Participation accounts for 25 % of your total grade. Your participation grade is based on an average of your attendance grade; your in-class discussion grade; on-line discussion grade; and your pop quiz grade.
25 % – attendance: Punctual attendance is mandatory.
absences: More than 3 absences may affect your participation grade.
punctuality: Every 4th tardy will count as an absence.
note: You are officially late if you not in the class and ready to go at the official start of the class, however I may not always take attendance at the very beginning of class. If you arrive before I take attendance, then you will be marked as present and on time. If you arrive after I take attendance, you will be marked absent. It is then your responsibility to let me know after class that you were in attendance, so I can change my record to “tardy” rather than “absent.” You have 24 hours from the beginning of class to make sure I have marked you “tardy” rather than “absent” otherwise the initial record stands.
25 % – in-class discussion: I expect you to make active, thoughtful, and sustained contributions to our in-class discussion.
Education is not passive. You cannot just expect to receive without also giving. Attendance is good (and mandatory), but it is not enough. Doing the reading is great (and mandatory) but not enough. Even taking notes (while also a fine habit) is not enough. You must be an active reader, an active listener, and an active interlocutor in the class.
As an active class participant, you will come to class ready to discuss all of the assigned reading. If you complete the readings well-beforehand, please remember to refresh your recollection of the reading BEFORE, rather than during, class.
Ready to discuss the readings means that you come to class prepared to share relevant questions, observations, and even interpretations about not only the assigned readings but also any accompanying posts written by your classmates. Prepared to share means not only that you have thought about what your questions are, but that you also have also identified specific parts of the text (think chapters, scenes, page numbers) relevant to what you want to share.
extra credit: You are encouraged but not required to post more than the required number of posts. Perhaps you post about more than one of the assigned texts for that week; or perhaps you have more than one idea you wish to share about a single text. Additionally if you find a relevant outside text that you believe is beneficial to our class discussion, you may share it with the class as a link and/or citation along with a brief description of the text and explanation of what about the text you find relevant to our discussion and why. Any such additional posts, published by 8:00 pm the day before the relevant class discussion, will be counted as extra credit towards your in-class participation.
25 % – online class discussion: I expect you to provide active, thoughtful, sustained contribution to online class discussion as well as to our in-class discussion. I will assess your online discussions based on the timeliness of all your pre-assigned posts including the ones I don’t grade (see below section on post assignments for details) and on the completion of at least 2 pop-up post challenges.
pop-up post challenges: From time to time, I will present an interactive challenge in which students are asked to find an example of X (related to our class discussion) and post it to the site along with a brief (no more than a 100 words) explanation of what they have posted and how it relates to the challenge question.
for example: In a previous course, as part of our discussion on the role of the quadroon maid and the coquettish brown girl in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, I challenged students to find a contemporary (within their parent’s lifetime) pop culture example in which the erotic/romantic material of an otherwise all or predominately white film is authorized by the sudden presence of black culture (i.e. a black song, an image of a black sexual icon, the appearance of a random wise old African american man or woman, or a reference by the white characters student option of black vernacular speech). Students then posted links and/or clips of their example (e.g. the mystic black man who opens and closes the narrative of Pretty Women starring Richard Geer and Julia Roberts or the music/dance performance at the end of Bad Moms Christmas which borrows heavily from 90’s R&B musical and performance style) followed by an explanation of how the media they are posting satisfies the post challenge, in this case how it is that some instance of black culture is inserted into the otherwise white film in such a way that authorizes an expression of white sexuality.)
extra credit: While you are required to have read your classmates’ posts and be ready to reference and engage them in class, I am not requiring that you comment on any of the posts online. However you are welcomed to do so for extra credit. I will count clear, relevant, and thoughtful responses to posts as extra credit towards your online class discussion grade.
note: Responses and comments are not grades, evaluations, or reviews of your classmates’ work. Thus, you must do more than state that your approval or disapproval of the post.
If you agree or like the post, you must state exactly what you agree with or like about the post and why. Moreover you must extend the conversation the post begins. (e.g. You might provide another salient example, which drives home the argument; or perhaps you show how your classmate’s line of reason also importantly extends to another text or another area of our class discussion).
If you disagree or dislike, you must state exactly what you disagree with and why. Moreover you should provide some sort of counter point or counter interpretation of your own. Clear, thoughtful, and relevant responses to your peers’ posts will count as extra credit towards your online class discussion grade.
25 % – pop quizzes: Through out the semester, I will give at least six short pop quizzes based on the readings. These quizzes are designed to assess how closely and how thoroughly you have completed the readings. They are also designed to set the tone for our class discussions. Answers will be discussed in class after the quizzes have been turned in. Quizzes cannot be made up.
note: To account for difficult readings and to avoid double penalties for absences and tardies, only your top 4 quiz grades will count towards your final quiz pop-quiz grades. SO: assuming there are only six pop quizzes, you can receive a 0 on two of the quizzes and still retain the possibility of receiving a 100 on this portion of your participation grade.
Just Playin' 