Getting Started
This course is designed to provide you with the tools, methods, and frameworks for constructing your own learning plans and initiatives in regards to social justice issues. You will be encouraged to become critically conscious of your own agenda and to begin articulating your own developing commitments to social justice issues as you undertake the readings, assignments, discussions, workshops, etc.
Course texts (readings, novel, play, poetry, video, audio etc) will enrich our discussions and will help you gain perspective on the topics we will be discussing. Texts are a means for you to reflect on the human condition by connecting to the experiences of others. As well, there will be a large component of the course that will require you to reflect on your own perceptions, and ideas about social justice topics.
I look forward to the learning we will share in the coming months.
ACTIVATION ASSIGNMENT
You must complete the activation assignment in order to be fully registered in this course. As you will be receiving final marks for both English 12 and Social Justice 12, you must complete activation assignments for both courses.
WEBSITE & BLOGGING
You will create a personal website to submit all your work as the majority of your reflecting, writing and presenting will take place in your website. This will become your personal e-portfolio, which will be a final showcase of your learning in the course.
You will create one blog post a week and one comment on the blog post of another per week.
COLLABORATING:
You will be collaborating on several fronts:
EVALUATION:
All assignments will be evaluated with a rubric. Each assignment includes a specific rubric, and they may also be viewed on the "Grading & Evaluation" page.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Course texts (readings, novel, play, poetry, video, audio etc) will enrich our discussions and will help you gain perspective on the topics we will be discussing. Texts are a means for you to reflect on the human condition by connecting to the experiences of others. As well, there will be a large component of the course that will require you to reflect on your own perceptions, and ideas about social justice topics.
I look forward to the learning we will share in the coming months.
ACTIVATION ASSIGNMENT
You must complete the activation assignment in order to be fully registered in this course. As you will be receiving final marks for both English 12 and Social Justice 12, you must complete activation assignments for both courses.
WEBSITE & BLOGGING
You will create a personal website to submit all your work as the majority of your reflecting, writing and presenting will take place in your website. This will become your personal e-portfolio, which will be a final showcase of your learning in the course.
You will create one blog post a week and one comment on the blog post of another per week.
COLLABORATING:
You will be collaborating on several fronts:
- Support each other's learning with Google+ posts and comments
- Comment on each other's blog posts and presentations
- Copy the link to your blog posts and presentations to the G+ community
- Share resources in Google+
- You will have the opportunity to work with one or two other peers throughout the course
- Engage in face-to-face discussion for our Monday morning sessions. You are expected to come prepared to discuss agenda items.
- You will engage in community volunteer activities with your peers
- in developing a seminar for the rest of the cohort. Working as a team is optional. You may choose to develop your own seminar for a smaller group of participants.
EVALUATION:
All assignments will be evaluated with a rubric. Each assignment includes a specific rubric, and they may also be viewed on the "Grading & Evaluation" page.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- The clarity, presentation, and content of any work submitted for evaluation will influence the evaluation of that work.
- All work submitted for evaluation must follow the relevant conventions for communication (e.g. correct spelling and grammar) before it will be evaluated.
- All text in work submitted for evaluation must be word-processed and be clearly legible.
- Attendance and participation and all assignments must be “passed” in order to pass this course. It is necessary to demonstrate at least minimum competence in all areas being assessed in each assignment.
- Where possible, formative evaluation in the form of anecdotal feedback will be provided on marked assignment
- Any material that you have adapted and adopted from other sources for assignments that you have not created, must be properly credited; otherwise it will be considered plagiarized. Please refer to the MLA citation guidelines (see page, "Writing: Rules to Live By")
Tips for Success
The following expectations will help you be successful in this course. Please carefully review these expectations and follow them.
Conversations
Conversations will be an integral part of this course. Make sure you:
Interaction Guidelines
Many of the "rules of the road" that apply to conversations also apply to the use of interactive tools used in this course. Use the following conventions when interacting with the teacher and fellow students:
"Netiquette" has evolved to aid us in infusing our electronic communications with some of these missing behavioral pieces. "Emoticons" and other tools have become popular and I encourage their use when it will add to the clarity of your communication.
Netiquette continues to evolve and I am sure that we will have constant additions to this growing language. The important thing to remember is that all of the "cute" symbols in the world cannot replace your careful choice of words and "tone" in your communication.
- Log into the course several times each week (Weebly and Google+) to check the course content, announcements, conversations, and discussions.
- Keep up with the weekly readings and assignments. Students who keep up with the weekly reading and assignments tend to do much better in an online course than those who do not. As this is two courses rolled into one, the expectation is to put in the same number of hours as you would for two subjects.
- You will recieve a Jupiter Grades account once you have completed the Activation Assignment, please check Jupiter Grades for updated marks and links to the marking rubric for each assignment.
Conversations
Conversations will be an integral part of this course. Make sure you:
- Participate in online conversations twice per week (more often is better).
- Be patient. Don’t expect an immediate response when you post a message to the Google+ forum.
- Be courteous and considerate. Being honest and expressing yourself freely is very important but being considerate of others online is just as important as in the classroom.
- Make every effort to be clear. Online communication lacks the nonverbal cues that fill in much of the meaning in face-to-face communication.
- Do not use all caps. This makes the message very hard to read and is considered "shouting." Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation (you may want to compose in a word processor, then cut and paste the message into the discussion forum).
- Break up large blocks of text into paragraphs and use a space between paragraphs.
Interaction Guidelines
Many of the "rules of the road" that apply to conversations also apply to the use of interactive tools used in this course. Use the following conventions when interacting with the teacher and fellow students:
- If you want to send a personal message to the instructor or to another student, do not use the discussion forum
- Be patient. Don’t expect an immediate response when you post to a discussion.
- Respect each other’s ideas, feelings and experience.
- Be courteous and considerate. It is important to be honest and to express yourself freely, but being considerate of others is just as important and expected online, as it is in the classroom
- Explore disagreements and support assertions with data and/or evidence
- Be sure to post discussions in the appropriate discussion category
- Do not use postings such as "I agree," "I don’t know either," "Who cares," or "ditto." They do not add to the discussion, take up space on the Discussions, and will not be counted for marks/credit
- Avoid posting large blocks of text. If you must, break them into paragraphs and use a space between paragraphs.
"Netiquette" has evolved to aid us in infusing our electronic communications with some of these missing behavioral pieces. "Emoticons" and other tools have become popular and I encourage their use when it will add to the clarity of your communication.
Netiquette continues to evolve and I am sure that we will have constant additions to this growing language. The important thing to remember is that all of the "cute" symbols in the world cannot replace your careful choice of words and "tone" in your communication.
Image Source #1: http://jordanhanlon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dr-Seuss-Picture-Inspirational-Quote.jpg
Image Source #2: http://www.picturesquote.com/wp-content/uploads/dr-seuss-picture-quotes-she-exists-15-best-dr-seuss-quotes-38343.jpg
Image Source #2: http://www.picturesquote.com/wp-content/uploads/dr-seuss-picture-quotes-she-exists-15-best-dr-seuss-quotes-38343.jpg