smartening – 10%

Our class has spaces for responses to readings. These spaces are for shared discussion to smarten yourselves, ourselves, myselves throughout the semester; Our discussions on readings documents our thinking about class texts, where our thinking might be headed, and how a reading might inspire us. Smartening responses are due before class starts.For us, smartening “is a way to find your voice and public [audience], connect with like-minded communities, improve your digital profile, influence others, and contribute to the commons” (Rheingold). It’s a powerful tool for gettin’ your word out there and for learnin’ about other’s words. It’s a good way to learn about other perspectives and borrow those perspectives.

If a smartening response is done particularly well, raises important questions, has really cool examples or overall has a certain je ne sais quoi, I will give you extra credit. This is up to me though.

Smartening post requirements 

  • Each smartening must meet the word count requirement.
  • Each smartening should make sense or not be written as disconnected ideas; it should show you thought about the reading critically.
  • Each smartening question should quote or paraphrase part of the reading with an in-text citation.
  • If I ask a question, your post must address or answer the prompt. You may choose to reply to a peer, but your reply must be about the reading of the day.
  • If there is no posted question, then your post must respond to the readings critically and insightfully.
  • Your smartening must be free of spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes. ***I recommend you write your answer in word.doc and then copy/paste to the online discussion.***

evaluation

Pass yay! (10)=Your smartening is thoughtful, critical, and uses readings to support or question ideas and/or readings. This response meets all the requirements

Pass ok. (7.5)=Your smartening is just a summary of a reading and isn’t very critical and/or it answers the question incompletely.

Fail (0)=Your smartening is incomplete, makes no sense, doesn’t seem to answer the question, or misses one of the requirements.

****There are scores that are in-betweens.