Course Redesign Update: July 25 ... British Isles module complete

In a burst of overview-writing, I finished up the British Isles module. Like the Native American and European modules, the British Isles unit is a "double" module that lasts for two weeks, so it contains 16 units. I am really pleased with the combination of materials and the reading options they offer for students; you can see how that all fits together in the British Isles table and the suggestions below for how students can strategize about their reading choices. You can also see all the units with their overviews on a single page here: British Units.

There are so many units in here that I am personally very excited about; I guess the two that I am most happy about are the Nursery Rhymes unit and Faerie Queene: Britomart. The nursery rhymes are going to be great because I can use them during Orientation week as storytelling prompts! Students will now have a choice of Aesop's fables (I'll use Winter unit there I think) OR nursery rhymes OR the vacation-from-hell map to prompt their first storywriting experiment.

As for Britomart, I am really thrilled to have this FEMALE knight to go with the other Arthurian material and hero legends in the course. I'm guessing that my students, and there are always quite a few of them, who are attracted to the "Disney princess" mode will be fascinated by this sword-wielding princess who is part Disney and part Brienne of Tarth! I hope I can get a lot of students to choose that one; I will really enjoy getting their feedback.