Assignments, Assessment, Attendance

Participation Rubric

A 90-100:  Engages in discussions with innovative and substantive remarks. Often follows up and reports to class on outside and supplemental research; Applies and/or challenges readings; engages with and/or motivates peers. Initiates conversation; excellent collaboration with classmates

B 80-89:  Engages in discussions when called on by professor; offers conventional sound remarks; actively listens in class and occasionally initiates comments; excellent collaboration with classmates

C 70-79:  Rarely speaks. Tends to disengage; has difficulty responding to professor’s directed questions; might use phone or laptop for purposes not related to class; Occasionally tardy and absent; lags in collaborative group work

D 60-69: Does not speak and/or pay attention and/or is disruptive; has difficulty responding to professor’s directed questions. May refuse to speak. Frequently tardy or absent; Unprepared for peer review or group meetings; detracts from collaborative group work

F below 59:  Does not attend class often; may act disengaged; Initiates disruptive behavior or encourages others; detracts from class-learning; behaves un-collegially or not at all in collaborative work

Major assignments will be assessed on a letter grade system from A-F. Letter grades will be assigned for each component of the course. They are enumerated according to University Policy as such:

Weekly Reading Response Over the course of the semester you and your classmates will post reading responses to this class blog. This blog is *not* public-facing a deliberate design that enables this learning community to discuss/question/provoke/analyze with the understanding that this dialogue takes place within a deliberate learning community. MA Students: write 7 reading response blog posts. PhD Students: write 9 reading response blog posts. It is your choice which weeks you select.  Expectations (as listed on our WordPress site under “Weekly Readings”: Each week’s reading combines theory, criticism, and aesthetic texts. Your goal is to synthesize the readings. How do they relate to one another? What notion of a technology of the text emerges from each week’s readings? Consider the aesthetic texts or philosophy (if appropriate). This involves speaking synthetically but also working with individual texts and specific passages. At the beginning of each class every student will summarize their posted discussion which highlights and addresses the reading material.  Our discussion will thus be in part structured by the interests of the class. DEADLINE: in advance of class by Thursday at 9:00am.

Lilypad Textile Project Details to follow. The series of exercises that comprise this assignment will unfold over a series of weeks. Enjoy this and experiment away. Be creative. You do not need to succeed at creating a magnificent tapestry or design the next fad in wearables. As long as your documentation demonstrates concerted effort and thoughtful photo documentation and captions you will earn a completion score of 20 points.

Teaching Presentation of a Textual Practice From week to week, students will teach the class through demo presentation or interactive lessons (whichever is feasible) a “textual practice”. Options include coding in Processing or Python, encoding with XML or HTML, scholarly editing, composing with typewriters, crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch, knitting, tapestry, the art of tattooing, calligraphy, grave rubbings, letterpress, mimeograph, etc. Creativity in your presentation method is encouraged.

Final Term Paper There is one final research essay required for this course. Working from class discussions of course materials, devise an innovative argument about a text/problem/concept. Your argument will likely engage one specific text but knowledge and understanding of how this text operates with other materials we have read will be crucial. Be sure to tether yourself to a critical conversation but you should feel liberated to strike out, to a certain degree, in your own direction from that initial hitching post. For MA students, this paper should be thought of as a concise argument able to be articulated in 4,000 words. If appropriate, consider submitting this to ODU’s Media Commons. PhD students should conceive of these essays as draft articles of 7,000 words. Not required but encouraged: once you have completed a draft, exchange it with one other person in the class registered at the same level as you (MA student exchanges with MA student, etc). If you wish to:  when you submit your paper to me, include a short cover letter that outlines the ways in which you responded to your peer’s draft feedback. At any time during the writing process I encourage you to make a virtual or in-person meeting with me.

*For your final essay I highly recommend reading articles published in any of the journals from which we read essays.

Attendance
Attendance is expected. Of course, sickness and religious observances or unforeseen events may preclude your attendance. In anticipation of these absences, you are permitted to miss the equivalent of one week’s worth of classes without any penalty. For this class, that means one meeting. Over the course of the semester our readings and conversations build incrementally therefore frequent absence is a problem because you’ll miss class discussions.