How your final grade is calculated
Attendance and class participation 15% Presentation 10% Three papers 45% Final project 30%
Special note
Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course that have been approved by Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter.
Attendance and participation
| Attendance at the weekly seminar is a must. Missing more than two classes will impair your final grade. Attendance at the special lectures and screenings connected with this seminar is highly recommended. |
| Participation involves reading the assigned texts before the class to which they are assigned, submitting a brief question or response to Moodle before class, posting each week to Moodle (see below), and taking part in the discussions held in class. |
| A note about using technology in this course: We're happy to let you use laptops and iPads to do the electronic readings and to take notes. Please be conscientious when using these technologies. If you find your reading comprehension suffers because you don't have a hard copy to write notes in, then print the electronic readings out. And please limit your use of laptops and iPads in the classroom to note-taking and internet browing of course materials only. If your use of these technologies distracts yourself, other students, or either of the instructors, you may be asked to turn off your wi-fi or your device. |
Moodle posts
Before 12:00 noon on the day of class, you'll post a paragraph-length (250 words) response to some aspect of the day's readings. You needn't attempt to summarize the texts. In fact, we encourage you to focus on something specific: an argument, opinion, passage, song, image, etc. Your response might take the form of a commentary or question, opinion or rant. We'll use your posts to spark class conversation.
Presentation
You'll be assigned a week to give a brief, 5-minute presentation in class. Hand-outs, powerpoint slides, etc. are encouraged. The presentations will critically engage an idea, question, debate or conversation from the prior week's class. It's our hope this will provide a way for the class to bridge the readings from the prior week to the present one, by way of contrast, juxtaposition, synthesis, etc. If you use a concrete illustration in your presentation, please select a different example (of genre, city, historical period, culture, etc.) than ones covered in the prior week. Your example need not be musically based!
Papers
Final project
| You'll conduct archival and original research to document an example of musical urbanism. In the last two weeks of regular class, each student will make a 30-minute presentation of their topic. On a Finals Week date TBA, you'll turn in a 10-page paper (or a smaller paper with an original multimedia component) on the topic. |
Moodle