* Reviewed upcoming assignments and deadlines (particularly group presentations on Wednesday and Thursday).
* Split into groups and worked on Literary Analysis and Critical Thinking Assignment.
2. Class analysis:
It's obviously at that point in the semester where not many students are showing up for class, particularly on Fridays (as was the case in 1539 this week and last week). Subsequently, even though Nikki offered students the majority of class time to work on their upcoming major assignment (which includes a presentation and an individual analysis paper), not many were present to take advantage of it. I worked with each of the three groups that were in class, although most students seemed like they had a good chunk of their work already done or at least knew what they had to do/how they were planning to do it.
3. Class implementation:
I'm not sure how I'll treat the attendance policy in my Monday/Wednesday/Friday class in the spring. My syllabus draft states that students will lose a letter grade off their final grade after the sixth absence, but I might revise this policy. I do like how Nikki gives students a bonus point or two if fewer than 11 students (or half the class) show up.
COMMENTS:
* Guy Shebat: The six allowed absences policy gives you plenty of leeway, I think – and the students as well. That’s 6 out of 44 meetings they can miss, or roughly 13% of class sessions. Incentivizing attendance can be a good idea, but you don’t want a situation where someone is dragging their very sick and contagious self into class to save a ‘bonus,’ with the result that you, perhaps, and/or several students end up ‘infected.’ On the other hand, you could try something like this: miss no classes, +6; miss 1 +4; miss only 2, +3; miss only 3, +2. I don’t know – maybe it ends up being a headache for you – like “what counts as attending?” “can I be 10 minutes late and still be counted as attending?” [You see what I mean, no?]
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