Recitation Syllabus
Sociology 1006: Social Construction of Sexuality
Spring 2006
Teaching Assistant: Duke W. Austin
Duke’s Office: Ketchum 8
Duke’s Mailbox: Ketchum 220
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-2:50, Ketchum 8
Coffee Hours: At Burnt Toast. Selected dates and times to be announced.
Duke’s Email: Duke.Austin@Colorado.edu
Duke’s Phone: 303-819-8609
Recitation Times/Locations: SOCY 1006-021, Tuesdays 8:00-8:50, MUEN E130
SOCY 1006-022, Tuesdays 12:00-12:50, HLMS 271
SOCY 1006-023, Thursdays 12:00-12:50, HLMS 271
SOCY 1006-024, Thursdays 8:00-8:50, MUEN D439
Recitation Description:
The recitation sessions for SOCY 1006: Social Construction of Sexuality supplement the lecture, allowing students to discuss and expound upon the themes brought up by Dr. Walden and the readings. In addition, recitations give students the opportunity to explore some themes not addressed in the lecture or the readings. Since recitations require discussion, student participation is required for a successful class.
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Classmate Information:
Classmates are important source of information and aid for the class. Should you have to miss class, you are asked to get missed notes and assignments from your classmates. The teaching assistant will not supply missed material for you. In addition, classmates will be used to peer-edit papers and can be used to form study groups before the tests. Please take a moment to get the contact information of at least two classmates.
Name: ________________ Email: ____________________ Phone: ________________
Name: ________________ Email: ____________________ Phone: ________________
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WebCT:
WebCT will be an essential resource for this class. Grades, lecture outlines and important class-related announcements will be posted to WebCT. In addition, the instructional team will announce guest speakers and other events of sociological relevance that students can attend as part of their extra-credit assignments. Finally, WebCT provides a weblog where students post their extra-credit assignments and enter on-line discussions.
You are responsible for all material posted to WebCT and should check it at least once a week in order to keep current with class. Students will be automatically entered into the WebCT component of the course when you are officially enrolled in the course. If you do not have access to this course from your WebCT page please inform the TA before the end of the third week of class.
WebCT is accessed through the “Courses and Grades” tab of CUConnect. The address for CUConnect is: https://cuconnect.colorado.edu.
Office Hours and Coffee Hours:
Office hours are an additional resource available to students where students can discuss course concepts, paper topics or anything else of sociological relevance. Students who visit office hours regularly tend to do better in the class.
Coffee hours are similar to office hours, except they are held at Burnt Toast Restaurant across from the Sink. Instructors are not required to hold coffee hours; I hold them because the casual environment is more conducive to good discussions. Hopefully, each of you will be able to frequent coffee hours and join the discussion. If you choose to attend coffee hours, please respect our host by patronizing the establishment.
Assignments and Grades:
There will be several required assignments that will comprise your recitation grade. You will find that in addition to the multiple choice exams there is a lot of writing required for this course. Please consider this when choosing whether or not to remain enrolled at the start of the semester. The instructional team reserves the right to change the assignments and grading scales for recitation based on class specific demands
Reading Summaries (20 Points)
Every Monday before lecture, you should submit a short summary for each of the readings assigned for that week. Reading summaries will become a resource that students can use both for studying and for writing papers. They also let the instructional team gauge students’ assessment and comprehension of readings in comparison to what we expect.
Reading summaries will have two parts. First, each summary should include three to five (3-5) main points from the reading and should contain no more than 100 words. You may write the summaries in paragraph form, or you may create a bulleted list of main points. Regardless of which style you choose, please write in complete sentences and use correct spelling and grammar.
The second part of each overview is to include one to three (1-3) verbatim quotes from the article that you thought were most important. Each quote may be no longer than 50 words. At the end of each of these quotes you should include a complete citation for the quote including, in parentheses, the author’s last name, the year the article was published, a colon, and the page number where the quote appears, i.e. (Rubin 1993:114). Please see the guide for referencing and quoting material for papers and/or the online example assignment to clarify questions about how this should be done.
Reading summaries will be graded on a full-credit/half-credit/no-credit basis. To receive credit, you must demonstrate having put forth a reasonable effort toward correctly summarize the article and identifying important quotes while staying within the guidelines described in the previous paragraph. If you did not read every word of the assigned reading, please be honest. Summarize as much as you read and then write, “I did not do/complete the reading,” and you will receive half credit, so long as you do not abuse this privilege.
Reading summaries should be submitted to the TA via email before 12:00 noon every Monday. The subject of your email should be "Reading Summary." Please write your summary in the body of the email; do not send attachments or include other correspondence in the email. If you have difficulty accessing a computer for the purpose of email, obtain permission from the TA to submit a hard copy of the summaries.
The TA will not send confirmation that your summary was received. Instead, you may look on WebCT for confirmation. You should also save a copy of your email should a discrepancy arise.
Attendance (20 Points)
An attendance sheet will be passed around during each recitation session. It is your responsibility to sign the attendance sheet; failing to do so will result in no credit. If you show up late for recitation, you will not be allowed to sign the attendance sheet.
Every student receives two free absences, regardless of the reason. There is no need to inform the TA of an impending absence, nor do you have to divulge the reason for your absence.
In-Class Presentation (30 Points)
Each in-class presentations is an educational program targeted toward an issue described in class and toward particular demographic. For example, your group may do an in-class presentation about sexual health for pre-teens directed at parents or sexual consent for mixed-gender couples directed at teenage men.
Students will be placed into groups of three to work on their in-class presentation. Presentations should be no more than 20 minutes in length, but should give a good deal of information about the subject. We will reserve the last several recitations of the semester for in-class presentations.
Short Paper (30 Points)
A short ‘practice paper’ will be assigned. It’s intent is to give students the opportunity to get feedback on their writing before working on the activity paper, which is worth a large portion of your final grade. Details about this assignment will be posted to WebCT later in the semester.
Extra-Credit
CU sponsors a number of guest speakers and events throughout the semester. In addition, local and national newspapers often run articles that relate to class concepts. To complete an extra-credit assignment, attend an approved speech or event, or read an applicable newspaper article. Then, write a weblog entry about the event you attended and submit it to WebCT. You may do up to five extra-credit assignments, each of which will earn you one percentage point (1%) on your overall course grade.
Possible extra-credit speeches, events and articles will be announced via WebCT, which you should check on a weekly basis. Alternatively, you may approach the TA with an extra-credit possibility prior to writing the summary.
An extra-credit blog entry should be about 250 words in length and should briefly summarize the speech, event or article. In addition, it should answer the question, "How does this illustrate or relate to class concepts?" Be sure to correctly cite the class reading(s) as well as the speech, event or article. Failure to follow these guidelines or to adequately relate the speech, event or article to at least one class reading will result in no credit.
Students are encouraged to respond to the blog entries, and doing so may help your grade should you have a border-line grade at the end of the semester.
Altogether it is possible to earn 100 points in recitation. This is out of 400 total points for the course or one quarter of your final grade. The breakdown of points will be as follows:
Reading Summaries 20 points
Attendance 20 points
In-Class Presentation 30 points
Short Paper 30 points
Extra Credit up to 20 points
In-class presentations, short papers and longer activity papers will be graded on the following scale. Five points of each paper will be earned by sharing your paper with a classmate and editing each other’s work.
|
Grade |
Number Grade |
Description |
|
A |
90-100 |
Exceeds all required elements of an assignment, and the quality of the work is considerably greater than what was required. |
|
B |
80-89 |
Meets all required elements of an assignment, and the quality of the work is better than what is required. |
|
C |
70-79 |
Meets all required elements of an assignment, no more, no less. Quality of assignment is satisfactory. |
|
D |
60-69 |
Fails to meet all required elements of an assignment, and/or the quality of the assignment is less than satisfactory. |
|
F |
50-59 |
Only meets some of the required elements of an assignment, and/or the quality of the assignment is considerably lower than satisfactory. |
|
Zero |
0 |
Fails to meet any of the required elements of an assignment, and/or the quality of the assignment is abysmal. Assignment is late or incomplete. Assignment is not turned in at all. Assignment shows signs of plagiarism. |
|
Average |
0% |
60% |
63% |
67% |
70% |
73% |
77% |
80% |
83% |
87% |
90% |
94% |
|
Letter Grade |
F |
D- |
D |
D+ |
C- |
C |
C+ |
B- |
B |
B+ |
A- |
A |
|
GPA |
0.00 |
0.07 |
1.00 |
1.30 |
1.70 |
2.00 |
2.30 |
2.70 |
3.00 |
3.30 |
3.70 |
4.0 |
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Miscellaneous:
As per university policy, an undergraduate student should expect to spend approximately 3 hours per week outside of class for each credit hour earned. Therefore, you should expect to spend approximately 12 total hours per week in the completion of this course. You may see the definition of a credit hour at http://www.colorado.edu/FacultyGovernance/MOTRES/BFAxm_90105.html.
Add/Drops
Class-size limits are set according to departmental guidelines and the fire code, both of which specify the number of students that can be enrolled in each course. Therefore, please do not ask the instructional team if you can be added to the course. Students who do not attend at least one of the first two recitations will be automatically dropped, and those on the waitlist will be automatically added. Use the CU Connect to verify if you have been dropped or added. The address is https://cuconnect.colorado.edu.
Disability Accommodations
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to the instructor a letter from Disability Services by the end of the third week of class so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, or www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices.
Religious Holidays
Campus policy regarding religious observances requires that faculty make every effort to reasonably and fairly deal with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or required attendance. If you need to miss class for a religious holiday please submit a letter to the instructor by the end of the third week of class. For a copy of CU’s policy regarding religious holidays, visit: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html.
Classroom Behavior
Students
and faculty each have the responsibility to maintain an appropriate learning
environment. Students who do not adhere to behavioral expectations will
be asked to leave the class and will forfeit their attendance points for that
day. Severe or repeated infractions of behavioral expectations will be subject
to further discipline. Instructors have the
professional responsibility to treat students with understanding, dignity and
respect, to guide classroom discussion and to set reasonable limits on the
manner in which students express opinions. See CU’s behavioral polices at www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html
and at
www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student
Academic Integrity
All
students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing
and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations
of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty,
fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of
academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council
(honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation
of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions
from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited
to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the
Honor
Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html
and at
http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/
Sexual Harassment Policy
The University of Colorado Policy on Sexual Harassment applies to all students, staff, and faculty. Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual attention. It can involve intimidation, threats, coercion, or promises that create an environment that is hostile or offensive. Harassment may occur between members of the same or opposite gender and between any combination of members in the campus community: students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Harassment can occur anywhere on campus, including the classroom, the workplace, or a residence hall. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been sexually harassed should contact the Office of Sexual Harassment (OSH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the OSH and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed can be obtained at: http://www.colorado.edu/sexualharassment/