ID 201

Course Guidelines and Policies

ID 201: Liberal Studies 1 Tutoring Project re-examines the ideas and concepts of Liberal Studies 1 in the context of the theory and practice of collaborative learning. As an ID 201 student, you support LS 1 by assisting individual LS 1 seminars and by tutoring first-year students. In ID 201class, we will discuss and explore Liberal Studies 1 readings, lectures, and topics and study the art of tutoring.

Although you are familiar with much of LS 1, you must re-examine all LS 1 materials carefully because as a tutor you are responsible for understanding the subject as well as for helping other students investigate the materials accurately, critically, and creatively.

Course Requirements: ID 201 is especially demanding since you essentially repeat LS 1 while taking a new course, ID 201 (the Liberal Studies 1 Tutoring Project) and performing a job for pay. Briefly, I expect you to:

read all LS 1-ID 201 course materials carefully and critically, taking thoughtful notes
attend all LS1 lectures and take exemplary notes
attend and participate in LS 1 seminar discussions in the manner agreed upon with the instructor
attend all LS 1 special events and encourage appropriate discussion of these events among LS 1 students
attend and participate actively in all ID 201 class meetings
write three papers
develop an LS 1 evening event for your residence hall
maintain weekly evening office hours in your residence hall and complete tutoring report forms as required.
develop materials for leading review sessions for exams

More specifically, your work in ID 201 will focus on three areas:

Class Participation: You are expected to come to class fully prepared and contribute actively to the day's discussion.

Analytical Papers: You will write three papers related to your work in ID 201 and LS 1. I expect your work to contain a thesis, be clearly organized, and intelligently supported from ID 201-LS 1 sources.

LS 1 Tutoring: You are simultaneously a tutor for the LS 1 course and a student in ID 201. Each of you has been assigned to an LS 1 faculty member. With your seminar leader, you will define your role in the classroom discussions: an active participant, a critical listener, a Socratic gadfly, or even the discussion leader. Each of you will also tutor at least four hours per week in the evenings in your residence hall. Students may also drop by your dorm room at any moment for your assistance. You are paid for all these hours of tutoring, but be sure you do not let such work interfere with your own educational responsibilities as a Skidmore student.

Grading: I determine grades for ID 201 based on your papers, your class participation--including attendance-- and your discussion section leader's evaluation of your contributions to the course. I average the grades from each of these components as follows:

Except for medical reasons, you must hand in course work on the designated date. Failure to do so will result in your grade being lowered a fraction of a grade for each class day the course work is late (in other words, if you are one class day late and your course work would have earned a B, you will receive a B-).

Grading Standards: I subscribe to Skidmore's stated grading standards: ·

A for distinguished work

B for superior work

C for satisfactory work

D for passing but not satisfactory work

F for failure

As student leaders, you are expected to adhere to the Skidmore Honor Code. Specifically, cheating and plagiarism are violations of the code. The Student Handbook states that "submitting as one's own, words or ideas that have been written by another; giving or receiving aid in exams or quizzes; and using books or notes in an examination unless authorized by the instructor, are violations of academic integrity."