The 219/220 Student

By Miriam Jaffe

One of the advantages that both creators of this website share is personal experience with 219 and 220 from the Rutgers undergraduate perspective. The following section is meant to help you gauge where your students are coming from and where they want this course to take them.

Although 219 and 220 are required introductory courses for all Rutgers English majors, not all of your students will have committed to the major--and some students may never intend to focus their studies through literature. Therefore, the demographics of your classroom may be a little tricky, including students with widely varied levels of writing and reading experience. The age of the 219 and 220 student is also unpredictable. Most English majors take these courses as second year students, but be prepared to meet the needs of students all along the spectrum, from advanced first-years through seniors +. Successful instructors might begin by asking students to fill out notecards with information about their personal goals for the course. Keep in mind that 219 and 220 can provide the analytical skills and writing proficiency necessary for any field that deals with primary texts.

For me, 219 and 220 were the most crucial classes of my college career. I had a strong inclination to major in English, but my 219 and 220 experience truly solidified my decision. What helped me most was having instructors who realized that I was still learning. I was allowed the process of figuring things out by making mistakes, and I never felt that my grade depended on having all the answers. 219 and 220 were the classes that showed me methods of reaching for the answers, and my exercises and papers were an extension of this process instead of work toward the expectation of a polished project. As a student, I especially appreciated these courses because I could explore, experiment, and develop my own voice as a writer, a voice that would take me through my 300-400 level English classes later. In 219, creative projects (i.e. writing a poem with a certain meter or rhyme scheme) gave me access to the poems in the Norton Anthology and helped me identify the authors. In 220, I valued the specific vocabulary that my instructor pushed during classroom discussion.

Oren Benoff ('02) shared with me his experiences in 219 and 220 and how they shaped his goals as an English major: "Before I took 219 and 220, I always saw what I wanted to see in literature--I could even prove it--but after 219, I saw there was a subjective way of analyzing poetry... After 220, I learned that words don't mean anything if they can mean anything." Oren was most impressed when his 219 instructor made the study of ballads "contemporary" by bringing in Bob Dylan's "Spanish Boots of Leather." He said, "This example of a modern day ballad gave me access to text that I might have cast aside." In talking to undergraduates, I understood that students want the instructor to imagine unconventional paths into literature. Also, most students regarded office hours and one-on-one time with an instructor as imperative to the development of writing and reading skills.