As part of your participation in class, you will often bring short typed responses or questions based on the readings. Why? In seminar classes, you are expected to be a very active participant. Reading can be a rather passive activity (although not as passive as watching TV). Because our class discussion will be based on your responses to a variety of readings, writing about what you have read will help you understand and remember the material better, and give you a chance to examine your own response to what each author is saying. You can organize your thoughts about the readings by writing about them. This will improve your ability to fully participate in discussion and build your confidence in writing and logically discussing issues in all of your classes.
Likely assignments:
OR
Ideas for paragraphs. You can use one of these ideas to frame your paragraph or set the tone for your thoughtful questions.
Don’t try to address each of these points in each response. Different readings will make you think about different response points. You may find that the reading really resonates with you and have a lot to comment on. Or you may find you really don’t like what an author says, either because you don’t agree with the premise or the way in which it is expressed. That’s fine to be critical – but be sure you have a clear and coherent point to make, and don’t let that keep you from doing analysis of the points of the essay.
Grading
You may be asked to read your
essays in class. That's a hint: re-read each essay to improve its presentation;
excessive grammatical and spelling errors are one indication of the effort you
put into the assignment. No, this is not an English class, but what
better place than freshman seminar to learn how to present your ideas clearly
and effectively to a non-English discipline instructor. Spelling and
grammar count, and they will for the rest of your life!
I'll use a 10 point grading scale (10= perfect, a really rare score) to give you feedback on these.
9.5, 10: Very Good Paragraph is extremely
well written and shows real thought and engagement with the reading.
Or Questions are exceptionally developed and show specific engagement with the
reading(s). (10s are rare.)
8, 8.5, 9 Good: Demonstrates you have read the material and given some
thought to how it relates.
7, 7.5: It is clear you read the material but have not given it a lot of
thought.
6 or less: You turned something in, but it is very short and/or superficial. Try harder!
You should keep all these assignments, as well as your cultural and service write-ups as part of your portfolio. You make keep either paper or electronic versions, but you will want to refer to your portfolio throughout the semester and possibly use some of your work to help with your final reflective essay. The final essay will be described in more detail later in the semester.