Short Weekly Ungraded Assignments

 

There are two short weekly assignments for this class. These are required but low-stakes assignments that are meant to provide an opportunity to share your ideas with classmates. These assignments are graded on a Pass/Fail basis. While these assignments are not assigned a letter grade, they should be completed with care, as your classmates and I will be reading and responding to them through various activities. The weekly assignments provide an avenue for demonstrating course participation. 

 

1. “Hive Readings”: Weekly Reading Annotations

 

Overview: Philosophy is challenging, but we’re all in it together. This class has a social e-reader where everyone can engage with the readings in a collective forum. This gives you all the opportunity to share comments and questions and respond directly to one another.

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You can access the course e-reader on the course webpage under readings.

 

Instructions: To make sure we’re keeping up with the reading, each week you will post at least 1-2 thoughtful and original annotations on at least one of the required readings that week. 

 

Details: Annotations can include comments, questions, objections, reactions, and personal reflections. To keep it interesting: No duplicate comments! Early bird gets the worm. That being said, you can always take the same passage in a different direction. To encourage engagement, your annotations assignment may include 1-2 quality responses to your classmates’ annotations. In addition to the above, upvote any comments/questions that you find helpful.

 

Deadlines: Post Annotations to the Class E-reader by the end of the day each Monday (Starting Week 2) 

 

2. The Blog Post: Weekly Post to The Digital Forum

 

Overview: Writing takes practice. Every week each student will write and post a short reading response to at least one of the required or optional readings each week. The blog post will be posted to “The Digital Forum” on the course website. The blog post can either (a) Articulate and develop objection(s), worries(s), or question(s) about the ideas or arguments exhibited in the reading, and/or (b) Defend or amend the author’s view in response to anticipated criticisms. The purpose of the blog post is to give you an opportunity to share ideas with classmates, and to help you along as you prepare for the major course assignments. We will also workshop the blog posts through in class activities.

Deadlines: Submit Blog Posts to the Digital Forum by the end of the day each Thursday (starting week 2)