ENGL 2112 - Some notes, and a preview of Week 3

Gentles,

Well, we're almost halfway through the course, and even though Folio has given us a couple problems, we've managed to address and correct them. (If you've been unaware of those problems with the server, that's a good thing.) In this email, I want to reiterate some points that may not have been clear to you, and to preview the upcoming week of class.

Discussion Forum 2 - Primary Posts
Your primary post for Discussion Forum 2 is the first thing out of the gate, on Monday. Remember, in your primary post YOU ARE ANSWERING JUST ONE QUESTION -- NOT ONE SET OF QUESTIONS, NOT MULTIPLE QUESTIONS -- JUST ONE QUESTION. I don't mean to shout with those caps, but I want to make sure you don't skip over this paragraph, and that you read and understand those directions. I did not take points off for failing to follow those directions in the first forum, but I will be doing so in this forum, beause I just can't be any clearer about these instructions.

I'll include the questions you can address at the end of this email.

Exam 1
On the syllabus and schedule, Tuesday looks like a busy day, but it's not as bad as it seems. While you'll need to do the quiz for Module 13, the Intro to Modernism, on Tuesday, you don't have to do the quiz for Module 14, on Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," until Wednesday. I split that poem into two days, because it's pretty complicated. You are most certainly going to want to read it on my web site, at http://jpellegrino.com/teaching/eliot-prufrock.html. If you have pop-ups blocked on your browser, you're going to want to allow them for jpellegrino.com, because the pop-ups explain so much about the poem.

The exam itself is available to you all day, from midnight (Monday turning into Tuesday) to midnight (Tuesday turning into Wednesday). You access it through Assessments > Quizzes > Exam 1 in Folio. Once you open the exam, you'll have 75 minutes to complete it, unless you have and accommodation from the SARC for extra time. 

I designed this exam so it can be completed in a 50-minute class period. The advice I usually give is that if you're coming up on that time limit, you're probably overthinking it. There are 33 multiple-choice questions. Roughly 1/3 of them give you a selection from one of the works we covered and ask you to identify the author and the text. Another 1/3 of the questions ask about the cultural conditions, backgrounds, and other material that is covered in the web pages and podcasts. The final third ask about the texts themselves, looking at specific plot points or thematic concerns.

Discussion Forum 2 - Secondary Posts
On Wednesday your seconday posts for the second discussion forum are due. In general, your secondary posts for the first discussion forum were substantial enough, but some of you might want to be more expansive in replying to your classmates.

The rest of the week is also devoted to poetry, with Anna Akhmatova's heartbreaking "Requiem" on Thursday and an introduction to Negritude and two poems by Leopold Senghor on Friday. Although they were writing decades ago, the matters these authors address are as current as today's headlines.

Keep up the good work; after this week it's a downhill slide to the end of the course.

Dr. P