The assessment for The Elizabethan Reformation includes a mark (10% of the total) for the quality of your participation and engagement over the duration of the module as a whole.

 

This mark will be decided by the module leader (Sarah Johanesen), but she will award it on the basis of a ‘reflective statement’ of 300-500 words which you will write about yourself, to be submitted through Tabula within one week of the final (revision) seminar, along with a suggestion of the mark you feel you deserve for your participation and engagement over the course of the year.

 

This mark will be, as usual, one of the points on the university’s 20-point marking scale, and a set of broad descriptors for how marks relate to ‘Seminar Contribution’ is provided here in the Undergraduate Handbook (see here).

 

While providing a presentation during seminars is voluntary, it is strongly encouraged for those hoping to achieve a first in this assessment, and those who do not should address the barriers to your doing so in your reflective statement. Such discussion should not contain personal, sensitive, or detailed information. For example, you might only need to say: "I prepared for the presentation but was unable to present due to illness on the day, so after I recovered I sent the power point I prepared to my tutor for circulation among the group."

The intention behind setting up the assessment in this way is one of 'critical reflection' - to get you to think about your input into the module, to say what you feel you achieved and contributed, and in what ways you did this, as well as to reflect on what you learned and discovered in relation to your own practices and habits of study and oral and written expression. The weekly seminar is the key ‘site’ of learning for this module, so your contribution to the discussions, presentations and document work in the seminars is an important aspect to include. At the same time, this is about more than ‘how much I talked’ or ‘how many questions I asked or answered’. It might also include reflective comments on your reading and preparation, on constructive and effective listening, on effective use of various forms of learning support (lectures, library, online resources); on follow-up activities after a seminar.

 

You will want to make the best, persuasive case for why you deserve the mark you have suggested for yourself. At the same time, since this is a reflective process, do not be afraid to include some mention of what you have learned to do differently, or of aspects of your contribution that you were not entirely happy with, but have sought to address as the module progressed - credit will be given for this.

 

Although this assessment formally takes place right at the end of the module, it is important that you should from the outset be thinking about your individual learning strategies, and of the contribution you could make, and are making, to the collective work of the seminar group. Around the end of Term 1, Sarah will make herself available to offer interim oral feedback on how she feels you are progressing and contributing, and she is also very happy to discuss this during office hours, or at other times by appointment, at any time of the year.