The course meets three times a week:

• one reading/discussion class
• one film/discussion class
• one writing/grammar class

The materials and the nature of all assignments for each class are described below.

This is a variable-credit course: you select the number of credits when you enroll. Sign up for 3 credits to attend all three classes. Sign up for 2 credits and attend two classes each week. If you cannot attend more than one weekly class, sign up for 1 credit.

See Syllabus for dates and details. See Rooms and times for meeting times and places.

Materials:

• For the reading class:
  1. Liudmila Ulitskayia. "Tsyu-yurikh." A Short Story. The online version is linked to the course syllabus. Note that the online version includes English glosses that the printed book does not have.
  2. Liudmila Ulitskaia. Book Detstvo sorok Deviat'. Borrow your copy from the department.
• Documentaries at the Lexicon Bridge Cloud site. See Watching the films, below.
  
  • Майкл и Светлана (a Cornell-only resource)
  • Newsmaker's Kit: Children from Russia
  • На атомной речке
  Watching the films: Use any personal computer or tablet to visit Lexicon Bridge Cloud. Click Register and create an account using your cornell.edu email address. Don't subscribe to anything: log out and log in again, and you will have free subscriptions to all titles on the site.
• Any good Russian-English and English-Russian dictionary (e.g. the one by Kenneth Katzner, paperback edition available)

Grading
Performance in the film class — 25 percent, performance in the reading class — 25 percent, written homework — 25 percent, final examination — 25 percent. No other tests.

Attendance
Missing more than three classes without a good reason may affect your grade. If you do have to miss a class, send your teacher a note, preferably before the class that you have to miss. If you have symptoms of a contagious illness, please be kind to your classmates and don't attend the meeting. If you feel up to it, do the work that can be done on your computer, and when you recover be sure to ask your teachers for help catching up. We'll always be happy to help.

Homework:

Reading class

Read the assigned segment of the story and make sure that you understand its content. When reading the online version, move your mouse pointer over links to read English glosses. Do not try to translate every word. It is important to learn reading authentic texts without looking up every word.

Print out the assigned pages and highlight words and expressions which, in your opinion, need clarification or explanation. Be prepared to retell the text in as much detail as you can, and also to ask five or six questions based on your assigned reading.

Film/discussion class

Consult the Syllabus and watch the assigned videos. Make sure that you understand the dialog. If some of the passages are difficult to understand, consult the transcripts (see above, under Materials). For each film class, prepare 3 questions on the assigned episodes. In class your questions will be answered by your classmates as part of the discussion.

Make sure that you understand the dialog. If some of the passages are difficult to understand, consult the transcripts. You can read them on the screen or print the relevant parts.

In addition to bringing to class your three questions, be prepared for a general discussion of the events and issues raised in the films. For example, How do the characters treat each other? How are the situations in the films different from similar situations in American films or American life? How do their living conditions or attitudes differ from what you expected or from your own? What have you learned about Russia from this film, and how is Russia different in this respect from the U.S.? etc.

For each film, you will assume the role of one of its characters. The roles will be assigned in class. While discussing the assigned episodes, try to be true to your role. This does not mean that you have to think and speak exactly as that character does in the film. A certain amount of interpretation and improvisation would be very welcome. But try to stay true to your role.

For one of the films (Children from Russia) you'll have to work with another student. Each pair is assigned their own portion of the documentary (shown in the Syllabus). In class, you will be asked to act out your part or to report on it in the form of an interview: one of you will interview the other(s). Work together to prepare questions and issues that may be relevant to the story.

For the film class, you will also write three essays, indicated in the syllabus. The essays should be typed double-spaced, 1.5 to 2 pages.

There will be three panel discussions based on the documentaries. For these classes, each student will assume a role related to the film. For example, you may be the head of a marriage agency, a marriage counselor, the director of an orphanage, a doctor, or a parent. Prepare a short statement about your position on an issue, or your analysis of a problem. Watch the relevant parts of the film again. In class, after you make your statement, other students will ask you questions related to your role or point of view. They may challenge your position or demand clarification, etc. You should also be prepared to ask similar questions of other students. Before each panel discussion class, your teacher will bring a list of "roles" to class, and you will choose (or be given) a role.

Writing class

In this part of the course you will learn to write essays in good Russian. Everyone writes about whatever is important or interesting for her or him. For each story, use the style that feels appropriate. In our first language, each of us has her or his own subset of words, phrases, turns of speech, etc. Some people prefer short sentences while other like longer one. Some people will present an idea, and then expand on it while others like to surprise the reader. Some are more comfortable with a slow and well-paced narrative while others gush forth. These things define (or/and are defined by) our personalities, experience, taste, etc. This semester is your chance to find your typical Russian essay style. We will discuss narrative techniques as well as finer points of grammar and style. For typing Russian on your own computer, you may use one of the Russian keyboards included in the operating system, e.g., standard Russian and mnemonic (aka phonetic), which is easier to learn. Save your drafts and final versions in the shared Google Docs folder.

All essays for the class are saved in the same shared folder on Google Drive. You will receive an invitation email to your Cornell address. All your essay work, including the drafts, will be accessible to all students in the class. Do not write about things that may be confidential or private.
For each essay, please create three documents:
1) Your draft, written without any help from friends or AI.
2) Your discussions with an AI bot or at least the interesting portions of them. Use an account (such as the one provided--as far as I know--by Cornell at chatGPT.com) so that your conversations with AI are personal and contiguous, and the bot can refer to your earlier questions. You can tell the bot, when relevant, to store a memory of the important milestones or discoveries, for future reference.
3) Your final version of the story created by combining your own draft and the decisions you made after discussing the draft with the bot. To start with, ask the bot to correct simple grammatical and spelling mistakes and to explain them whenever they deserve explanations. Paste that part in your AI document on Google Drive. Then work with the bot on making your text more stylistically mature and more idiomatic while making sure that you--not the bot--control the story and all its nuances.

Your essays may be on any subject that interests you. It may also be based on the videos that you will watch in this course, or on any materials that you read in this course. But your writing will be more interesting and useful if it is not related to what you have already discussed in those classes.

Why use AI? Isn't this cheating? No, it isn't. You are not using it to skip the thinking and the creation steps, or even to take a shortcut on grammar details. Discussing your stories with someone or something that has at its disposal the entire body of Russian literature is an enormous asset. You may want to stress this point to your bot and insist that while helping you it should consult Russian authors, not the common writing manuals. Consult it as you would your TA or tutor or a more knowledgeable friend, and learn from every interaction with it. We will discuss the specifics in class.

The Google folder and all files in it is shared with the entire class. You are encouraged to look at your classmates' texts and learn from them. Do not write about things that you consider to be private.

You will find links to several online Russian dictionaries and word-use databases under Outside resources on this website.

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