333 Course Work (Summer 2015)
Greetings, students and curious others. This is Prof. Charles Hatfield of CSU Northridge. Here are the requirements for English 333: Comics and Graphic Novels in Summer 2015:
333 aims to be challenging. Active participation in discussion and other activities is essential both to the vitality of our class and to everyone’s individual success. To do well, you must be fully attentive and engaged, must be prepared to do work both independently and collaboratively, and must make regular use of the Internet, particularly our Moodle site (technical difficulties will not be accepted as an excuse for missing required work in the course). Your grade for 333 will be determined by how fully and effectively you meet the following requirements:
333 aims to be challenging. Active participation in discussion and other activities is essential both to the vitality of our class and to everyone’s individual success. To do well, you must be fully attentive and engaged, must be prepared to do work both independently and collaboratively, and must make regular use of the Internet, particularly our Moodle site (technical difficulties will not be accepted as an excuse for missing required work in the course). Your grade for 333 will be determined by how fully and effectively you meet the following requirements:
1. Participation (20 percent of your total semester grade): presence, energy, effort, contributions to discussion, and homework, which may include short cartooning exercises.
2. Two Creative (Comics-Making) Exercises (10% of your grade, total). In keeping with the hands-on principles of 333, I'll be asking you to rough out two short comics, one of which will require reportage of a real-life experience and one of which will be an instructional or expository comic. You'll need to revisit one of these in your take-home Final (below).
3. Moodling and Discussion Leading (30% total): Expect to post on Moodle a roughly 300-word response to each major reading assignment, i.e. about twice a week on average. At times I may pose questions about specific topics, but in most instances you will be responding to your classmates as well as following your own interests. Discussion leading: once during the term, everyone will serve as a discussion leader, which will require posting a prompt on Moodle for everyone in advance, to start the conversation--and will also require launching or kicking off discussion in the classroom. For this, you'll need to collaborate with one or two other classmates (think ahead about how to work together).
4. Tracing Project (20%): For this project you will trace two pages from one of our required books of comics (you'll choose the book yourself), then you'll annotate your tracings with notes, and finally you'll write a synthesis and reflection in essay form (c. 4 pages) that explains what you learned through the process. You’ll do this in lieu of a midterm exam. This assignment has been adapted, with thanks, from Dr. Mark Sample's terrific Graphic Novel course syllabus at George Mason University.
5. Take-Home Final (20%): Your final will be the culmination of your 333 experience; expect it to draw on everything you have done and learned in the course. It will include both a critical and a creative component, and will require you to revisit both your comics-making exercises and your Tracing Project. Expect to write an analytical essay, and to share your comics work with everyone else in class. Further instructions and guidelines will be forthcoming in class and via Moodle. The Final will be due on our last day together, July 7. (I expect we'll discuss it at length two weeks beforehand.)
2. Two Creative (Comics-Making) Exercises (10% of your grade, total). In keeping with the hands-on principles of 333, I'll be asking you to rough out two short comics, one of which will require reportage of a real-life experience and one of which will be an instructional or expository comic. You'll need to revisit one of these in your take-home Final (below).
3. Moodling and Discussion Leading (30% total): Expect to post on Moodle a roughly 300-word response to each major reading assignment, i.e. about twice a week on average. At times I may pose questions about specific topics, but in most instances you will be responding to your classmates as well as following your own interests. Discussion leading: once during the term, everyone will serve as a discussion leader, which will require posting a prompt on Moodle for everyone in advance, to start the conversation--and will also require launching or kicking off discussion in the classroom. For this, you'll need to collaborate with one or two other classmates (think ahead about how to work together).
4. Tracing Project (20%): For this project you will trace two pages from one of our required books of comics (you'll choose the book yourself), then you'll annotate your tracings with notes, and finally you'll write a synthesis and reflection in essay form (c. 4 pages) that explains what you learned through the process. You’ll do this in lieu of a midterm exam. This assignment has been adapted, with thanks, from Dr. Mark Sample's terrific Graphic Novel course syllabus at George Mason University.
5. Take-Home Final (20%): Your final will be the culmination of your 333 experience; expect it to draw on everything you have done and learned in the course. It will include both a critical and a creative component, and will require you to revisit both your comics-making exercises and your Tracing Project. Expect to write an analytical essay, and to share your comics work with everyone else in class. Further instructions and guidelines will be forthcoming in class and via Moodle. The Final will be due on our last day together, July 7. (I expect we'll discuss it at length two weeks beforehand.)