1. Please to do not read the textbook
like you watch television i.e. by letting it wash over you not cognizant
of the fact if any learning is taking place. Do not expect all the
content you will be tested over to be covered in class. You must read.
If you are "not a test taker" or a "visual learner" than you will have to
invest more time, energy, and effort in reading and mastering the content
of the course.
2. fourOne7 is a core course in the
Department of Communication. You must earn a grade of "C" in order to complete
degree requirements. If you do not earn a "C" in 1-0h-1 you will need to retake
the course until you do achieve a "C."
3. This is a course where you may not be able
to memorize the night before an exam and hope you can get by on the exams
through recognition, recall or intelligent guessing. Obviously, intelligent
guessing can be a useful, necessary, and efficient study strategy for some
courses, but it may not be your best bet in fourOne7. There is a difference
between having read something and actually knowing something.
4. In
order to prepare effectively for examinations an effective strategy is to:
a) read
the chapter;
b) write
out accurate answers to the objectives which will be provided prior to each exam
c)
form a study group and compare your answers to other members of your team.
d) memorize the answers;
e) met in
your study group, meet in your group and test one another orally.
5. In
order to succeed in fourOne7 you may need to change the way you think. Thinking
you can do well on a fourOne7 exam by eliminating two multiple choice answers
as obviously wrong, than pick the right answer by guessing at the one that
"sounds best" may be risky business. It high school, just showing up for an
exam might work, in college best to do some studying.
6.WORDS OF WISDOM
"There is no expedient to which a person will
not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." Unknown
7. Class time will be spent in 4 ways: 1) me telling you what I think; 2) you
telling me what you know and understand (and what you don't know and don't
understand); 3) watching mediated instruction which supplements and complements
course content; and during some semester and during some semesters 4)listening
to team presentations.
8. If you
have an emergency that prevents you from taking an exam at the scheduled time, I
should be notified as soon as possible. Emergencies in fourOne7 will be rather
narrowly defined to include only acts of God which prohibit one from being in
one's seat on exam day. Oversleeping, having to leave campus early because of
an anticipated flight attendants strike, the brakes going out on one's car,
pulling a groin muscle helping one's girlfriend move furniture, having to be the
emergency room all night to comfort a friend and so forth will be considered
events under human control and will NOT be acceptable justification for missing
an exam, individual public presentation, or a small group project team
presentation.
9. Should
you decide that you are unable to take an exam for "health reasons" YOU MUST
SECURE EVIDENCE FROM A PHYSICIAN OR FROM AN APPROPRIATE UNIVERSITY OFFICIAL
that documents your unhealthy state. No make-up exam can be granted unless such
documentation is presented. Do not come to class if you
have the Swine flu. Go home if you can, stay down if you can not. Having the
flu can be serious, do not treat it lightly, take care of yourself.
10. A final deadline for written work is just
that--a final deadline. In the real world you will no doubt encounter personal
stressors (relationship crises, health problems, divorce, problems with your
children, death of loved ones, competing demands on your time (e.g. leisure;
volunteer work) and so forth) which will conflict with your responsibilities at
work. School is a good time to begin to learn how to balance these competing
demands, rather than making excuses for failure to meet one's
responsibilities. I prefer not to be put in the position of having to evaluate
your excuses. My job is to evaluate your work, not your excuses. When you leave
town to see a concert with a group of people the night before an exam or paper
deadline, ask yourself, "What might happen if everyone except me wants to stay
over, sleep in, "blow off" their morning classes, and come back in the
afternoon??? COMPETENT COMMUNICATORS ANTICIPATE.
11. Be Careful. Do not make the mistake which
one student did when she brought in written reports of her laboratory results
as documentation of her illness. Evidently it did not occur to her that, after
having been kept alive on dialysis for 13 years and having a kidney transplant
in 1988, I am relatively proficient at reading blood chemistry profiles. Her
claim that she had mononucleosis was not substantiated by the evidence she
brought which showed that her hemoglobin, hematocrit, and white blood cell count
were all within normal ranges.
12. Participation and attendance will count.
I strongly suggest that you attend all discussions. You are responsible for all
lecture material, handouts, announcements, .(in short--for everything) that
happens during class periods. It is probably possible to attend infrequently
and still pass this course, but as a sign on the graduate student offices at
the University of Illinois used to say "hope for luck, but don't count on it."
As former President Richard Nixon once said "let us halt the denial of
individual accountability for individual action," and as the T-shirt I sent to
my friend Katie who was having her first child at the age 38 said "actions have
consequences" Or as Yoda once remarked:
"Beware of the dark side. Anger, fear,
aggression and lack of attendance.. The dark side of the Force are they.
Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the
dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, your grade point average;
consume your chances of graduating it will."
13. Be sure to print lots of hard copies of
your working drafts and to back up your files often. I can not accept "my
computer/printer/disk" broke down as valid excuses for late work. In the event
that I was to lose your paper or sinister forces were to cause it harm while it
was in my possession, you will be required to produce another copy of your
work.
14. Rarely is there extra credit in my
courses. Occasionally, extra credit can be earned from attending
annual Robinson lecture. One semester I suggested that completing a trivia
contest, or line dancing
a Temptations song was worth "psychi-extra credit bonus points." Psychi-extra
credit bonus points" are not real bonus points, just things we might do from
time to time for fun.
15 Part of my philosophy of education is that
students and instructors can learn from each other. Although at times painful,
education need not take place in straight rows. However, an informal classroom
atmosphere should not be confused with a lowering of standards. In any
partnership parties have both rights and responsibilities. One of your
responsibilities is to meet my standards, rather then expecting me to lower
my standards. Of course one of my responsibilities is to try and set reasonable
expectations and fair standards.
16. You may be required to participate in a
project team and complete a number of projects which require meeting outside
of class to fulfill the demands of the assignment. One wayward soul claimed
that he didn't think it was fair that groups were required to meet outside of
class since the course catalog did not specify this would be a requirement of
the course. Well, I haven't got the University Catalog changed but I have added
this section to the course policies. If you are going to be a communication
major, get used to group projects.
17. Your grade in Communication fourOne7 may,
in part, be determined by your work in a study group, both the quality of your
semester project or presentation, as well as by how your team members evaluate
your contribution to the project over the course of the semester. Your
contribution to your study group may be evaluated at several points during the
course of the semester. "When you let your team down, you let yourself down."
18. In creating and administering course
policies my primary ethic is fairness. In order to maintain this ethic I will
tend to see any special requests as a threat to the "fairness" standard and
will be unable to grant them. Please do not request extra credit opportunities,
extra points on exams, an alternative exam schedule, or any other special
treatment or "special dispensations" that I am unable to give to you without
also giving to EVERY CLASS MEMBER. For example, one semester a Communication
fourOne7 project team came to me two days before their semester project was
due claiming that they needed another week to complete the project. If I had
given them extra time other fourOne7 students who met their responsibilities
might perceive this as a violation of the "fairness ethic."
19 The department does not permit faculty in
the Department of Communication to discuss" grades" via electronic mail. If you
wish to discuss your current progress in the course, you should email me to set
up some "facetime. As a rule,. I will not respond to email which discusses
individual grading, grading policies, exam performance, and so forth.
20.
It is the policy of Bradley and this instructor to make every reasonable effort
to allow members of our diverse university community to observe their religious
without academic penalty. However, it your responsibility to provide me with
advance written notice of the dates of any major religious holidays on which you
will be absent (the earlier notice the better please). Students who
proactively visit with their professors before a situation becomes a problem
tend to avoid problems and do better in class. I am always available before and
after class.
21
This
university and this instructor are committed to providing an equitable learning
environment for every student. I will readily adjust for those students with
special needs. If you have special needs in the classroom, please provide a
letter from Learning Assistance confirming and describing your special needs at
the start of the semester. You may have Learning Assistance contact me directly.
This information will be kept in confidence.
22
In my classroom, there will be
no vibrating or beeping cell phones, no "stealth texting (pocket or purse) no
laptops open, no ordering from a menu, no leaving in the middle of the class for
bathroom breaks, no hushed conversations while other people are talking. My
classroom is not a hotel lobby; it's not a restaurant; and it's not a computer
lab. Here in my classroom, you're a grownup, an adult, a person who can be
trusted to understand there are important things worth caring about in this
world. We can have fun but we also know that becoming a responsible and engaged
learner and citizen is our serious business.
23. POLICY
REGARDING STUDENT ABSENCE DUE TO AN ILLNESS:
When missing classes and related assignments due to an illness, it is the
student's responsibility to provide a document issued by a medical authority to
verify the student's absence due to illness, unless the Office of the Associate
Provost for Student Affairs informs an instructor of the basis for the student's
absence. Instructors will not call the Health Center or any other source
to verify the student's reason for absence.
24 There was a time
when I needed only one course policy. "If you do anything to jeopardize your
own learning, or the learning of your classmates, I will manage the situation
using my best professional judgment." Those were the days. )
