Evaluation Procedures

Evaluation Procedures

FORUMS: (a minimum of 3 weekly posts required, over at least two separate days)

Students will be asked to respond initially to eight forum topics by Thursday of the assigned week. Each student will then be responsible for building onto the points of two other students by Sunday. Forums cannot be made up, so make sure you post your responses by the weekly deadlines. Again, your initial post is due by Thursday 11:59 p.m. EST, and the feedback posts are due by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. EST. Students are required to post over at least two separate days each week to encourage week-long, evolving discussion. Each forum entry must be pertinent to the subject matter and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the topics discussed with an appropriate introduction, supporting paragraphs, and conclusion. Direct references to the weekly readings (specific lines, page numbers, etc.) should be included to support–but not dominate–student posts.

The initial forum entries should contain 300-400+ words and cite references to the text under discussion.

Responses to classmates should approximate a 100+ word requirement each; however, responses to classmates should address the nature of the topic and advance the discussion forward.

Attention to proper spelling/grammar/punctuation and organization of ideas is important and will factor into the final score. “Texting”-type language (lowercase i’s, no punctuation or appropriate capitalization) is unacceptable in the forums.

FORUM RUBRIC : See forum description for rubric

FORUM EXAMPLE:

The prompt to a forum might ask how an author uses figurative language to create a picture in the mind of the

audience.

3After reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, I was captured by how Baldwin describes the terrible numbing shock that his narrator experiences in learning that his younger brother has been arrested for possession and sale of heroin: “It was not to be believed and I kept telling myself that, as I walked from the subway station to the high school. And at the same time I couldn’t doubt it. I was scared, scared for Sonny. He became real to me again. A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there all day long . . . . It was a special kind of ice. It kept melting, sending trickles of ice water all up and down my veins, but it never got less. Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream” (319). The image of the “great block of ice” creates the picture of the numbing sensation that the narrator feels at the moment of discovery and wondering what the future will hold for his brother. In addition, the “great block of ice” signifies the ice that one uses to numb one’s pain…plus another 200 words for an exemplary post.