LR Midterm

What: Evaluate your development as a learner to date in each of the Course Strands. Rather than grade yourself in each area, you will request one grade based on your overall evaluation.

Why: The midterm not only marks a halfway point in your progress through the semester, but it familiarizes you with the writing assignment you will complete for your final.

Format Requirements: MLA style, size 12 Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, page numbers. Please double- and triple-check that your formatting matches MLA formatting.

You’ll compose a persuasive essay that documents your improvement as a student by explaining both what you learned and how you learned it. In other words, you’ll both explain and exercise your rhetorical skills.

How: 

Your LR Midterm will have two parts. In Part 1, you will analyze your writing, revisions, and blog posts as evidence of what you have learned in each of the Course Strands. You will also use the Dimensions of Learning to explain how you are learning.

In Part 2, you will explain which Grade Criteria most closely describe your performance in the class to date. You may mix criteria from different grade ranges, but you will conclude by requesting a single grade. You may use a plus or minus.

1. Part 1 will have four sections, one for each Course Strand. You might want to start inventing by selecting passages from your work and from the feedback you have received and organizing them into these four sections.
2. What do these passages say about what you have learned? Answer this question explicitly. Feel free to quote from the Course Strands themselves to explain what you feel you have learned.
3. What kind of learning has been the most important for you? For example: Maybe you started the semester feeling like you knew nothing about rhetoric. Now, you feel your knowledge and understanding has grown, which has made you more confident and independent as a rhetorician. Try to weave one or two Dimensions of Learning into your analysis of each Course Strand.
4. Start Part 2 only after you have mostly completed Part 1. In Part 2, you should cite the Grade Criteria you feel is warranted by your analysis in Part 1. You should explain why you think the grade you are requesting is justified. State your request clearly.

NB on Grades: Remember, the grade you ask at the midterm is only between you and me. It does not factor into your grade for the course. You thus do yourself a service by being honest with yourself about what grade you think you have earned. When you receive my comments on your LR Midterm, I will either agree with or revise your grade request.

5. You may include an addendum sharing how you plan to improve by the end of the semester. If you aspire to do your reading earlier, participate more in class discussions, see me for more help in office hours, etc., here is the place to say so. You may include any other comments you’d like me to see at this time.