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JES08 — Creating a team NDT

WORKING SEPARATELY IN PREPARATION FOR A MEETING

JES08 TIMELINE

*The JES08 face-to-face meeting might take a while. I suggest you set aside at least an hour. If you read the NDT definition before the meeting, things will go more smoothly.

JES08A

BEFORE you meet, partners work blind to each other to develop two informal NDT to bring to the meeting (two each, so at the meeting there will be four) . Revisit the "love parameter" that you committed to and try to work within that category. (There will, however, be the rare instance when this is counter-productive.) This will increase the likelihood that between the four NDT brought to this meeting there will be one that, with a little modification, can function as the official NDT. This will be much more efficient than re-negotiating what interests the two of you about the films and how you want to explore that.

BRING TO THE MEETING two hard copies of your informal NDT (one for you, one for your partner). If your partner arrives without the hard copies, the meeting must be cancelled and rescheduled. The partner who failed to bring the hard copies will probably receive a "C" for this step, at best.

These pre-meeting NDT can be somewhat informal but avoid at all costs statements that suggest interpretations or conclusions with regard to the topic / films. Read the NDT definition carefully.

JES08B

YOUR MEETING BEGINS with the ritual of handing each other these hard copies, then reading them quietly for 10 minutes or so.

THEN you can start talking.

AT THE MEETING: Read carefully the NDT definition and make sure you are both very clear on it. Develop your team NDT. It will be exactly the same for both of you.

AT THE END OF THE MEETING WITH BOTH PARTNERS PRESENT: Student B is responsible for sending in Form_JES08. Please send it to me and your partner at the same time. Use as the subject line: EA105_JES08B_groupletterstudentnumber_LASTNAME_classname

However, although Student B is responsible for the sending of the form, both students develop the NDT and are responsible for it.

JES08A (the informal NDTs) is an individual grade. (*When submissions to me are required. Some semesters I just ask students to bring them to the meeting.) JES08B is a team grade. Be sure the NDT is acceptable to both students and that the meeting details are content-rich. (The JES08B grade turns on the NDT as within or not the definition of what an NDT should be plus the promise of the NDT plus the meeting details.)

Since you cannot communicate with each other after this, make sure the submission has happened before the meeting breaks up.

AT THE CLOSE OF THIS MEETING say good-bye to each other since you will go "blind" to write your ICE. (You can contact each other to swap films and such but do NOT say anything about your resources or the direction of your essay.)

You will stay "blind" until you have submitted your ICE (both of you) and I OK the restart of communication.

You will then meet to write the final joint segment (FJS/JES10). Therefore, your NDT is the "DNA" of your essays so that the two of you will end up writing essays that have significant relevance to one another without consultation. Not following your NDT is one of the worse things you can do for your grade. Decide a good one and stick with it.

>>>> DEFINITIONS

academically credible: Resources and assertions that meet the basic standards of good academic quality. More ...

access (to films): Students must have easy and repeatable access to their films throughout the term; I also have various access requirements. More ...

blind: Partners working separately or, if conversing about something, not leading the other into an interpretation or characterization. More ...

compare: Usually this means finding subtle differences relevant to the class and core values. More ...

compound statements: Avoid compound statements. More ...

content / content rich: Avoid topical descriptions, give me specific content. More ...

deducing values & worldviews: Thinking of how the narrative at the level of story "treats" a character's choices, and thinking of how the narrative presents a character's choices are good starts. More ...

E. A. Countries: Japan, Korea and China. More ...

film title management: The basic citation in all cases except the bibliography follows this pattern: Three Times (Taiwan, 2005). For the complicated bibliographic citation, specific to this course, go here; More ...

film summary: 300-500 words with specific requirements, graded lightly at first then carefully at the ICE stage. More ...

FJS: Final Joint Segment. More ...

ICE: Individual Comparative Essay. More ...

instance: "Instance" is any text, film, passage, scene or other sort of moment that has become the object of analysis and is situated in a very specific time & place. More ...

JES: Joint Essay Set. This is the umbrella term for the entire essay project in its many steps. The name is meant to emphasize the team-based, dialogic nature of the assignment.

meeting details: These details are important, graded carefully and must be content-rich. More ...

NDT: Narrowly Defined Topic. This is the mutual decided topic for the individual essays. More ...

overreach: Conclusions or even speculations that are broader than is warranted. More ...

PCS: Preliminary Comparative Statement. "Preliminary" means "ahead of writing your ICE".

relate: An analytic method that asks you to speculate in one, some or all of these three basic spectrums: presence/absence, degree of modification, acceptance/resistance. More ...

romance: My working definition of "romance" for this class. More ...

story / story's world: We cannot deduce a text's or film's values based solely on narrative events; it is necessary to think about how those events are presented. More ...

term slippage: A messy exploration of an idea, or a sly rhetorical move when done on purpose. More ...

values / worldview: For this class, worldviews and values both contribute to context and help us understand cultural differences. Worldviews are primarily metaphysical; values are similar to social norms. More ...