English - Poetry and Design C1

Many TUM students are engaged in design on a daily basis, whether writing program code, rethinking how traffic moves through a city (or a package around the world), designing new lab set-ups, or constructing an engine. This course introduces students to poets who do something similar with language -- and shows how understanding and appreciating the poets' work can enhance their own. Over three months, we read and analyze 12-20 poems in English, spanning more than four centuries, and look at how each might deepen or expand our understanding of design principles from fields across the TUM academic landscape. Our weekly 90-minute sessions involve short presentations in which the poems' form, historical context, and interpretations are introduced, as well as group discussion, writing exercises, guest lectures, and recitations.

Students will leave the course understanding a range of poetic devices, as well as how they might be applied to their own fields of study. Students' English vocabulary, writing, presentation skills, and agility in conversation will also develop through their participation in the course. They will also become familiar with approaches to translation. And they will have a deep understanding of a number of classic poems in the English cannon.

Corresponds to C1 of the CER.

Performance, testing the learning outcomes specified in the module description, is examined by a cumulative portfolio of competence and action-oriented tasks including: recitations of three memorized poems (20% of total grade), presentation about student's design work at the TUM in relation to one poem (25%), translation of one poem from the syllabus & reflection on the process (25%), in-class written final exam (passage recognition, vocabulary, and essay) (30%)

Resources that may be used to aid the completion of the abovementioned portfolio-components will be determined as per the nature of the individual task.

As the course may be offered in various formats (online or classroom) the form and conditions of the final exam (with or without aids) will vary.

Where audio or video is recorded, we observe the Basic Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO, Art. 12 -21).

Please write to me directly with any further questions: jacobs@zv.tum.de

Ability to begin work at the C1 level of the GER as evidenced score in the range of 60-80 percent on the placement test at www.moodle.tum.de. (Please check current announcements as the exact percentages may vary each semester.)

• Handouts and selected extracts from published sources will be used in the course. Key literature will be advised by the teacher and/ or listed in the course description.

Lectures and group discussion with exercises. As well as actively engaging in class activities and discussion, students are expected to devote time outside of the classroom to reading assignments, light research, occasional writing tasks, and memorizing some of the poems (or portions of the poems).