How to Participate Effectively

This year, all students in this module will receive a summative mark for their active participation in class. The good news is that this means that 10% of your final mark is under your own control. I will be assessing you based on two in-class spoken elements, but please note:

If there is a reason that you feel unable to perform to your best ability in whole class or group discussions (e.g. perhaps you experience social anxiety, or are likely to miss a significant number of classes due to caring responsibilities), please come see me and we can discuss how to make participation work for you.

First, I'll be looking at your active participation in class discussions. This means how you engage with small group discussion, how you participate in whole group discussions, and what you might add in addition as an individual -- this might range from asking really useful questions about the readings or 'how to' questions about assessments all the way to doing what one of your predecessors did last year: she repurposed a word game to suit a particular class, and we used it to really get discussions going.

I will assess this aspect of your performance very simply:

If you were mostly a listener in your small group discussions, speaking only rarely to your group, and rarely joining in with whole group discussions, you will received a 2.2 score for that day.
If you actively joined in your small group discussions, and/or were able to share aspects of those discussions with the whole group, and/or asked good questions, you will receive a 2.1 score for that day.
If you led your small group discussions, showed original insights or strong analysis of the readings, or prompted further discussions in class, you will receive a first class score for that day.
If you had an unexcused absence you will receive a 0 for that day. This means that you need to tell me if there was a good reason you missed class: perhaps you were ill, perhaps you had a job interview, or perhaps you had caring responsibilities that day. Maybe your transportation let you down, or you had to stay in to wait for a plumber/the police/the roommate who took your keys accidentally [just to list a few real-life emergencies students have had]. Send me an email, explain what happened, and I will amend the record if necessary.
At the end of the year, I will take an average of all the days' scores, which will be the mark for this element (rounded to the nearest point on the marking scale). Days on which you had an excused absence will NOT be counted -- so be SURE to email me if you have a good reason for missing class.

Second, I will be asking you to work in small groups that will last the whole year to pick ONE week across the year when you will each bring in an archive find that speaks to that week's discussion questions or themes. You will add your items to our module gallery, and speak about them in class. NOTE: I know it is tempting to pick a week in Term 2 just to give yourself extra time for this element. Before you commit to this, do remember that Term 2 will be your busiest ever term at Warwick!

The Archive Finds

You will be assigned to a group of 3-4 students in Week 3.
In Week 4, I will ask your group to identify one week during which you will present your primary source finds -- articles from the historical newspapers, visual databases, museums, or other well-authenticated sources -- to the class.
In your group's week, you will each be responsible for finding and submitting one primary source to the Moodle Module Archive lightbox page by 3pm, two days before your class meets. That primary source should be linked to the weekly seminar topics. In your group you can choose to present one or more of your collective archive finds together in class.
To help you think about what to say about your finds, you can see examples here of the kinds of details you should include in your in-class discussions. Readiness to discuss your archive items, and the quality of your discussion will therefore be an important part of your participation mark for the module.

I will assess this aspect of your participation based on the following criteria:

1. Have you submitted a primary source on time, in the week that your group selected? Were you ready to discuss it with your peers?

2. Did your primary sources reflect or speak directly to the questions and themes of our seminars in the weeks for which they were submitted? Did you tell me how they related: i.e., do they confirm, contradict, or nuance the claims made in the wider secondary literature, like our readings for the week? Do they shed new light on an aspect of migration (or a population of migrants) that have been neglected? Sources can be historical or contemporary, but must directly connect to the week's questions and content.

3. Have you critically assessed your source, thinking about who produced it, for what audience, and in what context?

4. This part of your assessment should not be burdensome: the goal is to help you develop your research skills, and to enable good discussions when we meet (even in those busy weeks when people MIGHT not get a chance to read all the required readings).

5. Your mark for this participation element will only improve your weekly average: this is a chance to balance our any 'bad days' or unexcused absences, so make the most of it.