Deanna Stover's Courses
Deanna Stover is an Assistant Professor at Christopher Newport University. This website is a compilation of her syllabi since starting at CNU in Fall 2020.
Class Engagement Prompt
Check-In One: 9/30
Percentage: 10%
Check-In Two: 12/02
Percentage: 10%
General Overview
Class Engagement is an important part of this course. This is all about making sure, well, that you’re engaged in the course content from readings to in-class activities to showing up to class to making consistent progress on the projects you’ve been assigned. Why? Because I want you to get the most out of this class and take ownership over your own learning.
So, while your grade for this portion of the class is partially determined by attendance and my own observations of your progress on projects and in-class participation, you can also submit materials that demonstrate your engagement. That said, you should be engaged in the course throughout the semester. That means that even though there are only two Check-Ins, you should be adding to the submission portal for this assignment over the course of each check-in period (see “How to Submit” below).
Assignment Breakdown
Attendance
To repeat the Attendance Policy, you are allowed two unexcused absences per check-in period (8/22-9/30 and 10/03-12/02). After this, I will subtract 10% from your Class Engagement grade for each class day missed. Missing a meeting with me (or not scheduling a meeting with me during our out-of-class meeting days) counts as an unexcused absence.
Preparedness
If I notice that you are underprepared for class (especially consistently) this will factor into your grade. This might be that you regularly don’t engage with the readings as they are assigned or that you come to a meeting with me underprepared or, when we have work days, that you are not showing progress on your assigned project.
Ways to Demonstrate Engagement
In addition to coming to class and being prepared, here are some ways you can demonstrate engagement.
- Participate in class discussion (and document that participation–the less you talk, the more important this documentation is)
- Take notes in class (this might be especially important for those of you who don’t want to talk much in class)
- Annotate the readings (digitally or physically) – i.e. underlining passages and writing in the margins of the readings
- Take other kinds of notes on the readings, such as writing summaries and/or discussion questions
- Provide copies of in-class activities
- Take notes on your projects-in-progress (if you include images, that’s even better!)
- Come to office hours with specific questions (and document this by providing notes about what we discussed)
- Provide links/notes on outside-of-class materials related to course content that you found interesting and engaging (for example, a DH project you found or an article about technology and the humanities that you read)
- Get creative! There are lots of ways you can engage!
How to Submit (and a little about feedback)
First of all, make sure you are submitting throughout the Check-In period rather than all at the end because it helps to show that you stayed on top of the course content rather than waiting until the end to catch up. I’ll give periodic reminders in class, but mostly the responsibility for providing documentation of your class engagement throughout each Check-In period is on you.
I’ve created an Assignment portal in Scholar for you to submit your materials called “Class Engagement 1” and “Class Engagement 2.” Please make sure you are submitting in the appropriate portal (Class Engagement 1 is for anything you want to upload between 8/22 and 9/30 and Class Engagement 2 is for anything you want to upload from that point until the end of the semester).
There are unlimited chances to submit these materials so that you can go back and submit more materials. You do not have to resubmit older materials because I can see all previous submissions. In other words, Scholar does not overwrite the last submission, so I’ll be able to see everything you uploaded even if you upload things at multiple points during the Check-In period (which is what you should be doing).
I will not be providing feedback over the course of a Check-In period on these materials (just after the deadlines of 9/30 and 12/02) but you can always come to Office Hours to talk about strategies for demonstrating your engagement.
I owe credit to Dr. Brooke Covington for some of the ideas in this prompt.