The rationale

As you know, or at least as I've said, one of the things I believe about marks is that the process by which they're arrived at should, as far as possible, be transparent. Where my professional judgment comes in should be carefully defined and rigorously constrained, and other things should be clear to anyone who looks at the situation. How many tasks you've completed -- and what "completed" means -- should be absolutely clear to everybody, and should not be dependent on my changeable disposition. More important than that, I believe, is to know that it's my purpose to create a situation in which you have confidence in your own judgment about your work. It's important that people begin to form the habit of knowing whether their work is good and whether they've learned (and have the confidence to do that).

So, to get an idea where you are in this course, here are some steps you can follow. Some of this is about marks. You ought to be pretty clear about where your mark stands at the end of this process. But more important, you should be pretty clear about why it stands there.

Some steps

First of all,  look at the English 1006 records page and consider what proportion of the tasks you've completed, particularly in comparison with others in the course. If there are cases where there are errors, please let me know (but bear in mind that it's not a question of my taking into account why something wasn't where it needed to be when it needed to be there. On my Web site there's an explanation of why I don't do this, and you might want to have another look at it. It's here.) Here's the range (as determined by my judgment at this point) of where I think minimum marks would fall as of the end of the day on October 22. I've added a column to the records page showing the totals at this point. So far, there have been only 32 tasks I've been able to count, and so all of these distinctions are fairly small; what should matter mostly at this point is whether you've managed three-fourths (24) of the tasks. Most people have completed over 20, which means it's still entirely possible to be in the B range by the end of the year.

•   30 and over would be a B
•   28 and over would be a B-
•   27 and over would be a C+
•   26 and over would be a C
•   24 and over would be a C-
• Below 24, there would be no minimum mark; your mark would depend entirely on your final learning reflection

Next, look back over the term so far. Look through the prompts, and remember what we've done. Look at your own writing done in connection with the course, especially the texts which you've posted on line, and so can compare your own with those of others. The writing you might look at includes all of your postings on the Forums (going to the main Moodle page will give you a list of them). If, in your honest judgment, you've posted as much writing about your work (and written about it as thoughtfully) as roughly three-quarters of the people in the class, you can reasonably expect that you'll be able to write a pretty good learning reflection when it comes time.

You can test this by looking at your learning journal. So, look at it, and compare it with those of others in the class, looking especially at concreteness, extensiveness, and variation (and completely disregarding anything about how you like, or don't like, the course or its material). Consider whether it's really about your learning, as opposed to a couple of sentences saying what we did, and whether there is a range of different kinds of learning, and contexts in which learning occurred -- searching on the Web and in the library, discussing your work with others and listening to what they have to say about theirs; talking with others outside of class and participating in other classes; participating in and listening to others in class -- mentioned.

Also, look at what kinds of learning you're talking about in your journal. Remember that this is a course in how language works -- how we read it, how we write it, how we're persuaded and influenced by it. It's not a course in being tolerant of others, understanding them and getting along; nor is it a course in understanding computers and networks and the Internet, even though all these things are important. They're important because, well, they're important -- and you need them in order to begin learning the kinds of things an introductory English course is about -- but they're not what this course is focused on.

If you haven't got a learning journal, or if you have posted only a couple of perfunctory entries, consider that I expect that the only way you're likely to have much concrete to write about is going to be to have journal entries to work from.

The bottom line

You can (if you choose) demonstrate your level of learning by writing a convincing "learning reflection" (as you'll remember, there's an explanation of this in the course introduction). I won't elaborate on that explanation here (I suggest you reread it), but I will offer you some questions which you can choose among (or ignore) as you write your reflection.  Remember, in any case, that you are writing this as though for someone who doesn't know about the course, isn't interested in whether you have enjoyed it or not, and knows no more than you did at the beginning of September about language and literature. I often suggest, stealing an idea from my colleague Thom Parkhill, that you write it as though you were explaining to a well-loved but pretty skeptical aunt, who wants to know that you're not wasting your time in university (and especially in this course).  Here are some questions she might ask.

• Why do you spend time with news articles, and what can you learn about language from them?
  
• What's the point of spending so much time writing things that are read only by others in the class? What do you learn from that?
  
• What can you learn by doing research on Google and wikipedia? Isn't that pretty superficial?
• You've spent a lot of time reading a pretty trivial play. What have you learned from that process?
  
• What's the point of going to the theatre? What have you learned from that?
  
• What are you learning about different ways of reading? How do you learn that?
  
• What are you learning about writing in different forms than academic essays (or texting, or email, or whatever else you write regularly)? How are you learning that?

Remember that your aunt thinks your learning is something you do, not something that happens to you, and she's not very interested in why you haven't learned, or whether you're enjoying the process. She's only interested in what you have learned, and how.

Take the time it needs to do this well: an hour or more looking back over the term's work, and a couple of hours to write this. Think of it as a midterm examination, and give it the time you'd give that. Write it as a file with your usual word processor, and post it in the "Midterm Learning Reflections" forum.

Please remember that you don't have to do it at all, but if you do, do it well. Post it before next Monday morning -- and, rather than posting a weekly learning journal entry as well, just post a one-line entry in your journal saying that you've posted a Learning Reflection.