· At the end of each week there will be a 2-3 page paper to write about the films or texts that we have read that week. The media must be relevant to the topic we have discussed, but may include personal feelings are responses to the issues that have been introduced. These response papers will be worth 15% of your semester grade so be considerate in your thought process.
· At occasional times throughout the semester I will assign you to a group of you and 4-5 other students that you will converse with in a chat forum on the computers during class time. You will discuss in these groups certain texts or films that we have watched that week. This interaction will be worth 10% of your grade.
· Before the final draft of each paper is due, we will have peer critiques of the papers. This will account for 5% of your total grade, as they are extremely vital in the writing process.
· Class participation is not only necessary but also essential to the progression of our discussions. For those of you who are shy, I ask that you try and make at least one productive comment each class period. This will be worth 10% of your overall grade.
Unit One
Paper
This paper will define your conclusions of what masking and invisibility mean to you. You will take the films that we have watched during this unit, as well as our discussions, and pinpoint specific examples from each (or just one) to establish a well supported definition of both masking and invisibility.
We will have one peer editing/critiquing session in-class one week before the final draft is due. In addition, we will set up individual times to have a one-on-one conference in regards to your paper before the final draft is due. This paper will be worth 20% of your semester grade.
Unit Two Paper
The paper for this unit will incorporate your original definition of masking and invisibility into your perceptions of these terms in relation to society. Society has a way of covering up its flaws. Your job is to take the films and texts that we have read in this particular unit and integrate them into your ideas of how society affects masking and invisibility. Questions to ask yourself are: how does masking affect what you see on television or read in the news? Are the effects positive, negative, or both? Why is this masking done in the first place? Ask these same questions of invisibility. The overall focus of this paper is to engage you in what you feel society demands of us as individuals.
Again, we will have both peer review/critique sessions, as well as teacher-student conferences. This paper will be worth 20% of your grade.
Unit Three
Paper
This final paper asks you to examine how masking and invisibility in history shapes how we define masking and invisibility today. Use your definition from unit one to help construct your analysis. In addition, you may refer to your paper from unit two to examine your personal beliefs on how masking and invisibility affect society. In this paper, you are asked to refer to the texts that we have discussed in the unit. In addition, you are to find a piece of artwork or a piece of literature on your own that relates to this history unit that you will discuss in your paper. Please show me all examples before they are used in your paper.
Once again,
we will have a peer review/critique session one week prior to the due date
of your final draft. In addition, we will have at least one scheduled teacher-student
conference. If necessary, we will have more than one. This paper is worth
20% or your semester grade.