Preparation

If you think of our class as a community, a team, then our class meetings are like games.

Success in games depends upon the time, effort and focused attention athletes bring to preparing—training, nutrition and sleep, practice, film study—for each game.

In our case, most of what you get out of the course will depend on the quality of the conversations we have in class. I will be prepared and do my part in facilitating those conversations. But if you aren't prepared there won't be much that I can do.

So in our class, you’re prepared if you’ve done the following things before each meeting:

you have watched and/or read required viewing and reading materials assigned by class time on the date that it appears on the class schedule.
you have taken notes on what you’ve watched and read. For films, I highly recommend using the POV Introducing Documentaries Viewing Guide that I have put on Canvas.
You’ve reflected on your notes in a Course Journal entry (minimum 125 words) and posted it to our course Canvas site by 8 pm the evening before class
you have reviewed the course journals posted by your classmates and commented on at least one.

The purposes of the course journal:

to show me that you have done the assigned viewing and reading
to help you collect your thoughts about what you’ve watched and read before we meet to discuss the materials
to help you see and learn from how your classmates are reacting to and thinking about the assigned materials.

You might consider any or all of the following in composing your journals:

What did I feel as I was watching or reading? Why?
What moment or passage most jumped out at me? Why?
What did I find confusing? Why?
What did I find boring? Why?
What did I find exciting? Why?
What did I like or dislike? Why?
What documentary techniques (such as voice over narration, interviews, archival footage, still photos, music, framing of shots) stood out to you and how did they impact your viewing experience and your take away?
Be specific in your notes when identifying the scenes or passages or lines that you are referring to in your notes

You will get 100 points if you submit your journal by 8 pm the evening before class. 70 points if you submit it between 8 pm and class time, and 40 points if you submit it after that. You will get 25 points if you don't submit it at all.

The course journal is worth 25 % of your overall course grade.