REQUIREMENTS

Attendance. They say 80% of success is showing up. It’s certainly the first step.

Careful Reading and Preparation. Read with your computer off and your brain on. Don’t fall behind. Take notes as you read – of key ideas, interesting examples, questions you have. You’ll be responsible for preparation notes.

Some or our sources are audio or visual. Listen and watch with the same attention. Take notes on what you’ve heard and seen. Jot down key lines and images, questions, and comments.

Informed Participation. This course will be run as a discussion seminar. Our success will depend in large part on what you, collectively, bring to class each day. I’ll gently encourage non-participants to join the conversation. Come to class prepared with questions, notes, and observations. Don’t be afraid to join in the discussion, even if you’re not sure of what you want to say. Don’t be afraid to go out on limb. Don’t be afraid of getting something wrong in discussion. Everyone will. If you are hesitant about speaking in class, I will provide alternative forms of participation – small group discussions, online discussion posts, talking to the TA, talking with me in office hours.

Course Notebook. Keep a notebook for our course and keep it up to date with notes on the reading – your preparation for class – notes on class presentations and discussions, and notes on your research. The act of taking notes will help to organize your thoughts and to commit important ideas to memory. I will ask you to turn it in to me a couple times during the semester and again at the end of the course.

Quizzes. I will give frequent quizzes on the reading, typically once a week. These won’t have a big impact on your grade, but they will be an incentive to and a test of good reading.

Presentations. You’ll do a few short presentations in the course, some with partners in the class, some on your own. For the partner presentations, I may ask you to: share what you’ve learned at a Woo 101, present a chapter from a work; give some background on the author we’re reading; explain the historical context of the source and/or the events that it describes; present some questions to the class. In the last weeks of the course, you will present your final paper/project to the class.

Short Writing Assignments. You are required to do a series of short writing assignments in the weeks when no formal paper is due. These will include reflection papers, creative pieces, and analytic writing.

Short Paper.. You’ll write a short paper early on the course to sharpen your ability to write an analytic college essay. I’ll provide details on the syllabus well in advance of the due date.

Research Paper. In the second half of the course you will write a research paper (8-12 pages, on a particular example of war and memory, submitted in stages. I will give you wide latitude to explore a subject that interests you in a research paper. The essential requirements are that you treat the central themes of the course; do significant research on your topic; develop an argument; and explain your work to the rest of the class. A full description of this assignment will be handed out midway through the course.

Community Engagement. This First Year Seminar will participate in a series of community engagement activities. This will include: listening to visitors from the community when they visit our course; and doing trail maintenance and related work in the Melissa Schultz Nature Preserve on a few occasions in the fall, including some Saturday mornings. If you cannot participate in a particular work day, I will give you an alternative assignment.

Other Activities. Other activities will be required along the way – library assignments, research assignments, movie nights and the rest.

GRADING

Your grade will measure your effort, the level of your thinking and writing, as well as the progress you make across the semester. The following is offered as a rough guide. It assumes a good faith effort on all assignments:

• 25% class participation (which includes preparation, attendance, and informed and constructive participation in discussion)
• 10% course notebook
• 5% quizzes
• 5% presentations
• 20% short writing assignments (each writing assignment will have the same weight)
• 10% short paper
• 20% research paper (I will give you grades on the various parts of the project)
• 5% community engagement (pass/fail)

The following will have a significant negative impact on your grade: absences, coming to class late, being a distraction to the class or the professor, failure to complete all of the community engagement activities (or the alternative assignments).

I will grade quizzes and the short writing assignments on a check/check plus/check minus scale. A check indicates good work in all aspects of the assignment and equals 5 of 6 points; a check plus indicates excellent work and equals 6 of 6 points, and a check minus indicates work that is missing something important and equals 4 of 6 points;  sometimes I will give credit for a partial or late assignment with a check minus minus of 2 of 6 points. Other assignments will be graded out of 100 points. I will keep the electronic grade book on Moodle so that students have access to a record of their grades.

I follow the College of Wooster guidelines for grading. A grade in the “A” range indicates excellent work, the “B” range indicates good work, the “C” range indicates adequate work, the “D” range indicates a minimal performance. A grade of “F” indicates unsatisfactory work or the failure to complete all course work.