Prof. O'Connor's Discussion: Very effective use of web technology to enhance the trip through the texts and passage as seen in the homepage and its changing images with each theme/title. A little heavy on the prose., but very interactive in the linking from one page to another. Photos each have roll-over passages explaining their connection to the text/passage/theme. Good analysis of texts and themes of changes in homelife, education, loss, and work (rights to work and to strike) mountain people endure when they (and others) migrate and meet in time of war. Religion, race, place, and work all interconnect significantly.

What does it mean to be "Appalachian," "hillbilly," or "from the mountains?" In this course we investigate the literature, the culture, and stereotypes of the Appalachian region, focusing on the mountains as they figure physically and metaphorically in the language and lives of those who have hunted in, lived in, stayed put in, lived off of, left, returned to, or been haunted by the remoteness and the richness of the region.

In addition to reading literature by native Appalachians we study economic and cultural analyses of the region and craft an Appalachian feast to celebrate foods, storytelling and music of the region.

Students write several papers and complete a hypertext project illustrating their understanding of the culture and literature in historical and economic contexts. Close reading, class discussion, participation in group projects are crucial components of the course.

Opportunities for one additional credit (pending approvals) through 1) Service Learning credit participation in Spring Break in Appalachia or 2) Outdoor Education through two weekend trips in January and February to explore economics of the geology and terrain of the mountains.

DEFINITIONAL(demonstrating understanding at the semantic level)

CONNECTIVE(using synthesis of ideas to relate to other themes found in passages elsewhere in the text or across the texts)

ANALYTICAL (probing the text and its contexts in the course and beyond the material provided in the course texts)

For each of the examples, I show a portion of the original story or novel depicted and then present the student work amplifying one facet of that excerpt. I follow that with a brief discussion of the demonstration of student learning. In the student pages, examples of these types often overlap. Students are expected to demonstrate all these kinds of knowing, but not necessarily on every linked item. A website that remained at the definitional stage throughout would receive a lower evaluation.

Through the half-light, he could make out the rotting tipple where his father was crushed only ten days before they shut it down, leaving the miners to scab-work and DPA. The tipple crackled in the cold air as the sun''s heat left it, and on a pole beside it an unused transformer still hummed. No more coal, the engineers had said, but Buddy had always laughed at the engineers -even when he was in an engineer company in the Army. At the foot of the smoldering bone pile where the shale waste had been dumped, Estep''s little boy stopped, searching.

The definition one student provided follows:

A tipple "generally serves two vital functions in the production of coal. First, it was the structure in which the coal was brought in trucks, conveyer belts or mine cars to undergo final processing, washing, cleaning and sizing so that it became a finished product ready for customer consumption.

Second, the tipple took on further significance because it was the point at which the coal was then loaded onto the railroads for shipment and transportation to market and steel mills. While most of the coal mines are now abandoned as their finite recourse became exhausted, many old tipples remain and serve as ghostly reminders of the coal companies that came into the Appalachian region, made millions off of the workers without putting money back into the communities and left only a hollow effigy of what used to be.

Prof. O'Connor's comment:

The group have defined terms they felt depicted the region (e.g. "tipple," "shale," & "DPA") or terms that might have prevented comprehension (e.g. "scab-work"). The example definition of tipple also included a graphic image.

This webpage excerpt shows evidence of definitional learning that all pages should have as a baseline understanding of how to begin a close reading of a text. In addition, this work also carries the definition beyond the scope of the one text and into the analysis of contexts of understanding through examining regional economies.

I hadn't told her that I knew what he was thinking when he looked at me, that I could see in his eyes not only confusion and anger but something hotter and meaner still. I hadn't told her about the way he had touched me. I had been too ashamed. Mama thought that keeping me out of the house and away from Daddy Glen was the answer, that being patient, loving him, and making him feel strong and important would fix everything in time. But nothing changed and nothing was really fixed, everything was only delayed.

Student webpage discussion of this passage: "Throughout the novel Bone hides the truth of what Daddy Glen does to her from her mother. Bone does not do this because she does not want to tell her mother. Rather Daddy Glen makes her feel guilty about telling her mother. After the first time he sexually abuses her in the car while mama is in labor, he tells Bone to "be happy for her" and "let [her] know that you are happy for her so she can heal her heart"(49). As the abuse becomes more and more intense, Bone's inability to tell her mother also grows. The following quote also illustrates her difficulty with revealing the secret of her abuse to her mother: "He never said, 'Don't tell your mama.' He never had to say it. I did not know how to tell anyone what I felt, what scared me and shamed me and still made me stand, unmoving and desperate, while he rubbed against me and ground his face into my neck. I could not tell Mama. I would not have known how to explain why I stood there and let him touch me"(109).

This quote complicates the reason she feels she must keep her secret. She feels that if she were to tell her mother, her mother would also partially blame her for being somehow complicit in the abuse. She is afraid of being accused of enjoying what Daddy Glen does to her.

Professor O'Connor's Discussion: This excerpt of a webpage on the book Bastard Out of Carolina shows evidence of a group's ability to move beyond the definitional to show connective understandings within the text they examined, noting associations with other sections of the same book. The writer moves us from the sentence spoken by the abused child Bone--"I hadn't told her about the way he had touched me" -- to an embedded page that goes beyond a definitional level about abuse to connections to previous passages that an alert reader should be recalling. At the end the student expresses an understanding of the power of accusation in silencing the abused, a concept that has applicability beyond this novel.

Textual passage from Dollmaker by Harriett Arnow:

She rubbed her eyes, then turned and looked through the windshield, but saw in puzzled wonder the redness still. Then Enoch was crying, all in a jiggle of excitement, "Lookee-they's a fire."

"That's white-hot steel, bub," the driver said. "They're maken a pour. Yu needn't be in such u hurry to see. I'll bet that steel mill's one a yu closest neighbors. We're gitten close to Merry Hill.

Image of steelworkers making a "pour" appears below. Student analysis of the passage and professor's assessment of the student work appears in the box below the illustration.

"maken a pour"

Pour Diagram (developed by student, not presented here, but see picture above.)

The OED defines this word as: "The act, process, or operation of pouring melted metal, or the amount of melted metal, or other material, poured at a time."

Thus, a pour is a large amount of heated metal used in the molding of steel products. It creates both heat and light, and the light can be seen in the housing projects. As Gertie and her family move from Kentucky to industrial Detroit, the pour has a significant meaning as showing the juxtaposition of the hillbillies and the city. The Nevels family learn they must adjust, and the steel mills and the light from their "pours" serve as an ever-present reminder that they are not in Kentucky anymore. When Reuben runs away from home, Gertie believes that he may have run to the warmth of the pour. This is ironic, as in reality, he is running away from the industrial city and the pours, but she believes that her son is running back to them for warmth and protection. Also, this word is cross-cultural, as it is used in Storming Heaven and River of Earth. In these books, a cup can be "poured" to signify the start of a strike. The dual meaning of these words tie together the mountain and urban communities, a theme not often found in Appalachian literature.

Prof. O'Connor's Discussion: In this section of their website on Harriett Arnow''s The Dollmaker this group amplified the phrase "maken'' a pour" in the chosen passage. The embedded page shows a graphic image of a steel pour, a definition from the Oxford English Dictionary, and picture of steel workers in the process of a pour. (See above image) In the analysis, the student indicates that this urban image clashes with memories of the cool mountain air for the family that has migrated from Kentucky to Detroit. She also connected the term to metaphoric uses for "pour" that had been seen in two other texts in the course where "pouring out water" indicated calling a strike. Thus, this page shows not only the definitional work and connections within the text, but analyses connections among texts. It also shows understanding of contextualizing issues of migration and work that indicate understanding of the complexity of issues surrounding Appalachians whether they be at home in the coal producing hills or making a life in the industrial diaspora in the cities. It briefly connects the worlds of labor and worker conditions in both steel and coal production.