I must have been a sophomore in high school at the time, circa 1986-1987. The song that you hear in the background was just Da Bomb as far as I was concerned. Life simply got put on pause when this song played. Yes, this is corny now but, hey, it was the 1980s and I was living in Ohio! I think about this song every semester when someone starts whining about a grade they received. "Why You Treat Me So Baaaaad? Why You Do Me The Way You Dooooo?" Just pitiful! |
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Make sure you listen to that second verse where the woman's voice comes in letting the man know that everything he is experiencing is HIS OWN FAULT. Notice how she refuses to be blamed for his own doings. Well, think of that woman as Professor Carmen because that's how grading in this class will work... yup, like a corny 1980s love-gone-wrong song!!
The syllabus explains the points that you can earn in this class and every single point is accounted for. Your predecessors, the students from previous semesters, helped define these points. You will have a say-so also. THEREFORE any point that you miss and any grade that you receive will be of YOUR OWN DOING. Don't start whining and blaming it on someone else at the end of the semester if you wasn't doin what you was s'posed to be doin all along! Ain't nobody tryna hear that.
The syllabus explains the points that you can earn in this class and every single point is accounted for. Your predecessors, the students from previous semesters, helped define these points. You will have a say-so also. THEREFORE any point that you miss and any grade that you receive will be of YOUR OWN DOING. Don't start whining and blaming it on someone else at the end of the semester if you wasn't doin what you was s'posed to be doin all along! Ain't nobody tryna hear that.
You are going to be asked to do some heavy lifting in this class— reading deeply, charting closely your thoughts, writing freely, talking openly! So be ready! This is NOT a difficult class, but it will require seriousness and commitment to staying on top of the work.
For some of you, the point-spread may feel very new and different. 18-20 year old young adults today are often described in terms of the web 2.0 technologies that have saturated their childhood and early adulthood. However, there might be a better way to historicize young people in this age range: the group who has witnessed and been subjected to the most rubrics, norming standards, high-stakes tests, etc than any other group of K-12 students in the history of education in the United States. In this COLLEGE class, we will not be replicating the kinds of assessment strategies that you experienced in K-12 standardization regimes. Be prepared to comment on and think critically about the point-spread that you are given for each project. These point-spreads are designed rhetorically: to make you a stronger writer and to give you a more persuasive digital presence. Think of writing and designing in this class as giving you more than just an “A” at the end of the course. Understand yourself as establishing a digital/critical ethos.
For some of you, the point-spread may feel very new and different. 18-20 year old young adults today are often described in terms of the web 2.0 technologies that have saturated their childhood and early adulthood. However, there might be a better way to historicize young people in this age range: the group who has witnessed and been subjected to the most rubrics, norming standards, high-stakes tests, etc than any other group of K-12 students in the history of education in the United States. In this COLLEGE class, we will not be replicating the kinds of assessment strategies that you experienced in K-12 standardization regimes. Be prepared to comment on and think critically about the point-spread that you are given for each project. These point-spreads are designed rhetorically: to make you a stronger writer and to give you a more persuasive digital presence. Think of writing and designing in this class as giving you more than just an “A” at the end of the course. Understand yourself as establishing a digital/critical ethos.