Unit information: Literature and Community Engagement in Practice 1 in 2019/20

Unit name	Literature and Community Engagement in Practice 1
Unit code	ENGL20106
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Mrs. Thomas-Hughes
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

‘Literature and Community Engagement in Practice 1’ is the third in a series of four cumulative units which are designed to support students in the development and execution of community-engaged projects as part of their undergraduate studies on the English Literature and Community Engagement BA.

Community Engagement is a practice-led discipline. Teaching in community engagement combines: practical, skills-focused, discussion-based workshops; ‘expert masterclasses’ led by community engagement or reading group experts; and seminars which examine the ideas of community, engagement and the practise of reading in contemporary society.

At this point in their studies students have typically established or are in the final stages of establishing their community-engaged projects.*

This unit has an in-depth focus on the practice of running a community-engagement project. The unit is designed to recognise that students are heavily committed to the practice of running their projects. Students will be introduced to a variety of facilitation and participatory techniques used when managing groups, drawn from sources including participatory and community-based research and third sector and practitioner toolkits. As part of this unit students will receive skills-based training on group dynamics and conflict management.

The unit enables students to reflexively critique their community-engaged projects in the context of the literary bodies introduced in the previously two units. This unit encourages students to reflexively consider their own logic, motivation and aims for intersecting literature and community engagement in the context of their own community-engaged project.

As part of this unit students will receive an observational visit from their community-engagement tutor and an accompanying feedback report which they will be expected to utilise as part of the unit’s ‘reflexive essay’ assessment.**

Aims

• to develop students’ repertoire of skills and techniques for running a community-engaged project.
• to foster students’ confidence, independence and expertise in running their community-engaged projects.
• to enhance students’ ability to use reflexive analysis as a tool for critical evaluation and development of their community engaged project

`*Where the project designed/established in 'Introduction to Literature and Community Engagement 2' was unsuccessful or discontinued for any reason, this unit aims to support students’ undertaking of a new project idea.

`**There are some circumstances where a student might have been unable to establish a project during this unit and, consequently, will be unable to receive a feedback report from their community-engagement tutor to utilise as part of this assessment. If students have not set-up a project and had an observational visit by week 20 of the academic year, then they will be offered a project coaching session with the site-visit officer where they will have the opportunity to undertake a detailed review of the practical work they have already undertaken and develop an action plan for taking their CE project forward.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students should be able to:

1) demonstrate the ability to implement a community-engagement project.

2) demonstrate the ability to reflect analytically on community participation within this project, including the range of participants who engage and the literary works that are utilised.

3) reflexively analyse their own participation in the project over the course of the year

4) utilise, and reflect on, formal feedback from the site-visit officer (or equivalent where project format does not facilitate a site-visit).

Teaching Information

Through the year:

• 4 x 3-hour seminars
• 2 x 4.5-hour day schools
• 1 x 4.5 hour conference
• 1 x 1-hour one-to-one meeting with tutor.
• 1 x observation visit and feedback report on community-engaged project*

• Where a site visit is not appropriate, a one-to-one coaching session and guidance report will be available as an alternative.

Assessment Information

1 x 5-10-minute oral presentation and Q&A on community-engaged project. (ILOs: 3 & 4)

1 x reflective essay (4000 words) (ILOs: 1 - 4) 100%

Reading and References

Atwood, Margaret. Hag-seed: The Tempest Retold. Knopf Canada, 2016.

Duncan, Sam. "Understanding reading for pleasure for emerging adult readers." (2013).

Eyler, Janet. "Creating your reflection map." New directions for higher education 2001.114 (2001): 35-43.

Hartley, Jenny. Reading groups. Oxford University Press, USA, 2001.

Hippisley, Sulaxana. "Girl Talk: Adolescent Girls Constructing Meaning in Book Groups and the Classroom." Changing English 16.2 (2009): 221-230.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A memoir in books. Random House Incorporated, 2008.

Swann, Joan. "How reading groups talk about books: A study of literary reception." Creativity in language and literature. The state of the art (2011): 217-230.

Plus, a range of texts, resources and toolkits from the voluntary and statutory sectors.