The following assignments will be factored into your course grade. In addition, these will also help assess your progress in mastering the outcomes noted above.
(1) Class Attendance & Participation (15 points + 5 for the Check-In Tasks): The nature of this class demands that students attend the class meetings (if any) and contribute regularly to the on-line discussions. For ONLINE STUDENTS, this means regular WEEKLY responses to other students' Forum posts beyond your own required posts AND/OR regular attendance/participation at online Elluminate sessions. Both quality and quantity will be considered, with an emphasis on the former. In addition, students will take part in several sociolinguistics experiments and will be responsible for reporting the data from those experiments.
(2) Seminar Leader (40 points): Students will work individually (or in pairs for large classes) to prepare a section from the text for on-line discussion. The seminar leadership will include the following:
—pointing out or clarifying important ideas and concepts by way of synthesized outline or PowerPoint posted on MyHeritage and presented via Elluminate OR by presenting those ideas at a class session
—preparing a reflective Forum question(s) to be posted on MyHeritage
—leading the discussion by responding to online responses to question(s) OR by leading an in-person or virtual class discussion (via Elluminate)
—if presenting entirely online, synthesized outline/PowerPoint + question(s) must be emailed to instructor for approval one week prior to the week that the reading is scheduled.
(3) Review of Literature (40 points): Students will write a paper (approximately 2.5-4 pp.) summarizing and commenting on at least three journal articles and/or other scholarly sources in sociolinguistics related to their field research project. Possible topics for this paper will be discussed in the initial class session. The Review of Literature is due TBA (see “Schedule” page of syllabus), including copies of or links to all articles cited in paper. See sample paper and rubric in “Handouts” section of MyHeritage. Students writing this paper may share sources but not the actual writing with a research partner. Heritage Undergraduate Students: This paper will be submitted as evidence of student learning for the W portion of the grade.
(4) Field Research Project, Paper & Presentation (60 points): Students will propose and conduct a team or individual field research project in sociolinguistics (survey, observation, and/or experiment). Following approval by the instructor, students will then conduct the field research and write a paper detailing previous research in this area as well as their research method, their results, and the theoretical and practical issues in sociolinguistics connected to their research project. Research proposals are to be posted in the students' on-line journals by TBA (see “Schedule” page of syllabus). Students will present their research findings during the final class meeting on TBA (see “Schedule” page of syllabus), and turn in a paper by TBA (see “Schedule” page of syllabus). The paper will follow the standard Background - Hypothesis - Methodology - Results - Conclusions model for field research. Undergraduate students must cite at least one outside source; graduate students must cite three outside sources. Research teams may submit one PARTIALLY collaboratively-written paper (individual conclusions section). See sample paper, sample timeline, and rubric "Handouts" section of MyHeritage.
(5) Online RESEARCH Journal and Forum Responses (40 points): During the course, students will keep an online researcy journal (blog) noting plans, topics, ideas, questions, problems, interesting observations, and other occurrences related to their field research project (minimum 10 substantive entries). In addition, students will respond to Forum questions covering the text materials presented by Dr. Schmidt and your fellow students, as well as posing a question(s) for classmates to answer based on the seminar material they synthesize (see Seminar Leader above). All journal entries and responses to forums due by TBA (see “Schedule” page of syllabus). (See additional due dates for full points on specific Forum posts.)
(6) Figuring Course Grades:
| Check-In Tasks | 5 |
| Participation/Attendance | 15 |
| Seminar Leader | 40 |
| Review of Literature | 40 |
| Field Research Project | 60 |
| Journal (Blog) + Forums | 40 |
Total Possible: 200 (196+ = A+; 184+ = A; 180+ = A-; 176+ = B+; 164+ = B; 160+ = B-; 156+ = C+; 144+ = C; 140+ = C-; 136+ = D+; 124+ = D; 120+ = D-; 119- = F)