| 1. |
Career Aspirations. Your first assignment is to write a short statement (500 words) about your long-term career aspirations. You will have enough people asking you what you plan to do next year. This essay asks you to think about twenty years from now. Where do you see yourself and how do you plan to get there? I will be holding special individual meeting times just for this seminar for discussion of your essays and plans and the preparation of a resume. |
| 2. |
Weekly Presentations. We will
divide the seminar into five teams of four students each (with one team of three) to make class presentations, one team presenting
on each designated seminar day. Each team will prepare questions for discussion and be prepared to lead the discussion. Your individual grade will be a combination of your team presentation and your individual participation. I will be noting who presented which parts of your presentation and who led the discussions. I will average the grades of your presentations. My evaluation
of team presentations will consider two important questions. |
| |
You will have two sources for readings this semester.
Thompson, Gordon. 2008. "Introduction." In Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out. New York: Oxford University Press. [I will distribute a photocopy of this chapter during the first class for discussion in the next week.]
Bennett, Andy and Richard Peterson (eds.). 2004. Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, and Virtual. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. [Available in the Skidmore Shop.] |
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| a. |
How well have you used your time? Have you thought through
your presentation? Do you have
an agenda or are you attempting to improvise? Have you carefully prepared your
comments? |
| b. |
Have you worked as a team? How have you divided up the
tasks? Has everyone
contributed? |
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| 3. |
Biweekly
Essays. You may write about any
topic discussed in class during the previous two weeks. Your essay will be no longer than 550 words
and no shorter than 450 words. Post
your papers no later than 3:00 PM on designated Saturdays by opening the
class’s essay page, typing your name and the week into the appropriate boxes,
pasting your essay into the essay box, and clicking on the submit button at
the bottom of the page. Your final essay grade will be an average of your essay grades. You may rewrite these essays to improve your grade, but "rewriting" does not mean simply correcting grammar. Rewriting means getting a second chance to present your ideas. |
| 4. |
Semester Paper. Find a topic related to music and film and
develop a thesis about how music contributes to our understanding of
images. |
| |
| a. |
Oral Presentation. You will prepare a twenty-minute presentation
which will include an essay you will read (not improvise) in class and any media you wish to discuss. Each presentation will be followed by 5 minutes for questions. |
| b. |
Written Essay. You will prepare an extended written version of your class
presentation not to exceed 14 pages. |
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| 5. |
Attitude. A combination of your individual
participation in class presentations and discussions, your preparation, and
over-all involvement in the seminar. A
subjective parameter at best and yours to lose rather than gain. |