COURSE CONTENT FOR SEMESTERS III/IV

Unit 1
Understanding Life Narratives

Giving students the skills their own lives meaningfully; journals, memoirs, and
to document
autobiographical writings can be excellent tools for personal reflectioon and growth,
therapeutic as well as a method for organising one's own thoughts in a fashion that helps one
live meaning fully

Reading sections from life narratives, biographies, autobiographies and diary entries
Writing a statement of purpose for university applications; CV/resume; daily/weekly journal
Speaking to your class to persuade them to do something public speech
Listening to public speeches like convocation addresses, political speeches, TED Talks to
trace structure of argument and worldview; to observe the use of description, persuasion, and
argument

Grammar/Vocabulary: Action Verbs

Active and Passive voice
 Suggested Readings:

Das, Kamala. The Park Street Home' My Story Kottayam: DC Books, 2009.

Singh, Mayank 'Mayank Austen Soofi. Selected extracts from I Had Come Too Far' Nobody
Can Love You More Delhi: Penguin Books, 2014.

Bhattacharjee, Kishalay. 'Back To Where I Never Belonged' First Proof: 1The Penguin Book
ofNew Writing From India Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2005.

Issacson, Walter. Sclected extracts from Steve Jobs New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011.

Unit 2
Exploring Poetry
Here, students are trained to use the techniques of poetry to write in poetic form; they
understand how the concept of beauty works through access to aesthetic forms; they learn
how to express the same thought in different ways and observe how form impacts meaning;
these skills can become tools for personal confidence in linguistic use

Reading: Using context to read effectively; identifying elements of poetics in different forms
of poetry prose poems / slam poetry
Writing slam poetry; writing a critical response to a poem
Listening: Reciting/performing poetry; listening to audio/video clips of poets reading their
poetry to appreciate the significance of pauses, rhythm etc

Grammar/Vocabulary: Denotation/Connotation

Suggested Readings:

Nair, Rukmini Bhaya. "Gargi's Silence' Yellow Hibiscus: New and Selected Poems Delhi:
Penguin, 2004.

Nongkynrih, Kynpham Sing. 'Light-In-The-Night (For Amanda)

Seth,Vikram. 'Part One' The Golden Gate London: Faber and Faber, 1999

Charara, Hayan. "Usage' Something Sinister Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press,
2016.

Unit 3
Exploring Drama

To highlight the rhetorical possibilities of drama through an understanding of its form and
mechanics; students learn how to handle conflict, how to have meaningful conversations, and,
above all,learn how one's words and gestures impact others.
Reading a one-act/ longer play to understand the interaction of dramatic forms/elements and
social context
Writing a critical response to the dramatic text; writing the script for a skit/short play,
keeping in mind formal features like characterisation, plot development, stage directions, etc
Speaking: Students leam to use their voices and bodies to perform/enact skits in groups
Listening to a radio play to appreciate the aural elements of drama

Grammar/Vocabulary: Direct/ Indirect Speech

Phrases and Idioms
Tone and Register

Suggested Readings:

Sarkar, Badal. Beyond the Land of Hattamala' Beyond the Land of Hattamala and Scandal
in Fairyland Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1992.

Unit 4
Exploring Fiction - Novella

Narrative texts can be seen as a tool for exploring reality including contests of what should be
accepted as real Students will learn how to write narrative and through narrative to examine
their own responses to issues confronting them

Read a longer piece of fiction to discern narrative voice, narrative structure,character

development, while locating the text in its socio-historical context
Write your own short story/novella; speculative fiction can be particularly useful as young
people are often in positions of contest with the social reality afforded to them; read and
review short stories/novellas/novels
Speak: Initiate discussion about a novella, drawing upon the critical reading skills developed
by students in the previous semester; focus will be on broadening their repertoire of reading:
texts chosen and responded to for personal pleasure
Listen to audio clips/ videos of writers talking about what writing means to them; audio clips
of books being read aloud to enable discussion of reading styles pauses punctuation etc

Grammar/Vocabulary: Punctuation pauses manner of reading/speaking/crafting complex

sentences

Suggested Reading:
Cisneros, Sandra. 7The House on Mango Street New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, 2013.

Unit 5
Writing your own academic essay /paper for the classroom
Using language skills learned over the course, students are to create academic documents such
as term papers, reports and assignments They should examine and revisit earlier such
submissions to learn how to improve and edit these better; to learn to identify consult and cite
the right sources to avoid plagiarism; to recognise and rectify bias in their own writing: biases
such as those of class/caste/race/gender/sexuality/religion can be discussed in class
Writing, revising and formatting drafts of essays analysing the coherence of arguments;
perspectives on a topic; balancee of presentation; students can testtheir ability to choose
between various forms of information/fact/opinion; they can create questionnaires, conducting
surveys, edit and create bibliographies and checklists
Speaking: Students should be able to tell the class what their core idea is in the essay / paper,
and why they have chosen a particular topic or idea; they should be able to debate various
points of view on the same topic
Listening to others views and being able to figure out which arguments are key and why;
examining ideology and location of speakers

Grammar/Vocabulary: Paragraphs
Topic sentences and transitions

Suggested Readings:

Patel, Raj and Moore, Jason W. 'How the chicken nugget became the true symbol of our era
The Guardian, 8 May 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/08/how-the-chicken-nugget-became-the-true
symbol-of-our-eraAccessed 4 June 2018

Latest editions of the MLA and APA style sheets

TESTING AND EVALUATIOON

Internal Assessment: Of 20 marks, 10 marks are to be allocated for assessment of reading
and writing assignmentsand 10 marks for assessment of speaking and listening test

Semester III/ IV Final Examination 75 marks

Reading and Writing skills:

o Unseen comprehension passage 750 words to test reading comprehension critical
thinking and vocabulary skills 15 marks
Questions related to suggested literary texts: to test awareness of literary form and
context through comprehension testing 2 x 15 30 marks
o Questions testing composition skills: essay statement-of-purpose essay
argumentative personal descriptive; diary/journal; questionnaire; dramatise
story/write short scene etc2 x 10 = 20 marks

Question testing academic writing formats via exercise of correcting citation or

bibliographical entry 5 marks

Grammar: Different grammar topics to be tested via exercise of editing/rewriting a given

passage 5 marks