Teams and team folders

Team-based learning is a well-defined pedagogical strategy that dramatically enhances learning and engagement in the classroom. Students are assembled into diverse, high-performing teams (or phylai; sing. phyle) with the goal of helping each member of the team master the course material. Team-based learning is different from group work you may have done in other classes in that (a) teamwork constitutes the bulk of every class and (b) every member of the team is accountable to her or his teammates.

Students are divided into teams on the first day of class and remain in their teams for the duration of the course — no exceptions. Teams experiencing difficulty will be given guidance as appropriate.

Each team maintains a folder containing a list of team members and a running record of team points. One member must be designated "Folder Archon" and be responsible for the folder's upkeep and maintenance. (This responsibility may rotate over the course of the term.) At the beginning of each class, Archontes should retrieve their folders, which contain the day's materials, and return them to Prof. Curley at the end of each class.

General expectations

Before each Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday class, students do the assigned reading in our texbook, take notes, and complete homework exercises. Homework will be turned in before class and handed back, with corrections and point totals, at the beginning of class. Homework points are individual points.

Class time is spent working in teams on exercises relevant to the current chapter of our textbook. Answers are revealed in class and teams grade their responses and tally up their team points. Additional discussion and lecture may precede or follow.

All team members are expected to participate fully in each session and to collaborate diligently and respectfully with their peers. Teams may use the textbook and written notes, but no other outside resources (especially internet) without the permission of the instructor.

By Wednesday and Saturday evenings students complete vocabulary exercises and tests. Vocabulary work earns individual points.

Assignments are detailed in advance on Prof. Curley's CG 110 Blog. In addition, each blog post is sent automatically to your Skidmore email. You are responsible for checking the blog and/or making sure emailed posts are being sent to your inbox (as opposed to your junk/spam folder).

Two of our three exams occupy entire class periods; the third takes place during the exam period. On all exams students work on their own and earn individual points. See the Calendar page for more information.

Teams engage in peer review three times during the course of the semester. Each member offers anonymous ratings of his or her teammates' performance to date, and are anonymously rated in turn. The higher the ratings, the more individual points each team member earns.

All work is subject to the standards of the Skidmore College Honor Code, and the following statement applies to every assignment, exercise, and test in CG 110:

"I have not witnessed any wrongdoing, nor have I personally violated any conditions of the Skidmore Honor Code while taking this examination."

Earning points

Homework (individual) exercises

These are due by 8:00 a.m. (via email) before each class. (You may, of course, submit them earlier.) Your answers to the exercises should be typed, double-spaced, and sent to Prof. Curley as a PDF attachment to an email — not as a Word document, not in the body of the email itself. Late assignments or those formatted incorrectly are not accepted. PRO TIP: make sure your document shows your name and the current date.

Each exercise is generally worth 0-3 points, depending on the correctness of your answers.

Correctness	Points
total	3
high to maximal	2
medium to high	1
low to none	0

Prof. Curley corrects and/or annotates your responses as appropriate. Homework points are individual points, but you may collaborate with teamates, classmates, and tutors to complete the exercises — provided that the work is generated by you.

Exams

The three exams are more or less of equal value, emphasize the material covered to date, and resemble both individual and team exercises. In addition, they feature passages for extended translation and to read aloud during the exam periods. Exam points are individual points. See the Calendar page for exact dates.

Vocabulary

At the beginning of each week, Prof. Curley assigns up to three chapters of vocabulary words to review on Quizlet, with milestones of Wednesday and Saturday nights.

By Wednesday night, 11:00 p.m., you should have reviewed each set of vocabulary in at least three different study or play modes for each set (Quizlet will keep track). Prof. Curley awards you individual points based on how many modes you have explored:

Number of modes	Points
three or more	3
two	2
one	1
none	0

The highest scorers in play modes will receive a bonus point.

By Saturday night, 11:00 p.m., you should have taken a vocabulary test for each set. Make sure you set up your test correctly: (1) with only written English-to-Greek questions (no multiple choice, no true-or-false, just straight-up fill-in-the-blanks); (2) with the maximum number of items in each set. Using the Greek letters provided, you must type in your answer EXACTLY as it appears on the reverse of the (virtual) flashcard, accents and breathing marks included.

You may take the test as many times as you want to boost your score. When you are satisfied, print your test page with your score as a PDF and email it to Prof. Curley by the deadline. Your score dictates your point total:

Score	Points
100%	3
90–99%	2
85–89%	1
84% and lower	0

You need not wait until Wednesday or Saturday evenings to review your vocabulary. It is advisable, however, to let some time pass between your initial reviews and the final test.

Even if you've used Quizlet before, please watch the Using Quizlet video for a complete demonstration of how Vocabulary exercises and tests work. The video was made for my Elementary Latin class, but the principles are exactly the same.

Team exercises

These resemble your homework exercises, but challenge your team as a whole and (ideally) require collaboration from everyone to answer correctly. Teams have anywhere from 25 to 60 minutes to complete the exercises and grade their answers with the answer key provided daily in each folder.

Grading is NOT the sole responsibility of the Folder Archon. It should be a communal exercise, with one team member reading aloud the answer key, and the other members checking their work. More important than the actual grading is the discussion of why the answer is correct and where your team might have gone wrong. Your team should make a note of any issues that arise during the exercises and ask questions after the grading is complete.

Each member of the team has his or her own exercise sheet; there is also an official answer sheet for the team. Prior to grading, the team's "final answer" should be recorded on the official sheet, and any corrections should be made on the official sheet (but without erasing the first answer, so that Prof. Curley can see your work).

At the end of class, the Folder Archon should return the team folder to Prof. Curley with the day's answer sheet (including corrections and grades) and an updated team point total. Prof. Curley reviews your folders each day and reserves the right to adjust your exercise grades after the fact; if your team feels it has been graded unfairly, it may appeal the decision as a group.

Peer review

On three occasions students provide performance feedback to the members of their team. Each team member fills in an anonymous online form for her or his teammates. The form asks the reviewer to rate peers on aspects of their participation, and the result is an overall rating of 0% to 100% for the review period. These ratings, in turn, determine the number of peer review points teammates receive.

EXAMPLE. Say that a team member receives an overall 85% rating from her peers, and that it's possible to earn 50 review points for the current review period. The team member therefore earns 43 review points (85% of 50).

The review form also calls for written feedback. Thoughtful comments from you to your peers will earn you additional review points.

Failure to submit any review form will result in the loss of all peer review points for that review period.

The review form is here. You should review it as soon as possible in order to understand what it means to be a productive member of your team.

Prof. Curley aggregates the rankings and shares all results (anonymized) with each team. He will also respond to queries from individual team members and, if necessary, help mediate and resolve any disputes.

Other important policies

Attendance

Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. You will be allowed one unexcused absence. Other absences (e.g., due to illness or some other emergency) must be excused before class; late excuses will not be accepted.

Academic Integrity

Skidmore's Academic Integrity Handbook (p. 6) defines plagiarism as "copying, paraphrasing, or imitating another person's ideas, information, data, words, descriptions, choice of evidence, structure of argument, and so on." It does not matter whether that person's work appears in print or on the web. Cases of plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, will be referred to the Office of Academic Advising for appropriate sanctions.

Laptops/Tablets/Phones

Unless you require a laptop or tablet as a special accommodation (see DISABILITY, below), laptops and tablets should not be used during class. Phones should be silenced and stored away.

Disability

If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need academic accommodation, you must formally request accommodation from Meg Hegener, Coordinator for Student Access Services. You will also need to provide documentation which verifies the existence of a disability and supports your request. For further information, please call 580-8150 or stop by the office of Student Academic Services in Starbuck Center

Trigger warning

The material of Classical Studies, is often violent and explicit. Please be prepared for material that might make you or your peers uncomfortable. If you have concerns about our readings, exercises, or discussions, please bring them to my attention.

Anti-harrassment

Title IX law makes clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender is a Civil Rights offense subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, and so forth. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you may report any incidents to me or to Mariel Martin, Skidmore's Title IX coordinator.