Achilles' Shield celebrates the extraordinary vigor of life on this earth. It is also Homer's hopeful vision of a world moving toward peace as its citizens work in concert with nature and each other. Thus Achilles' Shield is a fitting icon for a course that asks, "What does it mean to be a human being living in society?"
Assignments next to a date must be read/written/pondered on before coming to that class.
| Jan. 18 | Welcome;
Course Overview |
| Jan. 20 | Nature and purpose of humans:
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Book 1 Pericles’ “Funeral Oration” |
| Jan. 25 | Nicomachean Ethics Book 2 and Plato’s “Crito” |
| Jan. 27 | “My Wood” and Cavafy’s “Ithaca”: What makes humans happy? |
| Feb. 1 | “A Worn Path”: What makes humans happy? |
| Feb. 3 | “I Have a Dream” and Achilles’ Shield: a well-ordered world |
| Feb. 8 | Compare/Contrast two of the following: “Ode to Man” from Antigone, Herbert’s “Man,” Psalm 8 or “What a Piece of Work is a Man” from Hamlet. |
| Feb. 10 | Peer Evaluation for 1st Response |
| Feb. 15 | 1st
Response due |
| Feb. 17 | Digital Portfolio check: 1st
Web page due. Xythos Workshop: How to publish to the Web |
| Feb. 22 | Medea or Antigone |
| Feb. 24 | Medea or Antigone |
| Mar. 1 | Analyzing arguments: “The Vertical Negro Plan” & “Left-Handers” |
| Mar. 3 | Analyzing arguments: “Address to the Prisoners of Cook County Jail” |
| Mar. 8 | Mardi Gras Holiday |
| Mar. 10 | Digital Portfolio check: 2nd Web page due. |
| Mar. 15 | “Civil Disobedience” |
| Mar. 17 | “Letter from Birmingham Jail” |
| Mar. 22 | 2nd Response written in class: Citizen Responsibility in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “Civil Disobedience” |
| Mar. 24 | Researched Argument Overview |
| Mar. 29 | In-Class Researching for Researched Argument |
| Mar. 31 | Digital Portfolio check: 3rd Web page due. |
| April 5 | In-Class Researching for
Researched Argument |
| April 7 | Work on Researched Argument: Bring laptop to class to write rough draft. |
| April 12 | Work on Researched Argument: Bring laptop to class to write rough draft. |
| April 14 | Peer Evaluation for Researched Argument |
| April 19 | Spring Break |
| April 21 | Spring Break |
| April 26 | In-Class Work on Group Dialogue |
| April 28 | Researched Argument
due. In-Class Work on Group Dialogue |
| May 3 | Completed
Digital Portfolio published to Web by 9 a.m. In-Class Work on Group Dialogue |
| May 5 | Presentation of Group Dialogues |
| Top of Page |
Created by Dorothy McCaughey 01/15/2011
Louisiana State University