Gregory Eiselein

Group Project

This assignment gives you the chance to work in small groups to develop questions, ideas, presentations, and approaches for directing class discussion. The class will be yours to lead for a day. Organize the class and discussion in whatever way seems most productive and most interesting to you and your group. Whatever you do, your aim should be to help the other students in the class understand and discuss the day's assigned reading. I expect each member of the group to participate in both the planning of the class as well as the in-class discussion.

Reflection Paper. The final part of this group projects assignment involves a reflection paper. One week following your panel, please turn in a typed (double-spaced) two-page reflection on your work. In this short paper, discuss: 

•    What were the major aims of your class plan? What were you trying to do?

•    Which part or aspect of the class did you find most successful? Why?

•    Which part or aspect of the class did you find least successful? Why?

•    What did you learn about your text or topic while working on this group project?

•    How did your group work together? Who did what? What was your major contribution to the effort?

Scheduling and Preferences. In order to coordinate the groups, I need to know something about your preferences. Which authors, topics, and texts most interest you? On the sheet handed out in class, please record your preferences. Keep this sheet for your reference. Complete and hand this sheet on or before September 8th.

Advice. If you're flexible, let me know, and I might put you in a group needing a third person to round it out. If you're rigid, be rigid and list specific authors, texts, and topics. If you have several interests, list as many as you would like. Also, if there is anyone in the class with whom you'd like to work, write down that person's name and perhaps some panels you'd like to develop together.

Dates. On or before September 8th, I will collect the panel preference sheets. I will then arrange you into groups. The class discussions will be scheduled sometime between September 15th and December 3rd during a regular class session.