35% Shared topics:

After the initial context discussions conclude, we will step off into topics of your choice.

Lead the seminar on a topic of your choosing

Each of you will select preparatory readings and make them available online. You will plan to start the session with a presentation (it can be as structured, or as unstructured, as you prefer), followed by a guided discussion.

We will look at the topics covered during previous seminars and brainstorm about what kinds of topics we might want to cover this spring. As part of the discussion, we will begin to create the schedule for this seminar, looking at what we might want to offer and when. No firm decisions will necessarily be made today, but we will start to block out our time so we can cover all we want to cover. As you decide on your topics, start to think also about the date you want to lead the discussions in the seminar. Send me a note with your preferred date.

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Some guidelines:

  • first come, first served
  • you may share the session with one or more of your peers

We will try to match up topics so that shared days cover topics that have some sort of logical connection.

We may well wish to cover many of the same topics as were covered in previous seminars. There is no problem with that approach. There is also no problem with using many of the same references in the final product, though your comments about them will augment and supplement those done by the previous seminar members. If the previous annotation is the last word on the topic, you will want to add something new about a new resource.

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Condition

Post links to the readings for the seminar on the class blog at least three days prior to your scheduled session. For example, if you are scheduled to manage a seminar on a Friday, have the readings posted by noon on the previous Tuesday.

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Standard

For these tasks, the following grading standard will be applied. You may infer from the grade you receive that I felt the product could be described in the terms in this table.

Grade Description
H Clear excellence in your preparations for the sessions (to include selection of readings) and your management of your seminar (to include a willingness to listen to others at the same time managing to make the points you wished to make). Additional credit for drawing others into the discussion.
P Entirely satisfactory in your preparations for the sessions and your management of your seminar
L A marginal performance reflecting inadequate preparations and poor handling of the seminar session
F If you try to do the task, you will not see this grade

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