What If I Have Questions About My Performance?

Is there extra credit?

• Short answer: yes.

• Longer answer:

• You may contribute up to 1 additional close reading posts and/or up to 2 additional comments. To receive credit, your post and/or comments must be as substantive as the required ones. (See assignment description for details). Please check the “extra credit” box (in addition to any other relevant tags and category boxes) before submitting your post(s) or comment(s). Clicking the appropriate tag and category boxes is how you will flag this work for consideration as extra credit. You do not need to ask me if you can take advantage of these extra credit options.

• From time to time, I offer extra credit for one-off tasks and pop-up challenges. If a challenge has a due date, late challenges will not count for extra-credit. Most often I will announce any such extra-credit opportunity in class. While I may follow up my in-class announcement with written notice of the challenge in an email or on the class site, you should not expect me to do so. These challenges are like generous door busters. If you’re absent, late, or for any other reason “not present” when I announce the challenge, I am not responsible for notifying you about about the challenge or any of the details of the challenge. If you learn about a challenge from a classmate who was in class and are able to participate before any applicable due date, then you are welcome to do so.

Can I make up or redo an assignment?

Because of the scaffolded nature of the assignments as well as the built-in opportunities for negotiating weekly workload, many of the exercises and assignments for this course cannot be made up once the deadline has passed. Examples include but are not necessarily limited to: one-off challenges; class discussion exercises; pop quizzes; project check-ins; thesis/intro draft workshops; midterm and final journal assessments; and final projects. The notable exceptions applies to post assignments. While late posts will be docked points because they fail to contribute to the group or classroom discussion, I will technically accept posts up until the reading period for the semester, provided that the late post represents your own original work as opposed to a summary or paraphrase of the class lecture, group discussion, or other aspect of the collective conversation.

I consider requests to revise on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in revising an assignment, you must contact me to set up a meeting within 36 hours of receiving my feedback.  If I grant permission for a revision, we will work out a revision plan and date, which will then be non-negotiable.  When factoring in revisions, I do not average grades. I take the highest grade (meaning if your revised effort is weaker as a whole than your initial draft, you will not lose points).

How DO I Get an A (or at least a B+) in this class?

The most accurate answer is that there is no one way to do well in this class. The class design can accommodate a variety of different learning styles. There are a variety of ways to successfully participate and complete the course requirements.

All the same, here are three reliable tips for success in any college level course:

Coming Prepared to Discuss the Readings

• Being in class on time is certainly key, but it’s not all. Especially given the small class size, it’s essential that everyone show prepared to discuss the readings and/or any other assignment due for that class.  Finishing the reading is important, but simply having finished the reading is not the same as being prepared to discuss it in class. Being prepared to discuss the readings means you have thought about various aspects of the text, identified places of interest, patterns, and themes. Being ready to discuss the text also means that you are relatively familiar with the language, structure, and other formal aspects of the text. Above all being prepare to discuss the readings means that you are ready to ask questions and and engage in a rigorous discussions of the text within the context of our course.

Know Yourself (or, be as honest as you can with yourself)

• Accomplishing any goal can be difficult if you don’t know yourself, or, let’s say if you’re not honest about what you do know about yourself at this point in your life. Take stock of your particular strengths/advantages and weakness/challenges at the beginning and then build a strategy that plays to your needs and situations.  If you tend to have a hard time with the pacing and organization of longer projects, then in addition to trying to improve by using a calendar and tracking due dates, you might also wish to make sure you do best with the more contained, one-time assignments. Your final project and your journal grades are both worth 25 %. So yes, as learners, we’re striving to get the most out of every aspect of the class, but, as students anxious about GPAs, remember that you can also play to your strengths.