Weekly Blog Postings for Readings and Assignments

The readings and assignments for each week can be found on the weekly blog postings. These postings are available from http://www.mctcteach.org/english/blog/engl2232/ .

Weekly activities may include

• reading primary sources and secondary web resources
• discussion postings,
• quizzes,
• notes,
• literary terms to know,
• wiki pages.

Continue reading for more information about each of these.

Readings

Each week, we will have a number of pages to read on the Internet. These pages include the primary sources for our course-- in other words the writings of the authors from the 17th through 19th century-- as well as secondary resources that help provide background and context for these primary sources.

These readings will be linked in the weekly blog postings. They will be in the form of "lists" at my Diigo "My Lists" page  or, less frequently, in the Content section of D2L.

Discussion postings

Each week, we will have at least one Discussion. For each Discussion question, you must write and post at least one response. Post responses by going to the "Discussion" link in the D2L navbar.

Discussion postings will be graded on the following criteria:

• completeness of the response (did you answer the question and include everything requested in the question)
• use of evidence to support ideas
• use of academic sentence and paragraph structure conventions
• use of Modern Language Association conventions for the use of evidence (quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, and citing)

Each Discussion is worth 1 point. If you post to a Discussion, but do not receive credit for some reason, you have one week from the initial Discussion deadline to re-post for full credit. After 1 week, no credit will be given for late discussions. If you fail to post any response before the initial Discussion deadline, the 1 week extension does not apply.

There is more information about creating useful Discussion posts in the Content section of D2L. View the Keys to Success pages there.

For more information about grading, visit the Grade Distribution page.

Quizzes

Some weeks will include quizzes; others will not. All quizzes are mandatory. You are welcome to use the websites we have visited and notes you have taken when doing the quizzes. To take quizzes, click the "Quizzes" link in the D2L navbar and look for the appropriate quiz title. The grading criteria for quizzes is fairly simple: you will get credit for questions answered correctly and no credit for questions answered incorrectly.

For more information about grading, visit the Grade Distribution page.

Notes

This is an ungraded activity. On most weeks, I have listed a number of questions that suggest important concepts to think about in regards to the readings for that week. Please read these "Notes" and consider them as you read the material. In fact, it might be wise to actually take notes, at least in terms of copying key passages and writing notes about what you have read. However, I will not be checking this.

Literary Terms to Know

Again, this is an ungraded activity. For most weeks, I have listed a number of literary terms which will be part of our discussion for that week. It will important for you to understand these terms and use them in your Discussions and wiki assignments. Definitions for these terms can be found on the Literary Terms to Know page (this link goes to information provided by a different course) or on specific webpages that I will link to.

Wiki pages

In the place of major essays or exams, this course asks you to create three wiki pages over the course of the semester. These wiki pages are like essays, but they will be posted on the web and they can take advantage of the ability to use links, images, and possibly even audio and video files to explain and support your ideas. These will be created using our course wiki http://amlit-at-mctc.pbwiki.com/

You will have two weeks to complete each wiki page from the time I assign it. So that you have a sense of what you are getting into, you can view all three assignments here; however, as you'll note you won't be able to complete them until we have read and discussed the readings throughout the course.

• Letters from Earth
• American Lit iPods
• Parody

Each wiki page will be graded on a 50 point scale. The criteria for evaluation will be based on the Learning Goals listed on each wiki page assignment page. Students who get a C or below on the first two wiki assignments can revise to attempt a higher grade (though B is the highest possible) if they contact the instructor within a week after getting their grade.

The combined wiki pages will make up 50% of the total course grade. The first one will be worth 10% of the course grade; the second and third will be worth 20% of the course grade each. The timelines for building the wiki pages will be announced during the course on the weekly blog postings.

For more information about grading, visit the Grade Distribution page.

Please contact me if you have any questions about any of the information on this page.