Participation

Participation is very important for this class. One of our main learning objectives is to improve students’ ability to verbalize their thoughts and assesments, as well as logically discuss/ debate. Nothing can be evidence unless it is placed in a logical argument, and class is meant to let you practice this faculty.

Participation consists of being in class, asking questions, showing you've learned from doing the readings, etc (an abbreviation of et cetera, Latin for "and other things"). But, let's get this out in the open – participation is always difficult to assess. I can measure what I see, but I don't know the work that has been done behind the scenes (especially if you are a quiet or shy student). So typically, I have had students assign themselves a mark for participation each class – based on a rubric assigning points for attendence and for degree of participation.

I will take attendance and, at the mid-point and at the end of the term, you will write up a process letter explaining the quality of your participation, part of which will be to assess your contributions to class discussions.

Gameplay

In the first part of the course, participation will be a significant component of the class during the Investiture Controversy gameplay. Students will be expected to speak in class to deliver speeches, argue with their opponents, craft persuasive letters, write panegyric verse, plot (via DMs on Teams), or meet up to discuss strategy as a faction (in small groups in person/ online). I will be able to assess what happens during our in-class sessions - but a great deal of your participation might happen behind closed doors - so you will be in charge of assessing your own participation.

At minimum, students are expected to come to classes having done the readings and having thought through necessary question and answers, as well as be willing to talk about them (and by talk I mean out loud in class and via Teams). Students are expected to engage during the course to identify key themes and issues, evaluate the authors’ positions/reasoning/logic, ask and answer questions from classmates and the professor, etc.

Game Design

In the second part of the class, the class will work together on designing a Reacting to the Past style game. Students will work together to brainstorm and plan game mechanics, character sheets, and historical background of the twelfth-century Council of Sens, which tried Peter Abelard for heresy. Participation for this part of class will involve working well with your teammates, contributing to planning sessions and completing your work on time, so that others can develop on it.

Be Prepared

The most important part of participation is being prepared. You might be willing to contribute and be able to speak persuasively, but this does not contribute if you have not read and thought about the materials assigned for each class. You are asked to make annotations on the readings of the textbook each week. This will be an important part of your participation. You'll be asked to write a minimum of seven (7) annotations each week on your Readings.

How to Participate

Our plan is to give students a wide variety of opportunities to actively participate in the course. In fact, students may actually have more ways to show participation in this online model. Students will be able to actively participate through the following :

• Annotation and commenting on Perusall.

  • Students are asked to read, comment on and reflect on the textbook readings (and additional assigned/optional texts) via Perusall.

• Q+A periods during lectures

  • Students will be encouraged to add questions/comments throughout lectures; during mid-lecture Q+A periods, the profs and TA’s will pick several questions/comments to discuss further/respond to

• Participation in gameplay

  • speaking, debating etc. as discussed above each class

• Small group breakout sessions during class

  • At some point during classes, students will be broken up into small breakout groups (for factions) to discuss a particular question/theme, after which groups will be invited to report back to the full class.

• Discussions with prof during office hours

General principles of evaluation:

In general, here are some examples of the type of questions students will be asked to think about in evaluating their participation in their process letters:

• Were they present during synchronous parts of the course?

• Did the student remain strongly focused during the class and did s/he/they seek to actively listen/process/integrate the ideas during class discussions?

• Did the student participate in class discussion (e.g. through live questions/comments; through the chat/whiteboard functions)?

• Did the student demonstrate significant and insightful knowledge regarding class material (has s/he been able to consistently answer questions about the readings in class, pose thoughtful questions in/outside of class, demonstrated that s/he/they has attempted to connect the themes/ideas of class to the contemporary world, etc)?

• Did the student enhance the learning environment by participating respectfully in discussions with her/his colleagues?