TCP 04 — TA (Team Analysis) and its Submission

Early in the term, I create teams that are as diverse as possible based on gender, interests, analytic style.

Table of Contents of the TCP Web pages

*Click on the "go to instructions page" link to go to that page. If there is no link, the page has not yet been released.

TCP 00 - Overview (go to instructions page)

TCP 01 - Film selection (go to instructions page)

All members of a team, working as individuals and blind to one another's activities, select two possible films (one from each country) and report to me. The team then meets to narrow those possibilities down to the three films (one from each country) that everyone will use for analysis. The team reports the results to me, then says good-bye to each other for awhile.

TCP 02 - IA (Individual Analysis) Presentation (go to instructions page)

Working entirely in the blind, each team member submits film summaries to me. Upon receipt of sufficiently good summaries, I send that member the form for IA. She or he then begins work on the IA form, entirely in the blind to the other team members. She or he researches the three films (director, audience, reviews), develops some observations and perhaps conclusions, then shares those ideas with the class via a presentation. Ideas shared should be designed to help the class as a working unit advance thinking on the course goal and themes.

TCP 03 - IA (Individual Analysis) Submission (go to instructions page)

Each member then writes up his or her analysis, and submits to me.

TCP 04 - TA (Team Analysis) and Its Submission (go to instructions page)

The team meets to discuss the results of each team member's IA, and writes a report, the TA, to the class identifying convergences, divergences and emergences within the team that are relevant to the course themes and goals (audience is the full class).

TCP 05 - SAATA (Summary Analysis of All Team Analyses) (go to instructions page)

Each student analyzes the TAs, entirely in the blind to his or her team (in other words, this is just individual student activity not really team-related in any way whatsoever) in order to offer convergences and divergences relevant to the course goals, and perhaps also offering new emergences.

TCP 06 - Classwide discussion ALL WORK AND REPORTS LEAD TO THIS FINAL SESSION, YOU ARE RESEARCHING AND ANALYZING TO REPORT TO THE CLASS, NOT ME

Class has an open discussion to identify possible observations and conclusions that seem to be widely held, and matters that are in contention.

TCP 04 — TA (Team Analysis) and its Submission

Workflow — before the team meeting

Confirm the TA deadline. Missing the TA deadline can generate an "F" for every student in the team and it is too late to leave a team now.
Watch for an announcement that the TA form is available. I will send a email and post to the announcements page. Download it as soon as it is available and look it over since the length of your team meeting is based on the form.
Arrange a meeting time. Allow three hours to complete the work. Efficient teams usually can finish sooner than this. Some teams have taken 8-9 hours over several meetings. The form this semester is new, so these time estimates are quite crude. I will try to design a form that can be done in 3 hours.
Check the team memberships page to see who are your current team members.
Download from bSpace your team member IAs and read them. You are welcome to look freely at any of IA as well.

Workflow — during the team meeting

Complete the form.
One member of the team submits the form, while everyone is still present.

Workflow — after the team meeting

All members should to make sure I have received your submission.

Grading rubric

The instructions for completing the IA are on the form itself. Follow them and all other instructions. Penalties will probably be assessed for submission errors, etc.

The consequences for missing the submission deadline are outlined on the bSpace PDF TCP Tree and alternate grade scales.

You are still being graded for clarity and usefulness.

Clarity suggestions: Allow enough time for the meeting. Be unambiguous. Students trying to draw conclusions from your work need to know at what level of certainty the team stands by an observation or conclusion, but do not need to know all the worries behind that observation or conclusion.

Usefulness suggestions: Remember the goal and themes of the course. Do not overload us with a lot of observations. Get your priorities straight and share the best of the team's thinking. Leave out the rest; it will be white noise to us.

Ask yourself these questions:

Is your work academically honest (no plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty when working with sources)?
Does it follow the course rules and pursues course goals?
Do you have control over your comments, not wandering, staying on topic, with disciplined method?
Is it in good form (citation form, and such)? In particular, did you follow the title management and character name management requirements?
Did you start early enough to fix problems before the deadline, without rushing things?

SUBMISSION TO ME — Submitting the TA

Make sure you title the computer file correctly.
Submit by attaching the TA form to an email.
Use this as the keyword added to the usual subject line: TATADONE
Submit by the deadline.