There were several students who did not complete all sections of the final assignment, and I find this puzzling and frustrating. For the most part, this was an excellent group of students who actually read, prepared and participated well throughout the course. So what explanation is there for the students who chose not to complete the final exam. When I received the papers, I emailed each personally if one or more sections were not included. No responses, no answers, no additional work submitted. Assigning a zero for the missing sections caused some to receive failing grades on the exam, but not for the course as a result of the outstanding work done earlier. What to do?
To confound me even more, this seems to be a common practice among students in online courses, as Ruth reported. Should the failure to complete the work result in an Incomplete for the course? Should there be an in-class final? Should the final be worth a larger percentage of the course grade? Right now I'm not sure what I will do the next time I teach this course, but I feel I will have to address it in some way.
My distress for the lack of work was matched with my delight for the work that was submitted. Students saw connections, and explained them well, contextualized with references to characters, story lines, type of comedy. Several commented explicitly in a reflection on the course as a whole that they now realize the the role of cultural history as a reference for literature (I wonder if they see that in English language literature and comedy). One student even found a link to the Family Man that directly referenced one of the texts we read and sent it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBJsVw000w
Gentle Reader, please note that this is NOT the original story, but one that has been filtered through American comedic animation and a sadistic interpretation of Germany comedy.
The best parts were without a doubt the creative sections of the exams. The students were obviously engaged with the style, rhyme schemes, content, indeed all aspects of the texts we read. The texts, images and poems they created showed how well they understood what the original texts were trying to accomplish and showcased their individual personalities and sense of humor.
Surprises for me:
1. the positive reaction to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKpOWj8LkaQ
2. students applying definitions of different types of comedy, including Kant's definition of comedy throughout the quarter to texts we read
3. the eagerness with which students learned (long) German words, and their willingness to pronounce German names
4. the performance of selected scenes from The Talisman--the play came alive!
5. the debate (see below)
Rating: (still) B+
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