assignments ENGL344 Young Adult Literature Reading journal/Book Clubs
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Overview
I use reading journals in some capacity in every sort of course I teach. I do this because keeping reading journals in graduate school was, for me, one of the best learning experiences I had. It was an opportunity to work through ideas on my own in an informal writing setting. Stuff I wrote about has stayed with me to this day. Writing is a way of knowing.
Additionally, when I was a student, I appreciated that all of my diligent reading was valued in the class. I have found that many students don't do the reading because they aren't graded on it. So, rest assured, doing the reading matters in my evaluation of your work in this class, and the way you will show it to me is in these journals.
Finally, in a class this size, a discussion board can become unweildy, and, frankly, sort of insipid. People stop paying attention to what their colleagues are saying and, feeling that no one is reading or caring about what they are writing, stop writing anything meaningful. Thus, reading journals will be posted most weeks to a smaller subset of class, a kind of online book club. Early in the semester, you'll receive via email a link to a google.doc you will share, all semester, with a smaller subset of your classmates, your book club partners. You'll do all of the work or Reading Journals/Book Club on that google.doc. And I will comment there as well.
Details
An "acceptable" journal does the following:
Assessment
Reading Journal/Book Club is worth 25% of your final grade.
In order to earn a "B" grade for Book Club Reading Journals you must:
NOTE: You can revise any Reading Journal to meet the acceptable standard at any time as many times as you need to, as long as you've posted it in by the original deadline. If you receive and "unacceptable" I will give you feedback, privately, via email, and not on the google.doc, designed to help you revise your journal into an "acceptable" post.
KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR "A"s & "U"s
Here is how I keep track of your reading journal/book club work & teaching discussion posts: Each week, after I've read through the blog posts and google.doc discussion, I will assign you either an "A" or a "U" ("A" for acceptable and "U" for unacceptable). If you earn a "U" on anything, I will make sure you know and know why and, as stated above, you are welcome to revise that "U" into an A no matter how many times it takes to get it there as long as you've posted by the Sunday deadline.
I don't keep track of the date of the "A" or "U" received, and I don't keep track of what you turn in as a revision of a "U." I just enter marks into my book each week. At the end of the semester, I total up how many "A"s you end up with and that tells me what grade you've earned. So if you post by the deadline for all of the assignments and always get "A" for acceptable, great. If you post by the deadline and get all "U"s but then revise them to "A"s, that will be reflected in my book and you are golden too. If you have some "A"s and then, say, one post you keep getting a "U" on week after week, but you still have enough "A"s to earn you an "A" grade in the end, all those "U"s just don't matter.
But here is the thing: Once I've given you the "A" or the "U", my role is done until next week. I can't tell you which posts you get "A"s on and which you got "U"s on after the fact. All I'll be able to do is tell you where you are at in the "A" column. It's up to you to keep track of a "U" in need of revision.
I use reading journals in some capacity in every sort of course I teach. I do this because keeping reading journals in graduate school was, for me, one of the best learning experiences I had. It was an opportunity to work through ideas on my own in an informal writing setting. Stuff I wrote about has stayed with me to this day. Writing is a way of knowing.
Additionally, when I was a student, I appreciated that all of my diligent reading was valued in the class. I have found that many students don't do the reading because they aren't graded on it. So, rest assured, doing the reading matters in my evaluation of your work in this class, and the way you will show it to me is in these journals.
Finally, in a class this size, a discussion board can become unweildy, and, frankly, sort of insipid. People stop paying attention to what their colleagues are saying and, feeling that no one is reading or caring about what they are writing, stop writing anything meaningful. Thus, reading journals will be posted most weeks to a smaller subset of class, a kind of online book club. Early in the semester, you'll receive via email a link to a google.doc you will share, all semester, with a smaller subset of your classmates, your book club partners. You'll do all of the work or Reading Journals/Book Club on that google.doc. And I will comment there as well.
Details
- Book Club journals are about the texts we are reading in our class. They are not about the THEORY OR TEACHING PRACTICE articles we are using.
- You will write this journal (200 words) in a shared google.doc exclusive to your book club group and to me. I will email each book club group with the link to their google.doc at the beginning of the semester.
- You'll read and respond each others book club journals directly in the google.doc.
- Each week, one person will need to serve as a respondent and will need to summarize what your small group seemed to be saying about the text that week. You'll post that summary/response to the conversation directly in the google.doc. I will in turn share that with the rest of the class in the ENGL 344 MONDAY UPDATE.
An "acceptable" journal does the following:
- Is 200 words.
- Uses summary of the plot of the text we are reading in ways that effectively proves the analysis you are developing about the text but does not simply summarize the entire novel instead of analyzing it.
- Treats the text as literary (most important). Treat the text the way you would any other text you might read in any other 300 level English class, consider theme, plot, character development, etc.
Assessment
Reading Journal/Book Club is worth 25% of your final grade.
In order to earn a "B" grade for Book Club Reading Journals you must:
- Post all but 2 Reading Journals to your assigned book club google.doc that meet the standard for "acceptable" by the deadline for that week. If you are not posting during a given week, be courteous and let your fellow group members know in the google doc not to expect a post from you that week.
- Participate in the group discussion of your Book Club Journals on your assigned google.doc.
- Serve as the group reporter when it is your responsibility to report out.
- Post all but one Reading Journal required on the syllabus to your assigned book club google.doc that meet the standard for "acceptable" by the deadline for that week.
- Do all other requirements as described for the "B" grade.
- Post all but four Reading Journals required on the syllabus to your assigned book club google.doc that meet the standard for "acceptable" by the deadline for that week.
- Meet the group participation requirements identified for earning a "B" grade.
NOTE: You can revise any Reading Journal to meet the acceptable standard at any time as many times as you need to, as long as you've posted it in by the original deadline. If you receive and "unacceptable" I will give you feedback, privately, via email, and not on the google.doc, designed to help you revise your journal into an "acceptable" post.
KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR "A"s & "U"s
Here is how I keep track of your reading journal/book club work & teaching discussion posts: Each week, after I've read through the blog posts and google.doc discussion, I will assign you either an "A" or a "U" ("A" for acceptable and "U" for unacceptable). If you earn a "U" on anything, I will make sure you know and know why and, as stated above, you are welcome to revise that "U" into an A no matter how many times it takes to get it there as long as you've posted by the Sunday deadline.
I don't keep track of the date of the "A" or "U" received, and I don't keep track of what you turn in as a revision of a "U." I just enter marks into my book each week. At the end of the semester, I total up how many "A"s you end up with and that tells me what grade you've earned. So if you post by the deadline for all of the assignments and always get "A" for acceptable, great. If you post by the deadline and get all "U"s but then revise them to "A"s, that will be reflected in my book and you are golden too. If you have some "A"s and then, say, one post you keep getting a "U" on week after week, but you still have enough "A"s to earn you an "A" grade in the end, all those "U"s just don't matter.
But here is the thing: Once I've given you the "A" or the "U", my role is done until next week. I can't tell you which posts you get "A"s on and which you got "U"s on after the fact. All I'll be able to do is tell you where you are at in the "A" column. It's up to you to keep track of a "U" in need of revision.