A word (several, actually) on Discussions...

Beginning midway through the term, we will be devoting the last 20-30 minutes of some classes to discussion of the outside readings (available through GALILEO at the library) assigned for a particular week. The dates for these discussions are listed in the class schedule.

Readings will be posted to the Discussion List page well ahead of time, so you will have ample time to obtain copies for yourselves and to read them.  Regrettably, this will require some planning ahead on your part...

Each reading will be fairly short, and will be directly related to the lecture material for a given week.

The class will be randomly divided up into small groups (no more than 5 people).  Each group will be given a question or questions to help stimulate discussion of those readings.  Each student will be required to submit a short (up to 2 pages) summary of the conclusions/discussion from his or her small group. 

You MUST be present in class to participate in these discussions.  If you are unable to attend due to some unforeseeable emergency or other circumstance, contact me ASAP with your reason so we may make other arrangements.

Summaries must be uploaded and submitted via Vista by the due dates listed in Vista.  Please see the syllabus for my policy regarding uploading and submitting homework.

Please spell-check and proofread your summaries!

At the very least, this summary should contain answers to or thoughts on the discussion questions given to the entire group.

Each group member MUST write and submit his or her OWN summary!

I will try to give detailed feedback on summaries from the first week we do this, but after that you are responsible for writing them on your own!

How I'm scoring/grading these assignments