Notes and Discussions

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Benefits
• How To
• Tips
• How Notes and Discussions are graded

Introduction

The Notes and Discussion pages are just that: wiki pages for annotating the readings for the week and discussing them.

Each week, your mission is to create the best possible summary of the readings, and to have a meaningful discussion about them. All notes and comments are due three hours before class (which gives us time to read them).

This form of participation counts towards your grade (5-10 points each)! So you don't want to miss too many. In the past, most of the students who do badly in the course do so because they are too lazy "forget" to do this every week.

Benefits

• Reinforces your understanding of what you are reading.
• Summarizes the readings so you can refer back to the notes when preparing other projects.
• Collaboration: by using the wiki, the job of summarizing the readings is distributed amongst the whole class!

How To

There is a Notes and Discussion page for each set of assigned readings. Simply click on the corresponding link in the Schedule.

You are expected to make two kinds of contributions:
The notes section (the regular wiki portion of the page that can be edited) can be used to collaboratively write notes about the readings:

• What passages capture the essence of the text?
• Are there words or concepts worth looking up because their definition can help us understand the text?
• Any nice pictures/graphs to illustrate the concepts discussed?

The comments (click Add Comment at the bottom of the page) should be used to:

• Present your personal opinion about the readings, including things you liked/didn't like.
• Ask questions about things you didn't understand (this is very important!).
• Ask provocative questions that you would like us to address during class.
• Reply to other people's comments/questions!

Tips

• If you are an early bird (one of the first people to edit the Notes page), don't try to do too much. You can identify sections you think need to be prepared (simply insert a heading), but leave something for others to do!
• If you are a johnny come lately (someone who got to the page late in the week, when a lot of the work has already been done), try to find sections that are missing, or simply work to improve the notes by doing some editing (spelling and grammar correction, removing unnecessary sections, further formatting, etc.).
• As with all web writing, try to be brief and to the point. No one likes to read extended diatribes!

How Notes and Discussions are graded

Here are some general guidelines I use in grading:

F (0 points) :-O	No contributions whatsoever.
C (7) :-(	Notes: No contribution to notes section. Comments: Unrelated random or anecdotal comment. No question that provokes or seeks clarification.
B (8) :-)	Notes: Minimal contribution to notes section. Comments: Discusses concepts defined in notes section. Asks a question that provokes or seeks clarification. Replies to others' comments!
A (9) ;-)	Notes: Contributes to notes section. Comments: Quotes from the readings and discusses concepts. Asks a question that provokes or seeks clarification. Replies to others' comments!
A+ (10) :-D	All of the above, with pretty pictures!

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