Required Work

In this course, you’ll not only be studying community, you’ll be forming one. Participation is essential to your individual success in this course, as well as to the success of the course as a whole. Effective participation begins with good preparation. Read, watch, or listen to the assigned texts, and take notes as you go (see my advice on How to Read). Come to class with relevant texts and assignments (I take “book attendance”), prepared to join the questions. Ask questions. Test out ideas that aren’t yet fully formed. Admit when you don’t know or understand something. There’s no shame in not knowing: the only shame is missing an opportunity to learn.

Participation is built into the structure of the course, with Conversation Posts (Co-Po’s)  to establish topics and questions for discussion and Student Run Discussions (Stu-Ru’s) on most Fridays. Most of your writing will take the form of blog posts, which means that you’ll be writing to each other, not performing for the professor. You’ll also be incorporating quotations from your peers and from other scholars and experts in these posts, so that the posts join in a larger academic conversation. Finally, you’ll extend and deepen this conversation by commenting on your classmates’ posts, giving and receiving evaluative feedback from each other, rather than relying solely on your professor.

In the addition to the assigned texts, you will be responsible for:

• 1 About Me post
• 6 Analytical Blog Posts (Tracing Project, Impersonation, Favorite Poem, Remediation, Roundtable, and Conversation)
• 7 sets of Comments on your classmates’ posts
• 1 Student-Run Discussion (working in a team of 2-3)
• 1 handmade book of your own design
• 1 website on your own domain to display and reflect on your book project
• 1 community audit

Students seeking an A or B in the course must also publish 1-2 Community Scoop posts, applying insights they’ve gained from the course to an event, trend, or happening on campus or in other communities.