Discussion sections offer you an opportunity to share your thoughts and questions, as well as engage fellow students and their thinking. We welcome your enthusiasm, engagement, and ideas.
Because 25% of your final grade for this course comes from your participation in discussion, I want to explain how that is graded and what you can do to improve your grade. Please notice that, in our discussions, quantity and quality are not the same thing. A high participation grade isn’t only about contributing a lot. Listening to other students, doing your best to build into the conversation as opposed to subtracting from it, and being willing to describe how your thoughts might be changing are all necessary to get the highest scores. Moreover, listening thoughtfully and respectfully are big components as well. Interrupting other people or talking over them will reduce your participation grade. I will be posting weekly grades in Canvas so you can follow your grade. Of course, I am also always happy to talk with you if you would like to gather strategies for improving your grade.
I hope that we will cover a wide range of topics in our discussions, and I want everyone to feel comfortable sharing their opinions, questions, and confusions. Please be willing to ask a question when you are not sure what’s going on – if you are confused, other people probably are, too! We are all on the same team, so you don’t need to worry about any “dumb” questions. Please share your thoughts, even if they are incomplete, and hopefully this will help other people share their thoughts as well.
In order to facilitate a lively discussion, your GSI has set the following ground rules:
- Please don’t bring food to section, but drinks are ok.
- As in the lectures, cell phones and laptops aren’t permitted unless you have a particular need to use one. If that is the case, please discuss it with Prof. Alexy.
Email and Office Hours
I am happy to talk with you outside of section, too. If you email me, I’ll do my best to reply to you within 24 hours during the weekdays, but on the weekends I will probably be slower. If you email me on the days when we have section, I might not be able to write you back before we meet, so please plan ahead. I hold my office hours each week on Tuesdays from 2 to 4pm in Room 5076 in the South Thayer Building. You are welcome to stop by but I would prefer if you send me an email explaining what you’d like to talk about. That helps me prepare, but I understand if you have a question at the last moment and just want to stop by. You’re always welcome to come by and share your thoughts or reactions – don’t feel like you have to have a specific question or problem. If that time doesn’t work for you, email me and we can set up another time to talk.
Grading
Your work in section is a substantial part of your grade for this course, so I understand that you might want to know how we calculate the grades. After every section meeting, I will assign you a grade based on the following scale --
95 and above = Great job! Keep doing what you’re doing.
90 to 95 = Keep at it. Share what you’re thinking and continue to make an effort to link your thoughts with other students’ ideas.
85 to 90 = You shared some ideas, but I have no doubt that you’ve got more to share. Remember that everyone will benefit from your ideas.
80 to 85 = You are present in class and I think you’re listening hard, but you’re not sharing many of your thoughts or reactions. Please try to share more.
70 to 79 = You occasionally share your thoughts, but not very frequently
69 to 60 = You came to section unprepared, without completing the assigned reading / homework.
below = You’ve missed class (with an unexcused absence) or aren’t participating in the conversation (perhaps falling asleep?).
* Please note that we slightly shifted the lower end of these grades in order to reward students who are doing the reading before coming to section. (9/29)
If, at any point, you feel like you have an idea that didn’t get made in discussion - either because we ran out of time, your thoughts hadn’t fully come together, or I didn’t call on you - please think about sharing that thought through other means. You can email me and I’ll call on you first thing in the next session; you can email me a paragraph (or so) and I’ll post it here; you can talk with me about it in office hours; you can include that idea in a paper.
I am truly happy to share more personalized feedback about participation and how you might improve. Please sign up for office hours if you’d like to talk.
