Literature Discussion Requirements for
Gothic and Horror Fiction Discussions
As you look over the course requirements,
you’ll see that weekly discussions on our movies and books form the backbone of
the course. This lecture talks about the
discussions in general first, and then provides you with the specific
requirements.
Discussions on the course texts (here
“text” can mean written work or movie) will begin with questions that I will
post in the discussion board named for the work. A good discussion brings
together an interested group of learners who have done some preparation, including
having read and thought about a text. Therefore, my questions will ask you to
look at the assigned text structurally, stylistically, and contentwise.
As you read or watch the assigned texts, I encourage you to make informal notes
that will help you in addressing the following questions. This solitary
preparation should include:
1.
marking the text for significant passages
or making notes about details in the movie,
2.
organizing your thoughts on paper, and
3.
producing other significant questions that you wish to explore.
Though I post a few questions, you can post
a question as well to the class. (This
question would count as one of your two additional posts that respond to
other students. Your other post needs to
be a substantive response.) In the actual discussion, the group is responsible
for exploring the text and probing the ideas that classmates have brought from
their individual reading and analysis of the text. This reading discussion is a
time "to mine" the text, to work it over as a class, to think aloud
about it, to test some ideas against the whole group. For example, the
following might be read in a discussion comment:
The seminar discussion is a special place
for a unique kind of intellectual activity. The exchange of ideas must be
focused on the text. A good way to keep focused on the text at hand is to
respond to the following four questions:
·
What is the
overall perspective/point of view/subject/theme of this text?
·
What symbols, settings, narrators, characters
and plots does the writer use to convey this point of view/theme and create
audience responses?
·
What advantages does the author gain by
using the narrative approach, narrative point of view and other devices that
he/she has chosen?
·
What are the similarities and differences
between this text and others we’ve discussed, in terms of themes and literary
devices?
·
How does the author/director’s style
contribute to the story being told?
·
What typical traits, strategies, devices
and themes of the genre are represented with this text?
·
How does this text develop an audience
response? What response do you think the
text is trying to achieve, and how?
Make sure to keep these questions distinct
because each forces the group to discuss the text in different ways. Sometimes
the discussion will be focused but still free flowing, searching, questioning,
going deeper to understand the analysis of others. Sometimes the group may come
to conclusions, sometimes it may seem like a series of disconnected activities.
In the words of Richard Jones in Experiment
at Evergreen: "In seminar [discussion] one learns how to do the more
important things that need to be done to information by an educated adult;
choosing and finding it, weighing it, criticizing it, analyzing it, comparing
it, reflecting on it, editing it, and then expressing what has been made of it
by way of the . . .written
language."
The instructor’s role in seminar is at best
to be a model of an experienced learner and not the focus of attention or
authority that will tell you what you should learn. Everyone has to take
responsibility for co-leading and sharing ideas.
Requirements for Literature Discussion
Participation
1) Amount
of Required Posts
To
get a discussion started, each student needs to respond to each of the questions
I post. In this class, I will post 3 questions. In addition, each student must respond
to at least two (2) responses or questions by other students. In total, the
required amount of work is 5 posts per discussion. After these requirements are met, a student may also
post an additional question or more comments that he/she thinks are important
to discuss about the reading. However, all questions should be posted early in
the discussion period. Since a named discussion board has been set up for each
of our readings, students are responsible for posting all answers, comments, or
questions in the appropriate board. I cannot be held responsible to find and
evaluate responses that are posted in the wrong place.
2) Substantive Posts
When posting responses to my questions or the questions and
responses of classmates, each student is required to provide substantive comments.
"Substantive comments" discuss ideas with some thought, depth and
supporting evidence. They are not "cheerleading," such as
"I like it." or "I totally agree. I love the way you said
that." Substantive comments will
at the very minimum be a 7-10 sentence paragraph of complex, detailed thinking,
providing quotes or details from the text as evidence, as well as context for
that evidence and analysis. Usually they
will be longer. Comments that I
evaluate to be less than substantive will not receive full credit.
I will do my best to grade the early
discussions within two or three working days of the closing date, so that you
will have an idea about how you are doing.
A rubric is available with each discussion, and is summarized in these 3
major pieces of criteria:
·
Addresses question or student post in
substantive way, synthesizing more than one source;
·
Uses quotations and paraphrase effectively,
providing context and analysis;
·
Post is written in standard
English, avoiding basic errors and text messaging abbreviations.
3) Timely
Posts
As I say elsewhere in this document, you’ll be fully
participating in this discussion if you begin posting early. I strongly
recommend checking in on the discussion several times during the 7 days it is
open. Post one or two responses early,
check back in and read other responses to gain more understanding, and post
more.
Students who post everything last minute
are simply not truly participating in the discussion. Therefore, any
discussion where the poster posts ALL responses within the 4 hour period before
the discussion closes (which would be 8PM-midnight on Sunday night) will only
receive 75% credit. Of course a few
last minute posts are fine, but last minute participation is simply not true
participation, and is treated as such.
4)
No
Make-ups on Discussions
Each student is required to
participate in discussions during the period the discussion board is open. You cannot make-up discussions for any
reason, since the point is to be discussing the topic with other students.
There is absolutely no exception for
this. If you don’t participate within
the 7 days of each open discussion, you don’t earn the points for that
discussion. Period. Please plan your time accordingly for the
weeks of this course.
5) Points
Available:
For each literature discussion, there is a total of 15
points per discussion. (5 posts total are required--see above.) The Course
Syllabus contains information for overall point totals for the quarter. Extra
credit points may be earned in each discussion by posting up to four (4)
additional substantive comments to the discussion. You will earn .25 (1/4)
point for each additional entry to the discussion for a total of 1 point per
discussion. Total extra credit discussion points available
for the quarter is 10 points.
6) In-Text Citations and Works Cited
whenever you
quote and/or paraphrase from one of our texts, please provide the page number
in parentheses following quote or paraphrase.
That way if someone in the discussion wants to go back to that quote, it’s easy
to find.
I do realize that some of you will be using versions
other than the ones ordered for the class. If you do, please include a Works
Cited following your post. A
Works Cited provides this information:
Author
of text, last name first. Title of Text. Editor’s name, first name first. City: Publisher, date of publication.
You don’t need to be absolutely perfect in
the formatting of this information, but it needs to be included if you’re not
using the texts ordered for the class, so that we don’t all go searching for a
page number that doesn’t exist in our class texts.
If you are using the texts ordered for the class (ISBN
numbers and editor’s names are identified in the syllabus in our BC bookstore),
you do NOT need to provide this Works Cited.
Note that in discussing movies,
you don’t need an in-text citation. Just
make sure that it’s clear which movie your quote or scene description is from.
7) Identifying
responses to questions
When responding to any question or comment, be sure you
have read it carefully. Click on REPLY
to post your response, and also TITLE your post “RESPONSE TO QUESTION #...”. Clicking on
“reply” will provide a thread to that particular post, but the threads are
particularly difficult to see in Canvas, so titling your post is also very
helpful. Please follow these
guidelines, so that our conversation can be threaded properly and coherently.
The only time to compose your own message will be when you are posing
your own question.
Finally, if the discussion is not going well, it’s our
responsibility, individually and collectively, to make it right. Stay involved,
check into the discussion area daily and participate freely. It will pay off in
the end. You will come to realize that a great text is not something you read
over once and feel satisfied that you have learned all you can from it, but
rather it is one that stimulates a continuing intellectual curiosity which
demands from you a re-reading and continuing discussion.