ENGL 314: Assignments

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1. Regular Attendance and Participation in Group Conversation

2. Dialogue Journal (40% of Grade)

Each week you will write a 2 page (minimum), typed response in which you will grapple with the issues raised by the readings. Consult syllabus for due dates and specific readings. At the beginning of each class, you will exchange journals so that you can share your reactions with another member of the class and then get some written responses from him or her. The dialogue journal affords you the opportunity to explore in greater depth your own questions and convictions about the readings and to share your thinking with each other and with me in greater detail than is possible during class discussion. To examine sample students' dialogue journals, click on the following link: SAMPLE STUDENT DIALOGUE JOURNALS.

Each week, focus your journal on a central issue or theme that you want to explore that week. If we read more than one text for a week's class, discuss all the assigned readings, focusing most of your discussion on the major text. Your journal should demonstrate that you have read and thought about ALL the assigned reading. That means you need to make explicit references to demonstrate your familiarity with all of the text(s). Show that you are familiar with the whole text, from beginning to end. Shoot for the maximum of two pages of reflection if you wish to receive the highest assessment level. The journal is your opportunity to create your own comprehensive understanding of the issue addressed each week in view of the assigned readings.

In writing your journal response, you should do the following (not necessarily in any particular order):

Ø Reflect briefly on the central issue or theme that you want to focus on in your response to the readings.

Ø Bring into your reflection all of the readings. You will obviously not be able to give equal time to all of them, but use your journal to integrate your thinking on all the readings. Relate them to each other.

Ø Explain your own view on the readings. How has this reading (or set of readings) affected your understanding of the issues they raise? How have they challenged, confirmed, extended, or qualified your own prior knowledge?

Each dialogue journal should be 2 typed pages (minimum). Do a spelling and grammar check before submitting your work. Write clearly and coherently so that your journal partner and I can read your thinking with ease.

You should plan to devote about six hours each week outside of class to your work for this course.

Each week at the beginning of class we will exchange dialogue journals either in pairs or small groups so that you can share your responses. I will ask you to actually write an assessment statement for one student's journal each week, using the below assessment criteria. I will collect your journals each week, read them, and offer my responses and assessment as well. Your grade on the dialogue journal will be determined using your peers' assessments and mine.

Assessment Criteria

Ø The assessment ratings will be the following for each journal: Excellent, Very Good, Good, or Okay. I will use the following assessment system when responding to each journal, and I ask you to use the same when you read your peers' jouranl:

Ø Excellent means that the journal demonstrates outstanding engagement with all the readings. The entry is exceptionally thoughtful and comprehensive in bringing in many of the readings and the student's own reflections and experiences. The analysis includes explicit reference to at least 75% of the assigned titles. The writing is clear, coherent, and technically correct.

Ø Very Good means that the journal demonstrates strong engagement with most of the readings. The entry is careful in its thought and attempts to bring most of the readings as well as the student's own reflections and experiences. The analysis includes explicit reference to at least 60% of the assigned titles. The writing is usually clear, coherent, and technically correct.

Ø Good means that the journal demonstrates average or competent engagement with a few of the readings, though not enough to show a comprehensive grasp of the materials. The thinking needs fuller development, and the student needs to offer more of his or her own reflections and experiences. The analysis includes explicit reference to at least 50% of the assigned titles. The writing may impede a reader's comprehension at times.

Ø Okay means that the journal is too short to develop ideas, strays from the point, or does not adequately demonstrate that the student has read all the readings. The analysis includes explicit reference to less than 40% of the assigned titles. The writing presents so many technical or grammatical problems that it is difficult to grasp the point.

2. Group Presentation (20% of Grade).

Each of you will participate on a panel of three students who research and prepare a presentation on EITHER one period or phenomenon in the the history of sexuality from ancient Greece to the present OR one contemporary issue related to LGBT Studies. These presentations will deal with "real life" concerns either from the past or today. They will allow you to explore a number of concerns like same-sex relationships from non-Western cultures, the emergence of gay or lesbian subcultures or identities, or contemporary issues confronting LGBT persons as well as various forms of activism to address these concerns.

3. Final Synthesis Essay (40% of Grade)

Each student will complete 5-8 page formal essay that grows out of our work in the course. The essay should explore several of the texts read for the course and should create a synthesis of your thinking about those texts and the concerns they raise. In other words, your essay should have a clearly focused central insight (your thesis idea) about the texts you examine. It should use plenty of specific evidence in the form of direct quotations and paraphrases from each text. It should use proper MLA documentation format throughout.