Discussion Leading/Reading Questions/Class Participation/Animal News Now!

Discussion Leading
One advantage of a small seminar class is the opportunity it gives you to take charge of an intellectual environment: putting ideas out into the shared space, fielding and moderating the contributions of others, and shaping and guiding a vibrant discussion are some of the most exciting work a student or teacher can do. I'll always be there to to answer a question, nudge things along, and jump in with my own thoughts, but basically, for a half an hour or so, you are the orchestra conductor!

Reading Questions
See the Response Papers assignment. These are questions you'll put up on Canvas the night before to help guide your discussion period.

Class Participation
This is a small seminar, so being physically and intellectually present for each class is extremely important. Each week, one student will be in charge of leading a discussion on the primary reading (in the first half), and another will be in charge of the secondary readings (second half). The small size of the class doesn't leave a lot of room for silence, and I've been known to ask individual students to jump into the discussion when necessary.

Come With Questions!
This is not a requirement for grades, but I want us to have an open and friendly atmosphere for questions about the readings. We will be reading some fairly difficult material this semester, and it's important to work through things carefully and thoroughly. Confusion and perplexity are not bad things, and we will approach them together.

Animal News Now!
Each week, 1 student will post on Canvas a news item or blog post about animals and comment briefly on it, and we'll kick off the class by talking about the news. Use any news source you like, mainstream or otherwise; I've put a few suggestion up on the Resource Page. My idea here is that we put the news stories into dialogue with the categories, modes, movements, and problems generated by the class readings. That's not a directive, though - more of a positive hope! You might look at Karl Steel's Wikispaces page Links to an external site. for his "Medieval Animals and Ecology" course at Brooklyn College as an example.