What is Expected and How You Will Be Graded
Consult the Course Calendar for Assignment Due Dates.
Timely Attendance: 14 points, one for each class day. (individually graded)
- You have 2 grace absences, two latenesses after roll call count as an absence, so you may choose to take 4 grace latenesses, 1 grace absence and 2 grace latenesses, etc.
- Lateness means arrival after roll call, which begins after administrative announcements. Late arrivals must sign late list at front to classroom.
- After grace absences/latenesses, you lose 1 point for every absence, 1/2 points for every lateness, out of 100 class points.
- Absences/latenesses with a documented medical reason/death in the family do not count. Documentation must be supplied to me.
Class participation: 6 points. (individually graded)
- Includes: speaking up in class, responding when called on, asking interesting and pertinent questions, not allowing silence when class discussion is prompted.
Five Minutes of Visuals and Ideas: 10 points. (individually graded)
- Includes: presenting your own 5 minute visual contribution (one or more powerpoint images, plus your own narrative) to the class. Must be energetic, creative, accessible, and imaginative. You will be allowed to choose and/or assigned to dates.
Engage, respond, discuss: 10 points. (individually graded)
Students in groups assigned to engage should each post one discussion question that involves at least two of the assigned readings, no later than 7PM the Saturday night before that week’s class. Posts should have an informative title and one sentence “setting up” the question to be posed. Students are encouraged to divide up the readings with each member being assigned to “specialize” in one or at most two of the readings, skimming the others. Group discussion is encouraged.
Students in groups assigned to respond should each answer two of the posted questions, no later than Monday 7PM before that week’s class. Students are again encouraged to divide up the readings to assign specialists.
Students in groups assigned to discuss will lead the in-class discussion, sitting in the middle of the classroom and discussing the issues for an uninterrupted for 10 minutes and then open to the entire class. Once again, I encourage dividing up the readings to assign specialists. The idea is that each specialist reads one or at most two readings in detail and skims the others. Group communication before hand and in class maximizes specialist expertise.
Video proposal: 10 points. (group graded)
As a group, prepare video proposal of in MS Word of a minimum of one page, single space, providing detail on the following aspects of the video your group plans to produce. Create a one or two sentence summarizing the proposal for posting on the website. Attach the Word document.
- Theme and Title: What will be the overarching theme of your video, and how will it relate to the themes of the class discussed in Week 1? What will the title be?
- Filming plan: How, exactly, will you produce the video. If you plan to interview people (encouraged), how will you make this happen. Where will you film? Will you use music? What tools will you use?
- List of roles: Who will be responsible for what on this project? Is there any chance that one or more people will not contribute as much as others. How will this be dealt with?
- Timeline and steps: Construct a timeline and immediate to do list.
- Proposal for how to integrate of at least three readings into narrative: you will have to integrate ideas from at least three readings into your video. How will you do this?
- How evidence of concrete steps will be demonstrated. The mid term will be a status report in which I expect evidence of work performed, changes in ideas, and other updates. How will you structure this report?
- Other ideas, questions, observations, comments. Do not follow this assignment in a pro-forma or perfunctory way. Show creativity and responsibility.
Midterm Report on Video Production: 25 points. (group graded)
The goal of this report will be to inform me in a creative, engaging way, how your group is progressing in making an excellent 10 to 15 minute video on a topic associated with the class. Think of me as a client for whom you are working, and demonstrate to me that you, as a group, are going above and beyond to make this video great on an intellectual level, as well as in terms of engagement.
- Minimum 1 single spaced page per group member, not including photos.
- Overview: What is the Video going to say, what contribution will it make.
- Field Reports: Where have group members gone to film and what have they filmed. Who has been approached for an interview? Other Field Data
- Update on initial plan: have the concrete steps been followed as planned, if not, what has changed? How are you adhering to the timeline?
- Concepts: What are the concepts that will be dealt with in this video, how do they relate to themes in the class? What connections will be made among concepts, and how? This requires close reading and research, followed by writing, on the readings as well as additional sources you choose (optional). This section should be written at the level of quality of a research paper.
- Responsibilities: Who is doing what; what is the responsibility breakdown for the group? How are group dynamics playing out? What needs tweaking or improvement?
Create a one paragraph abstract summarizing the proposal for posting on the website. Attach the Word document. Due no later than 11:59 PM March 25, 2014
Additional rubric information from class PPT
Final Video: 25 Points. (group graded)
Your video will be graded as follows:
- Creativity of ideas
- Use of visuals
- Strength of integration of concepts from readings (as well as lectures) from the class into the video
- Strong statement
- Education value to others
At the Macauley Honors Student Conference, you will present your video with commentary.
