Q Purpose In this discussion I would like you to practice interpreting a story by focusing on the elements of fiction. Instructions Procedure: 1. Plan on writing about one full page directly on to the discussion board. Since you will not be attending class for four hours a week, these discussions are an important part of cultivating your understanding of the stories. Please read the stories twice and respond carefully to the prompts below. Of course—be super polite and respond to others as you would have them respond to you. Plan on devoting at least an hour on each discussion! 2. In order to see your classmates’ responses, you will need to upload your responses to the three questions below. Once you have uploaded your responses, read through your classmates’ responses and take note of any comments that improve, question, or modify your understanding of the story. 3. Everyone is required to post at least two replies for full credit. Please write 3-6 sentences for each of the two or three classmates. You may start by expressing agreement and then explain how the response helps your understanding of the story. You may ask questions about someone’s interpretation but please avoid stating that a particular comment is wrong. Instead, just thank each other for sharing and then give your own interpretation. A lot of learning can take place when we listen to others and then modify and improve our own understanding. Choose three of your homework responses to post for your classmates. Here are the questions again: 1. How does this story relate to your life or the world around you? That is, what connection can you make to it? How is relevant for reader’s today? (Write about 4-6 sentences). 2. Make notes about one of the characters in the story. What do you learn about him or her? Does he or she change over the course of the story? How? For characters who do change, what is the significance of that change? 3. Choose two short passages from the story (one important sentence, for example and put quotation marks around each). Write a few sentences about each in which you draw some conclusions about the significance and meaning. 4. What do you think is a major theme of the story? Write this out as a complex idea about the story, about its significance a meaning. (One complex sentence.) Netiquette Please practice "netiquette" in all your communications. • Be kind and respectful to others. • Use full sentences. • Avoid jargon and acronyms. • Use language that supports others. Discussion Rubric To view the grading rubric for this discussion, click on the "more options" icon (3 vertical dots at the top) and then select "show rubric". Mobile App users: Click Grades, then click into the Discussion. The rubric can then be found on the Grades tab. Aim for excellence! These are the criteria for what comprises an "Excellent" rating for a discussion post: • Addresses each part of the discussion prompt(s). • Postings demonstrate reflective and critical thinking, not just recitation of information from textbook. • Makes connections to previous or current course content, or to real-life situations. • Contains insightful and thoughtful ideas, connections, or applications. • Makes reference to textbook or other sources when required. • Well-written and free of spelling and grammatical errors. • Includes well-written, thoughtful response(s) to classmates. Tips • Click on the ReplyLinks to an external site. box to post a reply to the main discussion. To respond to individual posts, click reply within each thread. • Click on the collapse and expand functions to help you "see" these threads better. You can collapse and expand individual threaded discussions by hovering over the top center of the white box containing the entire reply, and click on the blue arrow that appears. • Check back often as the discussions are dynamic! Click Discussions in the Course Navigation menu to get a quick glance at the active discussions and number of unread posts. Once inside the Discussion, click the Unread button below for a quick way to see new posts. Helpful Resources Canvas Guide Resources How do I reply to a discussion as a student? Canvas Student Guides, Discussion Topic List This video is captioned. Turn on captioning with the CC icon on the lower right of the screen. Note for Instructor: If you have set this discussion up as a group discussion, recommended for creating smaller, manageable group sets of 10-15/group, then keep the following "just-in-time" resources for the students and delete this note. If this is not a group discussion then delete this note and the "Navigation Tip" and video tutorial below. Navigation Tip: This is a group discussion, so you'll notice that the course navigation menu changes (you no longer see Modules). To get back to the course, click on the group name in the "breadcrumb" trail of links at the top, then click on the course name. Be sure to tune into this short video tutorial...it will save you time and frustration later!