Designing a Syllabus

Recently, while attending the Pop Culture Conference in New Orleans, I took part in a round-table discussion about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. What I found most interesting about the discussion was the passionate responses of both lovers and haters (and love/haters) of the series. The round table reminded me of a discussion I had had, as a freshman, with lovers and haters of Harry Potter. What I've come to understand is that these fantasy series have a massive following. The stories have an overwhelming effect on readers and watchers of the movie spin-offs. They are not just books, they are cultural artifacts with social importance--an importance that young readers are virtually unaware of.
My theme for 102 is fantasy. Now I have to admit, I was a little lukewarm about my theme, until I started to teach it. Now I see fantasy everywhere--ideological fantasy, psychological fantasy, generic fantasy... So it comes as no surprise that I designed my syllabus with fantasy in mind. And I brought Twilight and Harry Potter along for the ride.
I am planning on teaching at a high school level, so I made a syllabus appropriate for teaching 12th graders. If teaching comp has taught me anything, it's this: high school students are not being prepared for college level work. I can understand the dilemma of many high school teachers. The drop-out rate is so high that the goal of many teachers is to keep kids in school long enough to graduate, and many of them are not interested in literature or writing. So how to overcome their resistance? Enter Twilight and Harry Potter, and maybe even a little C. S. Lewis. Why not have students read and write on things they're already interested in?
I created three major assignments for my fantasy unit: a rhetorical analysis on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; a group assignment that includes an annotated bibliography and class debate; and a critical analysis of Twilight or a combination of Twilight and the other two texts. This syllabus addresses the three areas that I feel highschool students are deficient in: Reading analytically and rhetorically, writing argumentatively, and researching academically. And they can learn all these things while discussing texts they are passionate about. How much fun is that?