Grading Criteria

Different portions of student grades are evaluated differently.

Participation (16%):

This grade is calculated by multiplying classroom participation grade by the attendance grade.  Thus, regardless of the student’s participates excellently in the classroom and then misses 7 class meetings, his grade for participation will be an F.

 Attendance:  

Each student may miss 3 course meetings and still receive A for this portion of her grade. The student missing 4 days will receive a B; 5 days, a C; 6 days, a D; 7 days, an F.  If a student misses 8 class meetings, he is in jeopardy of failing the course.  

Classroom participation: 

Occasionally I will call on you in class. These “cold calls” will help me determine this grade, although I will be keeping track of your unsolicited contributions to our meetings. If your contributions are “I don’t know” or you say nothing throughout the course, you will earn an F.  If your contributions merely express approval or disapproval (i.e. “I like that” or “That’s wrong”), you have earned a C. If you have thoughtful contributions to make each week, you will receive an A.

Blog contributions (5%):

To prepare yourself for class meetings, you need to contribute to the course blog. For longer missives, publish a post, for shorter ones, comment on others’ posts, assuming they are pertinent (if not publish a separate post).  Title the posts’ accurately, as much as possible.  If you are not comfortable talking in front of people—perhaps this is an event in which you start hyperventilating and get red in the face and honestly have no idea what you said afterwards—then contributing to the blog will make you more comfortable.

You must make two comments every two weeks.  At the end of that two-week period, I credit you for your comments.  Thus, you’ll need to have around 12 comments by the end of the course, in six periods.  The deadlines are posted on the blog.  Make sure you note your name at the end of your comment in the fashion, first name and last initial (or more if someone in class shares those with you). Otherwise I will not know who to give credit.

You may write more than two comments during each period (and I encourage this to improve the quality of your contributions, your essay assignments, as well as the quality of the classroom discussion and the course itself), although they can count for missed comments in other periods in a diminishing scale. For example, the third comment in a period is worth .75 comments, the fourth .5 comments, the fifth and thereafter are not counted. If you happen to miss a comment in a previous period, this is the way to make it up.

Presentation (30%):

A careful reading of the assignment description should clarify what is important and what should be avoided.  But, in the event you would like even more concrete detail, here is the checklist I use to assign a grade:

• What are the major points of this reading?
• What concept(s) or question(s) has the presenter focused on?
• Is she prepared for discussion?
• Has the presenter referred to pertinent sections of the reading?
• Has the presenter made connections with other readings/previous class meetings?
• Does the presenter exude energy, excitement, and enthusiasm?
• Does the presenter know others’ names?
• Has the presenter provoked discussion?

• Is the presenter wearing sweatpants?
• Is the presenter excessively summarizing material?
• Is the presentation too info/slide heavy (more than 6 and 140 characters each)?
• Has the presentation been posted 24 hours in advance?

Essays (35% total)

I return all but the final essay (although I will do so on request) with a table including the major grading criteria. It will look slightly different for each essay, because the assignment will be different, but the following example will give you a good idea of how I approach it.  This example is from an essay on Machiavelli’s The Prince as a theory to explain a character from either “The Godfather” or “House of Cards.”

Style of the essay:
Spelling and grammar
Bibliography
Thesis
Introduction
Conclusion
Content of the essay:
a. selection of principles from the Prince
b. power is just or efficacious
c. apply principles to figure
d. towards contemporary politics?
Grade
Other feedback

Final examination (14%):

The final exam usually consists of two parts. A section in which you are asked to define a concept or phrase and a section in which you are asked to write short answers to the questions posed. I assign points to each answer and definition and then add them up.  I may post previous exams online.