Discussion and Participation
Students are expected to come to class prepared to be involved in discussion on all assigned reading. While general curiosity and inquiry is expected every day, seven specific days are indicated as "Discussion days". There are prepared questions for each of the seven discussion day. Usually there will be 4 - 5 questions from which students are required to respond to a subset of questions. The questions will be answerable without (much) additional reading beyond the assigned papers.
The "response" should be a short paragraph for
each question.
The response should be typed and brought to class. (in the
past some students found it useful to double space, or use only the left half
of the page)
During class, these questions will be discussed by the students.
During the discussion, any changes to opinion, reaction or understanding should
be noted by hand on the typed response.
The prepared/appended responses will be turned in at the end of class
on the day of discussion.
For most questions there will not be "wrong" answers. The responses will be evaluated based upon comprehension of the topic and participation during discussion. Students are encouraged to work in small groups before class; however, responses should be prepared individually.
The student presentation days are considered to be discussion days for all students who are not presenting. Part of the presentation assignment includes the preparation of 2 discussion questions. Students will prepare a response to at least one question from 2 different presentations on each presentation day.
Each student will be allowed to omit the written assignment (but not participation)
for two of the seven assigned discussion days. Only one of these omissions
may be on a student presentation day (most likely the day you are presenting).
Therefore, each student must hand in answers for a total of five
Discussion days (including two student presentation days)