Class Format

Class meetings will normally include some informal writing and/or small group work, and be conducted mostly as discussions.  Your contributions to our discussions are important not only to your own learning but also for how others learn from you. For these reasons, preparation and participation are worth a significant part of your grade (35%).  By participation, I do not mean simply showing up to class, the occasional comment made in class, or talking that does not acknowledge the contributions of others. Rather, I will consider your participation as an indication of your level of engagement with and preparation for the course, and I will look for the following things.

  • Informed participation in class on a regular basis: your contributions to discussions reflect thoughtful preparation of daily reading and writing assignments and demonstrate that you are paying attention to the direction of our conversation; you respond directly to comments by others; you address others by their names; you speak up often enough to be a presence in the class; your participation in discussions (in class and online) and class activities makes it possible for others to participate and to learn.
  • Evidence regularly demonstrated in your writing of sustained critical thinking about issues, questions or concepts discussed in class.

Sometimes I will collect the informal writing and small-group work, and when I do I will read it carefully.  I may provide individual comments, or I may address in the following class questions or difficulties raised by members of the class.  Because longer assignments will ask you to draw on your informal writing, please save all the writing you do this semester in a folder.  When you work in small groups, you should take notes so that when we reconvene as a class you have in front of you a  record of your discussion that you can then speak from.