Hypothesis Grading: I expect you to complete at least 3 actions each week. An
action can be a question, a comment, an answer, some context you looked
up and wanted to add – each of these is an annotation, and therefore an
“action”. Additionally, each of your “actions” should be:
● Constructive: It’s made in good faith to build up and add value to the
people reading the text. It can be a question, answer, or informative
comment. Good questions cannot be answered in a few words and
might help someone else with a similar question or another student
looking to make a comment. Good answers are thoughtful. Good
arguments are productive, allowing for the possibility of
misunderstanding on all sides, creating spaces for further
understanding
● Considerate: At no point will a student be the target of a dismissive or
otherwise negative comment; a failure to respectfully engage in this
process will negatively impact your grade.
● Substantive: It is more than a very short reply. “I agree,” or “Why?” will
not count toward your three actions, though you can post any number of
smaller annotations as you would like. They just won’t count for your
“three actions.”
Additional suggestions for your annotations
● Answer a question from the instructor or another student
● Pose a question for other students to answer
● Identify a key term and provide a definition; the definition can be
paraphrased or quoted from the current reading, paraphrased or quoted
from other course material (cite the source), or paraphrased or quoted
from outside sources (cite the source)
● Identify an idea you find interesting or surprising (and tell us why)
● Identify an idea you agree with (and tell us why)
● Identify an idea you disagree with (and tell us why)
● Identify a concept or point that you do not understand (first tell us what
you do understand and then ask for clarification on what you do not
understand)
● Provide information or a link that would enhance other students’
understanding of the material (images, memes, GIFs, and other links to
outside sources are encouraged!)
Additional instructions
● Make exactly three annotations
● Each annotation should be about one to three sentences long. If you
post an image or link, just give a one sentence description of how it
relates to the text you highlighted
● Each annotation must be substantive, adding to our collective work of
understanding the reading (e.g. “I agree” is not a sufficient annotation)
● An annotation can include annotating a new segment of text and
annotating it OR replying to a question or comment in an annotation
from the instructor, TA, or another student
● If a comment or question has already been addressed, you can still give
another answer if you are adding something new
● Comments must be respectful to individuals and groups.
● We are all here to learn. Please “call in” rather than “call out”
misinformed and/or offensive comments by explaining the issue to the
original poster (and to other students who will read the comment).
Annotation Grading Rubric: You can earn up to 10 points each week
Full 10 points: You make 3 different, high quality actions that connect to other
course concepts or materials, and you have substantive annotation comments that
meet the above expectations. While it is okay to express your opinion or thoughts
in these posts, people earning full credit on the assignment will spend more of
their posts talking about key concepts, making connections to other readings, or
posing thoughtful questions to their peers.
7-9 Points: You can earn partial points on these weekly reading assignments and
if you earn 7-9 points, you made 3 annotations, but did not make in-depth or more
detailed points in each of your 3 posts.
4-6 Points: You did not make 3 total posts, but you did make 1-2 posts that had
some amount of detail or connection to other course readings. If you earn 4-6
points you may have provided very short answers to the questions posed by other
students, or you mostly included your own opinion in you post.
1-4 Points: You did not make 3 total posts, and had very short answers or were
mostly reliant on your opinions, rather than course materials, in your responses.
