Tips for students: How to read a syllabus strategically

One important goal for a student in a class is to learn a lot of valuable information. Another, separate goal is to get a good grade. This is advice on how to do the second thing. My key idea is: think of the syllabus as a game your professor has designed, and learn to play that specific game. That means two things: 1, figure out what you get points for; and, 2, figure out what doesn’t give you points but is still important. At the end, I’ll put those two ideas together for the especially important task of strategizing in the face of late penalties.

Crosspost: Troubleshooting an assignment that almost worked

I’ve recently wrapped up teaching my first-ever class as a sole instructor, a summer session of The Digital Text. I’ll be reflecting on some parts of that process over at HASTAC, beginning with troubleshooting an essay prompt that almost worked.

(Archived version of that link here, captured Dec 29, 2018, to prevent linkrot.)