Hello, everyone.
First, I would like to say I am impressed with the final presentations thus far—very strong and interesting. I hope that this course has helped in giving you a more critical view of your process and practice.
I also wanted to thank you all for your work and participation this semester. I truly enjoyed our discussions.
Last week there was shamefully low attendance at the lecture. I have noted the absence for those of you who did not attend. This week I expect to see you all at the lecture on Tuesday.
The main reason for this email is make a few points about grading. In a perfect educational system there would be no grades—we would instead have smaller classes where we could meet regularly and talk about your work and the assessment would take the form of dialogue. However, as we all know, the system is flawed and our capitalist ethos demands a grade—a system of ranking without the nuance of elaborate feedback. (Although I would be more than happy to provide feedback on your final projects—just send me an email and I will write with comments over the break.)
As indicated on the syllabus (note: we made some changes to this, agreed upon in our first recitation), your grade is based on the following:
- Weekly discussion and participation (attendance matters): 20%
- Global Now posts (six in total): 25%
- Final presentation (content and style): 25%
- Final project (includes proposal and annotated bibliography): 30%
If you find that your grade is not what you expected, ask yourself if you met the requirements of the Global Now assignments (Did you analyze versus simply summarize? Did you link your posts to readings and ideas from the course and to larger issues in art and design? Was the work carefully prepared?). Consider your attendance and your level of participation in class discussions. Think too about the quality of your final presentation and the project submission (Does this work connect to ideas from the course? Does the work engage larger issues from your discipline/field? Are these connections and discussions developed and clearly presented? Do you go beyond the surface and give depth to your discussion? Is the work well prepared and presented—edited, proofread, and so forth?)
Projects are due when we meet in recitation next week (hard copies only, please). Late papers will not be accepted. If you have questions, let me know.
Global Issues (FR) 