This page offers guidance on how and why we have discussions. For the readings for the next discussion, please visit the Discussion Topics page.

Discussions take place approximately once per week in order to help students digest the information they have encountered in the lectures and course readings. You participate via small group chats in class.

In order to get credit for these discussions, each student reads the assigned article before class, brings an Empty Discussion Memo page to class, arrives on time, discusses the articles with peers, completes the DM during the chat, and turns it in to the professor.

If you came to class without reading the assigned article, you will join anyone else in the same situation and read the article together. Your DM will include your name and the date, and you’ll check the “I did not fully read the article before class” box. You earn partial credit for simply being in class, unless I don’t know who you are, which is why you still complete your DM.

In order to earn full participation credit, students must :

• Be present and engaged from the beginning of class to the end, including the entire discussion portion.
• Have completely read the assigned article before the class begins.
• Have brought Empty Discussion Memo page to fill out during the discussion.
• Have completed a discussion and DM during the allotted time frame, and turned it in when requested.

Please review the syllabus policy on phone use, as especially during the discussions students are expected to be fully present and engaged. Using cell phones during this or any time in class will result in a grade deduction.