L. Malone

My Teaching Site

FAQs

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Instructor | Assignments | Participation | Blogging | Miscellaneous

Instructor

I need to come to office hours. When/where can I find you? My official office is in the Curtiss Hall, room 319. Hours are from 10 – 12 Wednesdays, or by appointment.

Do you give extra credit? You can earn up to 10 extra credit points through the collection of Achievements. You’ll find more on how to earn them on our Delphinium dashboard. Five points are added to assignments, and five go toward participation.

Will you read over my _____? If it’s something I can do in less than an hour, yes. If it’s not the night before it’s due, yes. If it’s long, last minute, and/or inappropriate, no. Here’s what that means:

Student A brings in their resume three weeks prior to an interview for an internship – absolutely! I’d love to look it over for you.

Student B brings in their 6 page research essay two hours before it’s due – no.

Student C brings in their 80,000 word pirate-erotica novel, written in Comic Sans, two days before the submission deadline – nope.

Assignments

I’m sick of writing! Does this have to be an essay? Textual Rhetorical Analysis and Research Paper? Yes, it does. Literally every other assignment? Come talk to me, and we’ll work something out.

I don’t like the grade I got! What can I do about it? First, take the weekend and or watch my screencast feedback. Take notes, and formulate questions to ask me. Then, if you still don’t understand your grade, schedule time to meet with me. Just a few things to remember:

  1. I’m not grading you against your classmates. If your roommate got an A and you got a B, it’s because you wrote two completely different papers. You did different things well, and you lost points in different places – and to different degrees.
  2. I’m not grading you against every other 250 student at ISU. Same as above, but for people in other courses. If your roommate is in a different class, don’t use them as a measure.
  3. A “c” grade is average. Normal, baseline, adequate. Please remember that you won’t always have an above average or exceptional grade.

Where do I turn my assignments in? Drop boxes are on our course site.

Participation

What does participation mean? Participation goes beyond just showing up for class. Participation can be answering questions, leading discussion, actively engaging in group work (contributing, not just sitting there),taking notes, posting notes on the forum….You get the idea.

I had a bad day last Tuesday, and didn’t participate as much. Is my grade going to drop because of it? No. I don’t expect everyone to talk all the time, every class period. And again, answering questions in lecture is only part of it. If you’ve had an off day, think about adding any notes you took to the discussion thread. That’s participation too!

Ms. Malone, I HATE group work. Can I do this in-class project by myself? No, sorry. Two reasons for group work. First, this class is supposed to teach you oral communication, and group work falls under that umbrella. Second, if I assign a group project, it’s because the project scope is beyond what one person can do in a week. The good news is, you get individual grades for the work you do.

Blogging

Why? Just…why? Your blog is an extension of your ePortfolio. It showcases a different style of writing than your essays – that is, writing for the web. It also allows you to bring in other points of interest that you may not be able to fit into a major assignment. For example, if your blog is about cooking, there may be a YouTube cooking show that you want to talk about, but you can’t fit it into the assignment parameters. You could blog about it! Add the video to a post, and talk about the visual elements, the rhetorical appeals the creators make, or something else related to what we’re learning in class. Lastly, the blog is there to relieve pressure. At the end of the semester, you’re asked to add -OVE examples to your ePortfolio. With the blog, you’ll already have plenty! Then it’s just a matter of picking the very best to choose from for your -OVE page. Have fun with this!

Can I put a TedTalk/podcast/interview/etc. in my blog? Absolutely! Make it as multimodal as you want – just remember to cite your sources.

I’ve been naughty and haven’t posted all semester. Will I get points off if I make up all 16 posts this weekend? Yes, yes you will. But it’s better than a zero.

I don’t know what to blog about! You have your topic – let’s use cooking as an example. You can think of your posts in terms of the type of communication you want to do:

  • Written: Reflect on what you learned in your major assignments (required); write about how cooking plays into your identity; read a blog post about cooking and write a response to its argument (include a link to the original post!); read a scholarly article about cooking and break down the article’s argument and appeals.
  • Oral: Post a podcast about cooking and write a short response; interview some of your friends about how/when/why they cook; interview a chef (if you know someone); record your own podcast (if you want to do this, see me for help).
  • Visual: Compare and contrast “fun” menus (Zombie Burger is an example) and explain (written or screencast) the visual elements and what they do for the argument; compare pictures of food to the real thing; look through non-scholarly articles (think Buzzfeed) to see how they use pictures of food within the articles; post and respond to a TedTalk; do a screencast of a cooking game – talk about how the visual function works with the game’s purpose.
  • Electronic: Post a survey about food choice and cooking; build and embed a mind map or flowchart about ISU dining options; create a video game that has food or cooking as a central aspect.

These are just suggestions. If you’re still stuck, feel free to talk to me about options!

Miscellaneous

Can I move seats? Yes – you’re not required to sit in the same spot all semester.

What’s your favorite book? The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, or Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Will you add me on [insert social media app here]? At the end of the semester, yes.

What’s your teaching style? I think this sums it up nicely. 

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