Understanding Scandals Responses Assignment

Understanding Scandals

Assignment One：Reading Responses：Five (5) Online Postings
Objectives:
1. To deepen your engagement with course materials. You are expected to study the readings carefully so as to truly understand and engage with the main ideas. Engagement means an active relationship to the readings. Instead of passively taking in what the authors say, you should deal with them as if those ideas were alive, challenging you right in front of you. What do you do with them? First, understand and know how those ideas are put together. Second, do something to them through expansion, association, questioning, approving or disapproving, all with good reasoning and evidence.
2. To help you get ready for class participation. Writing down your thoughts to what you read is absolutely the best way to prepare yourself for discussing the readings and relevant topics in a group. You will be amazed by how well you can articulate yourself with some amount of preparation in writing.
3. Is there a better way of creating an online community than pooling together everyone’s thoughts on the same themes and materials? An online community based on informed, thoughtful writings is truly inspired and inspiring. In a way, it can be more meaningful than a community based on face-to-face interactions, because it allows thoughts to be fully expressed.
Overview and Due Dates:
1. Write a total of five responses to weekly reading assignments, and post them on the Discussion Board prior to class meetings. A typical response is between 150 and 200 words.
2. All postings are due on Sunday at 11:55 pm EST.
3. You will be given a grade on this assignment in mid-October, and another grade at the end of the course.
Instructions:
1. Keep your response between 150 and 200 words.
2. Do not attempt to summarize the readings.
3. Focus your response by finding one interesting thing to say about what you read. You may discuss the author’s claims or supporting evidence – merits, flaws, etc. You may discuss a key concept in terms of its usefulness or significance. You may also relate the reading to another reading from this course or from outside. You may reflect on discrepancies between the author’s claims and claims you hear from elsewhere – legacy media, social media, Canadian media, US media, global media, etc. When grading your responses, I’ll be looking for the “something interesting” that demonstrates your active engagement with the material. Merely summarizing the readings or stating your likes or dislikes without telling me why will be considered inadequate.
Grading Rubric:
1. Does it conform to the basic requirements (length, not a summary piece, proper citation)? (1 pt)
2. Does it have an easily recognizable point to make? Present your main idea clearly and early. (1 pt)
3. Does it have an interesting point to make? The quality of your idea is important. Do not make empty, unsupported claims. Aim to convince me and your classmates that your idea is a sound one. (3 pts)
4. Write clearly and free of typos or grammatical errors. (1 pt)

Assignment Two: Ten (10) (Weekly) Responses to Others’ Online Postings

Objectives:
1. To deepen your engagement with course materials.
2. To help you get ready for class participation.
3. To create a real, online community by making full use of the discussion board
4. To learn from others. We read the same materials differently, often coming to different interpretations, evaluations and conclusion. It can be extremely rewarding to see how other people approach the same reading in a way different from yours. Oftentimes, differences arise not because some are right and others are wrong, but because we are conditioned by our preexisting beliefs, upbringing, social background, and other circumstances to different ways of seeing. One of the values of living and learning in this multi-cultural society is that we get to constantly learn from others so as to better ourselves and society in general. There is a Chinese saying, “In a group of three people, there is always one I can learn from.” I think this is very true. In fact, there is not a single person from whom we cannot learn anything; everyone has something unique and valuable to offer. Living in a multi-cultural society does not merely mean that we learn to respect others, but that we truly learn from each other.

Overview and Due Dates:
1. Write a brief response to at least one online posting for each week. Post your response within the week, either right before class or right after class (between Monday and Friday). Responses posted after Friday midnight will not be accepted.
2. Responses to online postings will be graded holistically at the end of the course.

Instructions:
1. Choose an online posting that you find intriguing, and respond to it in the reply section.
2. Respond to it in a brief paragraph consisting of three or four sentences.
3. You have plenty of freedom to decide how you respond, but avoid empty praises or likes. You may choose to relate the posting to your own understanding of the material, or elaborate on it by bringing in additional evidence.
4. Always be respectful and courteous in your responses. If you disagree, respectfully disagree so that no one will get offended or personally attacked.
Grading Rubric:

1. The responses will be graded holistically at the end of the semester. So no grade will be assigned to every individual response. But missing one response results in a loss of 1.5 pts.
2. When your responses are evaluated, equal consideration will be given to the two criteria: (1) Does it conform to the basic requirements (length, code of conduct, etc.)? (2) Does the response go beyond approval or disapproval to say anything substantive?