If you skip class, you won't pass.
The Grade on CANVAS is NOT accurate. Please disregard it. I use it to record whether work has been completed and give you feedback. DQs that are ungrammatical will get at most 2 out of 5 points. Writing that is wordy, unclear, or otherwise poor will get at most 3 out of 5 points.
If you arrive late to class or if you don't turn in the discussion questions on time, you are counted as absent.
ATTENDANCE: You may miss two classes for whatever reason, without excuse. Missing three classes (for whatever reason, excused or not) will result in a reduction of your final grade for the course by a full grade. (For example, a "B"grade would be a "C."). Missing four classes, excused or not, will result in a reduction of your final grade for the course by two full grades. Missing more than four classes, even if you have a medical excuse, will mean that you have failed the course. I advise students to withdraw from the course in they find themselves in that situation. If you are seriously ill, your illness will have gotten in the way of your ability to take the class. You won't be able to particiapate in class discussion. I will advise you to take a medical withdrawal. If you do not withdraw, you will get an "E" as your final grade.
You will not receive better than a "C" for your final grade in the course if you do not attend and participate in class. So even if all your written work is "A" level (or "B") but you have not participated in class discussion, you will receive a "C" for the course. Class attendance and participation are crucial to the success of this course. By "attendance" I mean not only being in class, but completing the assigned work for each class by the time it is due and arriving to class on time. (If you arrive late to class or if don't do the discussion questions, I count you as absent.) By participate, I mean attend class, do the discussion questions, and speak up productively in class so that a given conversation moves forward. Talking is not the same as participating. If you say something and no one responds, you are not participating. Nor is talking a task you can check off during each class. You can participate by bringing up a topic, adding to someone else's point, or disagreeing, among other ways. Just making random comments that lead us nowhere does not count as participartion. If, in addition to not participating, you don't turn in written work, you will not pass the course.
This class cannot work unless you want to be here. In other words, if you're going to be here, you really have to be here.
Therefore, in order to really be here, you have to want to be here.
In short, if you are going to be here, you really have to be here.
No cell phones, ipads, or laptops in use during class. I forgot when teaching on zoom how distracting media can be in a face to face class. It's important that every student pay full attention to whomever is speaking. So please turn off your phone and computers when you come to class. As one writer put it recently, "It has become clear, as we witness the advance of Panopto, Class Dojo and the rest of the EdTech industry, that one of the great things about an old-fashioned classroom is the facilitation of unrecorded, unaudited speech, and of uninterrupted reading and writing." Learning face to face cannot happen unless it is mono-tasking. Literature demands and deserves your continuous attention. Listening attentively in class without media to distract you is not just common courtesy and a show of respect to your fellow students. It means you can have a really high-powered discussion that we are all capable of having in class when everyone one is listening carefully.
1. We'll have the text or film up on the screen, so the co-leaders will be able to search the text easily, or find the image under dscussion.
2. If students have questions about the film or the reading, the co-leaders can use the computer at the front of the of the class and use a search engine like google.
3. I will give class quizzes at the beginning of the one block class.
4. I will not repeat the questions. If you arrive late, you miss the questions I have asked before you arrive. Missed quizzes may not be made up.
5.cPlease bring paper and a pen or pencil with you to class so you can answer the quiz questions.
If you have done the assigned reading or viewing carefully, you should have no problem answering the questions. For example, I might ask of a film: What is happening in this shot? What kind of a shot is it? OrI might ask about a reading: What happens at the very beginning of the novel? Answer: The narrator, Lockwood, arrives at Wuthering Heights. I might quote a memorable line from the reading and ask you to identify the speaker and the context. If you can't answer the questions, you'll need to watch the film or read the text more slowly and closely.
Caught between a brutal meritocracy and a radical new progressivism, a parent tries to do right by his children while navigating New York City’s schools.
The Grown-Ups are Losing It George Packer April 2022