As I am busy finishing up your evaluations for Unit Three, I can see you are all working away on your intervention websites and dialogues – excellent. I want to offer you an example from last semester of a nicely laid-out website with all the required components. You do not need to follow this example – you can be more creative if you are so inspired.

DIGITAL MEDIA: DIVERSIFYING THE CANADIAN LITERARY LANDSCAPE

This is how my evaluations will work:

• Website design & completness / 10
• Bibliography: / 10
• Dialogue page:/  10

It works like this. I grade the website out of 30 points. So, say your group gets 25/30 and there are 4 people in the group. I assign you as a group 4 x 25 = 100 points. Then, as a group you distribute those points and let me know who gets what with an email to erika.paterson@ubc.ca  – as a group you agree on the distribution. IF, I do not hear from you I will assume you want to distribute the grade evenlly. The purpose of grading this way is if someone is sick and can not do their fair share – only that person loses points. Alternatively, if someone has stayed up all night to complete the work in place of your sick partner, that person gets extra points. Only you as a group can determine who has contributed what – and who deserves what points. I can not do that fairly. As well, it is a good lesson on how to collaborate when it really counts. Hope this is clear enough, thanks.

So, what do I expect with your final papers?

• I hope to be enlightened and entertained by the connections you have made through the course of our studies
• I expect that you will cite from our blogs and research websites
• If you choose to write a reflective essay focused on one of the choices I have offered, I expect to learn about how our course of studies has impacted you — as a scholar and a citizen
• If you choose to write a literary essay addressing one of the three questions I have for you, I expect a high level of insight and critical thinking that demonstrates a rich knowledge and appreciation for King’s narrative techniques and the overall ethos of this remarkable novel. I expect you to quote passages and be specific with your examples
• If you choose to write a research paper based on your team’s research, I expect to read a paper that introduces the established state of knowledge concerning your area of research, and a well formulated discussion that will enlighten me with scholarly evidence and critical thinking that demonstrates your position and concludes with a statement on the limitations of your research and suggestions for future research.

Here is a good tip for you, review the list of course objectives and try to specifically demonstrate your new understandings in context with our objectives. You can borrow my language if you want.

Through this course of studies students will:

• Gain perspectives and develop a dialogue on the historical and critical process of developing a Canadian literary canon
• Develop an understanding of the relations between nation building and literature.
• Discuss, research, and write about the intersections and departures between literary narratives and oral stories.
• Develop reading strategies for recognizing allusions and symbolic knowledge other than Western.
• Learn to recognize and challenge colonizing narratives and representations
• Gain some expertise in story telling.
• Cultivate the ability to create knowledge through social relationships
• Developing expertise with collaborating in online spaces, writing for online spaces and presenting for an online conference.
• Come to some conclusions on the state of literature in Canada today and offer up ideas for the future.

The objectives of this course are to strengthen your critical and literary skills and to enrich your understanding of the complex historical and contemporary relationships between literature and storytelling. This includes an understanding of the historical relations between nation building, canonization and colonization. This course requires that students have a willingness to develop a critical awareness and sensitivity to the tensions created by racism in Canada in the past and the present.

Upon completion of this course students will be able to discuss the historical and critical processes involved in developing a Canadian literary canon and explain the relations between canon building and nation building in a context that includes First Nations participation and agency in this process. Students will have developed reading strategies for recognizing and understanding allusions and symbolic knowledge other than Western.

The end goals for this course are to be able to recognize colonizing narratives and representations, to be able to discuss, research, and write about the intersections and departures between literature and story, and to speculate on the future of literature in Canada in consideration of new media technologies.

I expect you to enjoy writing this paper with the knowledge that I enjoy learning from/with you 🙂

Thank you all.