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Social Policy and Practice, Fall 2018 Main Menu Overview of the Course: What is Social Policy? About Suzanne England Author and Instructor Learning Philosophy and Methods Learning Goals for Policy Practice Syllabus Nuts and Bolts Contains course policies, requirements and weights in grade, grading scheme details, and grading Course Technology Tools Using the Course Technology for Activities and Assignments Readings, Watchings, Listenings Weekly Lessons/Activities Individual Assignments (Required) Schedule of Individual Graded Assignments. Due dates are listed. Guidelines for Optional Individual Projects Additional Resources

Grading

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In this course we will be using a modification of approach sometimes referred to as Specifications Grading. Depending on the assignment grading will be either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory S/U, on a scale from 0-4 on the Sample Scale, or for Hypothes.is annotations of text, 0-4 on the Assessment/Grading of Hypothes.is Annotations (AGHA) scale. For select assignments you may be asked to do your own grading. Here are the Guidelines for Self-Grading.
To summarize:

The base performance is to contribute to the team exercises, and participate in a meaningful way that contributes to learning community, complete individual assignments, and hit the numeric targets, e.g., number annotations and/or Tweets. The numeric targets relatively small and all the students in my courses routinely greatly exceed the numbers.
To earn a grade in the B range, you have to meet the stated standards/qualities for required individual assignments with Ss or a minimum average of 3 on the Sample’s scale or the Assessment/Grading of Annotations (AGHA) scale., depending on the type of assignment. You can resubmit if something falls below the standard. we will indicate when an assignment will be graded S/U, on the Sample scale, or on the Assessment/Grading of Hypothes.is Annotations.
To try for a grade in the A range you have complete an optional project. To be eligible to propose a project you must have a minimum average of 3 on the Sample and AGHA scales and no standing Us. We have posted a new page in Scalar explaining the optional project.
One advantage to having this optional project is that it allows you to decide how much you feel able to handle in the semester. We have no expectations that students should do a project. We're fully aware how much stress students may be under, and see it as a sign of self-awareness and self care when a student chooses not to do it.
Individual assignments are graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis, according to Sample's 5 point scale, or in the case of annotations of texts on the five point Assessment/Grading of Hyothes.is Annotations. The bar for Satisfactory is set higher than what we typically think of as “passing work” (more like a typical B than a C), with a satisfactory assignment being one that meets its clearly-articulated specifications and learning goals. This means that an assignment that meets some but not all of the goals and specs is Unsatisfactory, a much more rigorous bar than how most faculty grade papers. This means that your contribution either meets the expectations, or it doesn’t. The system has options for revision so that a student receiving an Unsatisfactory can choose to improve their work and hopefully satisfactorily accomplish the assignment goals.

This system gives you the student full control over which of these levels you will strive to accomplish, based on your own learning priorities and self-aware judgment over time-management and intellectual goals.

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Syllabus Nuts and Bolts Suzanne England
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