amplifying, clarifying, questioning, agreeing, disagreeing, providing a link to a related website, etc. Try to keep up with the comments so that you aren’t commenting on posts from a couple of weeks back.
Due dates: The posts are usually due on Monday so there's time to read them before class on Thursday. You can post a comment on someone else's blog (for the week's assignment) anytime before the Thursday class.
Assignments
1. Describe a "good place."
Post by class, Thursday, Jan. 27
Reading: Read Jennifer Cross's "What Is Sense of Place?" (the article is here, and a summary chart is here)
Describe "a good place." It could be a childhood place you remember fondly (grandma's house in the country), your dorm or apartment (or a room in it), the place where you're sitting when you write the post (a great café), a place you went on holiday, or a neighborhood, town or city. It could be a static description (like a landscape painting) or something "in motion," e.g., you could take us for a walk through the place. If you like, include a picture. The instructions for posts are here. The instructions for inserting images are here. When you post, remember to give your post a title and to scroll to "Sense of Place" in the courses box and to "Good place" in the topic box.
Remember to comment on one other blog post for this assignment.
2. Tuan
Post by Mon., Jan. 31
Reading: Space and Place, chapters 1-7.
Before you do the post, please read these "tips for better posts." Write about one of themes in the reading by developing it further with your own example, or illustrate one of Tuan’s examples with an image and further discussion.
Remember to comment on one other blog post for this assignment.
3. Tuan (cont.)
Post by Mon., Feb. 7
Reading: Space and Place, chapters 8-14.
Before you do the post, please read these "tips for better posts." Write about one of themes in the reading by developing it further with your own example, or illustrate one of Tuan’s examples with an image and further discussion.
Remember to comment on one other blog post for this assignment.
4. Jackson
Post by Mon., Feb. 14
Reading: J. B. Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. Focus on the following essays: “The Word Itself,” “A Pair of Ideal Landscapes,” “Vernacular,” “The Moveable Dwelling and How It Came to America,” “Landscape as Seen by the Military,” and “Concluding with Landscapes.”
Write about Jackson’s perspective on the landscape, his understanding of “sense of place,” the significance of the “vernacular,” or another theme that interests you. Illustrate your post with a relevant image.
5. Kunstler
Post by Mon., Feb. 21
Reading: For Tuesday, read Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere, chapters 1 to 6, and for Thursday, chapters 7 and 8.
Post an image that illustrates something in the first half of The Geography of Nowhere, and write a comment about what Kunstler has to say about the topic represented in the image. For example, post an image of the grid layout of one of the cities in Chapter 3 and write about your experience of that city. Or post a picture of one of the early suburbs in Chapter 4, and write about your impressions of the place. Or post an image of one of the buildings referred to in Chapter 5 and discuss it. The idea is just to provide a visual aid to what Kunstler is talking about and to say something about it. Check out the list of suggested readings—you could write about something you discover in one of these readings, and make a text link to the site.
6. Kunstler, cont.
Post by Mon., Feb. 28
Reading: For Tuesday, read The Geography of Nowhere, chapters 9-12, and for Thursday, chapter 13.
Post an image that illustrates something in the second half of The Geography of Nowhere, and write a comment about what Kunstler has to say about the topic represented in the image and your thoughts on his thoughts. For example, post an image of Disneyworld or Seaside or Las Vegas or one of the domestic housing styles, and write about your impressions or experience of the place. As with the first Kunstler post, part of the goal here is to provide a visual aid to what Kunstler is talking about, as well as responding to his argument.
7. Midterm
Post by Mon., March 7
The instructions are here.
Spring break (no assignment for March 14-16)
8. Waldie
Post by Mon., March 21
Reading: For Tuesday, read Waldie’s Holy Land.
Post: For this post, instead of writing about Waldie's book, write a post about the place you grew up, and do it in a style that imitates Holy Land. You do NOT need to break your post into short and/or numbered blocks—you can write on just one topic. Note that many of Waldie's are relatively long, at least as long as a blog post. Think about how Waldie tells the story of his suburb, his house, his personal experiences, the place's public history, etc. Like Waldie, as you describe your home place, you might want to do a little research about your suburb or house design, and you might consider themes like the grid, history, race and religion, staying put, the profundity of the quotidian, the book's title, etc. Include an image of your place or, if you can't get find one, another image that makes sense. Also, if you wrote about a home place for the midterm, don't repeat yourself—change the focus, so if wrote about your town, write about your house, or vice versa, etc. Remember to write a comment on someone else's blog post.
9. Pollan
Post by Mon., March 28
Reading: For Tuesday, read the first half of A Place of My Own. Check the Pollan bibliography page for links to supplementary materials.
Post a comment about the reading.
10. Pollan (cont.)
Post by Mon., April 4
Reading: For Tuesday, read the second half of A Place of My Own. Check the Pollan bibliography page for links to supplementary materials.
Post a comment about the reading.
11. Flint
Post by Mon., April 11
Reading: For Tuesday, read Wrestling with Moses (entire). Check out the bibliography page for links.
Post a comment about the reading.
12. Sorkin
Post by Mon., April 18
Reading: For Tuesday, read the first half of Twenty Minutes in Manhattan.
Post a blog entry responding to the book, and comment on someone else's blog post.
13. Sorkin (cont.)
Post by Mon., April 25
Reading: For Tuesday, read the second half of Twenty Minutes in Manhattan.
Post a blog entry responding to the book, and comment on someone else's blog post.
14. Final
Post by Tues., May 3 (at class time)
The instructions are here.
15. Parting Thoughts
Post by Fri., May 6
For this post, you can write what you want. You can look back over the blog and see what strikes you, return to a theme that came up earlier, relate something from one of your other courses to sense of place, talk about where you'll be traveling this summer, tell a story, write something about the course—whatever you think will give some closure to your blog and the semester.
