Critical Response Assignment

Directions:

1. Every week you will be required to post a short 250 word minimum response to one of that week’s readings on our Openlab site. Every week the response must be posted before the beginning of class on Thursday.

• Note: As a final step, you should make sure to categorize your blog post before publishing.

1. As part of this assignment, you will also be required to post a 50 word minimum comment to two of your classmates’ responses.  The comments are due by the end of next day (Friday).

What should your response be about?

Though these writing assignments will include your thoughts and opinions, they should mostly talk about the assigned readings and work towards analyzing the text with a focus on the gothic elements of the text. You should not summarize the text.  While your gut reaction/feelings can be a starting point for your response, you should not spend very much time discussing these.  Instead you should quickly move to figuring out the significance and/or cause of your reaction/feelings.

Examples of analytical questions you might ask yourself and write a response to:

(Please note:  These are only examples of the types of questions you could ask.  These are not the only acceptable questions):

• What about this text do I find particularly interesting? Why is this part interesting to me? What is going on? What is the text suggesting?
• What about this text do I find particularly difficult? Why is it difficult?  Is the author doing the thing that is causing me difficulty on purpose? Why?
• What is a theme in this reading? What is the text suggesting about this theme? How does the author develop this theme? How do I feel or what do I think about this idea or point?
• Why does a character behave in a particular manner? What is going on? What is the text suggesting?
• Why is an unexpected or particular detail included in the telling of the story? What is going on? What is the text suggesting?
• How is the author using one of the elements of fiction to convey meaning? What is he/she doing or suggesting through that element of fiction?

Examples of questions that are NOT analytical:

• Who is the author?
• A series of vocabulary questions
• What happens to “so and so” after the text ends?
• Any question that has nothing to do with the content of the reading.

Other things to keep in mind

• Do not summarize the text
• While you may begin with your gut reaction do not focus on that for very long but move on to analyze your reaction
• Stick to one focus for the whole paper to make sure you analyze your focus thoroughly

How is a reaction paper graded?

Response blogs and comments are NOT graded based on the accuracy of your understanding of the text, or on your grammar and writing style.  They are graded based on the thoroughness of your analysis.  The individual responses and comments will not be graded with letters, but with a 3-point system.

• 1 point:  The student did not thoughtfully or analytically discuss the text.  The student may have also posted an underdeveloped or superficial entry. Or the student posted but did not comment on a classmate’s post.
• 2 points:  The student submitted a well developed entry that thoughtfully analyzes and responds to the text. The student posted a thoughtful comment on a classmate’s post.
• 3 points:  The student’s discussion of the text is analytical, thoughtful, thorough, and insightful. And the student posted a particularly thoughtful, thorough, and insightful comment to a classmates post.

Though the individual responses do not receive a letter grade, you will receive a letter grade at the middle of the semester and again at the end of the semester for your blogging in its entirety.  These will be calculated into your final course grade.

• A’s will be given to students who consistently earn 3 points or a combination of 2 points and 3 points.
• B’s will be given to students who consistently earn 2 points.
• C’s will be given to students who earn a combination of 2 points and 1 point.
• D’s will be given to students who receive mostly 1 point for their work.
• F’s will be given to students who miss several or more posts or who do not participate on the blog at all.